Finished Motronic 1.3 Conversion

[jimoreno]

Well, I finally finished the 1.3 conversion along with the "beautification" of the engine bay for my car. As part of the conversion I did the following work:
- Cleaned, painted and installed a B35 intake manifold (port matched gaskets to both sides)
- Cleaned, painted and installed a B35 fuel rail
- Cleaned, painted and installed a B35 valve cover
- Cleaned, painted and installed a B35 oil filter housing
- Cleaned and installed a B35 air filter
- Installed a B35 starter (bought from RockAuto)
- Installed a new alternator (NAPA)
- Installed a new water pump (with that broken bolt that never came out, no leaks so far!)
- Rebuilt power steering pump (bought a cheap one from Ebay but it didn't had the right pressure).
- Replaced all low pressure power steering hoses (I had replaced the filter around 30K before)
- Replaced cruise control actuator as it was always warm (even with car off, turned out to be the cruise control box)
- Replaced both motor mounts

The only thing pending is have the CEL work (it's not lighting up when the engine starts) and installed the rebuild power steering pump. Just in case anyone is looking at doing the B35 air filter housing install here is what I did: remove the B34 air filter brackets (2) to clear space for the filter housing and also "massaged" the fender area so the back corner of the housing has some room to fit better. it still touches the AC hard lines (I'll put some rubber sheet there to isolate them). The intake opening doesn't align with the back headlight cover opening (about halfway there) so that's currently not connected to anything. I used one of the DME metal brackets and modified it to support the B35 housing from the rubber isolator mount. Will look in the future to see how to add a bottom support. For the diagnostic port, I modified an E30 metal support bracket and mounted it to one of the available M10 captive nuts in the coolant expansion tank bracket. Looks like it almost belongs there! And for the B35 ignition coil, I used a 4" T bracket that I modified and mounted to the AC lines support bracket that's on the right side shock tower (or inner fender). Feel free to ask any questions that you might have and hope to see you guys at the Vintage next week!

[1st 5er]

Looks very nice.

See it live in NC.

[Mike W.]

I was wondering what the resolution was on that water pump issue. Glad it seems to have worked out.

Nice conversion. Blue V/C and intake. Not seen that. I've done black wrinkle coat and copper hammer coat on the V/C and seen red but not blue. Whatever, looks good.

[jimoreno]

I was wondering what the resolution was on that water pump issue. Glad it seems to have worked out.

Nice conversion. Blue V/C and intake. Not seen that. I've done black wrinkle coat and copper hammer coat on the V/C and seen red but not blue. Whatever, looks good.

Yeah, I decided to go a different way and add some color instead of either old stained aluminum or black wrinkle paint. I'm glad how it turned out and it was my first time painting and using Cerakote air cured paints.
Did you noticed the painted oil filter housing cover?

[Mike W.]

Did you noticed the painted oil filter housing cover?

Nope, missed that one.

On the stained Al I've even been known to just paint it "aluminum" color just to get away from that ugly stained look. You could tell it was painted, but you didn't see it at first glance.

[jimoreno]

I did that with the timing covers, motor mount arms, alternator and AC compressor mounts and the oil filter housing body. I used Alumi-Blast from Seymour paints. I also did the Eastwood Golden Cad and yo can tell from a mile away is not the actual plating but it looks a million times better!



I posted the progress in my Instagram account: @1986_E28_535i

[Shawn D.]

Lookin' good!

[Chimi-Changa]

Nice job on the airbox mount, and conversion. Is the nose of the intake getting into some fresh air?

Is that the coil down by your headers?? I know the lead is not long off the harness, somehow I was able to secure mine near the strut tower and get it away from the heat zone.

[jimoreno]

Nice job on the airbox mount, and conversion. Is the nose of the intake getting into some fresh air?

Is that the coil down by your headers?? I know the lead is not long off the harness, somehow I was able to secure mine near the strut tower and get it away from the heat zone.

The open inlet of the B35 filter housing is like three quarters of the way in the area behind the headlight cover but it doesn't fully align with the hole for the factory tube. Probably due to it hitting the AC hard line (which could be modified to provide room but that's another project on its own).
The coil is actually against the strut tower held with a modified T bracket (for wood projects) and mounted on the AC lines support stud. Here's a look from the driver's side:

And here's a peek at the air filter single support at the moment:


I did had to cut off all of the stock B34 air filter mount so once you are past this point there's no going back!

[tschultz]

How well does it wake up the B34?

Always wondered if it was worth it without the B35 compression and exhaust. But I see you added the intake which maybe allows it to breathe better...

[turbodan]

The best part about the conversion is that you can now buy a plug and play MS2 ECU, which removes the largest roadblock on the way to turbo town.

[jimoreno]

How well does it wake up the B34?

Always wondered if it was worth it without the B35 compression and exhaust. But I see you added the intake which maybe allows it to breathe better...

Well, I guess I might not be able to answer that because I cheated and added a Turner Motorsport chip to the 179 before installing it. I had their B34 chip in the 059 (and it's still in it and available to whoever needs one for a mutually agreed price). But it does run smoother and the idle feels better. I also added a lot of the B35 cosmetic items (even the throttle body cover which I installed a couple of days back). Cleaner wiring on the engine, only two vacuum hoses (FPR and AC cabin sensor), only two water sensors (DME and cluster temp gauge). Also the B35 fuel rail along with the modern fuel hard lines that exit at the bottom of the intake manifold plenum looks very clean. Also added the B35 oil filter housing to stop catching the B34 oil filter housing with every oil change.
I'm not sure, and I know that this doesn't make sense, but to me the exhaust sounds a little bit different even though I didn't change anything on the exhaust side. Not sure if the slight difference in the intake manifold creates something (which I doubt) but it might just be my mind making things up and trying to justify the three months of work that it took.
Anyway, we are almost completely packed and heading up north to the Vintage tomorrow morning. I typically park under the trees on the back (close to the food trucks) just so that we some shade for the wife that can't walk around that much. I did not had time to give the car a proper way wash and interior clean, much less a decent wax.
I'll shut up now and yes, I might eventually move to a plug and play MS2 in the future when I get some B35 pistons and a cam into my engine.

[Panici]

Photos not working, but that may be on my end.

I did the 153 to 173 ECU conversion on my E30's M20B25 back in 2014.
Brought me from Motronic 1.1 to Motronic 1.3.

IIRC it was a plug and play job on the 1987 chassis.

Noticed the improved idle immediately, and also added the "stomp" check for ECU codes.

[willyv124]

How well does it wake up the B34?

Always wondered if it was worth it without the B35 compression and exhaust. But I see you added the intake which maybe allows it to breathe better...

Well, I guess I might not be able to answer that because I cheated and added a Turner Motorsport chip to the 179 before installing it. I had their B34 chip in the 059 (and it's still in it and available to whoever needs one for a mutually agreed price). But it does run smoother and the idle feels better. I also added a lot of the B35 cosmetic items (even the throttle body cover which I installed a couple of days back). Cleaner wiring on the engine, only two vacuum hoses (FPR and AC cabin sensor), only two water sensors (DME and cluster temp gauge). Also the B35 fuel rail along with the modern fuel hard lines that exit at the bottom of the intake manifold plenum looks very clean. Also added the B35 oil filter housing to stop catching the B34 oil filter housing with every oil change.
I'm not sure, and I know that this doesn't make sense, but to me the exhaust sounds a little bit different even though I didn't change anything on the exhaust side. Not sure if the slight difference in the intake manifold creates something (which I doubt) but it might just be my mind making things up and trying to justify the three months of work that it took.
Anyway, we are almost completely packed and heading up north to the Vintage tomorrow morning. I typically park under the trees on the back (close to the food trucks) just so that we some shade for the wife that can't walk around that much. I did not had time to give the car a proper way wash and interior clean, much less a decent wax.
I'll shut up now and yes, I might eventually move to a plug and play MS2 in the future when I get some B35 pistons and a cam into my engine.

I recently finished the motronic 1.3 upgrade on my b34 as well.

Can you give some more details on the fuel hard lines? Is that a generic setup that you done with your e28? I'm still using the b34 fuel rail, i actually put a plug in the cold start line https://www.amazon.com/Quick-Connect-Ad ... B07G3JVNMT rather than leaving it connect to the cold start valve to make sure i didn't have any extra fuel leaking in.

My exhaust also sounded a little different as well even though i had no exhaust changes.

[jimoreno]

I'm not sure what you mean by a "generic setup" but I just used the intake manifold, fuel rail with the hard fuel lines from a B35.
By the hard fuel lines I mean that the B35 fuel rail has two hard lines running under it that go down below the intake manifold as this picture shows:


There is a small section of fuel hose and a specific formed fuel line that connects to the front of the fuel rail that has to be bought (it will kink if you fold it to get the radius).

[willyv124]

Ah, i didn't realize those were a part of the b35 fuel rail, makes sense now!

[jimoreno]

Ah, i didn't realize those were a part of the b35 fuel rail, makes sense now!

They are not actually part of the fuel rail as they are separate but held against it with plastic clamps.