Hi All,
3.5 years after my first Aquamist project, i've finally been able to save money, find a car, install FBO's and now, finally the Aquamist again.
In 2014, we completed the test and had it running on water injection, ready to tune for some meth addition.
At this moment, the build still in progress.
This is my original thread:
http://www.aquamist.co.uk/forum2/vbu...ead.php?t=2618
Features of this project:
*** Aquamist now sells a 10L "twin tank" tank. I have installed this in my Touring. I'm not sure if this fits a regular sedan/coupe, but it can be done quite neatly in the Touring on the LEFT hand side. Note that i do not have the 7 CD box there; otherwise it would obviously note fit.
*** I'm going to use 2 1.2 mm jets.
*** I have decided, after much deliberation, to go for the nozzle position just after my intercooler (so DOWNsteam). The upgraded ETS intercooler comes with a silicone hose, connecting to a PVC type tube, which then connects again to my after market charge pipe with BOV. I have made 2 holes in the silicone "4 ply" elbow pipe that connects the intercooler with the OEM pipe.
*** I will tune for 100% water and a 50/50 water/meth injection.
Some pointers:
* Methanol is incredible poisonous to people: the LD50 is guessed at 100ml, but there are many cases known, proving as little as 15 ml can be lethal.
I'm buying a gas mask and make sure i'll fill mix and fill up the trunk trank in the open, using protective gloves and mask. I might get some funny looks from the neighbors
* Vaporlock in the tank should not occur (should only occur with very high meth levels). i do need to puncture the top of my water/meth tank caps, i've ordered the Aquamist venting system for my twin tank. Methanol gas is toxic and puncturing the tank without proper venting could mean a build up of the gas inside the car over time, especially on a hot day. We'll vent it away from the passenger's compartment to the side or bottom of the car.
- I'll be getting a custom tune (probably PureBoost in Germany). He knows MHD (which is what i'm using) and he is very familiar with Aquamist.
The build
1 Trunk wiring and lines
I first routed the "tank indicated level" cable (which connects to the controller) from the glove box to the trunk. I also laid out the fuel line. I kept the line inside the car, stowed away at the driver's side. The fuel line goes thru the first wall on the driver's side, you can't miss it. I used a small iron flexible rod to guide the wire thru the fire wall to the engine bay.
To get from the left hand side to the right hand side (glove box), it's easiest to remove the dashboard trim. Once removed, you can go from the right side of the steering wheel all the way to the glove box.
Gauge on steering wheel
Using the same tactics as above, i also routed the gauge wire to the steering wheel. I mounted a pod for the gauqe (52 mm) with a fish eye screw on my steering column. I found it's the best place to actually see it in action when doing WOT. Previously i had it near the ash tray, but it's just to far down to be readable when you go flat out. And this is actually much easier to install. I know there are some kits with pod for the steering wheel column, but it's never in the right spot and so much more expensive. The fissh eye screw + cheap pod set me back abount EUR 8. Unbeatable.
Tank in trunk
Regretable, we ended up cutting too much off the interior panel at the wheel arch in the trunk. But the tank is actually pretty easy to fit, with only a little bit of cutting. My car also has a power supply there, which i will use for the tank (it's actually the yellow/green cable that has power, not the brown one). There's also a ground screw already, so it's quite easy.
The pump itself is screwed into the "floor" on the left side. The tank is sitting on two pieces of aluminium that we have cut and bent so it perfectly fits the tank. We're using self tapping screws to tighten. The tank will also hit the top rim of the hatch, which is perfect,as it prevents the tank from going to the left. We will secure the tank for movement to the right with one more piece of aluminium. Do pay attention for the tank level indicater cable and the fuel line itself; it needs space to the right of the wheel arch. We made sure it has a few millimeters of space. The tank is now sitting a few centimeters above the pump, which should insulate for noise, yet leave enough space for venting/heat radiation.
There is another spot where we created an extra "arm" to our mounting brackets, so the tank is now fully secured. I'm very happy which everything: access is easy, plenty of room for venting heat and neatly tucked away so i still have my full trunk !
Venting fumes
Aquamist has a neat, albeit not-so-cheap venting solution for my twin trunk tank system. I'm glad i bought it though, it fairly easy to install. We used a bench drill to create the 10 mm holes; holding a drill in your hand doesn't work on the blue caps, at least not for me. We predrilled with 3 mm and tried 8 mm, but had to drill with 10 mm for the final gap. We used some sand paper to smooth the edges.
The BMW e90 has some type of venting holes behind the carpeting on the sides of the car (and behind the second layer of insulation/carpet lining).
Here's a picture on the passenger/battery side; there's a similar vent on the driver's side).
ECU wiring
The ECU box in an N54 engine bay has a very nice hole and firewall. You can't see it; it's BELOW a little "gutter" on the fire wall side of the box. There seems to be a hole at the bottom of this gutter, but it's actually not leading to a firewall. The actual fire wall hole is below this "gutter". It easily fits all cables. And the cables pop out on the passenger side if you remove the kickboard below the glove box (2 torx screw). From there it's very easy to push it slight up and into the glove box itself.
We got quite confused with the brown and yellow cables that need to be soldered. We ended up having to redo 3 cables, pretty stupid. Anyways, Richards N54 for 2008+ is just fine for the 2006 and 2007 model. I strongly suggest to have a friend with you and agree . Of course it goes without saying that you should never cut the ECU cable, but rather wrap the signal tap cable around it and solder it. I bought 3M Scotch 88 tape for the insulation, people told me it is best if you want it to last for years and years.
Engine bay lines
To get from the ECU glove box firewall (to connect to the controller) to the engine bay (so outside the ECU box), we pushed the two cables (the FAV cable and the sensor cable) on top of the rubber firewall from the ECU box to the driver side. Looking at the lid of the ECU box, it should not be prone to be cut by the rim; it's rubber on both sides.
The FAV itself needs to be turn some 90 degrees after unpacking from Aquamist. This means loosening the fuel line bolt, turning it sideways and screwing it back on.The black FAV fits perfect, but only when turned, otherwise you can't fit the FAV signal cable as the electric wire will hit the FAV fuel line. It will make sense when you get to this step
Testing
Follow the test procedure as outlines, don't skip tests.
The first test does NOT need the yellow, red or blue connectors to your controller. There are LEDs on the controller, you'll have to unscrew the four philips screws to see them next to the tweak triggers and jumpers.
Note: the button on the gauge (yes there is a button on the dial) is very handy as an on/off switch. You can even have power to the controller; but the system will not do any spraying if the gauge button is off.
Pay extra attention to the jumpers for the testing. The only trigger that needs to be set is the THRES trigger; I tweaked this with someone else while driving; for BMW it seems to work best if the THRES is almost fully turned COUNTER clockwise, i think that means it's set to quite sensitive.
Tuning
I will tune my setup for 3 modes, all will be chosen using my Android MHD "flasher" phone and standard K+DCAN cable.
1) Custom tune for my Pure stage 2 turbo (and upgraded LPFP) on RON98 without any spraying.
2) Custom tune with 100% water spray
3) Custom tune with 50/50 meth mix
I assume we'll be adjusting the tweakable triggers during that step, so i'll update this post (with dyno results) when i have done it.