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B38 turbo options

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2.4K views 3 replies 2 participants last post by  DGf30  
#1 ·
Crazy 3 cylinder guy is back with some new ideas.
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Iam condensing this a bit but I've spent some time understanding the different versions of the b38, b38k (i:cool2: and b38x (active Tourer)

What I've found is that there's no reason the regular head can't keep up with the i8.
Biggest drawback is however the absolutely horrible continental turbo which oddly enough is not found on the k or x.
The k and x also don't share the cooling ports and self imploding jackets that are found on the continental.

Imho a turbo upgrade is very much doable and worthwhile but the ports pretty much stop us dead in our tracks.
So ive reached out to a shop in the u.k that would be willing to make exhaust flanges at around 50 GBP.

This would effectively give us an option to use the b38x or b48 turbo grafted on or even anything else that we might be able to fit.

Love to hear some thoughts on this, personally I like the idea but there's a few kinks to work out.
 
#3 ·
Ok so I'll keep it short ish as I've gone for a head upgrade myself as well.
I do have a way to make this work on the regular head but the f60 mini and f45 bmw both have the b38x head and make things easier for me as iam modifying the head anyway.

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So the main thing is now to put a b48 Turbo on the b38
And I've seen this concoction before and it is finally making sense since today

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Only thing is that I have a free turbo and honestly while working on it I finally know what it is and how they did it.
It's a b48 turbo modified to fit a regular td04lr wheel.
Port 1 is cut off and 2,3,4 are now joined together.

Iam going to try to attempt the same but using the original twin scroll wheel.
I have already started disassembling and cutting the housing but I'll touch a bit more on that later.

Also.. for size comparison.

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