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ESS 6.5PSI Supercharger

My car is a 2000 323i, rated at around 170 horses; it is quite slow. In my opinion, the only real substitution for engine displacement is Forced Induction. These systems are usually very expensive, around 4-5K. I found an incomplete used kit on E46Fanatics for 2K and re-bought the missing pieces.

I have to admit that my knowledge about engines is pretty poor. I do know some details but I might be wrong about some areas. Please feel free to correct me if I make a mistake by emailing me.

The idea of a supercharger is to force air into an engine such that there is more oxygen available for more explosive combustion. A supercharger forces air into an engine by attaching a high speed blower to the main belt of the engine. As the engine drives the belt, it drives the supercharger. The faster the engine is spinning, the more boost the supercharger is creating.

I have had no prior mechanical experience on engine internals before this install, but I was up for the challenge. The kit is supposed to take <10 hours for a professional installation. It took me about 4 days to complete since I was missing so many tools and hitching rides to AutoZone and Home Depot for parts. I used the DIY on MY330i; without that, I would have no hope.

I installed the supercharger in my apartment garage, usually between the hours of 1AM-6AM during my final term at MIT. I had very poor lighting consisting of some flickering fluorescent garage bulbs and a 12V car battery powered fluorescent stick. An IPod, 10W speakers, and soda kept me sane. I managed to scrape up my hands pretty good and got my x-girlfriend mad at me, claiming I spent more time with the car and not her. I guess that is the drawbacks of being an inventor and trying to do everything yourself.

In the end, it was easier than I thought it would be and I got to know my engine a little bit better. At first I was displeased with the results, but now that winter has come around, it's much faster.

Day 1 - Intake, Fan, Dipstick Tube, Fuel Rail, Air Temperature Sensor

This is what the incomplete kit looked liked when I first bought it off another fellow E46 fanatic.

I ordered the remaining missing parts from ESS located in Norway. It took months to receive because they were backordered on some oil dipstick tubes but they finally got everything to me, including the worst instruction manual I have ever read. They must think some parts are removed and installed magically, I guess that is how its done in Norway =).

Prior to the supercharger, I installed a DINAN CF CAI. Obviously, I had to remove that to install the supercharger.

This is what the DINAN CF CAI looked like when installed.

Once removed, the Mass Airflow Filter? (MAF) is exposed.

I decided to keep the DINAN CF CAI air filter bracket and filter since it was larger than the ESS version and more securely mounted.

After removing the driver side headlamp assembly, there is quite a bit of space for the new supercharger.

A closer look at the MAF, the heat resistant tape that I used to enlarge the MAF diameter to fit the DINAN CF CAI is obviously not very heat resistant.

The tape seems to have melted over time and curved at the edges. As long as no debris has passed the MAF, I guess everything is okay.

The next step was to remove the engine fan and cover. This was a bitch and scraped up my hands pretty good.

You have to get a hex key tool in there and try to remove the fan. This took me about 2-3 hours. I am sure there is a BMW tool for this but I had nothing.

After the struggle, I finally got the fan and cover removed from my car. Then I took a well needed soda break.

I continued by locating the dipstick dupe that is bolted down very deep inside the engine.

Do not be fooled by the flash of my camera, the lighting I had was comparable to a candle. The fluorescent light tube can is in the lower left corner.

The oil reservoir is removed and suddenly you feel your car is falling apart.

After all that is done, I removed the engine cover with a simple socket wrench.

This is what fuel rail and intake manifold looks like under the cover. I know it's dirty, wash it for me.

Next, I had to pump air into the fuel rail with a portable mini bicycle tire compressor to force the gasoline back into the engine. I didn't do it enough so the rail came flying off as I was loosing it, oops.

ESS provides 6 shiny larger injectors. As far as I can tell they are blue, not black and four holes instead of one on the spray side. I told you I didn't know much about engines.

This was probably the easiest and most fun part. I actually felt like I did something right.

My first major problem was that the fuel rail now sat higher than stock and virtually impossible to bolt down securely without extra washers. The washers are usually included in the ESS kit, however, I bet they were lost and that's why I never received them. I took a trip to Home Depot to buy some random washers and fasteners. The hardest part was getting to Home Depot with your car all ripped apart. My room mate Eric is a life safer, driving me around late at night for spare parts. I also learned how to drive stick shift in the process!

It took 5 small washers to add up to the height of one big washer. Do not drop a washer into your engine bay, it will be a bitch to find, as I found out the hard way.

A few more hours later going to Home Depot and such, I finally got the fuel rail back on the injectors, put my key in position 2, and checked for leaks. No leaks, I guess I was lucky.

The next step was to relocate the air temperature sensor from the intake manifold to the cabin air intake. Honestly, I am not sure what this is for, but I figure they want to trick the car into thinking the air is colder since compressed air is hotter?

Anyway, here is a closer picture of the wires that needed to be spliced.

I cut the cables much closer than suggested since I wanted to get as much slack as possible later on.

I put the engine cover back on and rerouted the temperature cables to the cable air intake area.

This was the end of a long day one.

Day 2 - Hoses, Belts, Painting, Blower, Pulleys

The second day started out with removing the two belts. I had to do some inventive pulling and tugging. I learned the hard way what a belt tensioner was and realized the secrets of a torque wrench. I was using my IBM X22 laptop to display the DIY since my printer broke the night before.

Next I had to remove the coolant hose and catching the coolant into a bucket. Let say I ended up with a dry bucket and coolant everywhere.

My engine looked green, oops. I find that I make a lot of mistakes when I don't know what I am doing.

To get away from the coolant fumes and closer to the paint fumes, I decided to paint the metal tubing. The ESS kit comes standard with black and is optional in silver I believe. I wanted something different so I went with red.

I put some thin shop towels down and had some fun with a can of paint. Again, I don't really know how to paint so I over did it a few times. The paint would never dry and it came out pretty bad. I had to sand it down a couple of times before I got it anywhere near acceptable. I realized after painting that the white concrete was now red, oops.

The next step was to install the actual blower assembly. Everything went strait in, nothing too difficult.  I attached the two hoses for oil feed and oil drain.

After that was all done, I installed the idle pulleys. This was pretty easy, just bolts.

Here is another shot of the assembly, the whole thing is glowing with coolant. I was getting dizzy.

This was the end of day 2, I was took sick feeling to do anything else.

Day 3 - New Belts, Metal Tubing

Day 3 started out with fitting the new belt around the pulleys.

Here is a shot of the supercharger pulley. This specific kit uses a 3.6 inch diameter pulley that produces a max of 6.5psi.

Changing this pulley to a smaller one will yield higher boost. The increase should be linear because its directly driven off the motor.

This took me about 3-4 hours since I had no idea how to get push the tensioner pulley down with enough force.

I finally realized that using a torque wrench on the hex shaped protrusion on the tensioner will easily push the tensioner out of the way.

The rest of the install was cake.

Make sure there is enough clearance between the pulleys so the belt doesn't rub against itself.

Also make sure the top idle pulley is clear of the oil reservoir.

When the belt is completely installed it should look like this.

The next step is to fit the tubing onto the blower.

Not sure what this hose is for but it connects to the intake manifold.

Here are the painted metal tubing pieces finally dried.

The metal tubing only fits one way so its quite self explanatory.

Some adjustment is necessary to get the fitment close to perfect.

Attach the MAF and other hoses to the metal tubing.

Connect the extended MAF cable, it should click into place when installed correctly.

I used silicone sealant to attach the other house since the original parts were missing yet again.

This was the end of day 3. Everything is coming together, I felt somewhat accomplished.

Day 4 - New Filter, Sock, Enlarger

Day 4 was a breeze. I knew most of it was done, just tightening connections here are there. I decided to get a new filter, since I am too lazy to clean my old one and just for peace of mind.

The filter comes with a water resistant sock. It also acts as a primary shield from dirt and debris.

Here is the filter with the sock installed.

Since the new air filter is larger than the ESS supplied filter, I had to use the same tape to enlarge the diameter of the tubing to match the air filter.

It worked pretty well and is air tight.

Then I installed the air filter into the bumper. I made sure to remove the break ducts to get as much air as possible to the air filter.

Next I connected the flexible pipe to the air filter and secured it with fasteners.

A shot from the headlamp, there really is very little room to work with once everything is in place.

I double checked all the connections and made sure everything was tied down.

I reinstalled the headlamp and this was the end of day 4. I can't believe everything was done. Now I just had to wait for the DME to arrive from Norway and I would be all done! YaY!