What mild Turbos to buy for N54?

[D.I.P.]

So I need some advice. I recently purchased an N54 powered 135i as a project car. The car is high miles, the turbos have blown seals as they dump smoke all the time and it needs a bunch of other work which is ok because I bought it for exactly this purpose… a project. Anyway, my plan is to rebuild the car into essentially OEM + type spec. Question is what turbos should I get? I’m not looking to build an 800hp monster. Just need turbos that will be reliable somewhat long term with a pump 93 tune and probably some Meth injection. I’d be happy with anything around 500hp. I’m hesitant to get any kind of eBay turbos but I see a lot of folks here using them. Are they good and if not, what would be the better option for what I’m looking to get from the car?

[bnace10]

Honestly, your best bet if you don't want china turbos are Pure.

People also recommend Vargas, but I've seen quite a few issues and bad experiences (with the turbos, and the owner).

[Ladydragonz]

Running pures on a high mileage N54. Over 252k miles. Gave my car new life had horrible wastegate rattle on the stock ones but no smoke and they were still working.

[mike@x-ph.com]

Depends on your power goal and budget.

Our most popular options are the Pure stage 2 and Vargas

[D.I.P.]

Originally Posted by mike@x-ph.com

Depends on your power goal and budget.

Our most popular options are the Pure stage 2 and Vargas

Power goals are 500whp with pump gas + Meth injection. I would like to leave a bit of headroom on the turbos so I'm not maxing them out. As far as budget well, I want to keep the cost of the turbos far enough below the cost of a single turbo kit that I am not tempted to just jump into that lol. In my mind if the cost for a good set of twins ends up being a few hundred off a decent single kit I would just do that. My preference is to stay Twin, keep the car as simple & as "reliable" as possible.

It wont be a daily driver & even if it was I don't usually drive my cars ultra hard every day but it would be nice to have something that COULD be used as a daily if I ever wanted to.

[mike@x-ph.com]

Originally Posted by D.I.P.

Power goals are 500whp with pump gas + Meth injection. I would like to leave a bit of headroom on the turbos so I'm not maxing them out. As far as budget well, I want to keep the cost of the turbos far enough below the cost of a single turbo kit that I am not tempted to just jump into that lol. In my mind if the cost for a good set of twins ends up being a few hundred off a decent single kit I would just do that. My preference is to stay Twin, keep the car as simple & as "reliable" as possible.

It wont be a daily driver & even if it was I don't usually drive my cars ultra hard every day but it would be nice to have something that COULD be used as a daily if I ever wanted to.

Vargas stage 1 is a great option for an unbeatable price.

[white.nasty135i]

I would check out rb turbo as well! Maybe something like his rb two+

[schmidtp]

Originally Posted by white.nasty135i

I would check out rb turbo as well! Maybe something like his rb two+

I went with RB on 130K+ mile N54, FBO and MHD 2+. For a summer fun car it is plenty quick for me, would rather focus further improvements on suspension handling than more power.

[white.nasty135i]

Originally Posted by schmidtp

I went with RB on 130K+ mile N54, FBO and MHD 2+. For a summer fun car it is plenty quick for me, would rather focus further improvements on suspension handling than more power.

Which rb turbos did you go with? What fuelling mods

[Tyc0]

Get RB TWOS and make 500whp on pump gas with as little as a upgraded lpfp. I have this exact setup and it runs great, would be insanely fast in a 1 series.

[nieves.e82]

Pure 600 is another good option to check out too.