Finally got around to installing my rebuilt Alpina turbos this weekend. Just wanted to share the experience in case anyone else decides to go this route.
I bought the turbos for $500 from an E30 forum, in "working when pulled" condition from someone at a dealership. After receiving the turbos, I noticed that one had very bad axial shaft play (I measured .005"). I contacted 5 companies that rebuilt turbos and only one was up to the task, Pure turbos. I paid a little over $1000 for the rebuild. I was very happy with their work besides the fact they forgot to mail them back to me on time, and then 2-3 weeks later when I emailed asking the status they never responded and just put them in the mail.
My parts list from BMW for the install:
(sorry, lost the description for what they are, but they are all the crush washers/gaskets you would need)
07119963201 x8
11428624158 x2
07119963072 x4
11657577018 x2
11627576991 x2
After receiving:
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I started the install at 12:30 in a friend's garage. Airboxes removed:
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Stock turbos with heat shields removed:
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Stock intake:
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Turbos removed:
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Surprisingly, my old turbos with 63k on the clock had extremely minimal shaft play. I'm impressed.
Old vs new:
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Visually, they're exactly the same from the housings. If you look at the compressor wheel you can see they have an obviously different design.
New turbos installed:
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Cranked the car in small intervals without starting to prime the turbos then fired her up. Ran perfect from the start and no issues.
After a test drive...I'm moderately disappointed. I can feel an improvement on the low end, in comfort mode the torque is hitting a lot earlier than I normally would expect it to. On the high end...I don't feel much of a change. I'm on the basic BMS S2 settings still, and have stock downpipes, so I feel like if I turn up the boost/aggressiveness I would notice it more. I do think these would make a huge difference on a TU where a flash tune would be possible. Also, it's worth noting that I was planning on installing an intake so I left the airboxes open essentially as a hot air intake. With the intakes installed I may notice a much bigger difference.
Overall, the install wasn't that difficult, but a lot of the time is spent cursing and trying to access the bottom v-bands and oil drain lines. I was able to finish in about 5-6 hours.
If you're thinking about going this route and have any questions let me know!