Looking to make 280 at least in my 04 330i maybe 300. I'm thinking m50 swap, throttle body, chaos calibrations tune, and zhp cams. I was looking into the s54 and 6mt swap but ya know a high schooler ain't got that kinda money. Still might do the 6mt swap though. Anything else I should know?

 

Andrew330i04, so far, I'm adding a theoretical 40 HP gain without nitrous (M50 intake swap, headers, Conforti programer). 228 plus 40 = 268. If your tune (better than Conforti?) and throttle body are worth 12 then you hit it. Frankly, if you are going to purchase both intake and exhaust ZHP new at like $1200, then I would try to identify what the HP gain is with Schrick, and of course Schrick carries a premium price new. Used ZHP cams are out there for $500 or so, but used has higher counter party risk, right? If you get new cams, always consider new springs. If you are going up in the rev range you must add new springs and stronger lighter spring retainers and keepers.

More, the headers are sort of a wild card. If you go off road and lose the cats you will get a nice additional gain, say 10 HP. Also, if you simply improve the induction, exhaust and tune, there may be more than additive gain and be satisfied without the cams. The cams are expensive and the labor cost also high. I would recommend to do your build in stages with the intake and tune first. Did you read the M50 link? If you are cool with all that, then do it. After that do the headers and/ or exhaust. Then if you don't feel like you are there consider cams. Please also be aware that lower quality exhausts may not give the desired performance. Go with a brand that you trust that has dynoed their product and posted the results.

 

Yeah, It's my dd so cats would stay on plus California sucks. The tune is about +10-15 and the throttle body is about +6. The tune also reads the m50 so the ecu would be fine. Exhaust I'm looking at cat back Magnaflow and borla. Oh and pulleys also to free up some lost hp.

 

Not to rain on your parade, but BMW already made the ultimate naturally-aspirated M54, and it's called.....the S54. With that engine available and basically a drop-in swap, there's just no point in maxxing out the M54. You'll spend far more money building up the lesser engine and not get close to what a bone-stock S54 makes. Buy a wrecked/tired M3 and swap everything over, freshening the engine in the process. Many threads on this.

As far as forced induction, there's a whole E46F subforum dedicated to that.

Lastly, please make sure you're well away from the Chattanooga area when you decide to race late-model Cadillacs at 110 mph. Better yet, take it to the track.

 

Hey, spannerhead, cmon back and chit chat. I'm sure you got some little tid bit to add besides tossing the whole M54 world into hades with one sweep of the S54. Also, had a lovely time last in Knoxville. Ate dinner in the big hotel downtown. Such a pleasure. Had fried catfish and sweet tea n'booze. Flirted a little with the lovely waitress.
So .please add some power to M54. Not everybody can pop in a S54

 

Oh, didn't know there was a forum for FI . Thanks for the tip.

Please let us know what the S54 junkyard cost might be. That would be helpful to compare..

Sorry you fell threatened by my driving habits.

Anything else to add about normally aspirated M54 HP gains?

 

Please let us know what the S54 junkyard cost might be. That would be helpful to compare..

Copart has about a dozen M3's up for auction. I've seen a few pop up on the local CL, and they're usually $8-9K, swap-ready (read: wrecked/knackered). Then you get the suspension, brakes, trans, driveline, engine bay peripherals, wiring harness, cluster, etc. Just the engine typically goes for $3-5K.

Sorry you felt threatened by my driving habits.

If I were tooling along the highway at 75 and was passed by two cars doing 110, I would feel threatened, yes. I've driven the Autobahn, and American highways ain't it.

Anything else to add about normally aspirated M54 HP gains?

Yep; the ROI makes no sense to me. Let's be honest: The newest E46 is over 15 years old now. An Accord or Camry can dust a 330 to 60 and hand its ass to it in the corners. The solution? Either enjoy the E46 for what it is, stock or near-stock—a wonderfully analog driving experience from BMW's "Golden Age"—or go big: S54 or FI, sticky tires, big brakes, reinforced RACP, the works. Throwing bolt-ons at the M54 and expecting to hang with the late-model big boys is a waste of time and money, IMO.

 

Borla and Magnaflow are both well recognized names in exhaust. Their cat backs should be top notch.

 

I never thought of under pullys as horsepower gains, but you might be right.

 

but they will free up some "lost" horsepower due to parasitic accessories such as power steering, the water pump, and the alternator. I had to go with the reasoning that these do not add horsepower... they simply free up power that was lost between the motor and the wheels. Average freed horsepower proven by the dyno has been "up to 11 HP". this is from this thread OFFICIAL: Guide to Horsepower Gaining Mods (Sorted by... very helpful for your m54 hp improvement

 

Spanner, I promise to hold it down to 90 for awhile. I haven't had the new to me E46 up past 110 recently as far as I can remember. Will defiantly slow down in the entire state of Tennessee. West Virginia, not so much.

Hey, how fast did you go on the Autobahn?

 

Hey, how fast did you go on the Autobahn?

200 kph indicated in a rental diesel Opel Meriva, circa June 2004. 5th gear, pedal to the floor, downhill, would not go any faster.

...which is OK because it's, you know, legal to do that sort of thing there. And folks know how to drive, so it's (relatively) safe.

Protip: Bragging about your extralegal driving exploits isn't going to win you any friends in here.

Oh well! I would rather be broke down in my E46 than drive an Accord or Camry. I get sick and throw up if in one for too long.

A late-model Accord Sport with the 2.0T and the 6-speed manual is a pretty damn good car, and very attractive as well. Kind of a mini Audi A7. I wouldn't mind rocking one for a DD.

Adding 40 or 50 horsepower for a few hundred bucks to an M54 shouldn't be so objectionable.

There's no "right" or "wrong" here to object to. It's just not possible to extract that kind of HP for that kind of money.

 

Oh well! I would rather be broke down in my E46 than drive an Accord or Camry. I get sick and throw up if in one for too long.

Adding 40 or 50 horsepower for a few hundred bucks to an M54 shouldn't be so objectionable. Unless of course you have dumped thousands into an equally old M3 then it would be objectionable. I get it.

 

Adding 40 or 50 horsepower for a few hundred bucks to an M54

Please document how you achieve that.

 

Hope this thread doesn't turn into waves of M3 Kamikazies and boost Nazis who feel their world was invaded because someone mentioned the word horsepower.

Also, please add that if you have never had a speeding ticket, I will kowtow to criticism. I somewhat proudly hold certain unspecified land speed records. All in or on Geman equipment.

Back to M54 normal aspiration HP improvements. No?

 

You can lead a horsepower to water but you can't make it drink.

 

Ive recently added the following to my 330ci:
Catless headers, turner underdrive pulleys (all 3 of them), AFE magnum intake, Vlad Belsky tuned DME (semi custom), lightweight flywheel (14.5lb) and clutch kit, 3.23 gears (5 speed car) along with a lot of suspension stuff. The car is a very different car now that it was stock. I‘d guess at least 250 at the crank, maybe 260. The sum total of everything working together is the difference maker. I will be adding the M50 intake in the coming months too. At this point, not much left to “bolt on” as I dont see the point of ZHP cams and too many people still think they are worth $500 used. And rather than dropping $1250 on schrick cams and $700 on a Dinan throttle body, I;d rather put that money towards a VF supercharger.

 

Never heard of M50 intake? See link above.
Also never heard of a tune. OK never heard of it.
What about headers? Free flow cat back exhaust

Dont be afraid. its only 40 or 50 horses.

Some folks can't handle the truth. I get it.

 

Bolt on power is a lot harder to achieve than it used to be, but the perception that it can be done lives on. Back in the day, OEM manufacturers didn't put much optimization into their engines, and were limited by lack of tools, metallurgy, fuel quality, emissions, etc. In the last 25 years, however, the gasoline engine has gone through a revolution of improvements to power, minimizing the gains of aftermarket bolt ons. So it's a little tougher to do on a modern-ish engine that's already optimized and sorted pretty well. I wouldn't chase it to far or too hard.

The advice about not trying to keep up with a modern powerful car is sound as well. Since the E46 was built, another full revolution in engines has taken them to remarkable levels. Yes, there are Cadillacs out there that will blow anything away you could create with an NA E46 for the money.

 

Bolt on power is a lot harder to achieve than it used to be, but the perception that it can be done lives on. Back in the day, OEM manufacturers didn't put much optimization into their engines, and were limited by lack of tools, metallurgy, fuel quality, emissions, etc. In the last 25 years, however, the gasoline engine has gone through a revolution of improvements to power, minimizing the gains of aftermarket bolt ons. So it's a little tougher to do on a modern-ish engine that's already optimized and sorted pretty well. I wouldn't chase it to far or too hard.

The advice about not trying to keep up with a modern powerful car is sound as well. Since the E46 was built, another full revolution in engines has taken them to remarkable levels. Yes, there are Cadillacs out there that will blow anything away you could create with an NA E46 for the money.

Sage observation and advice.
Nevertheless, seems the M54 has a little room for horsepower gain.

 

Here's 37 pages of optimizing an NA M54

Naturally Aspirated M54B30 Engine Build

Bimmerworld (www.bimmerworld.com) is providing technical support throughout the entire car rebuild. For the engine specifically, I'll be sourcing additional "race" components, fuel system components, and engine management electronics through them. Bimmerworld is fielding 3 cars in the 2007 Speed...

www.e46fanatics.com

 

go check out the dyno thread, all of this is documented.

 

I may have missed it but what are you even trying to achieve here? A stock 330i will do 155mph. Are you trying to go faster than that? Or do you plan on going to the track? Because if you want to be fast at the track, the engine is the wrong thing to touch. If you do the suspension properly (and the emphasis really is on properly, it's a complex system that needs to be set up in a specific way), you'll be surprised at all the cars that the E46 can outhandle (assuming the driver skill is present). If you want to go beyond 155mph, I think you live in the wrong country.

 

Trying to outrun a "late model high hp cadillac" with a NA e46 is quite a long shot unless you put a rocket booster in the trunk. LSA powered cts-v puts down over 550 hp and ft lbs. Later LT4 powered versions have 640 hp and 630 ft lbs. And 8 speed transmission. Both are supercharged, intercooled 6.2L v8s. The only NA build that will get you in that area is a big displacement high revving LS engine with plenty of good parts. You need to fight fire with fire. The problem with the m54 is very little aftermarket support. Especially for NA builds. If you get the schrick cams, headers, and an m50 intake, it will probably be around 250-260 hp. Higher compression pistons and some porting on the head may get closer to 300. There is just no way to compete with the big power today's cars make without a power adder or engine swap. Most minivans make over 300hp now and put up a good fight against a 330. Consider the s54 engine in the m3. It's a great engine and like no other but it is a factory max rpm high revving engine. Individual throttle bodies, 11.5 to 1 compression ratio ect and only 333 hp. Torque was about 260 ft lbs. I don't see how you could even match that with an m54 NA. Even an e46 m3 has no chance against the Cadillac in a straight line. I'm not saying don't do a NA build but your goal is to beat a car with over 2x the engine size AND a supercharger. You are going to need far more power than any NA build is capable of with a 3L engine.

Sent from my S61 using Tapatalk

 

In my mind, the biggest advancement in development that was lacking in the M54 days is direct injection. The precision by which fuel metering could be tailored and controlled led to tremendous gains on otherwise similar engines. My previous Genesis Coupe 3.8 V6 gained 37 hp in a single year due to a compression bump paired with GDI. There is no aftermarket equivalent to implement on an M54 that would produce the same results.

I’ve accepted that straight line performance is not my goal, so my mods now seek to improve my overall driving experience, rather than chase a faster rabbit down a money hole.

 

Geez! How many of these kind of threads do we have to endure. Talk, talk, talk. OP, go do it and then come back and show us. (Narrator: never happen)

 

One of mine is to outrun that high HP late model Cadillac that walks up behind me at 110.

So you're cruising along whatever public road at 75mph and some late model supercharged car passes you doing 110, and you expect to be able to catch it AND outrun it? Even with the same Caddy that's not going to happen if he doesn't lift off.

Or do you plan on going to the track? Because if you want to be fast at the track, the engine is the wrong thing to touch. If you do the suspension properly (and the emphasis really is on properly, it's a complex system that needs to be set up in a specific way), you'll be surprised at all the cars that the E46 can outhandle (assuming the driver skill is present).

It's funny how guys (and only guys) think more power overcomes their lack of driving prowess on the track. The most satisfying races I've won were against vehicles with twice the engine and twice the power, in the wet and the dry.

The whole point of driving this brand/model is the joy one gets from CORNERING FAST after learning how to tune the suspension setup to the way you drive ... on the track.

If straight line speed is all you're interested in, go drag racing. Otherwise, learn to enjoy the E46 for what it is; a car that's instantly recognisable as a BMW, still considered (by us E46er) to be the pinnacle of BMW's classic car design language, and a wonderfully satisfying tool to carve through corners.