m50 manifold on 328i

[No name user 379]

is there a conclusion to all this

[Ahmedsinc 414]

is there a conclusion to all this

I hope so!

[twisted 45]

M50 mani good for race car, but sit for road car?

[No name user 379]

Fantastic

[Silver Fox 43]

Thanks Ron, so M3 exhaust next on list, and the bigger exhaust cam which I've already done but not remapped yet, hope for 250 plus?

We can all dream...

[MoJoJoe 46]

finally got the right m50 manifold today, doing it this friday/weekend.

the injector seals looked good so I lubed the old injector seals with some transmission oil if that's okay? keeping the code reader for the last week till I test drive the car and see if there are any code faults. thanks

PS: US Spec M3 cams back at my hand, friend dropped them off. I may also swap out the m3 cams or sell them. depending on what I find on the other forums. and if there is a loss without a tune if I added cams or if the car can be driven to auckland (200 km) with the new cams for a tune.

Edited May 6, 2014 by MoJoJoe

[Silver Fox 43]

Yeah, Darren's got one for the same, might be a good investment.

[Ahmedsinc 414]

Righto, moral of the story (If we're all in agreement, that is....??) M50 manifold is conclusively proven to liberate a few extra horses at the upper ranges of the powerband. Great for a track engine, possibly not so user friendly for a daily driven road car. M52 manifolds in conjunction with Vanos delivers a more linear torque and power curve, i.e M52B28, M54B30 et al.

Which would lead one to wonder if it's possible to remove the ASC, EWS and drive by wire components of the MS43 DME, thus leaving a dual Vanos 3 litre engine suitable for transplant into a humble E36. One hypothesizes if an S50B30 DME would be the answer? If anyone with a greater understanding of ECUs could chime in I'd be eternally grateful. This option doesn't appear to have been explored a great deal overseas, or at least not in the Google searches I've undertaken thus far. And I'm waaaaaay to chicken to go messing around in GT1 / NCS expert with no real idea of what the hell I'm doing!

[twisted 45]

Why not an m52b28 with an m54b39 rotating assembly ? Straight swap and significant gains I believe

[twisted 45]

B30

[Ahmedsinc 414]

Why not an m52b28 with an m54b39 rotating assembly ? Straight swap and significant gains I believe

Same can also be done into an M50, but the drop in compression kinda makes it a bit counter-productive.

[kiwi328i 118]

Good luck with the M50 manifold bro. A change of cam profile will hopefully work in with the characteristics of the M50 manifold. Add a custom tune to ensure that's the case and you cant do much more with what you have. Those three things are usually the 'fix' for that upgrade. Not much point having a chip or tune with std stuff, no point changing the manifold without the corresponding cams...so put them altogether and you should have a nice overall jump in performance.

Of all the guys who have done the upgrade, if they miss one of these points, they are not very happy, to those who have done all three then some, they come away very happy having done the manifold swap. Especially those with manuals, which makes the cold data less significant as no one knows how you drive, except you.

Some like hitting the limiter on a regular basis, some never have, some never will.

[jom 98]

Some like hitting the limiter on a regular basis, some never have, some never will.

With an auto I don't get a choice with the rev limiter. It changes gear when the electronics tell it to.

And - the reason I stick with an auto (and a 328 for that matter) is the 1 hour crawl into Wellington. Otherwise it would be an M3. Different strokes....

[thorburn 121]

How does adding the m54b30 rotating assembly lower the compression? As far as I can remember block heights are the same and heads volume is about the same

[MoJoJoe 46]

I have added the manifold today. but turns out my CCV to VANOS plastic pipe didn't fit properly and also developed a leak, so I repalced it with a PVC pipe I and reused the plastic barbs. it was a very tight fit and added clamps to be sure

After all said and done it feels much better and everything clicked into place, yes I added some engine oil to the o rings before connecting it. So has this been done before? I mean I dont see why it wouldn't work, I think it was plastic due to "looks" mainly? Is it bad I used a PVC heater core pipe instead of the BMW OEM plastic one or am I heading for any issues?

Llooking forward to hear some reassuring opinions

this is the hose I am talking about. (picture off the internet to show the pipe)

Edited May 11, 2014 by MoJoJoe

[jom 98]

The Turner kit provides a length of 15mm copper tube and some heat shrink to lengthen the plastic one. Cut the plastic pipe in half, insert the copper tube and then heat shrink over the joint. Seems to work fine. Needs to be about 30mm longer, from memory...

[jom 98]

While you're doing this mod it's a good idea to give the ICV a good clean out. Lots of carb cleaner to get all the black soot out, until it rotates at the slightest breeze...

[MoJoJoe 46]

Thanks Jo, I did just that. Have really taken my time and results were great, flawless.

Finished the manifold and took the car for a drive, the install was really simple once I figured the hoses and stuff out, putting it in the car was the hard part. I took my time and was doing some other work and took me a few days, was hesitant to fire up but then came to life, no vac leaks or anything. I used the m50 manifold kit from m50manifold dot com. (its called the eric kit). the guy himself was very helpful to reply to my questions and emails. its not as flashy as the eurosport kit but its really good and enough for the job.

M3AN's code reader got NO faults after a total 1.5hrs/Around 50Km of twist's and turns, some sprinted driving and some regular just enjoying the scene drove it around mountains, the beach and the city. Overall the m50 on my JATCO auto,is not bad at all, the grunt is there, I guess there is some torque loss between 2.5 - 3.5k but honestly I couldnt tell if there is a torque loss as its almost the same and the car does pulls a LOT harder even under 4K. Alex also said similar things(also JATCO auto). Plan on going to the motor way and trying it out, have some work to do on my wheels anyway so there it is.