That M50 manifold on a 328 again...

I toyed with the mod while I had the 328i...


What car do you have now, I thought you still had the 328.

My mate has a garage and gets the odd damaged car in and says hes got a 92 325, so i might be having a look-see at the big black ribbed bit!!

I am soon to be getting the BBTB and manifold kit for my 328i Saloon.

Will post results when I can

Dan

And I've already got it fitted now!

Dunk, have you got an M52TU hiding in that 'bay of yours? has the rounded off rocker cover over the vanos unit...

sleeper wrote: hi dave! what are your feelings about the kit? before/afters

I didn't get the kit from Ian (Alpina 527) as I came across a manifold from a knacked J reg 325, so I changed it myself. So on the induction side I have M50 manifold and cone filter. I don't have the big bore throttle bodies yet (would like to know what benefits these have as a single upgrade, rather than with the manifold/air filter etc).

MG Rover released a bigger bore TB (same ratio increase as Ian's TBs) and I bought one for the MGF, although it made quite a difference to response esp. at lower revs, it didn't do much at higher revs. Maybe thats the characteristic of that combination, so would like to know what difference it makes on the 328 as the bore size is the same as the 325.

Before M50;

The revs tailled of after 5,000rpm so there wasn't much point in revving it further. I fitted a sports cone filter and this had a slight improvement. It created a nice bark over 5,000rpm.

After M50;

at first I didn't notice a big difference, possibly a smoother better power curve up the revs. But then after a day or 2 it started to get faster, possibly the ECU tuning itself to the different airflow. Now it will go straight passed 5,000rpm and will go over 6,000rpm and sometimes esp. on the track, it hit the rev limiter at about 6,500rpm. Also it was more lively mid range. The induction noise also changed at about the same revs as the old manifold started to restrict (4,500rpm), so from here it pulls notibly better!!! It now gives a nice 6cyl. induction worble at 4,500rpm where as before it just did a bark at about 5,200+rpm, then you had to change gear as it ran out of puff.

I would like to see what power it has on the RR as before the M50 manifold, I got about 200bhp. I am also considering the bigger bore TBs.

Does yours have traction? Not sure if this would cause a slight dissruption in flow as the air has to go thru 2 TBs. The non-traction induction does look simpler than with traction.

sleeper wrote: I don't have traction on mine, thank god! I did have on a previous BM and although it saved my wallet once it was pretty crude in the way it intervened. If you've got it you'll know what i mean!

Yeah, I turn it off sometimes to get a better acceleration as it can really impead the performance by being a bit slow on reaction.

sleeper wrote: I had a long chat with ian the other night about said manifolds. Its interesting that you say its from a j plate 325, It must have been a 24 valver, but was it the vanos unit? probably not on a J. The reason I mention is that if you have six fins countable before the TB on the intake side of the chamber you are slightly disadvantaged (i don't know why yet but will investigate). These manifolds were also fitted to the early 525i's with the M50 lump. How many fins do you have? Having seen how much machining work ian does to get everything to fit i would be interested to know how much grief yours was to fit?

Hmm, I'll have to count them and get back to you. Do you know what the difference is, as the branch bore is a fair bit bigger, which I thought was the restriction. I was considering Ian's kit, but I got this manifold and decided to give it a go. There were alot of brackets, pipes etc to modify and make, and did have 2nd thoughts about doing it myself, but it worked out in the end, albeit with more hours in labour!! So it wasn't a straight fit, but easy to understand what needs doing, thats why when ppl have asked me about fitting, I've told them it is a fair bit of work and to contact Ian.

sleeper wrote: When you did yours did you remove the gauze from the mass meter? I am fitting on the weekend of 10/11-07 so I'll keep you posted as to the differences. Don't want much do i!?!

I haven't removed the gauze as some say it gives no benefit. The gauze in the AFM is of a bigger dia. than the TB so the area is bigger to pass thru the gauze. I'd look at it if some say it works tho.

I'd like to see what Ian does to the manifold so it fits straight away. I guess from when I compared them, is he has grafted the breather parts and black metal bracket to the bottom of the manifold as it is on the M52 manifold. This would be more or less 'plug and play'. The only modding then would be the fuel rail.

So do you live close to Ian?

Edited by dave 328

dave 328 wrote: So do you live close to Ian?

Not far, about an hour driving all sensible like, much less otherwise...!!

Ian mentioned the fin thing, and you have the tip top manifold, phew! When I have the kit fitted and the ECU has settled I am going on the rollers again. Last time I had it done at bridgewater, are you in the home counties (surrey/sussex/kent) area?

I'm up in sunny Manchester, Well as far east as you can go, as I'm on the foot of the Peak district.

Yeah, let me know on the fin thing - v. interested to know what the difference is.

I'd be interested on your RR figure aswell to see what the difference is. What was your previous figure and was your car std?

If you could try the manifold first then the TBs (if you're getting them) and let me know what the difference is with the TBs added after - If you do it all at once, it doesn't matter. Do you have a sports airfilter?



Edited by dave 328

Is that figure at the flywheel? I got 164bhp at the wheels, so about 200bhp @ flywheel - with just a sports cone air filter.

What does the zorst sound like, Mine is std with the valve thingy disconnected for a bit more low down noise.

Edited by dave 328

dave 328 wrote: Is that figure at the flywheel? I got 164bhp at the wheels, so about 200bhp @ flywheel - with just a sports cone air filter. What does the zorst sound like, Mine is std with the valve thingy disconnected for a bit more low down noise.

Yep, thats flywheel. She would be an animal with that at the wheels!

The zorst is unusual, but I have always had stainless before and cos they are so damn hard, they are generally louder (they don't flex as much hench reduced sound absorbtion). The supersprint is a combo of SS and MS so the piping is SS which gets hotter and the gases flow faster but the casing is MS and keeps the noise down.

Really  deep burbly noise especially when hot. best performing zorst I've had so far.

The note changed when I fitted the M50 as well... got a lot deeper.