Ah It Sucks Being Indecisive ....

[DDub88]

So I'm trying to do alil "window shopping" for some upgrades for when I return stateside. I've been on the fence since I bought the car on whether to stay N/A or go with F/I. I've priced some F/I kits and found a few ranging from 4k up to 8k and ask myself, well do i really want to spend that much on a kit and do I really need 400hp? (speeding tickets will follow) I guess the main question is what've some of you guys that stayed with N/A done to get some great gains?. I'm thinking I could get more efficient mods at a cheaper price than 4k. My buddy also ran the idea of doing an engine swap with an E46 M3,..... ugh its sucks having a scatterbrain

[jreyes19]

well ....

SC and TC will run you about 4-8k like you said

and a shop in NY i hear has been doing S54 swaps for about $6500 (if you were to do this yourself it would be an extreme amount of work)
http://forum.e46fanatics.com/showthread.php?t=176943&highlight=mite46+s54+swap

I would say Twin screw SC, i havent heard much on turbo charging the E46

and besides
Headers
Sharking
Exhaust
CAI

(which you would do all of these anyways with the SC or TC, minus the sharking)
there is not much more power to be had in these cars without Forced Induction

[DDub88]

well ....

SC and TC will run you about 4-8k like you said

and a shop in NY i hear has been doing S54 swaps for about $6500 (if you were to do this yourself it would be an extreme amount of work)
http://forum.e46fanatics.com/showthread.php?t=176943&highlight=mite46+s54+swap

I would say Twin screw SC, i havent heard much on turbo charging the E46

and besides
Headers
Sharking
Exhaust
CAI

(which you would do all of these anyways with the SC or TC, minus the sharking)
there is not much more power to be had in these cars without Forced Induction

Is that $6500 parts AND labor? I'm originally from NY so I may venture back that way. I've also heard it may be better and possibly cheaper to go with the SC route.
Its funny how your last post put your post count right at 330 haha

[Hermes]

There are both SC and TC members here, but only one turbo that I can think of and he did it custom. Perhaps they can comment towards this.

My real question is what do you plan to do with the car? I would honestly recommend a full suspension upgrade over a F/I kit paired up with intake, high flow throttle body, headers, exhaust and ECU remap. That will give you adequate power with tons of handling making your car even more fun to drive than it already is. I know of people with suspension modified only ZHP's that can put up better autocross/track times than stock M3's. Hell, the best time at the last autocross I was at belonged to a stock Z3 M Roadster with suspension upgrades and non-DOT tires as the only mods.

As for your comment of not much more left in the M54, yeah that's true, but you could always just overbore and have a 3.2L M54. Just thinking out loud...

[az3579]

Is that $6500 parts AND labor? I'm originally from NY so I may venture back that way. I've also heard it may be better and possibly cheaper to go with the SC route.
Its funny how your last post put your post count right at 330 haha

If that's parts AND labor, I have to do this. I seriously doubt that includes parts though. My E30 swap ran me around 7k after all was said and done, and an S50 swap is much cheaper.


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[zhp43867]

Well I mean being indecisive is sometimes a bad thing but I dunno maybe not.

[M0nk3y]

This is me, so take it with a grain of salt.

You should probably get to some HPDE or autocross events and re-evaluate whether you really need more power or not. When I had my E46 325xi, it was plenty of power to have fun. It was time to move on, so of course I bought a higher HP car. I never had any ambition to increase the power on my old, or new car.

[Crickett]

+1 to really pushing your car as-is to see where you feel you need work; my last car wasn't powerful, but I found that rather than modding for more power, some moderate suspension work made it night-&-day better & more fun to drive! But here's some info I found for your power needs:

Here's a $6,400 turbo kit that's sparked my interest: http://www.techniquetuning.com/e46zhpman.html

As for NA, see mimalto's intel (from an E46F post) here: http://www.zhpmafia.com/forums/showthread.php?106-Up-the-BMW-330-ZHP-performance...&p=1178#post1178

I've personally been using that as guidance for where to go with my ZHP.

[jreyes19]

If that's parts AND labor, I have to do this. I seriously doubt that includes parts though. My E30 swap ran me around 7k after all was said and done, and an S50 swap is much cheaper.


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Is that $6500 parts AND labor? I'm originally from NY so I may venture back that way. I've also heard it may be better and possibly cheaper to go with the SC route.
Its funny how your last post put your post count right at 330 haha


Yes, it is parts and labor for $6500

Impressive Auto Center in New York
http://forum.e46fanatics.com/showthread.php?t=849828

also I hear Motorcepts in NY does good swaps idk about price though

330 posts awwwwwwww yeeeeahhhh I didnt even notice that LOL :)