installed: M50 intake manifold on M52

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Skipper5

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well guys after a long 8 hours of install time i finally finished this fun little install. for those who don't know the 528 is equipped with the newer M52 motor which succeeded the M50 motor after 1995. the M50 intake manifold has larger intake runners than the M52, thus you get more air into the cylinders for a bigger bang :) the mod is good for some decent power in the high rpm range. my pretty silver lady pulls a little harder now; and for only $100 in parts!

things had to be "engineered" to fit but the finished product is fun for all ages. [clap]
 
tool fan

tool fan

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So you seem to be very well versed in the realm of BMW upgrades....mainly engine. Any ideas for the 2004 530i? I haven't found anything yet.
 
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tool fan said:
So you seem to be very well versed in the realm of BMW upgrades....mainly engine. Any ideas for the 2004 530i? I haven't found anything yet.
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well the M54 is a much newer engine than mine and isn't shared with the big tuning crowd. my motor is very similar to th e36 m3 motor so i can use a lot of their upgrades and tricks. i honestly haven't looked into the 530 for mods. i do know of one guy who supercharged his for some big power. i'll look around and see if i can find some things for you.

edit: i found some info...best bet is an ESS supercharger if you're willing to go that far. Autothority makes a chip for the car that yields a few horses here and there. also Dinan has exhaust, cold air intake, throttle bodies available. not sure about performance gains. you can look at their website yourself. you can contact eurospeedperformance.com about custom work they can do for you too. have fun!

-Jensen
 
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Skipper5

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Abdoman said:
Can you list the part you need - how hard is the work? I'm pretty good at mechanical work. I would love to add a little more power!
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heres the skinny: the big thing you need, obviously, is an M50 intake manifold. you can find them at junkyards, ebay, classified, etc. i got mine off of the turnermotorsports classifieds. a good price is $125 up to $150. i miraculously found one for $100 including shipping :)

you need to have some random plumbing and elbows and things. a few custom brackets and a few pita connections. i even used a dremel to cut a hole in the M50 manifold. everyone seems to do the install a bit different. here are links to two install pages:

http://www.midnightautowerks.com/Installs/95intake/install.html

http://www.team-bar.com/main.htm click shadetree diy, then click M50 manifold install at the bottom.

the 528 engine bay is a little different than the M3 in the pictures. i will tell you the cabin filter snorkel barely fits back in. and you have to make a new bracket for the ATF resevoir. there are lots of tricks to the install. if you decide to do it i can give you detailed info about what i did. it took me probably 6 hours of work total.

the gains are felt around 5k and above. the car takes off much better from there and pulls to redline at 6500. there is a minor loss of midrange torque, but with software this is drastically reduced and top end horsepower is increased greatly. with software from eurospeedperformance.com they made 40 whp! and i think it was 20 whp without the software.

any questions?
 
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