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**bimmer630** · 08-10-2009, 02:12 PM

tornado haha

**NeoMishMoo** · 08-11-2009, 08:00 AM

What good does removing the hood heat shield do? Seems like a lot of these "tweaks" are just weight reduction, and if thats the case then why stop at the engine bay?

**kamotors** · 08-11-2009, 10:19 AM

making holes in the air box would just make it suck in hot air...

**ThreeTwentyFissel** · 08-11-2009, 12:05 PM

Headers, full exhaust system, lighter pullys/cam upgrade, lighter wheels...

**iwantspeed** · 08-11-2009, 12:10 PM

Originally posted by bimmer630 View Post

tornado haha

no

Originally posted by NeoMishMoo View Post

What good does removing the hood heat shield do? Seems like a lot of these "tweaks" are just weight reduction, and if thats the case then why stop at the engine bay?

sort of.
removing things like ac and power steering will remove parasitic drag on the engine.
and you can argue putting in lighter oil will also remove some parasitic drag because the engine componets can move a little bit more free with out as much resistance.

Originally posted by kamotors View Post

making holes in the air box would just make it suck in hot air...

YES it will just suck hot air. some people do it just for the sound it makes.
I just tried to think of some of the things I have read in the past and go post them here to see if I could learn some new tweaks.

**CorvallisBMW** · 08-11-2009, 12:31 PM

Originally posted by iwantspeed View Post

cheese hole mod for the bottom of the air box
removing the Baffle in the top part of the air box
removing cruise control
removing the windshield wiper fluid container and all lines for it.
synthetic oil or 20w50 motor oil
318 radiator with external radiator on the side.

No on all of these.

None of them will do anything to make your car faster or more powerful. In fact some of them, such as removing the baffle, will make less power.

There is no such thing as 'ram air' when you have an AFM, the flap makes sure of that.

That charcoal canister actually feeds gasoline vapor in to your TB, nothing wrong with that. More fuel.

cruise control and washer stuff adds 5-10 pounds, maybe. Leave it in, you'll appreciate it when your windshield is dirty and you can't see shit.

You should be running anywhere from 10w40 to 20w50 oil anyways.

M20s should only use NKG or Bosch copper plugs, none of that platinum shit.

A 318 radiator won't do shit. It's a radiator, not a flux capacitor.

**nando** · 08-11-2009, 12:54 PM

Originally posted by iwantspeed View Post

Yes everyone knows you cant get much out of the m20 with out a turbo and lots of $$$.

This thread is about little tweaks you can do for small gains.
If you have anything you would like to add go for it.

Removing the high beam
Ram Air.
removing the Baffle in the top part of the air box
M30 Afm
Removing the charcoal canister line that goes into the throttle body and add a remote filter
Removing the throttle body heater.
Big bore throttle body
Different spark plugs
thicker spark plug wires
msd coil

none of these mods are going to gain you anything

the high beam delete does reduce intake temps. It does NOT produce a ram-air effect.

removing the intake muffler makes no measureable difference (I tried). it may actually cause more intake turbulence and reduce flow.

M30 AFM is the biggest hack job mod you can do to the M20. It's not meant for the motor, the ECU isn't programmed for it and you're basically playing russian roulette with your AFR.

removing the charcol canister isn't going to gain you any performance. it's only going to reduce your fuel economy.

removing the throttle body heater isn't going to change intake temp significantly and leaves you open to icing on your throttle plate even at "warm" temps (I don't know how many times I have to mention that).

a big bore TB on a stock motor is only going to make your part throttle jumpy and the difference between 90% and 100% will be nill. I tested with an open throttle and I was only seeing 2% vacuum on a highly modified M20. you aren't maxing it out with a stock one.

different spark plugs aren't going to make any difference. You can put all kinds of fancy crap in there but at the end of the day pain old Bosch or NGK copper core plugs are best.

same with wires. stock ones are very high quality and more than up to the task of running a healthy M20. More than likely "upgraded" wires are going to be of poorer quality and cause more issues than they solve (bavauto wires anyone?).

a coil is definitely not an upgrade. You will measure zero HP gain from a bigger coil on a stock motor. The ECU is programmed for the dwell time of the stock coil, so even if the new coil is much better it's still going to behave like stock. You don't need a bigger coil until you are running 300hp and start experiencing spark blowout.

the rest is mostly weight loss and not really related directly to the M20.

The best thing you can do is replace all the maintenance parts, make sure all sensors are clean and functioning, put a chip in it and learn how to drive.

a cam, quality headers (not ebay junk), and maybe the new miller kit can make a difference. But they cost money too.

**nando** · 08-11-2009, 01:03 PM

shit, I totally hosed your post. lol just a sec

there, hope I got it close. lol

**CorvallisBMW** · 08-11-2009, 01:27 PM

Originally posted by nando View Post

same with wires. stock ones are very high quality and more than up to the task of running a healthy M20. More than likely "upgraded" wires are going to be of poorer quality and cause more issues than they solve (bavauto wires anyone?).

Just out of curiosity, what's your experience with the bavauto wires? something wrong with them?

**Aptyp** · 08-11-2009, 01:29 PM

m50 rods, they are 50 grams lighter each...
m50 crank, it's 4 pounds lighter

stock m20 tuned at Korman, without many of little tweaks you've noted, dynoed at 203hp at the flywheel. That's right, stock. Just porting, polishing and balancing al internals awakes a lot of lost power. Adding cams, higher compression, and lightening a lot of internals, and m20 is a very respectable engine still. A lot of people shy away from doing major m20 rebuild and simply swap in m50s. There is a lot of power still trapped in your baby six, and most of it is trapped in the bottom end.

Stock wires have built in resistors, BavAuto doesn't.

**nando** · 08-11-2009, 01:33 PM

Originally posted by Aptyp View Post

Stock wires have built in resistors, BavAuto doesn't.

that's not it at all. They are just shit quality. I had one end come apart on me when I was putting them in. Later pulling them out (properly by the boots, not the wires) I had two of the ends break off. I ended up cutting them up and putting my own ends on for my wasted spark conversion.

Another guy had severe arcing issues with his, out of the box. And seeing how the only real upgrade is appearance, you're just throwing money away anyway.

I have a really hard time believing 203bhp on a stock motor, but whatever. There is definitely power trapped in an M20, you just won't find it without opening it up. :)

**Wh33lhop** · 08-11-2009, 01:48 PM

Originally posted by Aptyp View Post

m50 rods, they are 50 grams lighter each...
m50 crank, it's 4 pounds lighter

stock m20 tuned at Korman, without many of little tweaks you've noted, dynoed at 203hp at the flywheel. That's right, stock. Just porting, polishing and balancing al internals awakes a lot of lost power. Adding cams, higher compression, and lightening a lot of internals, and m20 is a very respectable engine still. A lot of people shy away from doing major m20 rebuild and simply swap in m50s. There is a lot of power still trapped in your baby six, and most of it is trapped in the bottom end.

Stock wires have built in resistors, BavAuto doesn't.

Um... define "stock."

**NeoMishMoo** · 08-11-2009, 01:49 PM

No one commented on the Air conditioner stealing some power. I heard this before but don't know whether to believe it or not. If anyone asks me, I give them this excuse for why I don't have ac and why my car is a sweatfest in the summer traffic, but the real reason is that I busted up all my lines when my bimmer kissed a tree and I'm too cheap to fix it. So instead I went ahead and removed the A/C for "increased performance" not sure if I belive it but it sounds better than "i'm cheap and want my passengers to sweat."

So bavauto wires really suck? Damn I was about to put some on off my totaled car (see pic under name).

Poor thread starter, he is getting ripped pretty hard here. Anyone have any performance tweaks to offer? I think that was this threads original intent.

I think the high beam removal would work well to increase air flow, but it should only be done if you have a conical high flow air filter.

**Wh33lhop** · 08-11-2009, 01:54 PM

Originally posted by NeoMishMoo View Post

No one commented on the Air conditioner stealing some power. I heard this before but don't know whether to believe it or not. If anyone asks me, I give them this excuse for why I don't have ac and why my car is a sweatfest in the summer traffic, but the real reason is that I busted up all my lines when my bimmer kissed a tree and I'm too cheap to fix it. So instead I went ahead and removed the A/C for "increased performance" not sure if I belive it but it sounds better than "i'm cheap and want my passengers to sweat."

So bavauto wires really suck? Damn I was about to put some on off my totaled car (see pic under name).

Poor thread starter, he is getting ripped pretty hard here. Anyone have any performance tweaks to offer? I think that was this threads original intent.

I think the high beam removal would work well to increase air flow, but it should only be done if you have a conical high flow air filter.

The AC is not being driven when it's not activated, so really all you're doing by removing it is saving weight.

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