M50b25TU N/A vs Turbo??

[OldE30`]

Hey Guys,

So i'm tossing up between a little turbo build or leaving the engine N/A. I'm not sure what to do, as it's in a Series 1 E30. I'm not looking for some crazy power, but somewhere around the 200rwhp would be nice. I know i won't get that without a lot of work if i keep it n/a but would the money spent on a turbo setup be worth it to do over keeping it a fun n/a car?

Thanks for anyone's input

[pazi88]

Getting more hp from NA engine is not that hard as people think. It all starts having agressive enough cams that people just seem to forget.

But with NA you probaply get more reliable engine which has most of the power at top rpm. Turbo is generally not that reliable, bit with that you will get more area under the curve (if you don't mess up the build using wrong size turbo or using too low compression ratio), which makes the real world performance much better.

[OldE30`]

Getting more hp from NA engine is not that hard as people think. It all starts having agressive enough cams that people just seem to forget.

But with NA you probaply get more reliable engine which has most of the power at top rpm. Turbo is generally not that reliable, bit with that you will get more area under the curve (if you don't mess up the build using wrong size turbo or using too low compression ratio), which makes the real world performance much better.

Would you recommend using some decently aggressive enough cams and then doing it that way? Or just go with a turbo build?
Also the tuning side, would i need a new ecu if i went with an n/a build? I know if i go turbo i'll need some sort of new ecu/piggy back

Thanks mate

[pazi88]

Would you recommend using some decently aggressive enough cams and then doing it that way? Or just go with a turbo build?
Also the tuning side, would i need a new ecu if i went with an n/a build? I know if i go turbo i'll need some sort of new ecu/piggy back

Thanks mate

For example these or same specs from other manufacturer:

https://store.vacmotorsports.com/mobile/vac-performance-camshaft-set-286272-bmw-m50m52-s50uss52us-p1432.aspx

The stock bosch ecu can be tuned, but results I have seen have been really poor. One turbo setup was totally undriveable after some expert tuned it. That was later converted to ms41 from m52 and now runs like a champ using the m52 stock ecu tuned for turbo.

From budged aftermarket ecu's the megasquirt ms2 or ms3 are really good. There is now even PnP ms3pro available to your engine.

https://www.diyautotune.com/product/ms3pro-pnp-e36939-1993-1995-bmw-e36-m50-s50/