Adding HP, advice needed

[naika]

I have pretty much a stock engine and I use my car as a daily driver. I am not looking at making this car a racing machine but I wouldn't mind a few more horses without spending thousands and affecting too much my gas mileage.

I was thinking of installing 17.5 or 19lbs injectors, a chip and possibly more but I am not that knowlegeable when it comes to that and I know some of you do.

I have a CAI (K&N) and free flow exhaust, that's it, let me know what you think I could do to improve the performances without spending 3K....

ALso, might sounds stupid, but what is a Stroker? and Mega squirt? I've seen that many times, just don't know what it is. Sorry but there are no stupid questions, right?

Thanks,

[James Crivellone]

Stroker is basically adding additional displacment to the motor via different pistons, crankshafts, rods, etc (not all usually)

Megasquirt in an inexpensive aftermarket ECU that can either be a piggyback or standalone to run the motor.

If you want a decent peppy 325i I can recommend the following

MarkD Chip
The CAI is worthless
Stock exhaust flows fine
4.10LSD

Thats it for cheap, and even then you are spending around 300 - 500 bucks for the 4.10LS Differential, and 200 - 250 for the ECU Chip..

[kroberts]

"stroker" is a word used to describe an engine whose displacement has been changed (usually increased) by utilizing a different combination of crankshaft and connecting rods. When you increase or decrease the stroke (distance the piston travels) this changes the displacement (size) of the engine. The cool thing about this is that you end up with a few more cubic inches, or cc's, in a smaller package. A common stroker is a 2.7 liter M20. It began life as a 2.5. Admittedly two tenths of a liter isn't much, but every little bit helps. There's an old saying that says "there is no replacement for displacement." There's another old saying that says "how fast you want to go is directly proportional to how much money you want to spend." This is called the Cubic Dollar Principle.

One of the smarties will chime in and tell you about Megasquirt.

kr

[naika]

Stroker is basically adding additional displacment to the motor via different pistons, crankshafts, rods, etc (not all usually)

Megasquirt in an inexpensive aftermarket ECU that can either be a piggyback or standalone to run the motor.

If you want a decent peppy 325i I can recommend the following

MarkD Chip
The CAI is worthless
Stock exhaust flows fine
4.10LSD

Thats it for cheap, and even then you are spending around 300 - 500 bucks for the 4.10LS Differential, and 200 - 250 for the ECU Chip..

Thanks for the answer, would I need to use a specific type of gasoline if I install a chip?
Would different injectors make a difference or is it useless?
I already have an LSD on the car but not sure what ratio, it's a convertible and came with it.
I do a lot of highway miles, would the 4.10 lSD be suitable?
Thanks again

[NitroSpazzz]

Thanks for the answer, would I need to use a specific type of gasoline if I install a chip?
Would different injectors make a difference or is it useless?
I already have an LSD on the car but not sure what ratio, it's a convertible and came with it.
I do a lot of highway miles, would the 4.10 lSD be suitable?
Thanks again

Most chips will require 91+ octane
Don't bother with bigger injectors, better off just cleaning the ones in it

can't help with the LSD stuff

[P12od]

junkyard supercharger

800 bucks

[StereoInstaller1]

I have pretty much a stock engine and I use my car as a daily driver.

Hi there. Welcome to R3V.
From reading your post, you have a completely stock engine!

I am not looking at making this car a racing machine but I wouldn't mind a few more horses without spending thousands and affecting too much my gas mileage.

BMW did a hell of a job engineering these cars...good luck on that.

We all wanna go fast without spending money. It is the R3V way.

I was thinking of installing 17.5 or 19lbs injectors, a chip and possibly more but I am not that knowlegeable when it comes to that and I know some of you do.

Read everything you can for a year or so before you go messing with your car. 17.5lb injectors won't make a hill of beans difference...maybe more like a decent fart...unless yours are dirty.

I have a CAI (K&N) and free flow exhaust, that's it, let me know what you think I could do to improve the performances without spending 3K....

Your "CAI" probably lost you some horsepower. Most do. The stock airbox is amazingly good at what it does.

What is your "Free Flow" exhaust? Do you still have the stock cat on there? The guy down at Randys Mufflers just might not be as competent as the engineer who designed the stock system..

ALso, might sounds stupid, but what is a Stroker?

Increasing displacement via the length of "stroke".

and Mega squirt? I've seen that many times, just don't know what it is.

MS is an aftermarket engine management system, often built from a kit, allowing you to change virtually any parameter of the fuel or ignition mapping from a laptop.

Sorry but there are no stupid questions, right?

Thanks,

Bullshit. That is the "feel good" crap that is making our kids stupid but with good self esteem. There are millions and millions of stupid questions...hell, you barely missed a few yourself!

If you want your car to go faster, give up now. Buy a different car.

If you persist, here is a cheap faster than stock plan: Build a MS box, install it and learn to tune it. You can do this for under $500 (excluding laptop)

Find a 1988 SETA motor. Refresh it, but don't bother rebuilding it. M20s tend to last forever anyway...Add fresh new valve springs and a decent cam. Drop it in your car, along with a fresh clutch. Careful work here should put about 170HP on the ground, more than enough to feel good about.

GL!
Luke

[God]

I have pretty much a stock engine and I use my car as a daily driver. I am not looking at making this car a racing machine but I wouldn't mind a few more horses without spending thousands and affecting too much my gas mileage.

Installing bigger injectors alone will not do anything more than make your mileage suffer. You will need a chip or ECU reprogramming which will simply stop too much fuel from going in and let more air come in. You will only get better throttle response and your stock injectors are not running at their full potential now either.

ECU chips are for two things, for either or both together, but they cannot do anything more than those. First, they are remapped to match a camshaft modification or any other modification which will affect the air/fuel ratio to make the car run properly. Second, they are remapped to aggressive advance timings to make the engine utilize higher octane fuel to output slightly more power and makes it more responsive. They cannot create HP out of thin air.

It all depends on how much you are willing to spend and what you expect it to do. For example, lowering the cylinder head somewhat like 0.5mm and cleaning the valves and ports and polishing them will increase the engine compression, which means more torque without the need of ECU reprogramming and a basically refreshed cylinder head (polished, new gaskets etc). You won't have any problems like this neither you will need to use higher octane gas than what is recommended by BMW over there (we have different octane ratings over here, only 95 and 100, so I don't know what you people use) but a bad gasoline (i.e. lower octane than what it says) may cause the engine to complain.

A shorter differential will pretty much increase torque and acceleration as well, but your highway mileage will surely degrade somewhat.

Things like the exhaust or free air flow filters will not help much. Matter of fact, you will hardly notice a difference with a full system exhaust, let alone with a single muffler. Given that your current exhaust is good as is and you don't have a plugged catalyst etc.

I can keep going all day long, so its better to let us know how much you are willing to spend, what is your desirable result and how much you want to 'touch' your engine (some people don't like removing their cylinder heads for instance).


Honestly, I'd leave it alone too! You cannot squeeze much out of this engine and you will have to spend a lot of money for mods that will offer little compared to the money you'll pay.

[atomic]

Most do not care for it but there is always the option of adding a Nitrous wet kit with a 50hp nozzle..... but if this route is used do not over abuse it as the motor will not take tons of button pushing. I know a guy who has had 150 shot on his before and it would last but NOT FOR LONG !!!!! I personally do not use it and do not care to either

[DuMa]

basically what i have known for e30s are not quarter mile speed demons. it may be underpowered in today's standards but back then it was an engineering marvel in terms of chasis and suspension. any real money to get real power will have to result in an engine swap and/or forced induction. as the e30 gets older and cheaper, its become more and more viable to go this route.

on a side note, anyone know what gear ratio does my 85 eta have?

[naika]

Budget wise, I do not really have a figure set but I know I don't want to open the engine.
I think a chip sounds like a nice upgrade for the buck, is the MarkD the best to go for? Would the octane make a difference (91, 92 or 93) and should I go for one that requires bigger injectors or not?
The exhaust on the car is actually getting pretty annoying and I would love to replace with a factory (i bought the car like that) I think it is a stainless steel one but no brand.
The CAI was one of my noob mistakes, we all make them, right...

ANymore advice would be appreciated, thanks to all

[atomic]

injectors are not going to be needed unless you go with a turbo setup or even a stroker engine overhaul. So with bolt on mods there is no need to feed more fuel to the engine unless the engine is needing the extra fuel for major mods that was mentioned above....

[James Crivellone]

basically what i have known for e30s are not quarter mile speed demons. it may be underpowered in today's standards but back then it was an engineering marvel in terms of chasis and suspension. any real money to get real power will have to result in an engine swap and/or forced induction. as the e30 gets older and cheaper, its become more and more viable to go this route.

on a side note, anyone know what gear ratio does my 85 eta have?

2.79

[Jesse30]

it may be your daily driver, but if you start to modify it. you're not going to stop.

trust me, you'll spend way more than you expected to.

just buy the ebay turbo and get an ms system. then drop some cash for coilovers and some nice wheels and really good tires.

you'll have a very fun car.

[God]

Budget wise, I do not really have a figure set but I know I don't want to open the engine.
I think a chip sounds like a nice upgrade for the buck, is the MarkD the best to go for? Would the octane make a difference (91, 92 or 93) and should I go for one that requires bigger injectors or not?
The exhaust on the car is actually getting pretty annoying and I would love to replace with a factory (i bought the car like that) I think it is a stainless steel one but no brand.
The CAI was one of my noob mistakes, we all make them, right...

ANymore advice would be appreciated, thanks to all

Hmm if you don't want to touch the engine, you should not mess with the performance of the car at all.

The stock exhaust is fine. A chip will require better octane gas which means a constant higher running cost for your car or it will make no difference at all. Bigger injectors are not going to help, on the contrary they are going to hurt your engine because you'll be running extremely rich mixtures all of the time.


Sorry to disappoint you but I think you better spend the money on something you'll enjoy more, such as nice wheels, an audio system, a new interior or cosmetics, tinted windows, eating out, women.....well, you get the idea. Just enjoy the great car that you have as it is.