E46 M3 performance upgrade

[P Smit]

Hannop forgot to say that the kids were running to call their parents to come and check out the nice M3, and the people were crying of pure joy and delight to hear such phenomenal six-cylinder sound!!!:joy::rollsmile:

I have ordered my new shochs for the M3, Koni Sport!! will hopefully receive them before the weekend.

Oh yes, I do have befor and after performance specs, will post them and the dyno graph after I have discussed it with the so-called performance boffins who charged me an arm and a leg for the previous "performance" sysytem!:fencelook:

I am trying to upload the link of the M3's 1st and 2nd gear acceleration videoclip. Will be on soon

 

[Legacy]

I installed a set of Koni Sport shocks in my Touring two weeks ago. You will not be disappointed that is for sure! :thumbs:

 

[moranor@axis]

thanks for the business Philip if you unsure of what stiffness you want yo use

I would set the rears at half way then use the fronts to balance the car how you would like it...

stiffer at the front will make more understeer and softer will give you more grip at the front...

too soft and you will feel some bounciness because the shocks are not controlling the springs properly...

PS i was being rather polite about the previous exhaust... its quite disgusting I would not even fit that to a corolla... if you can get some money back on it i would...

 

[///Shaun]

The pipe has a balance-pipe, in other words the two pipes do not cross-over, rather a balance pipe installed perpendicular between the two parallel pipes, just after the secondaries. Will post pics thereof later.

Thats old school and found on E36s etc . XPIPE is the one to go for.
No offense intended , just saying as we do this all the time and found XPIPE to be more effective. This is just my opinion especially on a E46M

Heres an example
http://www.xcedeperformance.co.za/2012/04/e46-m3-chip-exhaust-gains-30kw-30nm/

 

[P Smit]

Here is a videoclip of the accelleration sound of my M3, my son Tertius(16) is the driver!!

 

[moranor@axis]

sounds great

 

[Crash_Nemesis]

oooh. sounds sexy... almost CSL like.

 

[kabal]

sounds awesome.

he should have kept flooring it so we could here the drive by raise:

 

[P Smit]

I will go out again and let ouboet floor it through the gears when going past me, for a better sound recording

 

[Xack]

I will go out again and let ouboet floor it through the gears when going past me, for a better sound recording

Eve betta, get the wifes car and drive behind him, so we get t o hear the pitch in each gear??

Sounds Nastyraise:

 

[P Smit]

It is holiday and I have time ti write! Last December I joined Fanatics and really had a good time on the Forum.

My last posts in this thread were about my new exhaust system. I Replaced a Rob Green M/Sport "performance exhaust" with an exh, built by, guess who?.....the De GRaaf factory in Pta.

They had the M3 for a whole day and built it from scratch from behind the manifold to the rear tips. The RGM exhaust cost me flippen R14,5k and I am convinced that it would not make more power than a stock exhaust, the stock exhaust with an ACS silencer sounded better than the RGM exhaust.

The big improvement from RGM was the coldair induction kit.

The Steve Green also ensured me that the necessary mods will be done so that the removal of the cats would not cause a problem, thát also proved to be an empty promise as the M3 was left with a glitch at 2200rpm which he was no very enthusiastic about sorting it out.

The DE Graaf system sounds great, makes up to 15wkw more power than the RGM system and the finishing of the new exh, lets the RGM system look as if it was designed and built by a backyard exhaust mechanic. It is a pity, as I really thought that I would get good honest service from RGM.

To slap on a S-charger is one thing, but to extract extra Kw's from a highly strung NA engine, is definately a different story

 

[moranor@axis]

that was an RGM exhaust :fencelook:

SC will be the easiest way to make more power from the M by far and you will keep your throttle response :rollsmile:

you have had the Koni for a while now how do you like them?

 

[P Smit]

Moranor, I also could not believe my eyes the first time I had the M3 on a lift. The so-called cross-over joint and rear silencers showed clear signs of abnormal high heat build-up. The silencers had "expansion boxes" which is extremely resrictive. I specifically asked that NO such silencers should be uti lised!! Total rubbish.

:flyfun:

The Koni's are excellent, absolutely fantastic. I have the seings on 3/4 back and front. Still good for normal road use, as I start to push hard, the shock respond perfectly. I cannot wait to get onto the track at Zwartkops. Especialy now that I have fited my new Powerbrake front disks and pads. I stuck with standard diameter GT-series discs and Endless Gt-4 pads.(Rears still stock).

The brakes are still being run-in, but already show signs of great progressive braking ability. I am looking forward to report back further on the brakes's performance

:thumbs:

 

[moranor@axis]

cant wait for your track report

good luck with the exhaust issue...

 

[Andy1GP]

Glad you finally have a proper exhaust system fitted. Would love to see the car in the flesh.

You must try come through and hook up at one of our events one day. Always keen to see another S54 motor
Well done on the mods so far :thumbs:

 

[Chavoos]

This sounds like one awesome M3 from the snippets I read. :thumbs:
I couldn't manage to read all 6 pages of posts due to time contraints.
Would you please share the following info:

1. What is the wkw that your car is pushing?
2. Have you tested the quarter mile time? Where , what times?
3. Has the car been on any track? and time on track.

I apologise if any of these questions have been covered in posts that I missed.

 

[P Smit]

Hi there Chavoos, wkw now at 200, on a Dastek dyno. I measured 1/4 mile Polokwane wih an FX2 accelerometer before the new exhaust system was fitted @ 13,5sec on a level section of road. I mus still get to the track, I decided that I will first get all the basic mods done so that I can kick butt properly, especially at Zwartkops. I still need to fit the shorter ratio diff as well, but time ran out this year. It will be a 3,91 ratio, 10% shorter than stock.

I do have several "town stages" that I test and practice on though, even had the chance to take on a 2012 Porsche Turbo-S and E63 AMG! Ha ha, if you do not know your car and it's abilitiy and you are not used to real racing, your fast car will not catch mine through the corners and fast sweeps!!:inlove:

 

[P Smit]

Thanks Andy, I would love to see a Fanatics ONLY track day event in 2013! I will get myself a set of semi slicks just for that!

 

[Andy1GP]

I agree, I'd love to come with in your car :joy:

 

[Andy1GP]

Hi Phillip, I spoke with brett last night at the meet and he informed us that all our South african S54 motors have 11.3 compression ratio as apposed to 11.5 as stated. A mod they neglected to notify us about due to our poor fuel quality.

So I'm sure there are some special gaskets or head skimming that can be done to make up for the loss, alternatively you can get the correct spec pistons. But somehow I think it won't be worth the effort or money.

Just thought I'd share as it was quite disappointing to discover this info