Porting the intake manifold on a 318ti M44 engine

[Zq-8_dawg]

I have a 98 318ti, and am considering porting and polishing the intake manifold. Has anyone ported the intake manifold and are the gains worth the time and money spent.

Also does anyone make a header for the M44 1.9L engine?

[ylunch]

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[Autotechnica]

Waste of money. The restriction is in the intake ports, not the intake manifold itself. I've "read" that the inside of the M44 intake manifolds are made of thermoplastic which cannot be modified (not 100% sure). They are already very smooth flowing so there's really no need for any modifications. Your best bet is to find an early model E30 M42 intake manifold which is cast aluminum (I think) but definitely not thermoplastic. The E30 M42 manifold is a lot more higher flowing, that's why the E30 M42 has a much wider powerband and higher rev limit.

Bry

[Zq-8_dawg]

what year of E30 m42 intake manifold would I be looking for, and would the manifold fit on the m44 engine or would it have to be modified?

[Autotechnica]

Originally posted by Zq-8_dawg@Jul 9 2004, 01:20 AM
what year of E30 m42 intake manifold would I be looking for, and would the manifold fit on the m44 engine or would it have to be modified?

Any year E30 318 which has the M42 and not the M10. The manifold will fit, but you will possibly need to modify the way it sits in the engine bay. I have a friend who has done this. However, when he first tried to install it, the manifold sat a little too high and he couldn't close the hood. He just modified the mounts and made it sit lower.

Try Genie or Supersprint for exhaust manifolds. If you're looking for high end power, get the 4-1 style opposed to 4-2-1. I should also mentioned that the M42/M44 already has SS exhaust manifolds which flow quite well. The rest of the 3 series have ceramic.

Bry