Upgrade Time!!!

[Wonderboy]

Hell Yeah! Whats first? I have a 98 M3 Sedan. 59,214 miles. Everything is stock except ultra light weight magnesium front strut tower brace. Thats it. Thoughts, Ideas, Cost, Places for purchase?! You know all the good stuff. The car could be faster but not forced induction faster. At least not yet. But definately want the car faster, tighter suspension, better sound (engine), Oh and really like the HID and Angel eyes. Tell me what you think...
Thanks Much!

[dementievafan]

haha lucky you

[drz]

WHat is the budget we are looking at?

What do you want to do with the car? Track it?

Some popular mods:

Intake, Exhaust, short shifter, lightweight flywheel, bilstein shocks + H&R springs, s50 intake manifold, highflow airflow sensor box, stainless steel brake lines, clutch stop, injectors, and bimmerwerkz.com decals . Plan your mods with the big picture in mind, since it is better to upgrade your software once your mods are all on the car.

I am sure I am forgetting some stuff.

Tell us your budget and what is interesting to you. Also brwose this section and the FAQs to find good sites to purchase all thi stuff.

Good luck

- Daniel

[RexKing86]

drz covered most of the basics besides forced induction... get depo hedlamps with angel eyes. I plan to get mine in a month or so. bavauto.com, umnitza, jlevi all have them

[Wonderboy]

just went on a club drive... definately want more GO!!! ive got about $4500 to work with. No chincy shit though. Really want some good stuff!?

[Teh Prof]

Speed costs money. How much do you want to spend?

[mmclaren]

Originally Posted by Wonderboy

just went on a club drive... definately want more GO!!! ive got about $4500 to work with. No chincy shit though. Really want some good stuff!?

thats how Much he wants to Spend :P

Anyway for that price you could almost think of a forced induction kit

[nukeduster]

i'd wait and save up that little bit more for forced induction. it'll be worth the wait.

[saltshaker185]

if speeds you want then bmws not the BEST place to look... but they are prety fast...but yeah if all yo want is speed then save up a few more thousand and go with a good ol' aa kit... itll be worth the time and money...

[SOLO5977]

Lets be realistic about what you mods are.
the usual mods people put on intake, exaust, short shifter, strut tower braces, even chips do very little for usable power increases!!! I have all of the above so I am talking from a position of experience. Those types of mods usualy make your car louder and add a slightly crisper throttle response in the high RPM's. MODS that make a real difference on the street:

1) TIRES !!!!!!! rims are good from bmw but better tires are huge
2) Shocks (NOT JUST SPRINGS!!!!!!) Make a huge difference, springs when done in moderation help but its all about the shocks. think about how well stock BMW's perform with out a bone jarring ride. SHOCKS! Bilstein HD the blue and yellows. Most lowering springs are WAY TOO STIFF and you actuly hurt the performance of the car! Consider this, if the suspention wont give enough toabsorb the energy from hitting bumps then you actualy will lose traction, because the car wont stay in the ground. SEE WWW.DINANBMW.COM

3) Sway bars also make a realworld difference on real roads, not only n the track and at high rpm's. In fact e36 BMW's have kinda crappy sway bars from the factory and particulary after 60k on them.

4) REAR strut tower brace and suspention bushings again the front is not as floppy as the rear of the car and the rear brace makes a real difference. Buschings and motor and trans mounts are important, sudden shfts of weight in a car because of worn mounts make it imppossible to have perdictable handeling .

5) Engine work : remember intake does nothing but make the car loud, the stock intake can handel the horse power you have and bolt on items like exaust, don't warrent more flow into the engine. Again real performance is gained by making real mods. CAMS are huge, you can spend the same $ as a stainless steel exaust (+ install) and get another 35hp legit. vs 5 with an exaust and intake that you cant feel unless you are really driving at the edge. MOST PEOPLE say they feel a dierence but have no idea what the hell they are talking aobut most cars lose performance from shitty bolt on mods. All the exaust does is make the car sound faster, so according to most of the idiots that put them on it is faster. its kind of like the idiots who put huge wings on the rear of a toyota carolla its a wing si it makes the car perform better, not realizing is all they did is create more drag.

6) Forced induction is the deal but expensive!!!!! TURBO OR SUPER CHARGING

7) Flywheel is anther way to allow the power you have to come out and shine, car revs better.

hope this rant helps a bit, realize that I am on my 8th moded car ranging from americal muscle to bmw's dont fall in to the "bolt on " trap make carful mods and you will love the results.

[RexKing86]

nice write-up

[Wonderboy]

thankyou very very much SOLO!!! Really that was awesomly informative. would you suggest turbo or supercharger. And what will i have to change if any as far as Internals???

[///M Power]

If you want to pump up the boost beyond 8 psi, you should get a thicker headgasket to drop compression.

[SOLO5977]

Wonder,

my pleasure, supercharger is easier essentially its just a big complicated bolt on. Turbo can give you huge gains but you might need to change internals based on the psi you want to run and the particular setup

[saltshaker185]

turbo also will save in the mpg vers. the supercharger because the turbo is not always on and you just use your engine like it would be normally until you push it then you may see a small drop... supercharger is going to always ,put more stress on your engine... my goal is to go with a turbo in the next couple years...