AeroGT3RedWing

No offense, but that's incorrect. I've had an E36 M3 for quite some time, and a good E46 friend of mine will attest to the fact that removing the resonators, will make it worse. I have an AA track pipe on my E36, and it rasps; this coming from a motor that traditionally does not do this. In the E46, the rasp is not from the exhaust system at all can cannot be resolved there - it comes from the engine itself. Valve components oscillating at their natural frequencies. All BMW engines rasp, but the E46 will do it even with resonators. You should hear it without them

Estorilblau

Yes, removing the resonators do nothing in itself. But the awful rasp which is heard in north america is not an inherentness of the motor itself. If you've ever heard a european s54 in person, or seen any of the topgear, 5th gear specials, you'll know that european journalists would s h$t if they heard what we deal with. I've dug up another s54 owners tutorial on swapping to euro cats and headers (he did it in 6 hours) http://bimmerforums.com/forum/showth...highlight=rasp The m-roadster is the same drivetrain with the S54. If you scroll down 3/4 of the first page, aside from some interesting reading, there is a clip after his conversion. That is what the motor should sound like, not far off an e36.
matt

Estorilblau

i must add...The exhaust rasp, which sounds like loose heat shields exclusive to north american s54 engines is caused by: the cats being located on the exhaust manifolds rather than further down on the pipe as in the rest of the world. It would seem that our EPA, lawyers etc., have deemed the euro exhaust unsuitable for the US and Canada. Therefore, to supposedly improve cold start emissions, the cat was moved closer to the engine. This is the sole cause of the raspy, falling-apart-engine sound inherent to the north american s54 engine and not heard on any other bmw 6 cylinder. Ironically, the north american cat system results in poorer cold starting, a flat spot in the low RPM torque curve (the euro cars have an additional 20 lb.ft. in the low to mid range, where it is felt the most). The euro cars also run cooler with the cats located further back on the exhaust. For those of you that think the sound is good from the interior, please stand outside and have someone drive your car off, you might let them keep driving.

Alan Smithee

Please post a link to back up your assertion that the European version has 20lb/ft more torque somewhere in the rev band. It's going on four years since I ordered my car and have been following all news and topics regarding it, and this is the first I've heard of any significant difference in power between the US and ROW cat placement (the five peak HP notwithstanding).

Better yet, post it over on http://bimmer.roadfly.org/bmw/forums/e46m3/ where we can have the discussion in the proper forum.

Estorilblau

I have seen private owners post dyno results, but this should satisfy: http://www.turnermotorsport.com/html...1627830658/659

a costly(for us NA owners), and hands down screw up from the makers of this flagship model.

matt

Moogle

wow $3400 for new headers and cats?

Estorilblau

yeah, it can be achieved privately, part for part for considerably less. All for something that never should have been.

matt

Alan Smithee

Matt, come on. a "hands down screw up"? Your link to TMS clearly states that the modifications are not for street use due to emissions...you can't blame BMW for that.

Also note that TMS is very vague about what part of the package is responsible for the improved numbers. As I stated above, the difference in peak horsepower is five per BMW; TMS states eleven. Therefore you are paying $3,100 for five hp, and $400 for an additional six. For what it's worth, people with "sharked" cars on Roadfly have noticed nothing more than improved throttle response (although to some that alone is worth the $400). So for $3,500 you get the 5 hp back that the EPA robbed, a car that won't pass emissions testing, and a car that is always in 'sport' mode. What a deal.

Estorilblau

Alan, ok, my opinion of the 'screw up' is indeed, mine. But corners were cut, the company didn't bring the car up to the standards of the european model. And in my case, with an m-roadster, a sport mode wasn't even wired, it's all there, it just wasn't bothered with. It's almost a situation where restrictive legislation had set back the engineers at bmw to get to the point where they just said, screw it, ship them out. Not to be off topic on an off topic post, but all i set out to do was explain the "M3 exhaust note..." to the best of my experience.
matt.

Alan Smithee

Yes, this off-topic thread has become off-topic, so this is the last I'll contribute.

It's been made clear over the last four years that BMW max'ed the S54's performance; none of the many BMW tuners have been able to consistently provide significant improvements. A small loss due to stricter US emissions is therefore expected. Here's a good example of what it takes to get improved performance from the motor in an M3:

http://bimmer.roadfly.org/bmw/forums...6229431-1.html

Note that it took SuperSprint headers, race cats, a Borla muffler, a Shark race injector, and AFE intake to achieve 8-10 hp and 13lb/ft torque. That's a whole lot of labor and parts for what is, in reality, an insignificant gain for a street car, and goes to show that TMS's claims are unrealistic.

JS

Its not you, it sounds like a rattling tin can.

MoneyBiz

It really isn't because with the K&N you can get 18 hp, with Eurobahn you get 12hp and with full exhaust you can another 20+ hp.

Alan Smithee

50 additional horsepower, to equal 383 in an M3? 120hp per liter? That sounds reasonable