M30 tuning

[chu346]

What is the best way to tune an m30?

Has anyone on here tuned an m30, NA?

[charlE30]

The original conversion done by Andy back in the day was tuned and fook me was it quick. He'd had the head ported & polished, shrick cam, emerald engine managment, throttle body switched to the opposite side (Alpina style) and fitted with I think a ford mustang throttle body (large double barrelled afair). Was putting out around 260bhp and similiar torque.

M5 throttle bodies would have been good

It was his tourer that made me do mine in the first place

You still got your M30?

[chu346]

Still got my m30

I think Andy never got round to fitting the double throttle body. Do you know what spec. cam he was using? I'm thinking about using a 292 if it'll fit without too much effort.

M5 throttle bodies are too much/too rare.

[Ziggy]

A hefty head skim to raise the CR has worked wonders for Gareth! Wish I'd known that when I had the head off mine...

[Gunni]

I have had two M30´s come to our place for some dyno tuning

one was a stock engine with a cam and headers , it made 255hp or so,
And another that had just a cam or just headers, that one made 248hp I think it was.

In any case they both had motronic still.

A good cam really wakes up the M30

[Rav335uk]

What headers and cam Gunni?

[Gunni]

I can´t remember, I think it was a shrick cam and custom headers as this M30 was sat in a E9 car.

[Speedtouch]

A chip such as the one I provide can liven these up quite nicely.

[chu346]

Already got a mild chip

Headers, £750?

Camshaft, £350?

Dyno tuning £???

M5 throttle bodies £can't be cheap. What kind of gains from this alone?

This is looking expensive for 255bhp, might have to go for a budget turbo conversion instead.

[Bristol_Jer]

Or supercharged...

[zaust]

I have one of Ians big bore throttel body's, Jason form chipped uk done the obvious and I don't have a wild cam, just some nice low and mid torque with a little 100hp N²O kit, I definetly need more 6k + rev's.

btw Cat cams do a good selection for the m30. my plan is to turbo at some stage, But need to speak to ant for some cam advice when I do this.



Heres the link for cat ↓↓↓

http://www.catcams.be/800x600/mainframe.htm?english

[Gunni]

I have one of Ians big bore throttel body's, Jason form chipped uk done the obvious and I don't have a wild cam, just some nice low and mid torque with a little 100hp N²O kit, I definetly need more 6k + rev's.

btw Cat cams do a good selection for the m30. my plan is to turbo at some stage, But need to speak to ant for some cam advice when I do this.



Heres the link for cat ↓↓↓

http://www.catcams.be/800x600/mainframe.htm?english

Just run the cam you have now and size the turbo along with it.


don´t be afraid of the boost

[Gunni]

Already got a mild chip

Headers, £750?

Camshaft, £350?

Dyno tuning £???

M5 throttle bodies £can't be cheap. What kind of gains from this alone?

This is looking expensive for 255bhp, might have to go for a budget turbo conversion instead.

Turbo M30 for SURE and you can have 350whp without breaking a sweat and 450lbs of torque

[zaust]

Rekon the iveco 7a ton can be the turbo donator

[Bristol_Jer]

I have one of Ians big bore throttel body's, Jason form chipped uk done the obvious and I don't have a wild cam, just some nice low and mid torque with a little 100hp N²O kit, I definetly need more 6k + rev's.

btw Cat cams do a good selection for the m30. my plan is to turbo at some stage, But need to speak to ant for some cam advice when I do this.



Heres the link for cat ↓↓↓

http://www.catcams.be/800x600/mainframe.htm?english

Catcam's website won't work with firefox, you need the IE tab extension. Looks like they do a couple of cams for turbo applications from taking a quick look at their list.

Another question regarding tuning the M30, what sort of rev's can these engines handle as standard? MAximum power is about 5700 I think?

[zaust]

They will rev higher but your right, Standered anything above that is lost time in the next gear.

[chu346]

What kind of gains would I get from throttle bodies alone? I'm guessing none. Also the plenum needs modding, can you use a different plenum?

From what I've read, you only really need throttle bodies on an engine with a wild cam.

Getting the head heavily skimmed would be on my on my list if going N/A.

Is 280bhp and 6500-6750rpms possible for a reasonable £amount ???

[Gunni]

No,

the Valve sizes in the engine just don´t allot enough airflow for serious power.
You´d need a crazy cam, serious port job, headers and maybe ITB´s just to get to that sort of level. And that´s just not worth it when almost any crap ass turbo system on a M30 will deliver 350hp and 350lbs torque

[Speedtouch]

What kind of gains would I get from throttle bodies alone? I'm guessing none. Also the plenum needs modding, can you use a different plenum?

From what I've read, you only really need throttle bodies on an engine with a wild cam.

Getting the head heavily skimmed would be on my on my list if going N/A.

Speak to gareth on here, who skimmed his M30's head and with one of my chips and LPG, he got some very impressive results.

http://www.e30zone.net/modules.php?name ... highlight=

[Bristol_Jer]

Has anyone used one of the Cat cams, or know anyone who has?

[zaust]

I used a 530 cam which has a duration of 272, no power loss down low and revs a little higher, Friend of mine has a cat cam with a much higher duration and the thing does not start to pull until he hits nearly 3k but will pull upto nearly 7k. (which i think is to much for an m30)

[Speedtouch]

I owned an E34 535iSE with the M30B35, standard other than one of my chips, and had it up to 7,500 rpm for brief bursts on a few occasions with no ill effects.

The bottom end is very strong, being a forged crank.

The weak point is the rockers, which can snap, so beware of this.

TBH, there's little point in revving them beyond around 6,000 rpm anyway as with these it's all about the low-end grunt.

[zaust]

I'd say power drops off completly on standerd around 5400 rpm max. Most likley less if you want to stay in the torque band.

7500 is a no no on these heads. you will be spitting rocker peices out your tail pipe if you do this. (metaphorical)

[Bristol_Jer]

So without uprated rockers (and other valvetrain upgrades?) fitting a hotter cam which makes power higher up the rev range is not a good idea?

[chu346]

Depends how high up in the rev range your talking. I should think you could take it up to 6500 rpm without problems.

[leeparkes]

I'd say power drops off completly on standerd around 5400 rpm max. Most likley less if you want to stay in the torque band.

The first run at the pod i was changing up around 5.5k and that was my best time @ 14.5.
imo you dont need to rev these engines to make them shift.

[zaust]

Same here lee, I did rev a little higher than that but i don't have such a short diff ratio. Still point 1 of a second between us last year. Your new engine will be a rocket though...

[leeparkes]

Have you ever had the Touring weighed Marc?

[zaust]

Not yet, every time I go near the local weigh bridge, the police are there checking and taking cars and trucks and i don't like being near them. i'm guessing around 1300kg

[leeparkes]

I weighed one at a builders yard years ago, it cost me two bacon & egg sarnie's

[zaust]

What did yours come in at ?

[leeparkes]

I weighed mine when i first did the swap and it came in at 1311kg thats a fully dressed facelift with tech-2 bumpers leather etc... it weighed 1242kg with the M20.
Im guessing its under 1300kg now as im running the 7.5kg fly plus my Scorpion system is a lot lighter than the standard M20 one
Me and Dan had a chat about this a couple of years ago and for some reason chromie's are a lot lighter than facelift, iirc Dans chromie only weighed 1150kg with an iron block M52 and with a bit of researching i reckon there close to 100kg lighter and as you know weight saving makes a big difference to performance.

[zaust]

Agreed on that. My chromie stripped out (m20) + cage was 1130

I think I could lose a hell of a lot of weight by removing the the rear glass, but i'm scared as the rear quaters are bonded that the frames will get bent and never go back looking right. Also could then lose the insides of the doors. I want to lose the sunroof cage and spare wheel well too.