been wanting to ditch the intake manifold for a while it just doesnt work well for a bigger engine and more power
For those of you who have seen this thread
http://www.e30tech.com/forum/showthread.php?t=118357
this is new but it is a copy and paste from that thread
So in preparation for a new engine build later this year I thought it was time to get a few of the bottlenecks sorted. One of them was the intake manifold.
There are no high hp M20 around that persist with the cast OEM manifold it just doesn't have the flow or tuned characteristics to make a lot of hp. i wanted to sort something and my current engine is being used as a test mule.
I had originally thought about jenvey throttles but since RHD already had sorted the linkage, runners etc with proven results I decided to go this path. Also being significantly cheaper and a locally designed product from a guy (Rama) who knows a thing or two about high performance m20’s certainly helped the decision. i also live within an hr of his workshop
The compact throttles give a lot of freedom with regard to runner shape, design etc.
I decided on 42mm throttles because they would suit my new engine which will have more compression, a much better cylinder head, better camshaft and a few other go fast bits.
I would have chosen 40mm for my current spec engine as a 40mm throttle will support 320bhp and I was only making 250-260bhp at best on the standard manifold. I felt 42's should still work well on my old girl though strictly speaking not perfect.
IMO It is nonsense that there are kits are available with 45mm there is probably only a few naturally aspirated m20 in existence that could benefit from throttles that large without sacrificing a good chunk of midrange, this size should not be the norm.
Having done literally hundreds of dyno power runs I understood the importance of a baseline to find out as accurate as possible the benefit from doing any mods.
My baseline is well down on what it made at its best back in 2009/2010, this is due to various reason i wont elaborate on here except to say mostly to do with exhaust changes and an old engine which doesn't have the compression it used to.
Nevertheless I had a baseline with which to do an APPLES to APPLES comparison and the baseline was done only a couple of weeks before i was to convert to ITB to minimise any other chances affecting results.
1) BASLEINE: my baseline is actually a long way from stock but the cast long runner manifold still features ;)
- MM pulse tuned intake, which has tuned extensions and the end of runners are cut up and port internally
- 63mm BBTB with Silicone Elbow
- Custom big filter air box cleaner with larger K&N panel filter see here
http://www.e30tech.com/forum/showpost.p ... ostcount=1
- Custom tuned with MAP. Back in the old days i saw significant gains in midrange and top end by getting rid of my m30afm
Tuned extensions of MM pulse tuned manifold
Ported exit
2) Part DBILAS kit: I bought the plenum off ebay and the manifold from dbilas new
- Dbilas manifold adapter, ported to reshape injector area which has a rather large bump in it. The injector angle was modified to better match port angle and aimed at valve rather than port floor
- RHD 42mm throttles and linkage kit
- Dbilas plenum with silicone reducer couplers knife edged adapter and K&N cone filter.
- Custom tuned on Alpha N (TPS)
3) RHD FULL Length Runners ( 300mm length head face to trumpet)
- CNC manifold (preproduction version), port matched to TB not port matched to head
- RHD 42itb,
- RHD CNC spacer
- RHD trumpet
- Untuned
4) RHD MID Length Runners ( 250mm length head face to trumpet)
- CNC manifold (preproduction version), port matched to TB not port matched to head
- RHD 42itb,
- RHD CNC spacer
- RHD shortened trumpet
- Untuned
You will notice that engine was last tuned with the dbilas setup so (3) and (4) are using the tune developed for the dbilas which is not optimal by any means and there is certainly improvement to be made with the full RHD setup by a simple tune.
For example the 300mm runners leaned out about 0.6 to 0.8 across the board so it is moving more air and adding some fuel will help
Here you can see the difference between the manifold adpaters the RHD one is pretty much perfectly aligned with the port to clear the booster and you can see the spark plug through the runner with throttles open and inlet valve open. so it is a nice straight shot
Here is the dbailas manifold adapter before it was cleaned up with a die grinder to get rid of the hump.
It aims at the roof of the port and would introduce a lot of turbulence in this area which can affect fuel suspension and therefore combustion efficiency not just raw CFM (dry airflow).
The dbilas adapter is 45mm diameter at the start and is only 55mm long so the size is wrong to start and not a lot of room to transition the flow to the 885 port so basically it’s far from ideal. The RHD which is longer at approx. 110mm (IIRC). i port matched to the 42mm throttles (comes 40mm standard) so no step changes in area at all and the transition is gradual to the head.
RESULTS
GRAPH 1: baseline vs dbilas
DBILAS
Torque curve is nice gradual shape but midrange is down alot and this is evident while driving. There are still gains to be had past 5500rpm with peak 10whp topend gain and much bigger useable power band as power doesn’t fall over as fast. You could rev it to 7000-7500rpm and ride the power plateau and be a lot faster but there is room for improvement with no tradeoffs.
Throttle response is good and drivability not even comparable to common plenum single TB, it is miles better with ITB and alphaN. Will idle like a baby and tootle around easily, no grumpiness at all.
Still the smaller throttles can’t change the fact that dbilas hurts the midrange and is inferior to the stock manifold for midrange.
Reason is the rest of the runner volume is still too large and the runners are too short perhaps 200mm. The good thing about the dbilas is that it fits and clears the booster.
The Individual runners got rid of the really annoying dip in the torque curve at 2700-3000rpm on the OEM manifold which is probably due to cross talking nature of the common plenum.
GRAPH 2: #1, #2, #3 & #4
FULL LENGTH RHD (300mm) #3 BLUE
Straightaway using the dbilas tune AFR leaned out 0.6 to 0.8 of a point so definitely moving more air. Despite not retuning it gained 20whp peak (untuned), 30whp at 6000rpm, probably 40-50whp at 7k the power doesn’t fallover anymore and reving it out it is a lot faster due to the bigger area under the curve. Pretty much all the midrange is back then some, the bottom end is as good. There is a small band about 600rpm where stock manifold (MM modified) is better but a custom tune would probably fix that.
MID LENGTH RHD (250mm) #4
Basically as for 300mm but the 300mm has better midrange 4000-6000rpm. Topend is essentially the same. A higher rpm engine will tend to want a shorter length and 250mm might suit some engines better. Give the engine what it wants
Time for a custom airbox to ensure only cool air gets to the engine since socks are not particularly great”¦”¦.then a tune.
i recommend anyone looking for performance to get one of these kits. BFYB is there without question
http://www.racehead.com.au/?wpsc_produc ... 30-m20-bmw
starting to get back to the power it had before and i havent even fixed the bastardized exhaust yet