Modifying and improving: "M30 tuning Modifications"

How to modify and upgrade the BMW M30 tuning

"Comprehensive guide to tuning the BMW M30 tuning engine!"

Popular tuning sites like TorqueCars often are getting posts asking how to improve the M30 tuning from people inquiring about getting more power from the M30 tuning and wanting to know what are the things tuners are recommending when it comes to M30 tuning mods that work. So let us look into BMW M30 tuning parts and outline the best modifications on this great engine and point out some potential pitfalls along the way.

We shall look at M30 tuning tuning and show the ultimate mods that work. BMW M30 tuning are good project engines and with the optimum motorsport upgrades like ECU maps, turbo kits and camshafts you will substantially improve your driving pleasure.

Just because particular modifications are appear in lots of M30 tuning projects it doesn't mean it is good, we will focus on the greatest modifications that will give your M30 tuning the best value for money to power increase.

Without us subscribing to the mentality of 'if it's shiny and makes more noise it must be good' you seem to get in many tuning magazines and on car forums'.

Improving air intake on the M30 tuning

You need air and fuel for an engine to work. If there is insufficient fuel then it will run lean, if there is little flow of air it runs rich losing power and potentially damaging the engine. We'll pick up on fuelling later in this article but for now we shall look at air supply.

So Pushing air and fuel into your M30 tuning is vital to any engine tuning job.

It is not unusual that there is a restriction in the air flow sensor AFM/MAF on the M30 tuning when considerably more air is being drawn into the engine.

We note 4 bar air sensors coping with quite large power gains, whereas the OEM air sensor was restricting power at a much lower level.

Intake headers flow the air from the filter and allow it to be fed into the engine and mixed with fuel.

The bore size, shape and flow characteristics of the Plenum can make a noticeable improvement to fuel mixing and power on the M30 tuning.

On popular production engines plenum chambers are begging for an upgrade, although some manufacturers provide reasonably well designed plenum chambers.

Big valve conversions on the M30 tuning, getting M30 tuning port enlargement and head flowing will also raise performance, & more importantly will permit raising the performance increase on other parts.

M30 tuning performance cam tips.

Each engine responds better to different camshaft durations than others.

The ecu map and injectors and fuel pump also have a large bearing on the torque gains you'll make.

A longer valve duration can alter the torque band and on most engines the exhaust and intake durations do not need to match, although most cams and tuners use matched pairs there are some advantages to extending the intake or exhaust durations.

The cam profile plays a big part in the engines power output so cam upgrades make quite a large difference. The intake & exhaust durations will alter depending on the chosen cam profile, so large bhp gains are on offer for cam upgrades.

NB: Fast road camshafts usually bump the torque through the rpm band, you may lose a little low down power but the high end rpm power will improve.

Competition camshafts, bump the high end rpm power band but as a result the car will not idle smoothly and low end power nearly always suffers.

A Competition camshaft won't do well if on the daily commute.

You should ideally match your torque band to your driving style so for a daily driver stick with a mild fast road M30 tuning camshaft

Stage 1, 2 and 3 mods for the M30 tuning

Before we break the best tuning upgrades down into stages of tune, let's list the most effective tuning upgrades for you.

1. Suspension Upgrades - always improve your cars handling
2. Brake Upgrades - Even before adding power improve those brakes
3. Intake - make sure the intake is not restricted, use filters and intake upgrades to improve this
4. Exhaust - as with 3 ensure there is not restriction in the exhaust, cats are the usual bottleneck
5. Tunes - remapping, piggyback ECU's and aftermarket ECU's can all make decent gains
6. Fuelling - when you've increased power you'll need to match this with more fuel
7. Turbo upgrades - Improving the intake with a large turbo and better flowing intercooler will be the biggest power gain you'll see (but one of the most complex).

This video guide to tuning cars is a great starting point to work from in your project.

Stage 1 M30 tuning parts:

Intake headers, Panel air filters, Fast road camshaft, Remaps/piggy back ECU, Drilled & smoothed airbox, Sports exhaust manifold.

Stage 2 M30 tuning parts:

fuel pump upgrades, induction kit, Sports catalyst & performance exhaust, Fast road cam, high flow fuel injectors, Ported and polished head.

Stage 3 M30 tuning parts:

Twin charging conversions, Adding or Upgrading forced induction (turbo/supercharger), Internal engine upgrades (head flowing porting/bigger valves), Competition cam, Engine balancing & blueprinting, Crank and Piston upgrades to alter compression.

ECU flashing will help release the full potential of all the tuning parts you've done to your M30 tuning.

You will typically expect to see gains of approximately 20-30% more power on turbocharged vehicles and you can expect to see around 15% on NASP engines, but the outcome may depend much on the tuning parts you've applied and the condition of your engine.

Turbo modifications on the M30 tuning

To get a turbo working on a NASP engine there is a lot involved, from lowering compression ratio to improved fuel supply and mapping, so we have found a great guide to helpavoid the common pitfalls or end up with an unfinished project because you were not told what you were getting into by doing this on the M30 tuning.

The more air you can get into an engine, the more fuel it can burn and uprating the induction with a turbocharger upgrade makes impressive power gains.

When your motor has a turbocharger parts are going to make more power and you will discover turbo charged engines will have harder and stronger components.

There are weak spots for every engine, with some being incredibly solid and some only just able to handle stock power

Discover these restrictions and upgrade to forged components to survive the power.

We see many car owners spending a a stack of money on turbo charger upgrades on the M30 tuning only to see the engine block literally blow up just after it's used on the roads.

Bigger upgraded turbochargers will usually suffer a bottom end lag, and small turbochargers spool up much more quickly but do not have the high rpm power band gains.

Thanks to progress the range of turbo chargers is always moving on and we commonly find variable vane turbo chargers, where the vane angle is altered according to speed to lower lag and increase top end torque.

Twin scroll turbo chargers divert the exhaust flow into 2 channels and push these at differently angled vanes in the turbo. They also help the scavenging effect of the engine.

Beefing up the air intake by adding a supercharger or additional turbo will help you achieve very large power gains, although harder to configure. We have this guide to twinchargers if you want to read more.

Tips about fuel supply on the M30 tuning

You will need to ensure that the engine is not starved of fuel so will have to pay attention to the fuelling when you start going beyond 20% of a bhp and torque hike. We strongly recommend you to be generous with your injector capacity.

The accepted safe increase is to add another 20% when specifying an injector, which takes into account injector deterioration and gives a little spare capacity should the engine need more fuel.

Don't forget that different fuel grades will usually require different settings, a high octane fuel will burn more efficiently than lower octane fuel for example. A car will trim fuel supply to keep within the ideal air fuel mix but at the extreme ends you may need to adjust your injector capacity, or the mapping or you'll get flat spots and potential lean or rich fuel issues..

Recommended M30 tuning performance exhaust upgrades

You should look to improve your exhaust system with an upgraded one is if the existing exhaust is actually causing a restriction in flow.

On most factory exhausts you'll find the flow rate is fine even on modest power gains, but on a serious tuning project with a big boost in power you will certainly need to get a better flowing exhaust.

Sports exhausts generally help improve air flow through the engine but avoid an exhaust that is too wide or you may end up will reduce the flow rate. Stick to one and a half to two and half inches as a rule of thumb.

Typically exhaust restrictions are traced to the catalyst and filters installed, so adding a higher flowing high performance alternative will help avoid this restriction.

Catalyst removal (NB:catalysts reduce harmful engine emissions) is illegal in most countries and regions.

Faults issues and things to look out for on the M30 tuning

Like most engines an M30 tuning, should have few issues if it gets properly serviced and looked after.

We cannot stress enough the need for oil changes with the correct grade of oil on the M30 tuning, failure to do this will exacerbate engine wear, on a tuned M30 tuning this is more important than ever and close attention should be paid to your maintenance schedule.

If you are interested in learning more or getting impartial tuning advice for your M30 tuning why not pop over to the forums at TorqueCars where you can chat about M30 tuning tuning options and read about others projects who may be planning to do similar modifications on their M30 tuning.

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This entry was posted under Makes and Models. Tags: BMW, engine
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