Explore M62 Modifications"

How to modify and upgrade the BMW M62

"Comprehensive guide to tuning the BMW M62 engine!"

Forums like the one at TorqueCars often are seeing threads asking about how to improve the M62 from people wanting to know what are the best M62 mods that work. So let us look into BMW M62 parts and outline the best modifications on this great engine and point out some potential pitfalls along the way.

We shall outline options for your M62 tuning and provide tips on the best modifications. BMW M62 are fantastic to work on and with the optimum performance upgrades like ECU maps, turbo upgrades and camshafts you will certainly maximize your driving enjoyment.

When talking about the greatest parts for your M62 engine, we are going to concentrate on the mods that give the best value for money.

Improving air intake on the M62

You need air and fuel for an engine to work. If there is little supply of fuel then it will run lean, if there is too little air it runs rich sapping 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 into each cylinder is the aim to any engine upgrade job.

It is common that there is a restriction in the air flow sensor MAF/MAP on the M62 when considerably more air is being sucked into the engine.

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

Air Intake manifolds flow the air during the suck phase from the filter and allow it to be fed into the engine cylinders.

Shape and flow rate of the Headers can make a substantial change to fuel delivery on the M62.

Commonly we find the air intake manifolds are in desperate need of aftermarket tuning parts, although a few OEM provide reasonably well designed air intake manifolds.

Larger M62 valves, getting port work and head flowing will also raise power, this will raise potential for increasing the power increase on other parts.

M62 performance cam tips.

Some M62 engines respond better to more or less aggressive cam durations check your engine on a rolling road.

The ecu map and fuel pump and injectors also will say much on the torque gains you'll achieve.

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.

Significant air intake, and exhaust improvements on the M62 can be made from cam upgrades. Changing the cam profile alters the intake and exhaust durations on the engine and can dramatically change the bhp and power output.

NB: Fast road cams commonly increase the bhp through the rpm band, you could sacrifice a little low down power but top end will be better.

Motorsport and race cams, increase the top end band but as a result the car will not idle smoothly and low end power nearly always suffers.

A Competition cam will just annoy you whilst driving around busy urban areas.

You should ideally match your engines power to your typical driving style so for a car driven daily stick with a fast road M62 cam

Stage 1, 2 and 3 mods for the M62

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 M62 parts:

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

Stage 2 M62 parts:

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

Stage 3 M62 parts:

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

ECU flashing allows a tuner to unlock the full potential of all the mods you've done to your M62.

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 figures achieved usually depend much on the mods you've carried out and the condition of your engine.

Turbo modifications on the M62

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 M62.

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 a car is turbocharged, mods are more reliable and turbocharged engines are built using more solid components.

However you'll find engines will have power limits

It is important to find these limitations and fit higher quality components to handle the power.

There are many car owners spending a fortune on turbocharger upgrades on the M62 only to have the engine block catastrophically fail just after it's finished.

Larger turbo units commonly experience low end lag, and low capacity turbo units spool up quickly but won't have the peak end torque gains.

In the last 10 years the market of turbo chargers is always developing and we now see variable vane turbo chargers, allowing 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 a couple of channels and push these at differently angled vanes in the turbocharger. 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 performance gains, although more complex to install. We have this feature on twinchargers if you want to read more.

Tips about fuel supply on the M62

Don't dismiss the need increase the fuelling when you are increasing the torque - it makes the car more thirsty. Experienced tuners recommend to over specify your injectors flow rate.

As a rule of thumb add another 15% when buying an injector, which takes into account injector deterioration and allows 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 M62 performance exhaust upgrades

Only look to boost your exhaust system with an upgraded one is if the existing exhaust is actually causing a flow problem.

On most factory exhausts you should find that your flow rate is good 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.

Note that with the largest exhaust you can buy you'll slow the exhaust rate - the best for power gains are usually between one and a half to two and half inches. Your exhaust design, the bend angles and construction are what have more effect on flow rates than your pipe width to a certain extent. So the exhaust design is a big factor.

Usual exhaust restrictions can be traced to the catalyst installed, so adding a faster flowing race alternative will help avoid this restriction.

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

Faults issues and things to look out for on the M62

Like most engines an M62, 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 M62, failure to do this will exacerbate engine wear, on a tuned M62 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 M62 why not pop over to the forums at TorqueCars where you can chat about M62 tuning options and read about others projects who may be planning to do similar modifications on their M62.

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