Modifying and improving: "N62 Modifications"

How to modify and upgrade the BMW N62

"Comprehensive guide to tuning the BMW N62 engine!"

Our friends at TorqueCars are frequently seeing threads about how to improve the N62 from people inquiring about getting more power from the N62 and wanting to know what are the things tuners recommend when it comes to N62 modifications. So let us look into BMW N62 modifications and outline the best mods that work on this great engine and point out some common pitfalls along the way.

The BMW N62 are popular tuning projects and with the right uprated upgrades like a remap, turbo kits and camshafts you will dramatically maximize your driving experience.

Car Tuning Tips will consider N62 tuning and summarise the best modifications.

The top N62 tuning parts on an engine are as we have found the ones that give the biggest return for your money.

We won't be swayed by popular N62 tuning parts, they need to be cost effective.

Improving air intake on the N62

You need air and fuel for an engine to work. If there is insufficient fuel then it will run lean, if there is not enough 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 Pulling air and fuel into the N62 engine is vital to any performance tuning project.

It is not unusual that there's a limitation in the air flow sensor AFM/MAF on the N62 when loads 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 limited bhp and torque at a much lower level.

Headers transmit the during the engines suck phase from the filter and allow it to be drawn into the engine cylinders.

The size of bore and shape and flow rate of the air Intake manifold can make a big improvement to fuel atomisation on the N62.

It's not uncommon that air intake manifolds are in desperate need of a performance upgrade, although some makers provide reasonably good air intake manifolds.

Larger N62 valves, doing some N62 port enlargement and head flowing will also lift bhp, and as an added benefit will afford you a greater bhp increase on other parts.

N62 performance cam tips.

Different N62 engines respond better to different cam durations so set your engine up on a rolling road.

The ecu map and injectors and fuel pump also have an effect on the torque gains you'll get.

Longer valve durations 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.

Altering your N62 cam will make a dramatic difference to the engine torque. Choosing a higher performance cam profile raises the torque accordingly.

NB: Fast road cams commonly raise the torque across the rpm range, you could drop a little bottom end power but the high end rpm power will be higher.

Motorsport cams, raise the high end rpm power band but as a result the car will not idle smoothly and low end power nearly always suffers.

A Motorsport cam makes it harder when driving around busy urban areas.

You should ideally optimize your torque band to your driving style so for a typical daily driver stick with a shorter duration N62 cam

Stage 1, 2 and 3 mods for the N62

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 N62 parts:

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

Stage 2 N62 parts:

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

Stage 3 N62 parts:

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

A remap allows a tuner to unlock the full potential of all the tuning parts you've done to your N62.

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 will differs on the tuning parts you've done and the condition of your engine.

Turbo modifications on the N62

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 N62.

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

When a car is turbocharged, upgrades are simpler to install and turbocharged engines are built with many forged and stronger components.

There are common areas of failure for every engine, with some being over specified and some only able to handle stock power

Discover these limitations and upgrade to better quality crank and pistons to handle the power.

It's not unheard of drivers spending a lot of money on turbo charger upgrades on the N62 only to have the engine throw a rod on it's first outing after it's completed.

Large capacity turbo units will usually experience no power at low rpm, and low capacity turbo units spool up really quickly but do not have the peak end power band gains.

Over the last 20 years the world of turbos is always developing and we now see variable vane turbos, allowing the vane profile is altered according to speed to lower lag and increase top end torque.

Twin scroll turbos divert the exhaust gases into 2 channels and push these at differently profiled 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 challenging to get working. We have this article covering twinchargers if you want to read more.

Tips about fuel supply on the N62

You will need to ensure that the engine is not starved of fuel so must increase the fuelling when you start extending past 20% of a power hike. It is important to over specify your injector capacity.

As a rule of thumb add another 20% when buying an injector, this accounts for injector deterioration and gives you some 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 N62 performance exhaust upgrades

The only time you should look to upgrade your exhaust system with an upgraded one is if your current exhaust is actually creating a flow problem.

On most factory exhausts you'll find your flow rate is still 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.

Sports exhausts will certainly help air flow out of the engine but do not go too big or you may end up will reduce the flow rate. Stick to one and a half to two and half inches for best results.

Typically exhaust restrictions are traced to the catalyst and filters installed, so adding a freer flowing sports 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 N62

Like most engines an N62, 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 N62, failure to do this will exacerbate engine wear, on a tuned N62 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 N62 why not pop over to the forums at TorqueCars where you can chat about N62 tuning options and read about others projects who may be planning to do similar modifications on their N62.

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