Highest HP from M50?

[rossburnett]

Turbo'd, chipped, whatever - what's the highest you've heard? Details, driveability, gas mileage, if you know. Thanks.

Also, do you have to be a wizard to do your own ground-up M50 rebuild?

[bahnstormer]

u can push the motor as far as u want. i wouldn't be surprised to see
500 hp or so. don't expect it to last long, and expect a lot of lag

[ryan roopnarine]

aaaannnnddd dumping quite a quantity of money into it, around 240 or so.

[bahnstormer]

naturally aspirated wheel 240? yeah that might be doable
depends if u want to build the motor, rev it to 12 grand
on race gas heheh then u'd see around 300 or more wheel
and would have to pay close to 100,000 dollars for motor alone

[ryan roopnarine]

wheel HP.....i think 240 is achievable if one takes down the motor,,,,rounding down the dinan numbers....

chip..eat/dinan, whomever---at least 10, prob have to get one custom made
dinan's exhaust--at least 10
dinan's throttle body...they claim 8, lets say 5-7
engine internals mods-a very CONSERVATIVE 10
CAI...if one swings that way....1 or two

there's almost two thirty, and i've severely discounted how much changing internal bits adds.

[Mr Project]

M50's, especially the early non-vanos motors, respond pretty well to forced induction, be it Turbo or Supercharged variety. Plenty of people getting at or over 400HP from FI M50's in E36s and the like.

[Gary M]

I doubt you'd get anything close to 230 with these mods. Maybe 215 if you're lucky with most of it coming from the chip. I've tried several different things and the chip is the only thing that really made a difference. I'm at 208 with a chip, CAI, and underdrive pulleys. However, I've got an automatic transmission, so that's probably limiting things a little. I've been told the exhaust and throttle body mods are mostly hype. A supercharger or turbo will get the hp up to the 230/240 or even more range.


wheel HP.....i think 240 is achievable if one takes down the motor,,,,rounding down the dinan numbers....

chip..eat/dinan, whomever---at least 10, prob have to get one custom made
dinan's exhaust--at least 10
dinan's throttle body...they claim 8, lets say 5-7
engine internals mods-a very CONSERVATIVE 10
CAI...if one swings that way....1 or two

there's almost two thirty, and i've severely discounted how much changing internal bits adds.

[ryan roopnarine]

"take down the motor" as to mean that it would have to be rebuilt, as was kinda asked in the first....i sincerely doubt that if one rebuilt a junk motor for the purposes of getting it to 230 by natural aspiration that it would be hard....the bolt ons are just applesauce....dan D wants to build a t-body......if he doesn't buy a m50 one first im going to donate one and see what the seat of the pants dyno says......


I doubt you'd get anything close to 230 with these mods. Maybe 215 if you're lucky with most of it coming from the chip. I've tried several different things and the chip is the only thing that really made a difference. I'm at 208 with a chip, CAI, and underdrive pulleys. However, I've got an automatic transmission, so that's probably limiting things a little. I've been told the exhaust and throttle body mods are mostly hype. A supercharger or turbo will get the hp up to the 230/240 or even more range.

[MikeV]

Just curious, what's the wheel HP bone stock? Inefficiencies in the trans/shaft/clutch/diff/axles/etc are probably sucking up at least 35HP, more in an auto..... yes, that is heat being generated by those moving parts.

[Unregistered]

for one, exhaust will never give 10hp on a BMW, the stock design is too good. Exhaust swaps on BMW's are mainly for looks, sound, and weight saving. As for the chip, i have an eat, and dyno proven, it was only good for 6hp on my M50tu, but it shifted the power curve to a more driveable level. Intake showed no gain in HP. The chip is the only valid mod that will add driveable power to the M50. This is all aside from a forced induction setup, as these mods will assuredly help more. Gears and a chip are probably the best bet for actual speed modifications, the rest is well spent in a good suspension setup.

[Anton CH.]

For good NA results(assuming you have vanos):
Rebuild the engine using 2.8 components or better yet custom pistons
Use m3 cams
Get a chip from JC for this application

You'll have one nice m50 with plenty of low end/top end power. If I only had vanos...