[bmwf32]

Hello everyone !

I'm fishing for information and advice! I have currently tuned my 435i with stage 2. We did the charge pipe, intake, intercooler, downpipes. Currently making 398 hp. + Transmission tune

I'm wondering what mods should I priorities in beefing up the hp?

***At what Horse power do requires clutch, gearbox, crankshaft and internal upgrades are required? doing all those upgrades might price me out, so im wondering how can i Get the most out of it without doing doing a full rebuild.

[Jvac]

What size/type of tires? There is more to be gained over oem by improving traction as you increase power. Also, a proper rear differential.
Beyond that your next steps are bigger turbo, with fuel pump and inlet in addition to that... Pretty pricey when you get all parts and labor tallied up.

[thejeremyman9]

Add turbo inlet as noted above (MST v2 or CTS).

If you have access to E85, upgrade HPFP and then you can max out stock turbo.

If you want to go beyond that you need upgraded turbo and fueling, then you can get in the 500-600hp range. Low 500s are totally fine for stock motor. The 6MT will need a clutch once you start maxing out stock turbo. Transmission and engine are fine through the 500s.

[bmwf32]

Originally Posted by Jvac

What size/type of tires? There is more to be gained over oem by improving traction as you increase power. Also, a proper rear differential.
Beyond that your next steps are bigger turbo, with fuel pump and inlet in addition to that... Pretty pricey when you get all parts and labor tallied up.

I think tire/size are still how they came from the m sports package configuration for the 435i

What turbo would you recommend? Currently tossing up between pureturbo or the Vargas VTT N55 GC.

Also is do i need to do both the HPFP and LPFP?

[bmwf32]

Originally Posted by thejeremyman9

Add turbo inlet as noted above (MST v2 or CTS).

If you have access to E85, upgrade HPFP and then you can max out stock turbo.

If you want to go beyond that you need upgraded turbo and fueling, then you can get in the 500-600hp range. Low 500s are totally fine for stock motor. The 6MT will need a clutch once you start maxing out stock turbo. Transmission and engine are fine through the 500s.

Should I also consider port injection kit? like BlackMarketParts Port kit? or a Phoenix Racing BMW Port Injection Intake Manifold ?

What sort of Clutch would you recommend for the build?

[thejeremyman9]

What fuel are you planning to run?

[bmwf32]

Originally Posted by thejeremyman9

What fuel are you planning to run?

Our fuel in Australia seems to be labeled differently, we have 91, 95, 98 octane
The car is currently running 98. I was considering the flex fuel kit by tune freaks.

what are your thoughts?

[yupetc]

As far as the internals are concerned the two weakest point of the N55 motor are the cast pistons and the rod bearings. My best suggestion for anyone going over 400whp is to at least upgrade these two. Normally when you reach this point of doing pistons, you might as well swap out for upgraded rods, too; and you'll likely be looking at ACL or King's race bearings. If you don't do these and try to go for 500whp+, it's just a ticking time bomb. In my experience, once going FBO, the N55's are some very temperamental motor. On most days you'll enjoy what it can offer and the thrill of having good powerband at your footstep. But on certain days, you'll wish you're driving a Toyota Camry when the big bill items start to fail; also not mentioning that you "may" deal with a plethora of ghostly issues and hidden error codes that'll wrangle your brain power, time, and money, in order to resolve them. There are just too many logical festivities from the DME that doesn't like any deviations from expected stock readings.

[johnung]

Originally Posted by yupetc

As far as the internals are concerned the two weakest point of the N55 motor are the cast pistons and the rod bearings. My best suggestion for anyone going over 400whp is to at least upgrade these two. Normally when you reach this point of doing pistons, you might as well swap out for upgraded rods, too; and you'll likely be looking at ACL or King's race bearings. If you don't do these and try to go for 500whp+, it's just a ticking time bomb. In my experience, once going FBO, the N55's are some very temperamental motor. On most days you'll enjoy what it can offer and the thrill of having good powerband at your footstep. But on certain days, you'll wish you're driving a Toyota Camry when the big bill items start to fail; also not mentioning that you "may" deal with a plethora of ghostly issues and hidden error codes that'll wrangle your brain power, time, and money, in order to resolve them. There are just too many logical festivities from the DME that doesn't like any deviations from expected stock readings.

400hp? I disagree. That just doesn’t match most people’s experience. Properly cared for, the bottom end of the N55 is typically rock solid up to about 600hp. I’m probably about 450hp right now with the stock EWG turbo using E85. Runs smooth as can be.

[johnung]

Originally Posted by bmwf32

Our fuel in Australia seems to be labeled differently, we have 91, 95, 98 octane
The car is currently running 98. I was considering the flex fuel kit by tune freaks.

what are your thoughts?

FlexFuel kit installs an ethanol percentage sensor in the fuel line with an electrical connection through a standard CANBus protocol to tell the DME what that percentage is 0-100.

For it to be any benefit at all the car would need to be running various amounts of E85 ethanol in the fuel tank, AND be running a tune that takes advantage of the sensor reading by adjusting tune performance on the fly. With Bootmod3, their MultiMap tunes have FlexFuel capability on specific models/engines.
a

[johnung]

Originally Posted by bmwf32

I think tire/size are still how they came from the m sports package configuration for the 435i

What turbo would you recommend? Currently tossing up between pureturbo or the Vargas VTT N55 GC.

Also is do i need to do both the HPFP and LPFP?

What size wheels & tires came on your car? I’m assuming RWD. I’m a proponent of a square 18” setup for comfort, handling, ability to rotate front to back, etc. 255/40-18’s over 18x8.5”. I talk a lot about XDrive, but most principles/benefits are the same for RWD. Link below.

https://f30.bimmerpost.com/forums/sh....php?t=1996601

Vargas has poor engineering and a poor reputation. I’d consider Pure500 for more power with the same low end responsiveness or Pure750 for greater power if you are willing to lose low end response and add turbo lag.

Always upgrade HPFP before LPFP on N55 EWG. When depends on fueling and turbo choices. Over E30 to E55 requires HPFP like Dorch Stage1. E60 to E85 requires a Dorch Stage2 plus an LPFP upgrade such as a Precision Raceworks Stage2.5v2 using a Walbro 535 pump. Turbo upgrades typically have lower fuel pump upgrade requirements if 93 octane gasoline is used. I’d plan on at least a Dorch Stage1 HPFP to be able to run Stage2+ type tunes.

Hope this helps!

[yupetc]

Originally Posted by johnung

400hp? I disagree. That just doesn’t match most people’s experience. Properly cared for, the bottom end of the N55 is typically rock solid up to about 600hp. I’m probably about 450hp right now with the stock EWG turbo using E85. Runs smooth as can be.

I've spoken on some very loose assumptions on my end. Sure we can run 400+whp with the N55 without an issue. And we mostly do so by running a mixture of alcohol to lessen predetonation, it's safe. But when I swap out my pistons for a forged set, I noticed how thin our stock piston's ring lands are. It'll only take one good enough misfire or knock, and you'll likely gull out that ring land and good-bye with the motor.

My grounds for suggestion to go for forged internals isn't dead set on 400whp as a threshold. I think the best way I should say it is if you want to run that power level on pump gas and bigger turbo, I'll say you're on borrowed times when you're inching towards 500 or so whp. Sure we've so many cases who have run this figure with stock parts without an issue. But I've worked on enough N55 builds to say that even when they didn't go beyond 400whp, there are still failed pistons coming in and out of my shop. What I'm saying is if you're absolutely choosing it, wouldn't you try to go for safety before you go beast mode with it.

[thejeremyman9]

Originally Posted by yupetc

I've spoken on some very loose assumptions on my end. Sure we can run 400+whp with the N55 without an issue. And we mostly do so by running a mixture of alcohol to lessen predetonation, it's safe. But when I swap out my pistons for a forged set, I noticed how thin our stock piston's ring lands are. It'll only take one good enough misfire or knock, and you'll likely gull out that ring land and good-bye with the motor.

My grounds for suggestion to go for forged internals isn't dead set on 400whp as a threshold. I think the best way I should say it is if you want to run that power level on pump gas and bigger turbo, I'll say you're on borrowed times when you're inching towards 500 or so whp. Sure we've so many cases who have run this figure with stock parts without an issue. But I've worked on enough N55 builds to say that even when they didn't go beyond 400whp, there are still failed pistons coming in and out of my shop. What I'm saying is if you're absolutely choosing it, wouldn't you try to go for safety before you go beast mode with it.

It's not really that the N55 can't handle 500s whp reliably, its that you shouldnt push that high on pump gas. It's a tuning/fuel issue, not a N55 motor issue.

OP - if you dont have access to E85 or plan to run any ethanol mixes, then you are basically looking at high octane gasoline and/or meth injection with upgraded turbo to push into the 500s. Based on what you said, 98 octane is probably enough to get safely into the 500s with an upgraded turbo, but you will likely need a stage 1 HPFP for that. Stock LPFP, no PI.

[Jvac]

Great info here from the resident experts. Let's hope they never sell their f30s and leave the platform. johnung thejeremyman9 yupetc

[bmwf32]

really appreciate all the advice from everyone above and has been quite helpful in the process. I love the car its wicked for value. I want to see it get up towards 550 whp. Going to price up some options, its already quite fun at stage 2, but after getting used to the power I want more

[kickthecan]

I'd also limit your torque too and not go balls to the wall on that

[n55david]

Originally Posted by yupetc

As far as the internals are concerned the two weakest point of the N55 motor are the cast pistons and the rod bearings. My best suggestion for anyone going over 400whp is to at least upgrade these two. Normally when you reach this point of doing pistons, you might as well swap out for upgraded rods, too; and you'll likely be looking at ACL or King's race bearings. If you don't do these and try to go for 500whp+, it's just a ticking time bomb. In my experience, once going FBO, the N55's are some very temperamental motor. On most days you'll enjoy what it can offer and the thrill of having good powerband at your footstep. But on certain days, you'll wish you're driving a Toyota Camry when the big bill items start to fail; also not mentioning that you "may" deal with a plethora of ghostly issues and hidden error codes that'll wrangle your brain power, time, and money, in order to resolve them. There are just too many logical festivities from the DME that doesn't like any deviations from expected stock readings.

This may have been the dumbest opinion I've read today..

But let's give this a shot..

400whp with a manual trans or automatic? On what dyno? Dynojet, mustang etc? SAE, STD or no correction factor?

[-Eidos]

Originally Posted by n55david

This may have been the dumbest opinion I've read today..

But let's give this a shot..

400whp with a manual trans or automatic? On what dyno? Dynojet, mustang etc? SAE, STD or no correction factor?

And also which tuner... smh.

I've seen too many logs of poor running cars targeting 13+ afr with 18+ degrees of timing. That's melted piston territory and a vast majority of these people don't know better. As long as they can do burnouts and gap them kids, they'll be fine is their mentality. They can always sell it to carmax.

[lens]

Originally Posted by n55david

This may have been the dumbest opinion I've read today..

But let's give this a shot..

400whp with a manual trans or automatic? On what dyno? Dynojet, mustang etc? SAE, STD or no correction factor?

Not me on my old N55, with 186k miles, 420AWHP/438AWTQ on pump gas, smashing the car around the track


Man, you really don't need to touch the internals unless you're going past 520WHP+

Anything below 500WHP you can easily do with stock internals.

Originally Posted by -Eidos

And also which tuner... smh.

I've seen too many logs of poor running cars targeting 13+ afr with 18+ degrees of timing. That's melted piston territory and a vast majority of these people don't know better. As long as they can do burnouts and gap them kids, they'll be fine is their mentality. They can always sell it to carmax.

Or don't forget the kids that can't even read logs, or haven't done logs, who just flashes a E30 map and wonders why they have misfires or giant timing corrections as the map doesn't run well.

Too many people nowadays have little to no knowledge on how tuning works, or what part does what. They just see on the internet, a N55/B58 car gap a lambo or something and want to do the same, so they buy the car and slap on exactly the same parts and tune and run into issues and not know why. Absolutely frustrating when you meet those kinds of people and ask questions and they don't know shit.

Originally Posted by Jvac

Great info here from the resident experts. Let's hope they never sell their f30s and leave the platform. johnung thejeremyman9 yupetc

They're all leaving, I heard Jeremy bought a GT3RS.

[yupetc]

Originally Posted by n55david

This may have been the dumbest opinion I've read today..

But let's give this a shot..

400whp with a manual trans or automatic? On what dyno? Dynojet, mustang etc? SAE, STD or no correction factor?

Like I've said, I made a lot of assumptions, and no way I can name every possibility. But having built many of these and looked at the failed parts, I recommend based on what I see. You do what you like behind that keyboard of yours, homie. No need to start trading insults.

[AmuroRay]

Originally Posted by yupetc

Like I've said, I made a lot of assumptions, and no way I can name every possibility. But having built many of these and looked at the failed parts, I recommend based on what I see. You do what you like behind that keyboard of yours, homie. No need to start trading insults.

What did you do about the MILVs?

[yupetc]

Originally Posted by AmuroRay

What did you do about the MILVs?

MILVs are still on the motor. Just forgot to list them in my sig. LOL

These MILVs were bought when Marty did his final iteration change on the N52 E90 forum. So it is meant to go on the N52 ValvTronic. I was going to put these on the N52, but soon after I bought these MILVs, I got phased into the newer motor platforms, and since these work with the N55 motors, I decided to put them in my N55 build (On the N55 build I was also going to swap in a N52 camshaft, but decided to wait). For now on the N55 I'm only running MHD tune, so I don't suppose it'll realize any gains from the MILVs unless I go onto a custom tune. I plan on upgrading the HPFP later and bring it to ByteTronik for them to dyno-tune and see if they can squeeze something out of the MILVs.