i remember seeing this picture of a MASSIVE intake manifold on the E46 M3, and though i think we've discussed this before, are there any benefits to having such a massive intake manifold? anyone have pics of the engine/intake manifold?

 

It houses the individual throttle bodies. I started a thread on this recently. I asked around some and no one seems interested in making OR buying such a setup.

 

My boss has an M3 coming in at the beginning of March. I'll take a bunch of pics of it then.

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by The Reverend
[B]It houses the individual throttle bodies.

 

I thought is had something to do with the variable intake runners? It's like the size of the tubing of the manifold can change to give the car different torque tendencies (I'm not sure about this)? Shorter during low-MPH for more butt-slammin torque and longer at higher-MPH for more horsepower?

Phi

 

First off, I'm not mechanic. However I have driven 2 new E46 M3's and they were the most responsive cars I have ever driven. The throttle response was unbelievable. I think that it was due to it's individual butterfly throttle body setup.

 

Sorry -- nothing to add, just subsrcibing!

 

Can't say for sure without looking inside, but I'll bet that intake manifold houses one huge plenum. With ITB's you get the sharp throttle response we all know and love with our small plenum system, but you can run a huge plenum for big power.

We'll see what happens with our intake manifold. I've seen the internal core plug we took and its incredible how small our plenum is, especially near the #4 cylinder.

BTW, just tested a 70 mm-68mm tapered TB (vs. 64 mm stock). Don't know if it will help on stock internal cars, but it fits right up. Needs to have the manifold opening ported though, but we were just testing for fit and running. Full billet, no core required and it should be under $400. I'll let you guys know when we port the manifold and dyno it.

UL

 

If you scroll to the bottom of this link you will see the old M5 engine. The TB's are much more exposed and you can kind of see the plenium to the right.

http://bmwe34m5.com/registry/HTMLFiles/DJeffGomon.htm


It did vary the length of the induction system to control torque. Check out this link. Kind of cool for 1990.

http://bmwe34m5.com/articles/S38B36_TechnicalInfo.pdf

Thought you guys might be interested.