tuning products avail for m coupe?

[wal]

i have been doing some research on this topic as i will no doubt look to purchase an m coupe in the future.
one of the things i have noticed is the decidedly lack of aftermarket products available for the z4 m coupe.
im in australia, and it seems most of u guys r poms, with some yanks scattered here, so ur answers might differ
i will try and break them down, feel free to add anything that u know of. i will concentrate mainly on performance mods, as im not really interested in bodykits (u can go to most of the main tuners for this such as ac, hartge, hamann)
ecu- revozport have an e46 m3 software upgrade which claims to give 15hp, but costs about $1200. im not sure if its compatible tho. does anyone know if the m3 software upgrades can be carried over to the m coupe, i think i read somewhere they are not the same.
dinan also offers m3 software as well, but it seems that they only have minimal gains.
evotech offers a reflash
http://www.dynocomp.com/bmw.php?view=bmw

intake- gruppe m have a nice cf unit, but costs a nice chunk of change, about $1200. my brother has a gruppe m on his evo9, looks the biz, and he gets a nice induction roar as well as excellent power gains from it.
k&n have a drop in filter unit, i doubt any power gains, but its reusable.
afe make an intake, but im not sure if it fits the m coupe

exhaust- supersprint and remus are the only major exhaust guys that i have come across that have developed a system for the m coupe. it seems that ac and hamann just rebadge the above mentioned brands and add fancy tips on them and call them their own.
milltek sport, who i regard as one of the better exhaust manufacturers, have emailed me and said that atm, they have no plans to develop a unit as demand is low
also, with ss and remus, are their units only cat back? do they offer performance headers, and what about 100 or 200 cell high flow cats?

clutch- unlock valve from bavauto.com

ok, a final question, seeing as the s54 engine is shared with the m3, can most of the tuning products for an e46 m3 transfer over? is the exhaust the same? they r both quad systems, but i guess pipe length isnt the same.

feel free to add

 

[peppernick]

anyone know if the m3 software upgrades can be carried over to the m coupe

In simple terms, no. The E46 M3 and the M coupe have different engine control units despite sharing the same powerplant. Even the throttle mapping is different. E46 M3 maps are generally not compatible with the M coupe.

e46 m3 software upgrade which claims to give 15hp

Bold claim. The S54 is pretty much optimized from the factory, taking into consideration the ever increasing vigilance in emission control. It's very difficult to stretch this engine any further. Even if you can get 15BHP, in the grand scheme of things, on a 343BHP engine, you'll get use to the 15BHP in absolutely no time and everything feels the same again. However, a good re-map can help smoothen out the throttle curve and improve drivability.

gruppe m have a nice cf unit, but costs a nice chunk of change

Nice eye candy. The GruppeM on my M3 actually resulted in performance drop when I had the car dynoed back to back with the stock airbox. Sounds better though. Thing is, people forget about what that makes these modern engine ticks is not the hardware itself, but the very sophisticated software that controls the correct air/fuel ratio (AFR) among many others. A different intake will inevitably alter the AFR and your original engine map is not designed to optimize that alteration. Some adaptations occur but usually it's not enough to resemble what that is optimized from the factory.

exhaust- supersprint and remus are the only major exhaust guys that i have come across that have developed a system for the m coupe

There is also Eisenmann (check my thread). I would stick to cat back. I buy exhausts for the noise they make. Performance gain is almost negligible.

do they offer performance headers, and what about 100 or 200 cell high flow cats?

I had SS 100CEL kats on my E46 M3. The engine revved better but I noticed a significant drop in torque due to less back pressure. Good for the track but for normal road driving, torque is useful. The M Coupe shares the same manifold with the M3. Again, this is specifically designed for the S54 that gives it the characteristic rasp. I know people has tested SS headers and again, there was a performance drop. Furthermore, most headers you see in the aftermarket sector fit LHD cars. RHD headers are shaped slightly differently to make extra clearance for the steering column. AFAIK, RHD headers are not available to buy off the shelf. Something to bear in mind.

clutch- unlock valve from bavauto.com

Just remove the CDV. You don't need another 'less' restrictive one. I remove the CDVs from all my manual cars.

seeing as the s54 engine is shared with the m3, can most of the tuning products for an e46 m3 transfer over? is the exhaust the same? they r both quad systems, but i guess pipe length isnt the same.

Again, no as far as performance engine mods are concerned. Brakes are interchangable. Both exhausts are very different in layout. The E46 M3 has single sided twin pipes leading to a single back box with quad tips. The M coupe has an exhaust pipe down each side of the underchassis and it has separate rear boxes (similar to the E39 M5).


HTH

 

[AlexRWD]

clutch- unlock valve from bavauto.com

Just remove the CDV. You don't need another 'less' restrictive one. I remove the CDVs from all my manual cars.

Hi - very informative reply, and particularly interested to read this comment, as I've been directed towards getting a modified CDV. Is this really not necessary, and the simple answer is to just remove the CDV? Are there any issues at all with doing this? Have you done this on your Z4M? Is it easy?

cheers

Alex

 

[wal]

peppernick, thanks for ur informative answers

 

[peppernick]

Hi - very informative reply, and particularly interested to read this comment, as I've been directed towards getting a modified CDV. Is this really not necessary, and the simple answer is to just remove the CDV? Are there any issues at all with doing this? Have you done this on your Z4M? Is it easy?

cheers

Alex

The CDV limits how quickly the clutch bites to limit drive train jarring. No matter how quickly you dump the clutch, with a CDV, the clutch can only bite as quickly as the CDV allow it to engage. Removing the CDV is a 15 min job, but you need to put the car on a car lift. Just unscrew and remove the CDV and tighten the up the joints. You'll feel a significant improvement in how snappy gear changes get, especially from 1st to 2nd. The Getrag gearbox and the prop shaft are strong enough to take it. I removed my CDV the day I got the car. All my M cars in the past ran without CDVs and they had been absolutely fine.

 

[GaryD]

Hi - very informative reply, and particularly interested to read this comment, as I've been directed towards getting a modified CDV. Is this really not necessary, and the simple answer is to just remove the CDV? Are there any issues at all with doing this? Have you done this on your Z4M? Is it easy?

cheers

Alex

Quoted from Zeckhausen Racing's web page:

"An alternative to replacing the CDV is to eliminate it entirely. However, there are two reasons why you might not want to do this. On some models, the steel hard line needs to be bent to a new angle if the CDV is deleted. The bend is slight and there is little risk of damaging the line. The problem is, if the line is not bent just so, it's difficult to get the threads to line up without cross threading them. This is made tougher by the fact that the fitting is slippery with brake fluid.

Another reason for not simply yanking the CDV is that some folks are concerned about future warranty issues. It's not uncommon for an overzealous service writer to try to blame any modification for whatever failure has occurred. Rather than try to argue with the service department about whether or not the deletion of the CDV was responsible for the air conditioning failure, [that was funny - but how about a clutch failure] many folks simply install a modified CDV. That way, the stock appearance is maintained and the issue of user modifications never comes up."

For the small price of the modified CDV I felt it was worth it.

 

[mad4slalom]

i removed the cdv, reconnected the lines without it to check they went together ok in case i wrecked the cdv, then took a hammer and punch to it ,m broke up the restrictor inside and re fitted it ,. 30 mins to get a normal feeling clutch. highl reccomended.

 

[Herminator]

Mad4 are you stuck 5 years in the past? What's with dragging up long dead threads?