M54B30 Intake manifold

[Southernboy]

So... after some research and pondering, I managed to pick up a 330i M54 B30 Manifold complete with guaranteed 100% working DISA valve fitted. ( £50 plus £20 courier costs). It should arrive on Wednesday and then I'll send it down the road to my engineering buddies for a good bath - (£10 ) which will clean out the interior of any oil or other foreign matter...
And finally an OEM manifold to cylinder head rubber gasket / seal - no cost available as yet.
Once I get it back I'll be doing the swap onto the M52TU motor. I've decided to have my own adapter plate made here vs paying £80 plus VAT and import duties (15% and 20% respectively)... I can have one cnc cut routed drilled and threaded for around £25 - 30.
Since I will already have the larger DISA already fitted, that will save me a heap. After that it's just my time and labour to do the swap, which I am already 90% up on having recently replaced CCV and fitted the Moroso oil / air separator catch can into the car.
For those who aren't aware, the M54 B30 manifold is a direct bolt onto the M52 head. The only modification required is to fit an adapter plate to enable the M52TU throttle body to be fitted to the M54 manifold. All else is a matter of connecting existing hoses wires etc etc back again.
So, why do this ? Well below are comparison pics of the inlet runners of the M52 and M54 manifolds. As you will see the M52 pipes are oval in spite of using the same manifold to head gasket as the M54 manifold. The head ports on the M52TU are "D" shaped - exactly as are the intake pipes on the M54 manifold. One has to wonder who at BMW had a rush of S... to the head when they fitted the oval pipe intake to "D" shaped cylinder head port...
So, with better intake airflow - less restrictive - the general consensus is that this will deliver around 15 - 20 ponies at the wheels - much the same as one would expect if we RHD Z3 owners could fit sports exhaust headers -(another issue I'm looking into)...
This is a relatively cheap modification which can be done by the home enthusiast.
I must add one important point here - The Turner Motor Sport adapter to do this mod is NOT a well conceived or thought out piece of equipment since it requires grinding away part of the OEM throttle body and even then, one is left with only being able to use 2 of the 4 bolts that hold the throttle body to the adapter.. Not very satisfactory.
There is a fella who has designed and supplies the "right" adapter for around $60 plus $ 20 shipping but excludes import and VAT costs... Hence me doing my own thing....
I guess it would have been cool to do a before and after on a dyno to have some substantiated results, but I really don't want the extra cost. I'll give my opinion on the results though..
In the attached pic you can see the M52 vs M54 inlet pipe shape and relative sizes. Also, a pic of the M52TU Cylinder head intake ports...

 

[Grumps]

Does this only for the TU engine Barry? Mine is a single vanos. @Antm72 has does this and we went to the rolling road and if memory serves me correct he came out at 220bhp

 

[Southernboy]

The M54 B30 or B25 intake will fit the M52TU head. The single Vanos M52 can use a swap to the M50 intake manifold which has also larger intake capacity vs the stock M52 intake manifold. It also requires an adapter plate to fit the M52 throttle body though. It is a well documented mod on the .net site.
I'll be very pleased with 220bhp, and if my fella can get the sports headers right for RHD Z3's, and I can pick up another 20 plus HP, it'll make the car a nice performer even without a remap.
Once the mod is done with the M54 B30 intake, it takes a few hundred kms for the engine management to adapt. From what I've read on the E46 forums, it becomes quite a beast over 3500 rpm and will happily go to the limiter without slowing.

 

[Southernboy]

I think the big kick at 3500 is also largely due to the fact that is also the rpm when the DISA says good morning and does it's bit.
The DISA on the M54 B30 is also quite a monster compared to it's smaller cousin on the OEM M52TU intake

 

[Grumps]

I was aware of the M50 swap as it's something on my to do list. I have been in @Oldguysrule car and yep there is a big difference in performance. Well worth doing Barry.

 

[Southernboy]

TBH, I haven't done any reading on the M52 head..... Attached is a pic of the cylinder head, and you can see it still has the oval intake ports..

 

[Southernboy]

It's a nice Xmas pressie for the old girl - give her some of her sparkle back... I'll be "knocking off for the year early december, so something to do between the pub and watching sport on telly...

 

[Southernboy]

The real fun will be when / if my guy can make a set of sport headers that will also pass the Z3 steering issue. I have an idea that it might require the steering from the steering wheel to lose a little weight - much in the same way that the guys have been obliged to do when putting an American V8 into the Z3 bay.. Well that's the route I've mention to my piping man... he must get on with the problem...

 

[Southernboy]

Now here's an interesting thing I read... some fella took his stock M52TU intake to a machine shop and had the intake runners machined to be D shaped... this basically means he doesn't have to get an adapter plate etc...
Although, I believe the M54 intake runners are shorter than the M52TU runners... I'll have to check that out when the "new" manifold arrives - not sure if that makes any difference, but I'll check it out anyhow.

 

[gookah]

What you have there in that photo (if the tippex is correct) is the M54TUB25 manifold as fitted to the 2.2 and 2.5(USA) variant Z3's, (and the E46 2.0 cars.... Part number 1617525752) and not the M54TUB30 manifold from the 3.0 litre.


There are 3 twin vanos manifold sizes, of which that one appears to be the middle one,

The smallest has the oval ports, (Standard M52TU) as fitted to 2.8 and 2.0 twin vanos engines, part number 1161 1439965 and stamped 1 438 140

The middle one has D shaped ports and a larger DISA (M54TUB25) as fitted to the 2.2 Z3s (and US 2.5 litres) Part number 1161 7525752, and stamped 7 501 527

Then there is a larger one still which also has D shaped ports, and an even larger DISA than the other two. (M54TUB30) Fitted to 3.0 Z3's part number 1161 7525753, and stamped 1 439 288
The tube lengths are also shorter on the M54TUB30 than they are on the M54TUB25.


The reason I know this is I was sold a M54TUB25 variant described as the 3.0 litre version,
I fitted it to my twin vanos 2.8 and it did make a big difference, however it always niggled me that it was not the full mod.
I have since bought and fitted the M54TUB30 variant since, and did not notice any further big change in performance over the M54TUB25,
removing the DISA from both of them showed the size increase again on the 3.0 one.

Fitting the middle one still makes one hell of a difference and after 3500 revs it pulls like a train, whilst I did not noticed any loss of power at lower revs,


the 3 DISA valves are as follows.

Standard twin vanos 2.0 and 2.8, part number 1161 1440049, stamped 1 432 557

Middle DISA twin vanos 2.2 (USA 2.5) is part number 1161 7544806, stamped 7 502 269

and 3.0 DISA is part number 1161 7544805, stamped 7 502 275

Real OEM shows the variants of cars they all are fitted to.

 

[gookah]

Now here's an interesting thing I read... some fella took his stock M52TU intake to a machine shop and had the intake runners machined to be D shaped... this basically means he doesn't have to get an adapter plate etc...

The DISA size also makes a big difference, and that will still use the smallest DISA of the 3,
so gains are no where near as big as they could be.

 

[Antm72]

Its a worth while mod thats for sure . I had previously done the M50 conversion on a previous Zed and that impressive, i was a little sceptical doing it to the TU engine as there are mixed views as to weather its worth it but i can condirm it is and although not quite the leap of the M50 conversion power wise its still impressive.
The disa as said is vastly different below is a pic of the stock 2.8 against the 3.0 the 2.8 is tiny in comparison.

The adapter plate i brought

as said everything else is the same part number wise so it is just a striaght forward rebuild.

and everything looks stock when back together.

 

[Southernboy]

Brilliant detailed information and pics from you both - appreciated. I was rather hoping someone would pop out the woodwork who I could turn to if need arises.
Who provided the adapter you used ?
I'm assuming the adapter is the standard 10mm thick ally that most people make them out of, and that's because the 4 bolts holding the throttle body need some "meat" to hold onto ??
I may have a different approach to this adapter issue. I'll post a result when I have the parts in hand and can play around a bit...
Did you have any hassles with the wiring box under the manifold? Iv'e read some people have had to make adjustments because of the TB being pushed out the extra 10mm.

 

[Antm72]

The wiring box underneath i just used some spacers but it was no problem it all bolted back with out issue.
There are some vac pipes on the bulkhead side of the manifold along with some blanking plugs these are not accessable with manifold on so i would replace the blanks as they are normally perished and loose , i replaced as much as i could to ensure no issues, its alot of work to get them wrong!!.
I used the Bimmertune adapter a nice bit of kit to be fair..

 

[Southernboy]

I'm thinking to look at making the adapter just 4mm thick. This will allow the shallow rout to hose an O ring seal to face onto the manifold.
I then want to look at having 4 fixed / welded studs on the adapter onto which the TB will fit and have 4 nuts to hold it into position onto the adapter plate. Also, I want to have the large center hole machined so that it has a taper which is larger towards the manifold side and will be exact same size as the TB hole on the TB side.
I may even have the entire adapter with studs cnc machined out of a single block of mild steel or brass so that the "studs" do not require welding onto the plate as separate bits.
Must say I'm quite intrigued by the "offset" that the Bimmertune adapter plate has to accommodate the position of the inlet hole of the M54 manifold and the M52 TB. It was obviously done so that all the other parts will fit without alteration and complication..... Going to be fun......

Below is a pic of the Bimmertune adapter with TB fitted. What I see in there is the adapter plate not quite lining up with the TB. This appears to create a restriction and undoubtedly causes turbulence to the smooth inflow of air... mmmmm... I'll have to look at this possibility too I guess...

 

[Southernboy]

Thanks Ant... I'll likely be knocking on your door for guidance...

 

[Southernboy]

Okay, so first question Ant. Did you fit a new manifold to cylinder head gasket - the red rubber ones? If you did, did you fit the M52TU parts?
realoem have the part listed as PN 11611436631

 

[Antm72]

I did fit all new gaskets . I had a look on my ebay items and i can not get the detail. It lists for 3/5/7 series X3,X5,Z3,Z4.
I think the gasket profiling remains the same its just the manifold itself that differs.

 

[Southernboy]

Thanks Ant... I have found a local spares outlet that sells a SWAG version for £20.... so I guess that's where I'll go. BMW is just a little more than double that price.
The courier will be dropping the manifold tomorrow sometime, and I'll strip it of any removable bits before I take it to the auto engineering mates for it's "bath" to get it super clean inside.
Then it's out with the vernier and start doing my John Lennon thing.... "Imagine"...
Fortunately I have a good mate Gary Law who has a 4 axis CNC machine which might just come in handy if I can conceive of an alternate way of making an adapter which isn't as thick as 10mm, but which will also be a solid interface for TB to Manifold.
I'm not in a huge hurry and if I finally get it done anytime by Xmas, that will be good. If I hit any snags, I'll be calling you for advice if that's okay...

 

[NZ00Z3]

Don't forget to get both upper and lower injector O Rings when ordering the new inlet manifold gasket.