Imho...

i've been doing alot of thinking about how noobs gets their asses handed to them when they want to get cheap mods and make their cars a rocket... well... that's not gonna happen of course
HOWEVER, u can do a few small things that wouldn't come close to 1000$ if u DIY and do some custom work.
after my good friend removed his cats and got test pipes on his Z350 and made a lot of a difference for only 200$, IMHO, i would suggest the below for someone who wants ta save some $$ and gain around 30HP
1. Conforti Shark Injector (~10hp 350$)
2. Headers / Cat-less exhaust (~15hp 50$-250$)
3. Custom CAI (~5hp 80$)
4. CDV (manual only) (0.00$)

what do u guys think?

I would add short shifter,
Friend of mine recently did it on his s2k (not a bmw, I know) but there was a difference, a little getting used to tho

Sent from the middle of nowhere

[QUOTE=heztheone;7126568]i've been doing alot of thinking about how noobs gets their asses handed to them when they want to get cheap mods and make their cars a rocket... well... that's not gonna happen of course
HOWEVER, u can do a few small things that wouldn't come close to 1000$ if u DIY and do some custom work.
after my good friend removed his cats and got test pipes on his Z350 and made a lot of a difference for only 200$, IMHO, i would suggest the below for someone who wants ta save some $$ and gain around 30HP
1. Conforti Shark Injector (~10hp 350$)
2. Headers / Cat-less exhaust (~15hp 50$-250$)
3. Custom CAI (~5hp 80$)
4. CDV (manual only) (0.00$)

what do u guys think?[/QUOTE]

================================================== ======


I`m afraid you`re being *way* optimistic on those gains....the only one to make any real difference is the headers....and besides, even if the individual gains for each was true, a bunch of mods are *not*cumulative, and are not going to net out at whatever the individual numbers add up to, i.e., if your multiple mods add up to a 30HP increase, you should expect a real-world net of around half of that figure. That`s just the way it crumbles, Mang....

i "guess" my car has already the Conforti Shark Injector mod since my RPM is hitting 7K, i'm gonna tackle the other mods 1 by 1 and check the gains.
will keep u guys posted what happens...

Most gains from a Shark/Conforti CAI on a dyno were an 04 ZHP and it increased peak numbers by 17hp (average between a 325, 323, and normal 330 is about 12hp). Better overall power curve too. Is that worth $700-$800? I dunno.

I am all for mods. But I'd tweak your list, in order of ease to install:
1. Shark
2. Gears
3. Headers
In order of best gains to worst:
1. Gears
2. Headers
3. Shark

And lastly, the most powerful ZHP I can find on youtube has custom software, headers, cai and pulleys. It made 230rwp. Stock they make 200ish so he got 30hp, but he had supersprint full exhaust which is over $2000 alone. And that car was so loud (not to mention not smog legal in most states) it was not streetable IMO. An E46 with no cats sounds amazing on a track, not so much on your morning commute.

First rule of medicine: Do no harm

Any of these wont' hurt your wallet or car much. Good lessons learned from spending money here. You'll probably not do it again.

Originally Posted by smolck

And lastly, the most powerful ZHP I can find on youtube has custom software, headers, cai and pulleys. It made 230rwp. Stock they make 200ish so he got 30hp, but he had supersprint full exhaust which is over $2000 alone. And that car was so loud (not to mention not smog legal in most states) it was not streetable IMO. An E46 with no cats sounds amazing on a track, not so much on your morning commute.

i'm more of tweaking kinda guy, i owned an Ibiza Cupra '97, made her a custom CAI for 5$, sport filter for 20$, headers for 140$, mid muffler delete and installed rear sport muffler for 40$, and a custom ebay chip for 1$
believe it or not, i was killing stock Golf 5 GTI's and BMW 330's, and running along side Mustang GT V8 2003 Base Model.
didn't know about Dyno testing back then so don't have a proper figure about the gains, but it was a ticking time bomb.
Since this is a BMW E46, the budget will be 2-3X, but the 2000$ for the exhaust alone is out of the question
i'm in a country where lots of stuff can be obtained for cheap if u know where to find, and the man hour is extremely low in comparison with the US, hence why the low prices for these small mods however the cars cost twice as much