Morning all
I spent all of Saturday (11 am - 11pm) working in the M50 mani - HUGE thanks to Eric for writing up such a thorough and detailed install guide WITH PICTURES! Those were amazing when it came time to assemble everything back together. I did it with a couple friends (who aren't E36 guys), but who were both majorly helpful and without whom I wouldn't have been able to pull it off in one day.
All in all, I think it went very smoothly. This was the most technically demanding install I have ever done on a car, but thankfully nothing went horribly wrong. We did have fits trying to get that 7th nut on the stud (just like everyone else). We ended up pulling all the injectors to spread the fuel rail apart from its wiring harness, and using a small 1/4" socket driver we were able to get that damn 7th nut in place and tightened. When putting the injectors back in afterward, we found it to be a total pain in the ass to put all the little clips back in, especially those of the wiring harness, and especially those of the 6th injector - they really make it impossible to work in that area. On the upside, I was very pleased to find that all bolts, except those nuts holding the manifold to the head, were 10 mm, so we did not waste time hunting for sockets and swapping them around.
On to the pics:
Before - took pics of the engine bay and all of the components I could see relating to the IM:
Found these guys chillin in the yard twitching their noses at me as I was taking my before pics.
During the teardown: S52 mani is out
Everything was meticulously labeled:
Comparison shot of the two manifolds:
Obligatory hairy arm shot while modifying the mounting bracket
My friend doing his thing
...and goofing off
Everything in place and ready for the test fit
While test fitting:
It fits:
After everything was back in and put back together
Like I said, everything was carefully labeled
(That's still taped on there, btw)
At the end, when it came time to bleed the fuel rail, we took off the screw cap on the front, thinking that was the bleed valve. Little did we know that the bleed valve was actually inside of that little space inside the screw. I spent 10 minutes turning the key on/off trying to bleed the fuel rail, with myf riend standing there with a catch container. Eventually I got out of the car, suspecting there was more to this - so he grabbed a screwdriver and poked the valve we discovered inside of the screw and got blasted with ~.10 or more liter of fuel (sorry, no pics). Luckily I was spared.
Then came the moment of truth - starting the car for the first time. It started on the first attempt! We celebrated a moment of triumph, cleaned up the garage, then took it out for a drive cycle. I didn't have a scan tool to check the tests afterward, but I picked one up from "GEt in the Zone" Auto Zone on Sunday and ran the test - everything checked out OK.
So ...on to the review.
Prior to the Manifold, I could always feel a definite peak between 3500 and 5500, with a definite drop off after that. Going up to redline, the car would make more noise but wouldn't move much faster.
After the new manifold went in, I can feel that the "peak" that was previously there has been smoothed out - instead of that midrange "push", there is now a smooth pull all the way to redline with NO drop-off like there was before. Definitely worth it, and probably the best bang-for buck engine mod you can do for this car. I think with Eric's instruction guide and install kit anyone can pull this off, even if they have never done it before.
Unfortunately, this marks the limit of what I can do for reasonable money on this car - no more performance can be had without spending large sums that I can't currently justify. At the same time, I think I now have the car in its ideal form as I see it. Next up is a full detail in the next couple weeks...will poast pics when that happens
Thanks for reading!
I spent all of Saturday (11 am - 11pm) working in the M50 mani - HUGE thanks to Eric for writing up such a thorough and detailed install guide WITH PICTURES! Those were amazing when it came time to assemble everything back together. I did it with a couple friends (who aren't E36 guys), but who were both majorly helpful and without whom I wouldn't have been able to pull it off in one day.
All in all, I think it went very smoothly. This was the most technically demanding install I have ever done on a car, but thankfully nothing went horribly wrong. We did have fits trying to get that 7th nut on the stud (just like everyone else). We ended up pulling all the injectors to spread the fuel rail apart from its wiring harness, and using a small 1/4" socket driver we were able to get that damn 7th nut in place and tightened. When putting the injectors back in afterward, we found it to be a total pain in the ass to put all the little clips back in, especially those of the wiring harness, and especially those of the 6th injector - they really make it impossible to work in that area. On the upside, I was very pleased to find that all bolts, except those nuts holding the manifold to the head, were 10 mm, so we did not waste time hunting for sockets and swapping them around.
On to the pics:
Before - took pics of the engine bay and all of the components I could see relating to the IM:
Found these guys chillin in the yard twitching their noses at me as I was taking my before pics.
During the teardown: S52 mani is out
Everything was meticulously labeled:
Comparison shot of the two manifolds:
Obligatory hairy arm shot while modifying the mounting bracket
My friend doing his thing
...and goofing off
Everything in place and ready for the test fit
While test fitting:
It fits:
After everything was back in and put back together
Like I said, everything was carefully labeled
(That's still taped on there, btw)
At the end, when it came time to bleed the fuel rail, we took off the screw cap on the front, thinking that was the bleed valve. Little did we know that the bleed valve was actually inside of that little space inside the screw. I spent 10 minutes turning the key on/off trying to bleed the fuel rail, with myf riend standing there with a catch container. Eventually I got out of the car, suspecting there was more to this - so he grabbed a screwdriver and poked the valve we discovered inside of the screw and got blasted with ~.10 or more liter of fuel (sorry, no pics). Luckily I was spared.
Then came the moment of truth - starting the car for the first time. It started on the first attempt! We celebrated a moment of triumph, cleaned up the garage, then took it out for a drive cycle. I didn't have a scan tool to check the tests afterward, but I picked one up from "GEt in the Zone" Auto Zone on Sunday and ran the test - everything checked out OK.
So ...on to the review.
Prior to the Manifold, I could always feel a definite peak between 3500 and 5500, with a definite drop off after that. Going up to redline, the car would make more noise but wouldn't move much faster.
After the new manifold went in, I can feel that the "peak" that was previously there has been smoothed out - instead of that midrange "push", there is now a smooth pull all the way to redline with NO drop-off like there was before. Definitely worth it, and probably the best bang-for buck engine mod you can do for this car. I think with Eric's instruction guide and install kit anyone can pull this off, even if they have never done it before.
Unfortunately, this marks the limit of what I can do for reasonable money on this car - no more performance can be had without spending large sums that I can't currently justify. At the same time, I think I now have the car in its ideal form as I see it. Next up is a full detail in the next couple weeks...will poast pics when that happens
Thanks for reading!
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