STARTING MY 318TI BUILD
 

First let me say thanks in advacne for your help here goes... I purchased a 318ti 6-7 months ago wasnt really sure what i was gonna do with it needless to say i just sold my other car to my sister and am planing on using the money to mod the 318... my questions is this what mods do you guys think would be the best way to get the most HP for not a crazy amount of money... I eventually want to add a turbo but thats not for some time... the thing i was thinking of doing if you guys could give me some specific ones youuse tha you like are...

1. CAI
2. Headers
3. Exhaust
4. New clutch/flywheel

Anything else you guys could think of or specific ones of the ones above would be great thank you

If your going to turbo later. Skip the header, the stock header isn’t a weak point of the M44 and you will have to replace that later with an aftermarket turbo manifold. Unless you are going to go with boost, or until you do. There are only a few ways to make additional power and most of them are expensive for the hp return.
-Intake
-Exhaust
-Programming (computer chip)
-Cam
-P&P cylinder head

Perhaps your money would be better spent on suspension, brakes, etc. Aspects you will value now and later once you go turbo.

thanks for the advice is ther any specific suspension kit that anyone uses that they would recomend as well as a chip.... I wanted to get the hartage setup but its kinda exspensive what can i exspect to pay for a good supspension set up and a chip...

Since you have the m44, you dont get a chip, you have your DME (ecu) flashed. Most E36'ers run H&R Springs and Bilstein struts/shocks. You could also do a coil over kit, but those get expensive. Currently I am dropping a 6 cyl into my ti, cost so far is $400. I plan to spend about $100 or so more to get the car running and about $200 to get it back on the road. Suspension is on my list of things to do...H&R Race Springs matched with Bilstein or Koni shocks/struts. For the time being, im just going to run some new shocks and struts from autozone because theyre pretty inexpensive and come with warranties.

Turbo projects can, or more than likely, will be expensive. If youre doing it for the long run, just collect all your hardware, then save for your software. On another note; if you plan to turbo it, the reflash that you do on the DME will not be able to be used with the turbo setup. It is designed for N/A tuning, not boosted setups, so that will be money gone to waste.

N/A tuning on an m44 can get pretty expensive after sending the head out for P&P, cams, possibly valve train or bore/stroke.

Choose wisely on the setup you decide if youre on a "budget".

Good Luck,
Tony

where can u get the ti flashed? dealership?

I don’t what BMW dealerships attitudes towards modified cars are. But I stay as far from the dealership as I can with any modded car.

Dealer will install Dinan software (I have it, nice).

Nick G at Technique Tuning sells stage 1,2,and 3 setups.

BavAuto has software for the M44 as well.

All except the dealer require sending your DME to be flashed and receiving it back.