Hey man. No problem. I haven't been creeping the forum in a long time too. I don't think there is a down side to just going with the intake side. I'm not sure if the slight bump in performance I saw was due to the extended duration of the M54B30 exhaust cam.
I also never put the car on a dyno. The change I saw/heard was most pronounced at above 5000 rpm. The stock cam pretty much gave up around then and just sorta flattened out. The M54B30 cams eliminated that.
I reread the posts again and realized I never answered the question about the intake either. I'm using the M50 intake.
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I actually just did the S52 cam swap last month. I also bought a shark injector on sale from ECS with the appropriate tune for the intake and cam combo. I must say that was a huge change. The intake sound is sublime. Seriously, just the sound was such an awesome change. It's cool as hell. The performance at the top end is also significant. The engine is ready to keep going right through the redline at 7000. I've even accidentally hit the rev limiter a couple times because of it.
I also swapped the injectors from pink bosch to reworked S52 blues. I don't have actually data so everything I'm saying here is simply how it sounds and feels. It's fun.
The major limiting factor now is the soda straw exhaust that is on the car now. The guy that had it before me converted the car to a single pipe. The problem is that pipe should be 3" and right now it's only around 2 1/4". Based on calculations, that is way too small. SO that's the next expense.
I spent about a grand on this swap vs. the roughly $300-400 I spent on the M54B30 swap. That's only because I had some reworked injectors from a previous parts car laying around. Worth it? Hmmm, sorta? I realize, now that I'm over 50, that there is never enough. I started researching turbos the other day. It's a psychosis.
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