M50 Manifold Swap - The basics
As you might have heard, one of the easiest way to tune E36s (with S or M52 engines) is by swapping the intake manifold to ones from the M50 (allowing 40% more air per cylinder).
People have reported over 20bhp gains after manifold swaps with little or no compromise in low-end torque. Most power will be unleashed at 5k+ RPMs though where the car will pull considerably better.
You can get M50 manifolds from eBay, junk yards,…
Comments
Just throwing it out there, if you want Dyno numbers it’s great, but I felt a noticeable loss of torque. To the point where it annoyed me so much I put the 52 back on.
well…. did you tune it?
Yep…I think you would gain more power+torque by tuning it properly!
I also heard that this M50 mod will hurt the power band. I think with exhaust and remap will be good
Dont talk down about the M50 manifold until you have one and a good map to match. No noticable loss down low and pulls like a train all the way to 7k. You didnt buy a beamer to drive around at 2k lel