[E7J3F3]

[/QUOTE]I hope something can be done. My car is pretty gutless.[/QUOTE]
I drive a truck for a living and only drive my car every few months. It always feels like I'm in a rocketship.

[breakingpoint]

Originally Posted by hassmaschine

I don't know about that. They aren't really "ported" - but the ports are CNC machined from the factory. The exhaust ports are rough cast. That thread is really old and full of wrong information anyway, I wouldn't base anything off it..

The whole point of flowbenching is to get a baseline and then see what areas could use improvement. If a "change" reduces flow, then you don't do it. There are some rather sharp edges on the stock N52 head, and while it is similar in design to the S54, the stock S54 head is way smoother inside.

Yeah, if you just take a die-grinder to the ports you're probably just going to screw them up. But that's not what this guy does.

I'd love to believe that Schrick is releasing a 330i N52 cam (what does that mean? N52? N53? N20B20?), but why would they now release a new cam for a car that was sold 13 years ago for only one year? There has been a listing for an N52 cam for years, but it's incorrect - they've only ever sold N54 cams.

You're right. I just wanted to help the man to some more information.There's doesn't seem to be an awful lot of it?
It is an OLD thread, and it dies after a few more posts.
I'm sure it might be another path worth exploring.

[Taskmaster]

Originally Posted by breakingpoint

Anyway, it could always be finetuned, but the gains wouldn't be worth the money. But that's just an opinion. Please go ahead and be a guinea pig. I'm not here to discourage, just inform.

I don’t agree. I’ll scream it to the top of the hills - a dynotune is one of the best things you can do - it’s not about peak power, it will give you more power throughout the curve - period.

[breakingpoint]

Originally Posted by Taskmaster

I don’t agree. I’ll scream it to the top of the hills - a dynotune is one of the best things you can do - it’s not about peak power, it will give you more power throughout the curve - period.

we were talking about flowing/port matching the N52 head.
What I mean is it might prove very expensive for small gains.
But for race activities, I'm sure it's well worth it.
I'm with you on the dynotuning.

[BrianML]

Originally Posted by breakingpoint

we were talking about flowing/port matching the N52 head.
What I mean is it might prove very expensive for small gains.
But for race activities, I'm sure it's well worth it.
I'm with you on the dynotuning.

It’s all good guys.

I think that there are a couple of factors to keep in mind here.

1) This car is no longer a street car. What we are searching for is drivability on the track. That means that we are looking for mid to upper end power.

2) Machining and rebuilding a head is fairly cheap at this stage of the game. The last S52 head that I had worked on cost less than $1500 in parts and labor to freshen (less gaskets, R&I time, etc). That was a head that needed a decent bit of welding done after a $$ shift. While we had the head apart, we had the typical multi-angle valve job and light clean up of the ports done.

I shot hassmaschine a PM so that we can get together and see what becomes of this project. I am working with the SCCA on submitting a VTS for this car into STU somewhat close to as built. The plan right now is to be at COTA for the Majors race in late June.

[Biginboca]

Bumping this because I’m curious... are there any updates to this?

[juld0zer]

Nobody has cracked VANOS tuning yet?

[dwashy]

Did anything ever come of this? Still in the works perhaps? Was excited to see how far this platform could go NA

[Rmtt]

Originally Posted by Biginboca

Bumping this because I’m curious... are there any updates to this?

+1....I'm still hearing rumors.

[Biginboca]

Originally Posted by Rmtt

+1....I'm still hearing rumors.

I emailed Marty to touch base early last month and he replied this on August 3rd...

“Cams- still need the time to just ship to grinder.”

So it’s been another month maybe time for another email lol

[airick.22]

Any updates on the exhaust MILVS? My valve cover is bad and this would be the perfect time to do the milvs upgrade.

[hassmaschine]

The exhaust cam doesn't have valvetronic; there's no such thing as "exhaust milvs".

[airick.22]

Originally Posted by hassmaschine

The exhaust cam doesn't have valvetronic; there's no such thing as "exhaust milvs".

Thanks for the info brother can’t wait to hear about an update.

[Biginboca]

I emailed with Marty a week ago today. No progress to report he has been busy with some other projects... plus work and life. So he still has to do some measurements on the cams and then send them off to the grinder. He didn’t mention an eta on when he would get to it, and I suspect there isn’t much momentum for the project.

He said he’s only selling a couple sets of N52 MILV’s a month. I’m sure the market for n52 mods is not a cash cow these days.

He also mentioned he’s got some new MILV’s coming for the B58 and N58, plus obviously the new Supra engines as well. I’m hoping that he can sell a ton of those and get invigorated towards our N52 cams lol

Lastly, he said this which I hadn’t seen myself... and maybe some of you did and can comment. This is a quote from his message:

“There was a guy recently who with bpc put a N52 exhaust cam in a N55 and made more power across the power band but not peak power. My measurements show the cams to be nearly identical so his results don't make sense to me. And he didn't include part numbers of what he used.”

Did any of you guys see that?

[hassmaschine]

Yeah, I saw that.

I'm pretty sure the lift/duration numbers are different between the two. It's been ages since i looked at it, but the S55/N55/N54 have slightly less lift and duration. There's only one N52 exhaust cam (the only difference is hollow and solid core).

[weehe126]

There is an ongoing post on sp00l street if you want to take a look. Lots of conflicting info being thrown around and also different measurements than what Marty got for the N52 cam. The original claim was the N52 cam gave 100whp to the N55. If you read the thread you will see there is no way that is true, but hopefully some useful measurements will come from it.

[Rmtt]

I know it's pure speculation, but I have wondered what kind of gains would be seen from an exhaust cam change....especially for those with MILVS installed.

I don't know BMW's, but I know from wrenching on my other cars (Corvettes) that if the exhaust was stock.... what I call a "reverse split" cam made slightly more hp/tq than a conventional split cam....especially mid-range TQ.

My first test was an upgraded ported intake, and a cam grind that had about 2-3 degrees more duration on the intake....similiar to a 230/228. This was on a LS6 and it made 410/403.

But once I upgraded to Trick-Flow heads and a full exhaust (Long Tubes, Cat-Delete, X-Pipe), a conventional cam split made more power when I did a cam swap as the exhaust needed more time to get everything cleared. So the split grew significantly since I was getting so much more air into the engine.

I haven't looked at specs on BMW's cams, but I'm assuming that since everyone is looking at just that upgrade (exhaust cam) on a normally aspirated engine....that the stock intake cam duration is a little more aggressive.

[dwashy]

Anyone know if this is still a project being worked on, or dead in the water?

[Biginboca]

Originally Posted by dwashy

Anyone know if this is still a project being worked on, or dead in the water?

It’s dead in the water. Marty said the cost is high, the difficulty to install is high, and the benefits are unknown. With all the crazy things going on in this world now he doesn’t really have the ability to pursue it, and doesn’t see it as being too worthwhile.

I’m paraphrasing here from an email that we exchanged about 2 weeks ago.

There was also some talk of installing N55 exhaust rockers onto the N52 to see if that achieved more lift but it would require a set up to take measurements and time and effort he doesn’t have the ability to commit to it now.

The only way I can see this pushing forward is what I suggested a while ago. Maybe have a small group invest into making it worthwhile. Like if 5 guys were each willing to support a project to research what can be done. Marty did suggest that perhaps a N54 aftermarket exhaust cam would also be an option. But I don’t know who could figure all that out?

[hassmaschine]

N54 cams have less lift and duration, they will not work. and as far as I know, N55 rockers are functionally the same, but just updated. Unless they are a different length or have a different diameter roller, it won't do anything. Even the Schrick cams for the N54 (long ago mistakenly labeled for the N52) have less lift and duration than the stock N52 cam - they are designed for building boost, not flow at high RPM.

[Biginboca]

Originally Posted by hassmaschine

N54 cams have less lift and duration, they will not work. and as far as I know, N55 rockers are functionally the same, but just updated. Unless they are a different length or have a different diameter roller, it won't do anything. Even the Schrick cams for the N54 (long ago mistakenly labeled for the N52) have less lift and duration than the stock N52 cam - they are designed for building boost, not flow at high RPM.

So based on what you have said the only reasonable option would be to have some custom N52 exhaust cams made. Which is where this thread started lol

[hassmaschine]

Pretty much.

I actually have Pete's extra set that he sent me long ago to measure - I was going to send them back, and he was going to try and get regrinds again - but he passed before then.