Re: How to get more power
noew said:
I'm driving a Year 2000 320i. The folks in Munich must have discovered it's underpowered that's why they upgraded the 2 litre engine to a 2.2. Question is: What can we do to improve the power of the car? Mine doesn't accelerate well and seems a little sluggish while overtaking. The current 318 is so much zippier.
As the old american saying goes... there's no substitute for cubic inch (ie more cc)
Notice that the major tuners like Hartge and Alpina etc always work on either shoe-horning a larger engine in or work on stroker kits... even the honda players etc have stroker kits.
seriously though.. power depends on your requirement.
Blown engines are damn good for short sprints and bursts of power... but they do tend to get out of puff for long distance highway high speed cruising.
Big engines (NA- normally aspirated) tend to loose out on out an out short sprints with similarly rated blown (force induction) engines but they can maintain high speeds for a the longer haul.
So upgrades depend on what is your ultimate goal. For the same money, you could get a force induction kit or a stroker kit.
Chip tuning and all those iddy bits make the car more responsive but don't give you power in a major nor cumulative way... and any upgrade you do will feel "good" until you get used to the power and start wanting more again. How many Evo or WRX friend do you know who complain of lack of power after the euphoria of the initial experiences wear off? Too many probably... haha
I am a advocate of blown engines but a recent experience has made me realised that you can't really have your cake and eat it.
I recently "annoyed" (more like we entertained each other on our way back to Singapore on the N-S highway) a WRX,STI (that's what the badge on the back said; yeah... I was behind him most of the way)
We hit speeds between 160-200+km/h almost from malacca to pagoh.
His acceleration was EXPLOSIVE to say the least... but he had to let the turbos "rest" and that's when my old jalopy E34 reeled him in ;-)
Beauty of it was that we didn't have any hard feelings after the whole thing.. we waved each other off when he pulled into Pagoh rest stop.
So... blown or stroker depends on what you want to do with your car or what sort of driving you do more often. Anything else is just to momentarily "quench your thirst" for more serious power upgrades.