The BMW E46 M3 Dinan Car is the ultimate M3
The venerable S54 engine found in the BMW E46 M3 has plenty of aftermarket upgrades available but few are as pretty as the Dinan throttle bodies. The S54 has six individual throttle bodies feeding the engine with air. Dinan makes a set of bored out throttle bodies which allow more air into the combustion chamber and therefore makes more power. Dinan states that this upgrade is best with additional modifications.
Our BMW E46 M3 Dinan project car already had Euro headers, a Rogue Engineering exhaust, European cams and dyno tuned by Frank Smith. The perfect base for Dinan’s throttle bodies. Dinan states increases of 4-8 horsepower, so we didn’t expect huge improvements but we’re at a point where making more power is getting tough.
Prior to installing the throttle bodies we managed to put down 388hp to the wheels on a Dyno. There’s not much more to squeeze out of this engine if we stay NA. Forced induction could potentially bring another 200+hp but the expense starts to climb and we don’t want drive-ability to suffer. Besides, this engine is almost perfect at 388hp to the wheels. It’s not fast by today’s standards but it pulls really hard above 5,000 rpm’s and matches the chassis perfectly.
Once installed you can’t see these beautiful throttle bodies but we know they’re in there and that’s all that matters 🙂 Dinan’s website currently states these on are back-order. Our butt dyno says the M3 has slightly better throttle response. Once the weather here in the Northeast improves, we’ll get her on the dyno and let you know the results.
Thanks for visiting and let us know if you have any questions diyautogalaxy@gmail.com
Read more on our blog here