First Mod: Headers or Shark Injector?

[Smolck]

So I am finally to the point of mods for my car (after almost $4700 in maintenance over the last 21 months!). First mod is either headers or shark injector. Sooner or later I will get both, but for now can only do one. Only "mod" the car has now is a 3.46 diff.

If it was your car, which one?

[NorCal-Dimitri]

I'm considering the same mods. I feeling headers. How do you like the 3.46 diff?

[danewilson77]

Headers, exhaust, intake then a Eurocharged tune.

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[Smolck]

Headers, exhaust, intake then a Eurocharged tune.

Sent from my Samsung Galaxy S4

Surprised to hear you say Eurocharged when you have Conforti. Any particular reason?

I'm considering the same mods. I feeling headers. How do you like the 3.46 diff?

3.46 makes the car what it should be from BMW. It is slightly slower in the 0-60 category because you have to shift to third to make it, but both second and third gears are a monster and the overall 1/4 mile times are better by .3 seconds. And passing on the highway no longer requires downshifting to 5th.

[danewilson77]

They can tune it to your mods. It's a better tune. I only have AFE intake and no exhaust moss so Shark packaged tune made sense to me at time and I didn't even know about them either.

I will be going Eurocharged tune when I do my headers and exhaust.

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[Smolck]

They can tune it to your mods. It's a better tune. I only have AFE intake and no exhaust moss so Shark packaged tune made sense to me at time and I didn't even know about them either.

I will be going Eurocharged tune when I do my headers and exhaust.

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I liked the shark I had on my 323 with an intake. Felt nice on that little engine.

I guess I just like the DIY nature of the shark vs having to send off my DME. And I have never seen any head to head dyno pulls with a normal software on a modded car (headers, intake etc) vs one that has the software "tuned" for the mods. I mean, it can't add THAT much more power, can it?

Also, I doubt I will ever do exhaust. Too much money and would be way too loud with headers.

[BCS_ZHP]

Smolck's,
Think of it in 3 parts - breathing, drinking, & exhausting. You need to do all 3 to maximize your performance increase. But as Dane said, try not to do one (Shark) that you might have to change or modify after the others. The intake & exhaust changes are pure mechanical, do those first as you see fit and to your desires. Then afterwards you should be able to feel if its lacking in low end torque and/or high end speed, and at that point any of the custom tuners should be able to give you what you want.

[danewilson77]

I liked the shark I had on my 323 with an intake. Felt nice on that little engine.

I guess I just like the DIY nature of the shark vs having to send off my DME. And I have never seen any head to head dyno pulls with a normal software on a modded car (headers, intake etc) vs one that has the software "tuned" for the mods. I mean, it can't add THAT much more power, can it?

Also, I doubt I will ever do exhaust. Too much money and would be way too loud with headers.

Ok. Sounds good.

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[Avetiso]

X2 Eurocharged.

Sent from a junkyard via GS4.

[QC_ZHP]

I was in the same boat as you. I was able to find a set of BimmerBrake headers for fairly cheap, so I pulled the trigger. I probably won't have the time to install them for a bit, but I'm still happy with the stock exhaust, so no problems there at them moment.

I went with the 3.38 over the 3.46, but we'd have a similar setup, so I'd be interested in hearing your input on the setup if you go the header route.