2004 M3 with 33K miles very well taken care of. I've had for a month now and am ready for some performance upgrades. Help me out here for what I can start with. Car already has exhaust, cold air intake, suspension upgrade and newer wheels.

 

Interesting haha. I posted a thread like this last month when I got my 2004 M3 with 36K miles.

Does it have full exhaust or just Section 3 upgraded? If not, look into headers. Also, tuning software might be a good option for you to add on top of your current modifications. Any pictures of the car?

 

i'll post some pics. I actually have the same silver color as you. I'm not sure on the exhaust to be honest. I'll have to check. What is section 3?

 

Section 3 is basically just the muffler. I had Rogue Engineering El Diablo on my car and the exhaust was awesome.

I'll have to check out your pictures. Congratulations on the purchase.

 

Software upgrade (even if just a reflash at your local dealer) would help, especially if you have the SMG transmission.

The biggest gain you can get with this car without going F/I is headers. Lots of guys run headers purchased off eBay believe it or not with good gains. Aside from that, this engine is already pretty wrung out by the M Division so you'd have to start looking at superchargers from ESS, VF Engineering (they have a very affordable StreetSport kit), and Active Autowerke. Or if you have a ton of coin to toss around, you could look at a Horsepower Freaks turbo.

Oh, and another option you could consider that is rapidly gaining in popularity is 4.10 gears. It doesn't add hp, but the gearing change will make you M accelerate noticably faster. You'll lose a bit of top speed (but who cares about that vs accelaration?) though there are some guys who swear their top speed remained unchanged after the swap.

 

Dreamliner, having a the 3rd section exhaust pretty much does nothing for power right?

Anyway, your best bet with an e46 is to go FI.
Don't waste money on silly bolt-ons.

 

Section 3 exhausts don't give gains. The highest you'll ever see is a claimed 5-10 hp, and even then that is hotly debated.

 

www.m3forum.net

this topic is a dead horse

 

Send it to dinan and write them a blank cheque...disappointment will not follow.

 

Until you find out how much they charged you when you could have got better products from other companies for less.


Dinan does have factory approved warranty though, and when modding a car it's tough to put a price on that. Is it worth the extra cost for what's usually an inferior product, who knows.

 

Dinan IS a very expensive route to go yes, but you know it's a very safe route to go. You have tons of options with that car, active autowerke is not a bad place to go either. http://www.activeautowerke.com/viewp...x?id=Product91

 

Dinan is a cult and Steve Dinan is a cult leader.........if you want to spend 30k modding your car then by all means, but I would look elsewhere!

 

HPF turbo. Check out the FI forum at e46fanatics.

 

If anyone says anything bad about HPF they'll threaten to sue you. Just a heads up.

 

If you could also swing it, I highly recommend the M-School in South Carolina. It is 2 days of driving on a closed course. The instructors are enthusiasts and can give you a lot of tips on mods. But the whole experience was tremendous. Now that I am a porsche owner I cant wait to do their driving school.
The M-School was about 3600 but included all costs (hotel, food, transport to facility)but travel.
Have fun with your M3!