fancypants manifold?

squeedle

Lurker
May 29, 2017
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SF Bay Area
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2009 135i AT MSport Coupe
I read the FF post about their billet manifold. It looks awesome.

But is the stock plastic manifold a bottleneck? Is it restricting flow? Or is it a weak point? Does it fail under super high boost levels? Or is the billet manifold more for show? Just curious. Thanks!
 

doublespaces

Administrator
Oct 18, 2016
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AZ
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2009 E93 335i
Its a piece that people upgrade for port injection built in and for show. You also get utility barbs direct in the manifold that are larger than the restrictive stock barb and arguably there are performance benefits to be gained depending on the manifold you choose.
 

135i2

Specialist
Jul 23, 2017
98
97
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Ride
135i
The FF is not just for show. Difference is significant on a RB classics twin turbo set-up 1M running 98ron (approx 91-93 for US guys).

Results from a 330-360rwkw car in Sydney illustrate the different from stock manifold to FF here:

https://bmw.spoolstreet.com/threads/results-fab-factory-billet-intake-manifold-vs-stock-im.1877/

I think the differences will be magnified the higher up the power tree you go too. I have this for my ST set-up firing up soon.

It's also no coincidence that Motiv are also doing their own similar manifold. Those guys don't invest time if it doesn't increase power.
 
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135i2

Specialist
Jul 23, 2017
98
97
0
Ride
135i
LOL. You blokes stuck in an imperial past...sheesh!

Once you've done the translation, don't forget to add another 15% to Oz numbers as your dynos are well happy by international standards.
 
Oct 24, 2016
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Scottsdale, AZ
I was really looking forward to the manifold test series @Chris@VargasTurboTech was doing. It was nice to see some actual results. Unfortunately, I think the testing of the remaining manifolds dissipated. It's a tough pill for me to swallow to spend nearly 2k on something that'll net 0 gains.

We got caught up in other projects -only so much time and so many cars. We will continue the FF manifold testing, but it's not the highest thing on the priority list right now. Soon!

Chris
 
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