MENUTuning the BMW M62
"Building the best modified BMW M62 engine!"
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The BMW M62 are really good project engines and were naturally aspirated V8 produced between 1995 to 2005, and with the right sports tuning mods like a remap, turbo improvements and camshafts you will definitely maximise your driving fun.
Here we detail the best approach to M62 tuning and show the optimum mods that work.
We rely on our visitors to pass on tips and tell us about their projects and what worked on their car, and this article is the culmination of the feedback we have received. First let us look at the history and specs of this engine and then consider which tuning modifications work best on it.
History of the Engine
- M62B35 173 kW (232 hp)@5,700 rpm 320 nm (236 lbft)@3,300 rpm
- M62TUB35 183 kW (245 hp)@5,800 rpm 345 nm (254 lbft)@3,800 rpm
- M62B44 210 kW (282 hp)@5,700 rpm 420 nm (310 lbft)@3,900 rpm
- M62TUB44 210 kW (282 hp)@5,400 rpm 440 nm (325 lbft)@3,600 rpm
- M62B46 250 kW (335 hp)@5,700 rpm 470 nm (347 lbft)@3,800 rpm
- M62TUB46 255 kW (342 hp)@5,700 rpm 480 nm (354 lbft)@3,700 rpm
Specially tuned versions of the M62
- Alpina F5 276 kW (370 hp)@6,000 rpm 510 nm (376 lbft)@3,700 rpm
- S62B50 294 kW (394 hp)@6,600 rpm 500 nm (369 lbft)@3,800 rpm
Tuning the BMW M62 and best M62 performance parts.
What are the most effective M62 upgrades
Just because particular tuning mods are popular with M62 owners it doesn't mean it is good, we shall concentrate) on the top tuning mods that will give your M62 the best power gain for you spend.
Altering your M62 camshaft will make a dramatic difference to the engine torque. Choosing a higher performance camshaft profile raises the torque accordingly.
Fast road cams tend to raise the performance through the rpm band, you may lose a little bottom end torque but top end will be higher.
Motorsport and race cams, raise the top end band but as a result the car will not idle smoothly and low end power nearly always suffers.
A Race cam is not great driving in heavy traffic.
You should ideally optimize your engines power to your cars usage so for a daily driver stick with a shorter duration M62 cam
Some M62 engines respond better to extreme cam durations check your engine on a rolling road.
The map and injectors and fuel pump also will make differences on the bhp gains you'll make.
A longer valve duration can alter the bhp band and on most engines the exhaust and intake durations do not need to match, although most cams and tuners use matched pairs there are some advantages to extending the intake or exhaust durations.
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How to tune your car
- Improve the handling
Focus on Suspension improvements, such as coilovers and make sure the bushings are in good order and that the alignment is correct. Then focus on improving the brakes, with a big disk brake conversion kit and fast road brake pads.
- Remove restrictions
Focus on the intake and exhaust with filters being the common point of restriction in a tuned car. Intercoolers may also become restrictive on turbo engines so this may also need to be uprated.
- Burn more fuel & air
Increase the fuelling so it matches the air coming into the engine. The ratio is important so you need to improve the fuel pump and injectors, so the head mods, big valve conversions, fast road camshafts and forced induction upgrades extra supply of air is adequately met.
- Test and replace any weak parts
Weak areas are commonly the clutch, the turbocharger and pistons and crankshaft in a highly tuned engine. Makes sure these components will cope with your power aspirations.
- The Tune or Remap
A cars ECU controls the fuel, timing, spark and even the turbo in some cases, so to fully extract your gains you should remap the car last and this will fully release the power. Some cars are easy to map, and others require piggyback ECU's or aftermarket ECU's but this is the most vital step of your tuning project.
Modifying to Stage 1:
Remaps/piggy back ECU, Sports exhaust manifold, Panel air filters, Fast road camshaft, Drilled & smoothed airbox, Intake headers.
Modifying to Stage 2:
Sports catalyst & performance exhaust, Fast road cam, high flow fuel injectors, induction kit, Ported and polished head, fuel pump upgrades.
Modifying to Stage 3:
Twin charging conversions, Engine balancing & blueprinting, Internal engine upgrades (head flowing porting/bigger valves), Competition cam, Adding or Upgrading forced induction (turbo/supercharger), Crank and Piston upgrades to alter compression.
ECU flashing should help to unlock the full potential of all the upgrades you've done to your M62.
It will usually give around 30% more power on turbocharged vehicles and you can expect to see around 15% on NASP engines, but power output may vary depending on the upgrades you've done and the condition of your engine.
Forcing more fuel and air into your M62 is vital to any tuning task.
Intake headers transmit the air from the air filter and allow it to be drawn into the engine cylinders with fuel for the squish phase.
The size of bore and shape and flow rate of the Intake manifold can make a big change to fuel mixing and power on the M62.
Most headers are in desperate need of a performance upgrade, although some makers provide reasonably good headers.
Adding a M62 larger valve kit, doing some port matching and head flowing will also improve bhp and torque, & importantly will make space for a greater bhp and torque increase on other tuning mods.
Which turbo upgrades are best?
NASP engines need quite a lot of work when you add a turbo, so we have a separate guide to help you take into account the pros and cons of going this route on your M62
The more air you can get into an engine, the more fuel it can burn and uprating the induction with a turbocharger upgrade makes major power gains.
When the engine has forced induction upgrades are going to make more power and you will discover turbocharged engines will have stronger components.
However you will find an engines have weakspots
We recommend you find these limits and upgrade to better quality crank and pistons to utilize the power.
We see many drivers spending a a stack of money on turbo charger upgrades on the M62 only to watch the engine block go up in smoke soon after it's first rolling road session.
Bigger capacity turbo units commonly experience low end lag, and smaller turbo units spool up really quickly but won't have the high rpm engines power gains.
In recent times the selection of turbochargers is always moving on and we now see variable vane turbochargers, where the vane angle is altered according to speed to lower lag and increase top end power.
Twin scroll turbochargers divert the exhaust gases into two channels and feed these at differently angled vanes in the turbo. They also boost the scavenging effect of the engine.
It is common that there is a restriction in the air flow sensor MAF/MAP on these engines when loads more air is being sucked into the engine.
We see 4 bar air sensors coping with quite large power gains, whereas the OEM air sensor was restricting performance at a much lower level.
Adding a supercharger or additional turbo will make large performance gains, although more challenging to setup. We have this feature on twinchargers if you want to read more.
Fuelling
You will need to ensure that the engine is not starved of fuel so must ramp up the fuelling when you start extending past 20% of a performance increase.
We would recommend you to over specify your injectors flow rate.
The accepted safe increase is to add 20% capacity when specifying an injector, this allows for injector deterioration and allows a little spare capacity should the engine need more fuel.
We think this one is common sense, but you'll need to match your fuel injector to the type of fuel your car uses as well.
Choosing the right performance exhaust
One of the most common mistakes and problems we see in tuning projects is usually down to the exhaust, or rather a poorly chosen exhaust for your engine.
You only need to to upgrade your exhaust if your exhaust is actually causing a restriction in flow.
On most factory exhausts you'll see your flow rate is ok even on modest power gains, but when you start pushing up the power levels you will need to get a better flowing exhaust.
Sports exhausts generally help improve air flow from the engine but do not go too big or you may end up will reduce the flow rate. Stick to 1.5 to 2.5 inches for best results.
Usual exhaust restrictions can be traced to the emissions filters installed, so adding a faster flowing sports alternative will help avoid this restriction.
Weak spots Issues & problem areas on the M62
The M62 engines are generally reliable and solid as long as they are regularly serviced and maintained.
Regular oil changes are vital on the M62, especially when tuned and will help extend the life and reliability of the engine.
For more information on Tuning your M62 engine please join us in our friendly forum where you can discuss tuning options in more detail with our tuning articles to get a full grasp of the benefits and drawbacks of each modification.
Please help us improve these tips by sending us your feedback in the comments box below.
We love to hear what our visitors have got up to and which upgrades work best for them on each model of car. Comments are used to improve the accuracy of these M62 articles which are continually updated.
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