E46 Topmount Tubular Turbo Manifold
 

Hey everyone! Just picked up an E46 M3 SMG and i'm really excited about this car and have completely enjoyed it the last few weeks.



I am working on building a topmount tubular manifold setup for this car. I am coming from a 2003 350Z which was great; I built a "mid-mount" single turbo system for it to gain some extra power but became limited. By building a topmount setup, I feel the manifold design will be much more capable of power potential: i.e. better merge collector, wastegate outlet for boost control, no scavenge pump system (which was needed with my 350Z mid-mount setup)

I started by creating some space for the turbo with a new coolant expansion tank.





That definitely free'd up some space for the turbocharger to exist in the bay; should be picking the turbo up the next few days to continue forward with necessary deletions and modifications so I can begin building the tubular manifold. Looking at a 62mm Precision Turbo right now, i'll be sure to update as soon as it's in-hand!

Nice!

in for the build!

Sweet!!! In for the build as well!! :evil:

Nice project OP. :thumbsup:

Can you just start with 76mm turbo. That way we know they will all fit. LoL. :D

Nice!!

Specs on the Z?

oh sh1t

Awesome! Subscribed for future updates :)

bout time someone did this!

any plans on reproducing this if its a success?

Keeping AC? or no?

You need to relocate alot more things to do a top mount!
:read: http://forum.e46fanatics.com/showthr...640&highlight=

Good luck with the build!

This is a GREAT idea! By any chance are you guys the ones that built HPF's drag car exhaust manifold http://docrace.com/ ? Also, just for starters those of us who would be interested in this set up, have our aftermarket ECUs right where you relocated the expansion tank to, so please take that into consideration for this build if it's going to cater to the masses.

I will definitely keep 76mm in-mind when building! I just started mapping things out and am planning to keep my engine factory internals (for the time being) so am looking at smaller frames for the initial build and response.

My Z setup was a 67mm "mid-mount" factory VQ35DE engine that I realized was very limited in stock form when looking towards the 500whp range less the solid 6 spd trans.

Reproduction is definitely a possibility, this is the early stages of design so I will be sure to keep you guys in the loop!

Definitely going to keep A/C on this car! Some custom lines and/or reworking will most likely be necessary to do so but I will make sure this is executed.

This is "step 1" of my plans, so i'm more then aware there will be things needing adjustments, modifications, relocations. I will definitely take a look at your link for some possible motivation! I've spent some time going over the initial "manifold design" and feel very confident topmount is the way I want to go on this.

Yes, the HPF drag manifold was a custom tubular manifold I built. I will definitely keep ECU location in-mind; among the ABS unit which I found is positioned differently for other generations aside from mine. The expansion relocation has other possibilities, I used this area because it was so open!

Thank you Sir. :thumbsup:

Sweeet!!! I come from the VQ community. I'm a regular on My350Z.

Perfect, just what I wanted to hear!

Subscribed!

Wow- this is awesome. I've been waiting for someone to step up to the plate and do a top mount build. I can see this + ProEFI being a great options for those wanting to go turbo w/ the e46 m3. Subscribed.

I think a top mount turbo would look bad @ss under there.

Found a nice spot for the turbo yesterday. I'm starting to see why people do bottom mount but I'm used to working with no room so this will be interesting...