Project BMW M4: “Powered by Perfection. Engineered to Last.”
January 14th,2015:
Where do even start with this one? Is it safe to say that many recognize the BMW M3 as one of the most iconic sports car for the past few decades? These cars always seem to be ahead of their time without over doing it. The engineers over at BMW really know how to keep the driving experience lively and this tends to show with their customer loyalty. Here at Agency Power were always trying to supply the demand for new and innovative product for all different vehicle platforms. When the E46 BMW M3 came out, it was a revolution of the M series cars and its SMG blew away competitors. Then the V8 M3 came out and people were in shock of the horsepower that the E90/E92 platform could put down. In recent years the questions lingered and many wondered what would be next for the M lineup. We had already saw the M5 go from a V10 down to a V8 twin turbo for emissions and performance. Now in 2015 we have the all new M4 F82 with its 6 cylinder twin turbo setup to replace the M3 Coupe.
First impressions are key especially within the automotive industry but BMW nailed it with this one. In typical BMW fashion, the inside of the car is similar to the E90 with some extra features and functions that brought it up to the F10 M5 standards without going overboard. The cockpit is still sporty and the new mult-function steering wheel is awesome. One of our favorite features on this particular M4 is the cluster that displays a crisp HUD unit in conjunction with horsepower and torque numbers for the driver to easily see. Unlike previous M models, this comes factory with Brembo calipers like the F10 M5 to give you some real stopping power. The air to water intercooler and dual intake system do not leave not much room for modification, but this has never stopped us before. The carbon fiber horseshoe strut brace under the hood is pretty impressive and the overall package coming from this M4 is nothing short of amazing.
For Project M4, we were fortunate enough to have the car donated by one of our amazing clients. We then teamed up with Vivid Racing and VR Tuned to see what we could really get out of the machine. The goals are build a beautiful looking and even better sounding exhaust that maximizes vehicle power. In addition to creating a set of performance downpipes, improved cold air intake system, and harness bar for the 2 door sports cars. With the help of VRTuned we hope to get every ounce of available power out of this stock motor. So our first step was to get a baseline on our Vivid Racing’s AWD Mustang dyno. Being a California car, 91 octane was put into the tank and we chose to run the dyno in AWD mode to not have any affect on the traction control system, which some new cars do when only the rear wheels are spinning. We calibrated the 7 speed auto in 3rd gear as we usually do with vehicles that are 7 speed or under and left our parasitic multiplier at 1.00. Typical drivetrain loss for a car on 91 octane and running in awd is 20%. The car made 371awhp and 378ft/lbs of torque. At the crank, the power is rated at 430 hp (320 kW; 440 PS) while torque will be over 500 N·m (370 lb·ft). Some cars have been known to be underrated from the factory and this M4 may be no different.
Since parts needed to be fabricated we chose our first mod to be VRTuned’s multi-channel ECU tuning box kit, looking for some big power increase. Because many of the new vehicles cannot have their ECU data read out due to tuning encryption, the Tuning Box is a great solution and warranty friendly as a plug and play device. For the M4 and M3 F80 F82 engine, the tuning box connects to the factory boost sensors and crankshaft sensor. As you may expect, VRTuned UK partners had already tested the product, producing about an additional 80 horsepower to the crank and 100nm of torque. We have shared their dyno below.
To verify the results, we like to do our own testing here state side as our octane can be differences can play a huge role. Our car made about 70 ft/lbs of torque to the wheels and around 60 all wheel horsepower which is HUGE. With the 2 turbochargers making 18.1psi stock, its easy to see the additional boost really needs better flow to keep the power gains going all the way to redline. Stage one complete and we are in process for the next rounds to be coming up soon. So stay tuned for all the upgrades we are doing to this BMW M4 Project Car.
January 15th, 2015:
The first order of business. After completing our base line and VRTuned numbers it was off to the fabrication department to get the exhaust components under way. Our lead fabricator Justin Yourous, got right to work and within a few hours we were off to great start. Like previously stated the BMW M4 features the ever popular in-line 6 cylinder design with the added punch of 2 turbochargers, boasting a whopping 18.1 psi right of the assembly line. Day one results had us feeling good and downpipes were the first call to order.
For those of you that don’t know, the “downpipe” section of an exhaust system connects the headers or exhaust manifold to the catalytic converter. For most vehicles, the downpipe section is essentially incorporated with the catalytic converter section, and since there’s very little performance or fuel economy benefit to replacing a modern catalytic converter, most vehicle downpipes are never given much thought. However, on a vehicle equipped with a turbocharger, an after-market downpipe can offer a significant improvement in performance. Turbochargers are essentially a pump, it’s important for the pipes entering and exiting the turbo to have unrestricted airflow .
Now choosing words when writing an article about a sports car who’s heritage has been around longer than I have been on this earth and who’s technology grows more rapidly than my hair, can pose quite the challenge. To be fair we know the gurus over at Bavarian Motor Works have had more time with this car then we, so rather than trying to fix something that not broken, we looked to “improve” it. The factory downpipes were lacking a bit of interior exhaust aerodynamics so we bumped up the circumference to 3″ tubbing and chose to the route of high flow catalytic convertors. We chose this route instead of a catless design to stay CARB compliant, as the vehicle is a California native, and also to to keep this brand new vehicle check engine light free all while producing maximum performance.
January 22nd, 2015:
With the down-pipes done and ready for install we were all itching to find out how much the first modification would produce. However something wasnt right with the VR Tuned tuning box kit and our original test numbers. What we have found out is that on the back of the tuning box is a dial that is preset to 6. If you adjust this dial up or down, it helps the tune adapt to different fuel or environmental conditions. So we retested the Tuning Box at both setting 3 and 4 which fixed the huge drop in power at 6100rpm which was probably the car pulling timing.
You can read more about this here –http://www.vrtuned.com/tuning/dialing-in-the-vr-tuned-tuning-box-kit/
Testing the downpipes with the VR Tuned Tuning Box setup correctly and compared to our stock baseline showed much better results. As stated before high flow cats were used to help the car breathe better but still comply with emissions regulations. With the turbos flowing better, but not 100% free flowing, the Agency Power downpipes really picked up torque slack from 3700rpm all the way to our stop test with a peak gain of about 25ft/lbs and then maintained an average of about 10ft/lbs going further. A huge difference was apparent as soon the twin turbos spooled up. In terms of horsepower, the gains again showed up at 3700rpm with about 15hp which held steady to about 6100rpm where it tapered down to about 10hp. All of this was run on 91 octane and in all wheel drive mode on our Mustang Dyno with traction control off. The results show a nice curve with the high flow cat downpipes adding some gains throughout the power curve. Once our catless downpipes are available we should see even further gains.
January 26th, 2015
January 27th, 2015
With the down pipes completed and the VR Tuning box Dyno’d it was back to fabricating. The next item on the agenda was our Agency Power Cold Air Intake (CAI). Now believe it or not, alot of people still do not understand completely how cold air intakes work. Air compressed by a turbo is HOTTER not colder and more dense. Therefore turbo setups do not benefit from cold air setups in quite the same way a naturally aspirated engine does. On a turbo setup the air is compressed and as such is heated, thus the need for an intercooler. A cold air intake is going to provide a cooler intake charge going to the turbo. This can help to prolong heat soak and in other cases the CAI also allows for much more airflow to the engine, as factory boxes can be quite restrictive. It makes little to no difference in response. The factory air boxes were removed and clearance was made for a new Cold Air Intake System that would feed the twin turbocharged engine with as much air as possible and increase the performance and drivability. The new Agency Power system would feature two high flow Agency Power Filters, Heat Shields and larger 3″ Aluminum piping. Dyno results soon to come…
January 29th, 2015:
With the intakes prototyped and checked of the to-do list, we moved our attention over the vehicles exhaust system. When mocking up an exhaust system, there is more to it than just welding a few pipes together. The idea is to create a system that allows for a quicker, more efficient path for exhaust gases to escape. In turn the vehicle can “breathe” better, therefore spent fuel and air exit the combustion chambers much more rapidly. If done properly more fuel and air can be burned to create more power. The new Agency Power Catback System, would feature a quad exit 3″ stainless steel piping design, two X-Pipes, and a valvetronic muffler. When finished this exhaust this system should exceed all the above requirements and have this monster roaring. Stay tuned.
Febuary 13th, 2015:
Conflicting schedules and wrapping up other projects forced us to push the Project M4 on the back burner for a short period of time. Now we are back at it and moving full speed ahead. First on the agenda was to fine tune and test out the all new intake system. The intakes on this vehicle features the aluminum tubing, CNC MAF sensors, and 2 AP high flow air cone filters to accommodate both turbochargers. The finished production models will be powdercoated as well as eventually offering a carbon fiber wrap option to accent the rest of the under hood carbon displays. We ran the car in 3rd gear on 91 octane in complete stock form and tested the intake against the original baseline run. With just the intakes on the car did excellent job making around 20 horsepower and 20ft/lbs of torque. Here are some sneak pics, the dyno sheet, and a short in car video you can click to watch!
Click here to watch the Video
March 16th, 2015:
What started out as just another production type build, quickly turned into something much more. When we originally received this donor car we knew obtaining power was not going to be the issue. But how much power was our real concern. Starting from the front of the car working our way back we were able to create twin air intakes for the twin turbo motor, catted race downpipes, which then lead to our full 3″ stainless catback system. Stepping up to the larger diameter piping we were immediately faced with clearance issues. Tolerances have since gotten much tighter from the factory, add in a few twist and turns and you have your work cut out for you.
“Powered by Perfection. Engineered to Last.” These are words we do not take lightly around here at Agency Power and throughout this entire build process we wanted to ensure that the finished products were not only “perfect” per our high standards but these products would also last. Nothing was over looked, quality material used, and we can not forget the top notch welding abilities from our fabrication team. When creating aftermarket components we always do our best to ensure that our products, whatever they maybe, can be used in conjunction with OEM components.
All in all #ProjectM4 was a blast and we are very pleased with the finished products. The photos below are installed photos of the first production set. All of these products will be available to the retail and wholesale customers in weeks to follow. To stay up to date and be aware of product releases be sure to subcribe to our mailing list, like us on Facebook, or give us a follow on Instagram.
Facebook:
www.facebook.com/theagencypower
Instagram:
@agencypower
