Dinan chip or other for 1997 323ic

[cheappc]

Can anyone recommend me the best HP mod for this vehicle? thanks.

[CrazyCoder]

First of all, the cooling system and other maintenance items taken care of.
M3/328 midpipe and catback swap
M50 manifold swap
Shark Injector
Underdrive Pulleys
FDM (done properly, mind you)
LSD conversion

[cheappc]

ok, pretty soon Im going to understand what you are saying. I have to be lurking around here a little more. But I will search for the items you posted above. And do them little by little if money permits.

Is there a chip for a 1997-1998 323ic?

[CrazyCoder]

ok, pretty soon Im going to understand what you are saying. I have to be lurking around here a little more. But I will search for the items you posted above. And do them little by little if money permits.

Is there a chip for a 1997-1998 323ic?

Sorry, I'll be a little more clear. :D

BMW cooling systems = SUCKAGE. The radiators have plastic end-tanks that get brittle with age, the thermostat housing is the same, and the water pumps tend to fail around 100k miles (leading to blown head gaskets). A new radiator, expansion tank (they crack), hoses, thermostat, thermostat housing (aluminium) and water pump should be the first thing done!

New spark plugs, check the plug boots for cracks, check the vacuum lines for cracks, check the throttle body bellows (bendy pipe) for cracks.

There is this product called Seafoam. Use it! If you add it to the oil, do it about 50-100 miles before you plan on changing it. Autozone carries it.

The only chip available is the "Shark Injector", it's not so much a chip but a little programmer that plugs into the OBD-II port on the car and reprograms the computer. Easy as pie, it's like $350 though, and once it's used on a car it's keyed to the serial number in the engine computer. It's worth it, though, and amusing to watch the look on people's faces when you hit the 7k RPM limiter. :D

The 323 uses a 2.5L M52 engine (M52b25), the M50 manifold is the intake manifold off the older M50 engine (2.5L M50b25 or 3.0L S50b30). It's got larger runners and allows the engine to breath better, check out M50manifold.com for more info. I recommend putting underdrive pulleys on at the same time, since the M50 manifold will slightly hurt torque off-idle, you can offset that by reducing parasitic drag.

The 323 has the worlds crappiest restrictive exhaust, basically a modified 4-cylinder exhaust. However the midpipe (section with the catalytic converters) from a 328 or 96+ M3 will bolt right on, and once that bolts on you can bolt on the catback section, or an aftermarket one. The performance increase from this is SUBSTANTIAL!

Other than that, there are some more advanced things that can be done. You could put M3 cams in the engine, or rebuild it for higher compression, or supercharge/turbo it. Your really limited by time and money.

Make sure you get your suspension checked out, the bushings tend to wear out around 100k miles. Also check the Rear Shock Mounts for tearing, as well as the rear subframe mounts. If you replace the RSMs, get reinforcement plates. The rear subframe mounts can be reinforced too, but it's fairly expensive to do. If you plan on tracking the car a lot, though, it might be worth it.

[cheappc]

wow! seems you know your stuff.

Thank you so much for putting it in plain english for us who couldnt understand before.
Seems like the exhaust could be the first thing I would do (depending on how much).

Seems we pay a lot to make this car like new?

[CrazyCoder]

Eh, it's not particularly cheap, but I don't think it's much worse than most other cars. Let's face it, it's 10 years old and probably has 100k+ miles on it. Parts wear out, and BMWs do hold up pretty well. Hell, properly maintained engines will run pretty much forever, and 100k miles is more like 60k miles for a lot of other cars.

The exhaust mods should run you $200, tops. Get used bits off an M3 or 328 that has upgraded or been wrecked. The midpipe should be around $100, same for the catback section. I'm running a stock M3 system on my car, it's a little heavy, but sounds great compared to the old system.

You'll develop a love/hate relationship with the car. On one hand, they are a blast to drive and the engines are great (torquey and smooth)... on the other, they are 10-18 years old and suffer all the problems a car that age would have. Headliners come down, rubber bushings break down, wear parts are getting old... Still, they aren't particularly difficult to work on. BMW recommends a lot of "BMW specific tools" that you don't really need, there are DIYs on how to get around that on this site and others.

You need to pick up a Bentley Manual for the car, it's a life saver. I'd also recommend a Peake code reader / service light reset tool. Should be ~$100 and it'll allow you to diagnosis a lot of the problems yourself, as well as reset the service indicators on the dash.