When it comes to making power, some folks might feel like, “Oh no, I didn’t get a 335i, I can’t make any power” – but that’s simply not true!

The fact is that if you’ve got one of these perky little N20 or N26 engines, there is a whole host of options to pull almost +100 wheel horsepower and 120+ ft/lb more torque with full-bolt on status. Theoretically, you can gain up to 93whp and 120+wtq with full bolt on and tune to match. For the sake of discussion here, we’ll be focusing on the N20 in the F30 328i, but if you have an F10 528i, F22 220i or 228i or a F32 428i, many of these bolt on upgrades for N20 also work for your application, too!

Before you get started modding, first, it’s important you know which motor you have in your 328i or 428i – N20 or N26. There’s an easy way to tell which is which. N20 is ULEV, whereas N26 is SULEV –  look at the plate below and look for ULEV or SULEV. ULEV is N20, SULEV is N26. Thank you to Evolution Racewerks for the photo below:

Optimize the ECU of your N20 328i  For Maximum Power

There are several options already available for the N20 as direct bolt on. All three of these can easily be installed or removed without a trace, so no worries about voiding your warranty. A tuner module like this is a great starting point for modifying your BMW N20 or N26 engine to give your 328i or 320i a whole lot more power, and a tune will be a great compliment that will let you get the most possible power out of your other upgrades. It’s worth noting that these are available for most BMW models with an N20 or N26 engine.

BMS Stage I Tuner for BMW N20
For those who prefer to customize their tune, the BMS Stage 1 Tuner is a great starting point, and just connects to four sensors in the engine bay and Stage I gains are up to 30whp and 40wtq. The gains for this setup are lower than the two competing systems, but keep in mind – that’s just Stage I. At just $379.95, it’s also the most affordable of these three systems making it a great choice for the enthusiast on a budget.

 

 

Keep an Eye on Your Engine with a P3 Cars Vent Gauge for BMW F30 328i/335i
With a modified car, most of us want to know what our car is doing, but the OEM gauges can make it a little hard to get all the data you’re after. A P3Cars VentGauge gives you things like Boost/Vacuum, Intake Air Temperature, Exhaust Gas Temperature, Coolant Temperature, RPM, Speed, Throttle Position… seriously, there’s more things that these things can do than you are probably interested in reading about here. If you’re looking for a way to add a boost gauge, this is a really attractive way to do it, and the design means that you retain full use of your air vent, too. I’m a sucker for things that look factory, and if they made these for my car, I’d have one.

 

 

Get an extra 6whp and increase your MPG too with an N20/N26 Throttle Body Spacer


Beyond just upgrading the stuff ahead of the throttle body, did you know that by just adding a spacer between your throttle body and intake manifold your can pick up an extra 6 whp, 10wtq and even potentially improve your fuel economy. Unlike that “tornado” junk that made the rounds a few years ago, throttle body spacers actually work – by increasing the runner length of the intake manifold, power and torque is increased. In addition to increasing the runner length, special rifling in the spacer optimizes the combustion cycle for a more complete burn, and works with any intake system, stock or aftermarket.

Upgrade Your BMW N20 Intake for Optimum Power

Depending on how much you want to spend and how serious you are about performance, there are several high performance intake options to suit your taste, build and budget. Choose an intake the suits your style, or ask a Modification Expert which system might be the best fit for you.


One of our favorite options is this sealed-airbox type intake system from Injen Technology. This Injen Cold Air Intake for BMW N20/N26 328i features metal construction and tuned intake pipes to yield higher gains, faster spool and better throttle response – let me tell you from personal experience, with an Injen intake, you WILL hear your turbo spool and the pressure valve’s little chirps, too. It’s a lot of fun. Beyond the great sound, the tuned intake yields 22whp and 9wtq at 2270rpm, the greatest horsepower gain of the three systems we’ve discussed here and at $383.95, it’s right in the middle of the range. This system would be comparable to the aFe Magnum Force intake as it’s going to be best for someone who likes a more aggressive tone and razor-sharp tip-in response. Of course, like the Magnum GT, its metal construction does mean it’s also less resistant to heat soak.

All three of these systems are a great choice for almost any build, and it’s simply a question of preference.

Keep Cool and Make More Power More Consistently with a Wagner Tuning Performance Intercooler for BMW F30 328i/335i.

We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again – an intercooler is a critical supporting upgrade for anyone modifying their turbocharged car. The intercooler is often an expensive upgrade, but an intercooler will make a big difference in your car’s performance whether you’re stock or at full bolt on and also helps extend the life of your car. On a hot day, the stock intercooler can’t quite keep up and you may feel like the car is “bogging” and slower than usual. A larger intercooler prevents this from happening by keeping the air charge temperatures low and within a few degrees of ambient air, whereas just a few full-throttle pulls can easily overwhelm the stock intercooler.

With more performance mods or a tune, the intercooler holds you back more until you upgrade – the larger intercooler allows you to run more aggressive timing and boost, and the lower air charge temperatures prevent horsepower loss that would occur with the OEM unit. There are two great intercooler options available for the N20, both of which are from Wagner Tuning. These stepped core intercoolers offer the perfect, OEM-quality fit you can expect from a Wagner Tuning product and offer a massive 62% increase over stock.

 

 Of course, we can’t talk about the intercooler without talking about the chargepipe. Like almost every other late model factory-boosted BMW, when you turn up the boost the chargepipes can’t stand up to the higher boost pressure, not to mention they’re quite restrictive – this bottlenecks boost pressure and as a result of these factors, the OEM Chargepipes have a tendency to crack, pop off or otherwise leak boost. Replacing your OEM chargepipes with a set of Evolution Racewerks BMW N20 Chargepipes will increase throttle response and decrease turbo lag and gains are similar to those of an intake. This is booth a reliability upgrade and a performance increase.

Keep oil out of your intake and intercooler with a BMS Oil Catch Can for BMW N20 and N26 Engines

With turbo cars, there’s going to be some oil blow by in the intake tract no matter what you do even on an engine that is in perfect running order when you go wide open throttle. Where that blow by goes is up to you – you can let it accumulate in your intake tract and intercooler and coat everything with oily slime, or you can put a stop to it and help ensure the longevity of your engine with an oil catch can from BMS.

In Part II, we’ll get into upgrading your exhaust system, from Downpipes to Cat-Back Exhaust systems, we’ll be walking you through the pros and cons of the systems available for the N20 and N26, we’ll tell you how to get more power out of the car from the turbocharger back.

m580-smoked-graphite-bmw-f30-328i-rearside

Thanks for reading – Click here to continue on to Best N20 Bolt On Mods Part II – Downpipes & Exhaust Systems for BMW F30 328i with N20 or N26 engines.

If you have questions about upgrading your BMW F30 328i, BMW F32 428i, F22 228i or F10 528i, we invite you to talk to the Modification Experts. Call our BMW specialist Alan Wei directly at 714-582-3330 x8006 or chat live with the Mod Experts at ModBargains.com or just give us a call at 714-582-3330 and any of our experts can help you make an informed purchasing decision so that you can trust that you’ll be totally happy with the upgrade you’re about to drop some cash on and don’t end up with a part you don’t like.

Story by Nicholas Gregson in collaboration with Sr. BMW Modification Expert Alan Wei

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12 Responses

  1. Rob Reply

    Would like to know if these mods fit all N20 engines? like X1 28i and X3 28i ?

    Thanks

    • Nick Gregson Reply

      Most of these will apply to the X1 and other N20 platforms as well.

  2. Christopher Reply

    Hello Nick,
    first i like to start off Great Review, 5 Stars!! I am leaning towards purchasing the Remus Tuning, Oil Can Catcher , and Gauge. My friend from BimmerPost, claimed that there is no way from having BMW, not know there was a tuning on the car even if its not visible, is that True? Also if you could kindly let me know if this is a Piggy Back Set Up, or a Stand Alone? Also an avg. Estimate of the Installation process. I am New To This , My Overall concern is Voiding Factory Warranty.

    Thank You Nick
    Regards, Chris

    • Nick Gregson Reply

      Everything for the N20 currently on the market is a piggyback type system.

    • Nick Gregson Reply

      A ECU-installed tune like an AccessPORT BMW would be able to see, but a hardware device like a JB4 or Remus Powerizer, leaves no trace in the software, but you do still have to hide where it was connected.

      If you are concerned with your warranty, may we suggest DINAN ENGINEERING? We are a fully licensed official Dinan installer/distributor.

  3. Chaus Reply

    This is awesome! Everything i need to know to become a beginner tuner. I just bought a afe magnum force intake, and I will refer back to this article when i make my next purchase!

  4. jason morrow Reply

    If these truly increase power and in some cases, improve fuel efficiency (throttle body spacer) why wouldn’t BMW make it out of the factory? There must be a reason….risk…wear/tear on components? Cost can not be a factor if they are getting the best of both worlds……power and efficiency. People who buy even more of them. I am not downplaying the benefits on these Mods…..but…..

    • Nick Gregson Reply

      Because of cost, noise/vibration harshness, complexity, and the fact that they DO NOT want the N20 making as much power as say, an N55. There has to be a power gap between the models to give you a reason to buy the six over the four.

      BMW does a lot of things that don’t make a lot of sense, like forgetting that the Twin Turbo N54 might need an oil cooler (there’s a whole article about that one, which BMW recognized and LATER added… and then there was the time BMW thought a 15,000 mi oil change interval was OK until they started getting a slew of premature engine failures and so they lowered the interval to 10,000 miles… and then there was the time BMW was like “gee, these direct injection turbocharged motors get dirty with carbon buildup really fast. We’d better do something about it. We’d better add a walnut media blasting intake cleaning service to the suggested maintenance package for 30/60/90k miles, but make sure it’s not covered under warranty/prepaid maintenance packages.” Oh! And then there was the time the engineers thought the E46 and E90/E92 shock towers should only be as thick as they ABSOLUTELY MUST BE to save weight… except that this means they’re structurally weaker and unless you reinforce them, the shock towers can “mushroom” upwards – which was enough of a problem that there’s an OEM BMW# for Shock Tower Reinforcement Plates.

      BMW builds awesome cars and in many cases they knock things out of the park, but every once and a while they really drop the ball on the little things.

  5. jason Reply

    Great information. Learning tons here. I ordered my N20 228i here in Germany and can not wait to get and do “some things” to it. I’ve checked the box on most of the above mentioned upgrades…intake, spacer, intercooler. An exhaust? might have to wait til next pay period. The one I’ve been wringing my hands about is the piggy back tune. So much (mis)information out there regarding “if BMW finds out, then you are screwed”….whether a tune voids warranty. Or, more importantly, do these tunes adversely affect long-term reliability. I’m gonna get one, no doubt. Now its which manufacturer that keeps me up at night. Leaning towards Remus….

  6. Garcian20 Reply

    Thanks for the article helped a lot! I want to know if instaling the injen air intake and the stage 1 is enough to feel tha gains i performance??

    • Nick Gregson Reply

      Hey there, great question, and yes, you’ll definitely feel a major difference. Think about it, the intake ON ITS OWN is an absolutely stupid 22whp gain – TWENTY TWO PONIES AT THE WHEELS BRO! That’s a lot, right there and a f—ton of power from just an intake alone, normally you’d be lucky to get half that out of an intake on most cars, but Injen knocked it out of the park on this particular application. Yeah it’s only 9wtq but whatever, you’ll notice twenty two ponies at the wheels, and then a Stage I tuner, DinanTronics (CARB Legal in CA), BMS (some N20 applications are CARB legal but depends on your year???) or aFe Scorcher, any of those is good for something in the 40hp range, so I’m quite sure you’ll notice something on the order of an additional 40-60whp.

      Now, you notice I keep saying “wheel horsepower”, that means that someone put a car on the dyno and that was the gain measured with the wheels turning, as opposed to someone just adding the parts onto an engine on a stand somewhere and testing the engine (flywheel HP). So like say, someone tells you a part yields a 30hp gain at the flywheel – to the wheels, you might see maybe 15hp. So what this means is that this is power you are DEFINITELY going to notice.

      I do want to mention that you should really consider the chargepipes too, since the plastic stock ones like to explode after getting a few years old. Not only that, they leak boost like you wouldn’t believe, so replacing them with a set of chargepipes when you install an upgraded intake will help you maximize your power.

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