Magnificent!Now for my favorite part. Designing the exhaust system that will deliver the best possible sound from this S85. Being that I live in a quite neighborhood I had to decide on the quietest possible exhaust with the option of having an electronic switch to let his beast roar when I needed it to. I decided on having Burns stainless make custom mufflers for it. I opted for custom 2.5 " cores with 3" outlet mufflers that would serviceable/repackable just be removing the body. I also wanted to install electronic or vacuum QTP electronic control valve. I then decided I would run 4" upper pipes and use reducers to bring it down to 3". *Here are a couple prototype exhaust up pipes.
Bassanio et Portia to answer your question. It would be near impossible to flip the heads without major redesigning of just about every component on engine. They way BMW designed this engine is really a work of art. Every component fits snugly in its place. Just about every components other than the coils is bank specific. This past weekend I had the courage to try to install the factory intake plenum. I was having a few problems with the velocity stack filters blowing out while hitting the rev limiter so I decided to install the factory plenum. After about 12 hours of modifying I was able to flip the factory plenum and get it to clear most of the components. I still have to modify the rear carbon fiber vents (needs about 2" of clearance near the inlet). I had to modify just about all the hoses, engine harness, throttle actuators rods, idle valves and underside of the plenum to get it to clear the throttle actuator rods. (at full throttle the rods would contact the bottom side of the plenum). The rear part of the roll bar has to be re-configured again. Here are a few pictures of before and after.Question: because the exhaust system, as configured, runs such restrictive routes, did you consider flipping the engine's cylinder heads and running the exhaust pipes out the middle of the engine, in a "hot-V" configuration? (Yes, I know it costs money.) What would be the difficulties if one did this?
Hey Daniel,
Not sure if it's my end, the site's, or yours, but your photos have disappeared from the thread with an error message from photobucket saying to enable third party hosting.
I have a few questions about your car if you don't mind my asking. The stance looks great and I'm trying to figure out how you did it!
What is your front and rear ride height? Are you running any positive or negative rake?
Did you clearance the upper wheel well arches at all to ensure no rubbing during suspension travel? With wheels turned?
Reason I am asking is I have my car currently set st 4f/4R and my front clearance looks similar to yours, however there is a noticeably larger gap at the rear. I'm wondering if I need to look into how I've mocked the rear clam up.