BMW E46 330i vs 325i. Whats the difference
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00:00So, what is the difference with the 330 motor over the 325?
00:06Well, see, the difficult part for me to describe this to you is that I've installed this
00:11motor with headers on it already, so for me, the horsepower bump is substantial, right?
00:17Now, I currently have a dead mass airflow sensor, just discovered this because I was
00:21getting a lot of weird, kind of like throttle issues, and as it turns out, it was just my
00:26math is going, right?
00:27I just unplugged it and the car runs fine.
00:30Not as well as it could with the math, obviously, but you get the idea.
00:34So, how much better is the car with the, oh my god, this car is loud.
00:40Oh my lord.
00:43I hope you can hear anything that I'm saying, pretty much.
00:47Pontiac just cut me off.
00:48I just got out of driving my Camaro press car, which, yeah, it's a lot quieter than
00:56this is.
00:57Anyway, so the difference, there's way more torque, okay?
01:05Obviously, I went from a 325 with 190 horsepower to a 330 with headers, so I already gained,
01:11what is it, like 30 horsepower for the 330 plus maybe 15 extra horsepower for the headers.
01:17I haven't done a tune or anything for the intake and headers, so this is just, all I
01:21did was reflash the ECU to work with the three, because I used my 325 DME, and I reflashed
01:28it for the 330.
01:29So, sorry for all the race car noises, everybody.
01:33Oh my lord.
01:36Yeah, there's way more torque.
01:41You notice it the most in fourth gear, okay?
01:45Because that's where the 325 would start to fall off a little bit, but now I have quite
01:50a substantial amount of pull all the way up into fifth gear.
01:55Now, I have shorter gearing, too, I've got a 3.46 diff, and yeah, I can definitely tell
02:00you that with all these things together, first gear is borderline useless at this point,
02:07like truthfully, borderline completely useless.
02:10I can pull away in second easily, I've got more than enough torque.
02:13Now, for those of you that are considering doing an engine swap from a 325 to a 330,
02:20I have driven a stock 330 several times.
02:23Actually, some of you guys that watch met me at the track one day, and they're like,
02:26hey, do you want to drive my car?
02:27I was like, duh, obviously, of course, I wouldn't want to drive a BMW.
02:30So I drove your car, and I compared that in my brain directly to my stock 325, because
02:34I remember it very well, my first real special car.
02:38The difference between just the M54 B30 and the M54 B25 is it's not massive, but I'd say
02:46personally that it's worth looking for the 330.
02:49When I was buying mine, I could not find one in my area that had a sport package with the
02:56seats and was rust-free enough, because it seems like the 330s, they're more popular
03:02with enthusiasts, as you would imagine, and they've been beaten up a little bit more.
03:07So yeah, I got a 325, and honestly, if you're just getting into driving your car aggressively
03:13or on the track, the 325 is actually enough.
03:17It really is.
03:18If you do a few mods here and there, maybe even toss some headers in your 325, you'll
03:23be more than satisfied, because the chassis in the BMW E46 is still very, very good.
03:29With a few basic suspension mods, you can still have a lot of fun at the track.
03:33So yeah, the 330 has more power, but it's not so much more that you shouldn't buy a
03:38325.
03:39So don't feel bad if you bought one, because I owned one for a while, and I loved it.
03:42I loved it on the track and everything.
03:44But yeah, admittedly, the 330 is more fun.
03:46There is more torque.
03:48I definitely have more at my disposal underneath my right foot.
03:53But what I need to do now...
03:54Okay, so by the way, here's the weird thing that's happening, is my MAF is dead.
03:58This is a little anecdote.
04:00For some reason, the MAF started to go, and I would get throttle, would disappear, and
04:04I'd try and pull away, and it would stutter, it was annoying, and it was actually ruining
04:08my times at Ontario Time Attack.
04:10So right now, if I put my foot on the brake at all, my throttle doesn't work.
04:14Hear me?
04:15The car's on.
04:16That's my throttle I'm hitting.
04:17It doesn't work at all.
04:18So apparently from my reading, I talked to some people on E46 Fanatics, if you're one
04:22of those people, thanks for helping me out, because I didn't know what was going on.
04:26It's something to do with something in the computer.
04:29The MAF is dead, so it kills the throttle when the brake is applied.
04:33Some sort of a safety issue, I believe.
04:35Yeah.
04:36So I gotta get a new mass airflow sensor.
04:37I bought one from a junk...
04:38If you watched Road to Time Attack, you might remember that when we did the engine swap
04:41last minute, I literally just ran to a junkyard, and I pulled a MAF off of a 330 that was sitting
04:47dead in the junkyard.
04:48Literally, the MAF was outside.
04:50So it worked kind of for a little while, and now it's dead.
04:52I got it for 30 bucks, so I don't care.
04:54I think I'm going to go to, locally, we've got germanparts.ca.
05:00They seem to have a pretty good price on...
05:02Do you know how much a MAF, mass airflow sensor is from BMW?
05:06$850.
05:07$850 for a mass airflow sensor.
05:13Process that for a minute.
05:14Process that with me.
05:15$850.
05:16I can almost buy an entire E46 for $850.
05:22One part.
05:23So, no, I'm not going to buy it from the dealership.
05:25Lots of things are important to buy from the dealership.
05:28That is not one of them.
05:29I'm going to buy what is essentially an OEM mass airflow sensor from an aftermarket supplier.
05:34Don't buy a cheap one, right?
05:36But buy a good quality one from a different supplier, because yeah, $850, no thank you.
05:43Okay, so for those of you that have been waiting for this video, I'm sorry that it took so
05:46long to get it out.
05:47As you know, I've been doing a lot of different style videos.
05:50I'm doing track tips with TH now.
05:53Why is everything with TH?
05:54I just, I landed on that name one day and now it's stuck and we're stuck with it.
05:57So we have to all learn to love it, I guess.
05:59But yeah, so track tips with TH is actually going to be hopefully very helpful for you
06:02guys getting into driving on the track, because it's going to cover everything from how to
06:06drift, that video I will put right here, to how to heel toe, do you need to heel toe.
06:13I'm going to talk about controlling oversteer, fixing understeer, steering inputs, using
06:18your vision on the track, just little things to help you out, right?
06:22There's no substitute for actual in-car instruction.
06:25I can personally attest to that, but it's definitely helpful to have just some extra
06:29things if you go to the track regularly for fun, just to keep you safe and to help you
06:33build some speed.
06:35So any more questions about the engine, please put them in the comments.
06:38I'll do my best to answer them.
06:39I hope I answered your questions.
06:41So yes, long story short, the too long didn't read, 330 with headers, faster than the 325.
06:52Wow, just a little bit of a hit.
06:59Edit that out, edit that out.
07:10Take two.
07:13And here, again, steering outside of the curve.
07:16So your best is a 128.8.
07:20That's terrible.
07:22Thomas, you are very good on camera.