Swirl flap removal on E92 320d N47 engine

meduza

Noticed some oil leaking around the inlet manifold the other day and I suspected to be caused by one of the seals. Although at the close inspection I noticed it was coming around the control rod adjuster unit area so once I removed it I checked the flap control rod and it had a considerable amount of play with lot of soot around it so It seems to me that it is on it's way out.

Now my indie mechanic tells me that its better to replace the inlet manifold rather than removing and blanking the flaps. However a brand new inlet manifold is not exactly cheap.

Any thoughts on removing swirl flaps on these engines? How would the car be affected if they are blanked?

Blazer

Most BMW heads will get the swirl flaps balked off rather than risking them break off and destroying an engine.
Costs around €100 to get someone to do it or about €50 yourself.
I'd definitely get it done rather than take the risk.
It might slightly effect emissions but it's minuscule.

http://www.bmwforums.info/general-guides-and-how-to-s/993-bmw-diesel-engine-swirl-flaps-to-swirl-flaps.html

apparently they were removed on all bmws from 2009 going forwards.
Reading up online it seems the the swirl flap implemtation on the N47 is different than previous engines and a lot safer.
I suggest talking to the lads over on bmw-drivers.net or bmwhaus.ie for further clarity.

bazz26

I had two BMWs with the N47 engine and never had to blank out the swirl flaps. The inlet manifold was redesigned on the N47 engine so there should be no need to blank out the swirl flaps. That only applied to the older M47/M57 engines afaik.

meduza

You are right that N47 engines have redesigned manifold and supposedly it should have rectified the problem that kept occurring in older engines, however apparently they are not as robust as thought before and are prone to failure. Here is an example of failed swirl flap on these newer N47 engines

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lKVW1nCOKeI

I have not removed the manifold yet to properly inspect them, but the flap control rod has excessive play which indicates to the problem. The way I see it I can either replace whole manifold which costs about €700 just for the part or get the flaps removed altogether, but because it is a newer engine the method that is used on M47/M57 won't work. However I heard it can still be done.

It would be a great help if anyone could direct me to the place that specializes in this type of work

bazz26

What part of the country are you in?

meduza

I'm in Dublin