BHP UK BMW GB CLUB Dyno Day... 35i

M

Maniac

Elite
Had a nice little run out on Saturday morning, Accrington way on, just 40 mins from home to BHP UK, where BMW GB CLUB were holding a discounted Dyno Meet.

I can confirm despite rumours to the contrary that the 35i puts out around the 300bhp mark and not the 320+ many claim. My car is stock with 97 Ron fuel. Clearly things like ambient temp etc will play a part, along with the actual tech used which varies.

The same place does remapping so I'll pop back in summer for a 50+ BHP treat I think :)

I have a few photos from the day which I'll upload shortly...
 
Nickm said:
Cool. I thought the 35i was 306......
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lol Nick, fancy being the first to do what I expected.. the assumption that engines always output at the manufacturers spec ;)

There are too many factors to measure, state of engine, oil type, tyres, tyre pressure, engine temp, fuel type, air intake speed, air temp, humidity, you name it.. and equally even Dynos arent perfect. the fact its super close is all i need to know :)

There was a chap there in a 645i which is, im told, 330 stock and he got 297. Thats the difference 95 ron and car age can make..
 
Well to chime in on this. www.autoweek.nl has a nice section on the site where they put older cars on the dyno to see what age and milage do to an engine. Generaly they have less than when they were new. Some just a litle some a lot. Just two weeks back they had a 540 from '97 on the dyno. Original spec. It put out more than BMW listed at the time. It even had 252K km on the dial!

Here is the video. http://www.autoweek.nl/video/2771/op-rollenbank-bmw-540i
fast forward to 2:00 where you will see it has 27bhp more.
 
Sounds healthy.

peddy, I think a lot of posts on Zpost claim higher outputs for the 35i and 335i than the stock 300-odd.
 
Wondermike said:
peddy, I think a lot of posts on Zpost claim higher outputs for the 35i and 335i than the stock 300-odd.
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With the fact that so many place estimate power loss at the wheel and there are so many small factors that alter it Unrealiable source IMO.
IMO they're all 306 or there about, but the only true way is to find out is to take your engine out and test the bhp with no power loss.
 
From what i've found 35's are pretty faithful to the 306 stated bhp. When i had mine dynoed back in November she ran 353 with an ESS map. I havnt gone with stage 2 yet but even with a stock intercooler you should be seeing a decent increase. Thinking about adding a bit of toluene to some v-power when the weather gets better :thumbsup:

A tad under there stated return but not bad
http://www.esstuning.com/products/ESS-DirectFlash-N54-ECU-Performance-Software.html
 
socketr said:
From what i've found 35's are pretty faithful to the 306 stated bhp. When i had mine dynoed back in November she ran 353 with an ESS map. I havnt gone with stage 2 yet but even with a stock intercooler you should be seeing a decent increase. Thinking about adding a bit of toluene to some v-power when the weather gets better :thumbsup:

A tad under there stated return but not bad
http://www.esstuning.com/products/ESS-DirectFlash-N54-ECU-Performance-Software.html
Click to expand...

I'm seriously considering the ess tune as it seems very good value.. I'd appreciate your thoughts and observations on it..

BHP UK would charge much less for a remap done with them and there's an element of reassurance that they're local so any problems can be looked at etc... But I also like the fact ess has a widget to reverse then and there...
 
No problem, although I havnt had it active on the car for too long. I too considered uk based tuners who would physically interrogate the ECU and although cheaper I wanted a less invasive tune so I began looking a Cobb, JB3 etc. From the research and feedback from other 35i owners it became clear that the ESS direct flash was one of the most stable (i.e. not throwing code errors) tunes available. So naturally I opted for the ESS direct flash. The major benefit to me of this system is that the car can be reverted to its natural state at any time as the loader retains your cars original ECU settings. Making it easy to revert for services and inspections. Also if you do ever get a code error (highly unlikely) you can use a 3rd party code reader to check it out. Must point out I havnt heard of any error codes being thrown from this tune.

On the car it's just simply a game changer. You think you know what a 35i is like, you have no idea. I'm not a car techy but the power delivery appears a lot more linear than before, with soo much torque it feels like you could snap your neck through the first few gates and beyond. I have no idea what my cars 0-60 time is but it must be within the 4 second range. In terms of an M3 killer, No but in a straight line I'd love to see what happens coz I've got a feeling a stock M3 might struggle. The turbo also seems to be more reactive than before, the car just feels sharper.

I had exactly the same feeling when I got bluefin for my Focus ST, before docile, after something else entirely. Oh and if you ever get use to the extra ooomph there's always Stage 2 nuke tune :)

Hope this helps mate.
 
I've got the manual and the throttle response in sport mode 'seems' slightly more sensitive but there's not much in it too be honest. I have no experience with the auto boxes I'm afraid but ESS do let you select which transmission you have. I guess they have made some slight adjustments to accommodate the torque different transmissions can handle. I mean the torque figures are pretty interesting to say the least.

One thing that is still noticeable is the slight chassis roll in high speed cornering. It's minimal and no worse than normal but when you want to stick it into a sweep or tight ish bend you are aware of it. I've booked mine in to get eibachs next week, so hopefully it'll be like a go kart afterwards :)
 
Do you have adaptive suspension? I find that mine wallows badly in normal but is solid in sport plus. By far my favorite is normal sport mode which provides both good feedback and suspension stiffness without crashiness.
 
No I don't have adaptive suspension hence opting for the eibachs which have progressive dampening properties. I guess the weight of the roof doesn't help, probably why most people run with the roof down on track days.
 
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