Performance chips

Personally go cheaper and buy 10 of the £14 chips that they sell on ebay and piggyback them one after another........each adds 30bph so thats an extra 300 bhp!!!!!!!

Who needs FI!
 
If BMW ///M division, a milti-million pound company, can't achieve those BHP's (with the current engine parts and setup they've used) then how on earth can a shoddy eBay company worth nothing achieve it with a £120 "chip"?
 
mmm-five said:
I'd run further than a mile :poke:

Even the companies that only offer 10-15bhp charge at least double that, and they offer your money back if you don't feel it's done anything.

The only way you'll get any gains is by doing live mapping on a rolling road, which will simply optimise a standard map to suit your engine's characteristics, which might be a little less torque but more peak power, or vice versa - or it might simply put an artificial 'step' in the power delivery to make it feel like you've been given a power boost.


If you do go down the dyno route, then make sure your car is not removed from the rollers between runs, as a small difference in how a car is strapped down can increase/decrease your measured real-wheel figure by as much as 10%.
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I can't understand how these dyno runs can make accurate readings. Does it not depend on your tyres, pressure etc? Sorry if I'm beinf thick here but Bhp is measured at the axle right?
 
Most cars can achieve some gains as what BMW supply allows for crap fuel, high altitude etc, the cheap ones usually lean out the mixture to gain a few HP and most modern ECU will learn around it in a short while so you end up with no gain
I think superchips claim around 10 hp for £300 including installation and a before and after dyno run.
 
ChawenHalo said:
I can't understand how these dyno runs can make accurate readings. Does it not depend on your tyres, pressure etc? Sorry if I'm beinf thick here but Bhp is measured at the axle right?
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They're really only useful for making comparisons between ECU/engine changes, on the same day, by the same operator, without removing the car from the dyno.

Small changes (of 1-5bhp) can easily be attributed to temp, tyre pressures, strapping, etc.

If you're only interested in rear wheel horsepower/torque/kw/nm, then a chassis dyno is okay, but when they start 'calculating' power at the flywheel, then that where dyno's can be fed inaccurate info to increase/reduce the final reading. So an unscrupulous chip seller/dyno operator could tweak your original reading downwards by 10bhp fit his chip and then let the dyno do it's job with the proper settings, so their claim of 15bhp increase is shown on the dyno when you've only actually got 5bhp over your real original reading.

There are small gains to be had on most engines, but they're normally in the range of 5-10bhp on naturally-aspirated engines.

Turbo-engines can realise huge gains as the manufacturers tend to artificially limit the torque of them so they don't go breaking gearboxes/shafts. When the tuner removes this limit (as on lots of 335/535 twin turbo petrol & diesels) then there starts to be lots of transmission failures on these cars.

The other problem is the customer expecting cumulative gains from modifications. They'll see the chip gives them 10bhp, exhaust/cat claims 15bhp, filter/intake claims 5bhp, lighter pulleys claim 5bhp and they'll add it all up and expect almost 40bhp gain. Most of the time they'll be lucky to get half of that as there's a limit to what the engine will give out and each mod only gives a percentage of that. Each modification reduces the bhp left to be released and any other mods have to fight for that limited capacity. You can 'cheat' this by changing the engine internals, but then you're looking at about 10bhp/£1000.

The most cost-effective option is to supercharge, where you can get 20-30bhp/£1000, and is what I would do if I had the cash.
 
mmm-five said:
ChawenHalo said:
I can't understand how these dyno runs can make accurate readings. Does it not depend on your tyres, pressure etc? Sorry if I'm beinf thick here but Bhp is measured at the axle right?
Click to expand...
They're really only useful for making comparisons between ECU/engine changes, on the same day, by the same operator, without removing the car from the dyno.

Small changes (of 1-5bhp) can easily be attributed to temp, tyre pressures, strapping, etc.

If you're only interested in rear wheel horsepower/torque/kw/nm, then a chassis dyno is okay, but when they start 'calculating' power at the flywheel, then that where dyno's can be fed inaccurate info to increase/reduce the final reading. So an unscrupulous chip seller/dyno operator could tweak your original reading downwards by 10bhp fit his chip and then let the dyno do it's job with the proper settings, so their claim of 15bhp increase is shown on the dyno when you've only actually got 5bhp over your real original reading.

There are small gains to be had on most engines, but they're normally in the range of 5-10bhp on naturally-aspirated engines.

Turbo-engines can realise huge gains as the manufacturers tend to artificially limit the torque of them so they don't go breaking gearboxes/shafts. When the tuner removes this limit (as on lots of 335/535 twin turbo petrol & diesels) then there starts to be lots of transmission failures on these cars.

The other problem is the customer expecting cumulative gains from modifications. They'll see the chip gives them 10bhp, exhaust/cat claims 15bhp, filter/intake claims 5bhp, lighter pulleys claim 5bhp and they'll add it all up and expect almost 40bhp gain. Most of the time they'll be lucky to get half of that as there's a limit to what the engine will give out and each mod only gives a percentage of that. Each modification reduces the bhp left to be released and any other mods have to fight for that limited capacity. You can 'cheat' this by changing the engine internals, but then you're looking at about 10bhp/£1000.

The most cost-effective option is to supercharge, where you can get 20-30bhp/£1000, and is what I would do if I had the cash.
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Thanks. That makes sense.The way they market each upgrades does tend to make the consumer think in cumulative terms.

Is there a casefor doing a remap / Dyno run etc if you've had a few mods like filter, 100 cells Cat and back boxes?

I thought the ECU adapted to a certain extent to different fuels etc so surely it would adapt also to better breathing? Or am I talking out of my backside?

Reason I'm asking is because I have the ACS backboxes, K&N filter and after a new sofware upgrade from the dealership and a major service from a good indy, the car just runs so much better. My indy tells me its just the cululative result of the thourough service (he even changerd the Vanos filter, the mechanic at BMW said they never did tings like that).
 
I've a straight through exhaust system with no centre resonator , RPI air scoop thing and a K & N filter. Would be interested to see if a good remap freed up more power, but not interested enough to spend £450 on it! Car runs well enough as it is.
 
Theoretically you would see better figures after a remap if you already have other power mods than if you didn't but a set of back boxes and a filter are not considered power mods in my mind. They don't offer anything more than more/better sound.
 
ga41 said:
Theoretically you would see better figures after a remap if you already have other power mods than if you didn't but a set of back boxes and a filter are not considered power mods in my mind. They don't offer anything more than more/better sound.
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that makes sense. As far as I'm concerned its not about more power but a better delivery.
 
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