power upgrades - opinions please!

5

52 CAL

Member
 Surrey
Hi

I've been looking into the various power upgrades available for the z, and was hoping to get some opinions as there is quite a difference in power claims/££ between companies.

The 2 that I'm interested in are DMS and Evolve (evo-s.co.uk) as I've seen various write ups on both in magazines, and it all seems positive. Evolve claim to increase the power of my 2.5si by 12-15bhp, at a cost of £399 inc vat. I thought this was quite reasonable, and it seems to be a realistic power gain perhaps?
On the other hand, DMS claim a massive 21bhp increase taking power to 239bhp. They want £699 for this upgrade(!)
Both companies offer similar torque gains of around 20 ft/lb.

To me, the DMS upgrade seems like a bit of a wild power claim (and a bit steep on the price too...)

Has anyone on here had any dealings with either company? Or have any opinions on the topic?

Cheers

Cal
 
Are these just remap/chip/ECU upgrades? If so, on a non-forced induction engine I would be dubious of the claims. While there may be room for raising a few parameters (such as rev limiter), BMW spent a lot of time mapping the engine to be smooth, tractible and to generally be nice to live with. A remap may undo some of this.

Perhaps a free flowing exhaust, including manifold and induction changes would give a few HP - but will it be enough to be noticeable unless you're flooring it?

Personally I would save up for a bigger engined model.
 
You need to find out where in the rev range these power increase will sit, as you'll probably find that the maximum power increase will not be on top of the peak figure.

So if you've got 190bhp at 6000rpm an this upgrade offer 'up to 20bhp', you might find you go to 191bhp at 6000rpm but have a 19bhp boost at 4900rpm.

The other problem is proving the gains, as dynos can be 'calibrated' to show whatever the operator wants you to see - even the method of strapping/mounting the car on the dyno can give you an instant 20-50bhp difference.

On any sort of forced induction engines you can get easy & large power gains, but on normally-aspirated engines it's difficult to get more than 5% with just a chip so be wary of their power increase claims.

I'm not saying there won't be gains, or that you won't feel it, but I can chip your car to give you the feeling that it's faster while actually being slower and having less power (but better fuel economy) - i.e. by just changing the power curve so it comes on more suddenly rather than a smooth curve.
 
Thanks for the feedback guys. I am a bit wary of them and for the money involved, I am considering giving it a swerve. I'm not actually that unhappy with the car's current performance, just looking at the options. I had a Boxster 2.7 before the Z and the Z is right up there for performance.
 
52 CAL said:
Thanks for the feedback guys. I am a bit wary of them and for the money involved, I am considering giving it a swerve. I'm not actually that unhappy with the car's current performance, just looking at the options. I had a Boxster 2.7 before the Z and the Z is right up there for performance.
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I was looking at this a few months ago and decided I didn't believe the claims on a NA car, I wouldn't bother if I were you.
 
Only way I'd do something like this is hand the keys to the guys at Dinan and say have at it. They do a total package and it's not cheap.
 
Smokin said:
Only way I'd do something like this is hand the keys to the guys at Dinan and say have at it. They do a total package and it's not cheap.
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I've seen on the Dinan site that on the 2.5 the throttle body mod by itself is claimed to give 10bhp & 6lb/ft, yet if you have the 'S' kit with all the performance parts (intake, ram air scoop, chip, throttle body & exhaust) yet only get 11bhp and 6lb/ft over stock.

Sound like everything but the throttle body is pure marketing :thumbsdown:
 
May be marketing, but man, do they sound nice when they finish. AND Dinan work doesn't void the warranty.
 
Sound like everything but the throttle body is pure marketing
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I probably wouldn't do this mod - but just out of interest, will it majorly alter the economy of the engine? and reliability? I would have thought it may have dropped the mpg drastically but could be wrong...
 
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