Some mods on a Z4M Roadster

[Vanne]

gday mate, been a while.

A. not much, maybe 10-20 hp depending on which cams you go for and which lift you get.
B. should not be any issues if you go with 288/280/12.5 (As thats what ive got, the others?? NFI!)
(youll need to head over to some of the M3 (s54) forums and read up, lots of issues with more aggressive setups) You have to do your research.
C. which kit? the 12.5 are a drop in replacement, the 14mm youll need to get new springs and a buch of other stuff (possibly). the 14mm will provide more HP.
D. which other parts? NFI, i ordered a new set of diamond coated followers, which in hind sight was probably not required as my followers were perfect. If you go 14mm, youll need other parts, and ill leave that research to you.
F. Ofcourse. :wink:

Youll need to get the car re-Tuned for the Cams, Email Randy, i think there is one change included when you buy the initial tune. At least there was for me.

I bought the Carbonious Snork, but only beacuse the GS snork wasnt available then, in hind sight i would have gotten the Karbonious snork anyways as it perfectly matches the intake. your milage will vary if you buy the GS snork, though performance wise it will be exacly the same as the Karbonious Snork... or no snork even... i think.. but only as we dont have a proper was to get air into the intake. I am still looking at ways to perfect this as i am not happy with how it sits atm. Even Toms snork to me looks like it would be inhibited due to the constriction of the OEM Z4 intake hole. (which is freaking tiny)

No idea why your cars curve does that, mine sure doesnt..
would love to find out more. Id try the other bimmerworld IAT probe if i were you, see if that makes any difference?) its cheap enough, so that would be my first stop.

Cheers mate,

if OEM is 330hp, with all these mods (and my mods), youll be lucky to get 360-380 out of it. And thats after spending a hell of a lot of money) This is does however make for a great drivable and responsive car, and immensly engaging, but as i said many times before, if your chasing HP, youll get there within budget with a SC.

On my setup ive spent more than one of the mid level superchargers would cost, and were probably looking at a peak increase of around 30-maybe 35 HP, and THATS IT!.. economically it is a very bad but fun game.

 

[abar121]

Hi,
Just reading this thread, love the mods on your zed.

Did you manage to log anything using the Torque app? It's berluddy useful and very cheap. I have no experience mapping our Zeds, but have dabbled with other vehicles.

As well as the IAT, I would look also at logging the ignition advance and knock sensor PIDs. You can use the Torque Pro knock sensor add on to do this, or just add the PID if you can find it. My guess is that the timing is being pulled at the top end. You might need to get the map adjusted based on the logs.

Also I would do the Vanos tests in INPA / ISTA if you can.

 

[FD3S]

gday mate, been a while.

A. not much, maybe 10-20 hp depending on which cams you go for and which lift you get.
B. should not be any issues if you go with 288/280/12.5 (As thats what ive got, the others?? NFI!)
(youll need to head over to some of the M3 (s54) forums and read up, lots of issues with more aggressive setups) You have to do your research.
C. which kit? the 12.5 are a drop in replacement, the 14mm youll need to get new springs and a buch of other stuff (possibly). the 14mm will provide more HP.
D. which other parts? NFI, i ordered a new set of diamond coated followers, which in hind sight was probably not required as my followers were perfect. If you go 14mm, youll need other parts, and ill leave that research to you.
F. Ofcourse. :wink:

Vanne thank you very much for your answer. I appreciate it, for all the details and the help.
I have some more questions for you my friend:
A. Have you managed maybe to go on a dyno?
B. I have read on some vendor websites that the only solution to keep the OEM followers is if you go with 280/272 and in case of 288/280 you need followers. https://store.vacmotorsports.com/schrick-camshaft-set-bmw-s54-p1337.aspx Is that right?
C. Do you any issues with the cams on idle or any other problems?

Youll need to get the car re-Tuned for the Cams, Email Randy, i think there is one change included when you buy the initial tune. At least there was for me.

I bought the Carbonious Snork, but only beacuse the GS snork wasnt available then, in hind sight i would have gotten the Karbonious snork anyways as it perfectly matches the intake. your milage will vary if you buy the GS snork, though performance wise it will be exacly the same as the Karbonious Snork... or no snork even... i think.. but only as we dont have a proper was to get air into the intake. I am still looking at ways to perfect this as i am not happy with how it sits atm. Even Toms snork to me looks like it would be inhibited due to the constriction of the OEM Z4 intake hole. (which is freaking tiny)

There is a bottleneck with our tiny intake hole. I agree that even with Toms solution still will be a bottleneck.
Have you thought any solutions? I have thought to relocate the hose of the radiator (my mechanic told me that this is not doable), I have thought to make a custom snorkel to take air before on the lower radiator for oil, to complicated line. Then I thought to put a smaller radiator. Again my mechanic told me that this will affect the engine. Pfff I don't know.

No idea why your cars curve does that, mine sure doesnt..
would love to find out more. Id try the other bimmerworld IAT probe if i were you, see if that makes any difference?) its cheap enough, so that would be my first stop.

Do you have a link about bimmerworld IAT probe? I have searched the other time that you told me about it, but I couldn't find it something for our cars or E46. I have found only this : http://www.bimmerworld.com/Air-Temperature-Sensor-E36-E34-E31-13621725323.html

Cheers mate,

if OEM is 330hp, with all these mods (and my mods), youll be lucky to get 360-380 out of it. And thats after spending a hell of a lot of money) This is does however make for a great drivable and responsive car, and immensly engaging, but as i said many times before, if your chasing HP, youll get there within budget with a SC.

On my setup ive spent more than one of the mid level superchargers would cost, and were probably looking at a peak increase of around 30-maybe 35 HP, and THATS IT!.. economically it is a very bad but fun game.

Tbh I was afraid before some years to go the SC way. It seemed to be a lot of HP and lots of problems back then. The airbox way was more logical at that time. Now I used the airbox and the car, I have read about it and also seen it live, and I am thinking of doing it at some point. The 343 hp of our cars are not so fast anymore. But that damn airbox has sicckkkkk sound. I can not get enough of it. I do not regret it.

 

[FD3S]

Hi,
Just reading this thread, love the mods on your zed.

Did you manage to log anything using the Torque app? It's berluddy useful and very cheap. I have no experience mapping our Zeds, but have dabbled with other vehicles.

As well as the IAT, I would look also at logging the ignition advance and knock sensor PIDs. You can use the Torque Pro knock sensor add on to do this, or just add the PID if you can find it. My guess is that the timing is being pulled at the top end. You might need to get the map adjusted based on the logs.

Also I would do the Vanos tests in INPA / ISTA if you can.

I am glad that you like it. Thank you for writing me.
Unfortunately when the OBD reader arrived an a#!@!!@ scratched my car with a screwdriver and I hadn't move it for months. I used it only once and I couldn't see the Air Fuel Ratio showing something on the screen of my tablet. I guess I have to move to the Pro Version right?

Could you please explain me more about INPA and ISTA. From what I found, they are software for checking Vanos? Btw why do you believe that Vanos can create this issue?

 

[abar121]

Geia sou,
Yeah you'll need the Torque Pro version to log these parameters.

INPA and ISTA are both BMW diagnostic tools that can be used for diagnosis and servicing. You run them from a windows laptop using an ODB2 cable and the software installed. I'm no expert on VANOS, I did manage to run the diags from ISTA for it on my car though.

It just seems that something is holding your car back from 7.1k onwards. Just looking for clues really. I'm sure an experienced tuner like Evolve in the UK, could find out the reason pretty quickly.

Best of luck.

 

[FD3S]

Geia sou.

Thanks for the advice. I will find dealer who has those software and also do some test with torque pro to see what logs will I get also from this.

 

[Vanne]

Gday again,

Sorry its taken me a while to get back to you, but have been working my butt off, and a little fun in there aswell.

I haven't got my car Dyno'd yet, due to a few reasons, the foremost being time restricted, and the second one being price prohibitive, which id rather spend on parts atm. I will get around to it, but waiting for a BMW club day at a tuners (which do this at a very discounted rate for the day)

Yep, thats the bimmerword IAT prob, but no doubt you've noticed that its a screw in end, and not the click in proper CSL end that you have atm.

Tell you what mate, I have the bimmer world IAT probe at my place (will need to dig it up) and if you like, i can send it to you, you test it, if it makes any difference, you keep it, if it doesn't, you send it back to me. That way you don't have to buy one just to check and then get stuck with it if it isn't any different.. (which i suspect it won't be) (you'll owe me a beer though if we ever catch up )

Yeah the vac site says that new followers must be purchases when getting anything higher than the 272 cams, I read that too, but a few other M3 sites say it doesn't make that much difference.... not sure mate, i just went with what Shrick said, and bought them, but in hind sight, my mech (who's a pretty good bloke) said that my previous followers were perfect and probably would have gone fine with the new cams) ill ask him about it next time i am at the shop...

Just a heads up mate, installing the cams isn't gonna get rid of your flat spot at 7.1k rpm..

I would try to sort this issue before complicating it with any other parts, did it have the same behaviour before you installed the intake? How clean is the fuel you guys are running there in Greece? when your driving it on the road/track, can you feel the flat spot? or is it on the dyno only?

 

[FD3S]

Gday again,

Sorry its taken me a while to get back to you, but have been working my butt off, and a little fun in there aswell.

I haven't got my car Dyno'd yet, due to a few reasons, the foremost being time restricted, and the second one being price prohibitive, which id rather spend on parts atm. I will get around to it, but waiting for a BMW club day at a tuners (which do this at a very discounted rate for the day)

Vanne even answering me with so many details it is something that I appreciate highly. The last days are pretty busy for me also, so forum comes second.

Yep, thats the bimmerword IAT prob, but no doubt you've noticed that its a screw in end, and not the click in proper CSL end that you have atm.

Tell you what mate, I have the bimmer world IAT probe at my place (will need to dig it up) and if you like, i can send it to you, you test it, if it makes any difference, you keep it, if it doesn't, you send it back to me. That way you don't have to buy one just to check and then get stuck with it if it isn't any different.. (which i suspect it won't be) (you'll owe me a beer though if we ever catch up )

I accept your offer under one condition. That if the IAT probe solves the problem I will paypal you the money of it and the shipping cost. In any case if we meet in real life I owe you lots of beers

Yeah the vac site says that new followers must be purchases when getting anything higher than the 272 cams, I read that too, but a few other M3 sites say it doesn't make that much difference.... not sure mate, i just went with what Shrick said, and bought them, but in hind sight, my mech (who's a pretty good bloke) said that my previous followers were perfect and probably would have gone fine with the new cams) ill ask him about it next time i am at the shop...

Just a heads up mate, installing the cams isn't gonna get rid of your flat spot at 7.1k rpm..

I would try to sort this issue before complicating it with any other parts, did it have the same behaviour before you installed the intake? How clean is the fuel you guys are running there in Greece? when your driving it on the road/track, can you feel the flat spot? or is it on the dyno only?

If you ask him about the followers let me know please.

Before doing any modification if you see my first dyno on the first page, before the mods, I believe the problem was still there. When i drive the car yes you can feel it, but my car rarely goes at those revs.

About the gas, in Greece we have 95,98 and 100 octane. I put 95 due to the fact that you can find it anywhere and Randy told me that the maps is for 93,95,98 or 100 so I choose the safe solution. But even I feel it with 100 octane it didn't change the output.

I have planned to do also revalving because I can not think any other problem that causes this dip. The idea gave it Tom.

Also surprisingly last Friday, after 3-4 months, I received a message from Karbonius that they are willing to make a custom snorkel for my car. If we solve this and I have news about it, I will let you know in case you are interested.

 

[ga41]

Καλημέρα! Why not try a few consecutive tanks of 98 to make sure that fuel is not the problem? It probably takes a few tanks to adapt anyway? I used to always fill up with EKO 100 (i think you have EKO in Greece as well??) for the first couple of years of ownership and in the end it was a very bad fuel... I had O2 sensor fails... replaced them twice! Since then only 98 and it's been perfect. I filled once with 95 because of no other option and the car was running a bit rough so always 98 from then on.

 

[FD3S]

Καλημέρα! Why not try a few consecutive tanks of 98 to make sure that fuel is not the problem? It probably takes a few tanks to adapt anyway? I used to always fill up with EKO 100 (i think you have EKO in Greece as well??) for the first couple of years of ownership and in the end it was a very bad fuel... I had O2 sensor fails... replaced them twice! Since then only 98 and it's been perfect. I filled once with 95 because of no other option and the car was running a bit rough so always 98 from then on.

My friend glad that I hear from you The last week I had and 02 sensor failure too. I didn't knew that it can be caused from bad fuel. I will do that as well too and I will let you know about it. At the end of May I will be at our small town again so maybe we can meet for a beer.

 

[ga41]

definitely send a message and we will meet for drinks!