Best tuning under $400

[FrankProps]

I would like to know the best tuning options for my 2016 z4 s35i, 28k miles, I have no modifications, 18" wheels. Im considering Dinan stage 1 , and speed Buster's stage one. My z is a daily driver, bought it a year ago. I see the administrator has a great breakdown of mods posted. I would like to know mod user feedback.

I feel warm and fuzzy with Dinan's decription a of stage one, such as adjustment of coolent temp, and timing. But not too much of ho and torque gain .Speed Buster's stage one comes with an app, and much more hp.
What mods will make the engine run best or better than stock?

In addition, I would like feed back about a air intake mod. My concern with a dual cone air filters is that the intake is exposed to more dust, debris than a inclosed airfilter.

Is there a mod for the 7 speed ?

I have enjoyed reading the threads, glad I can finally make my post.

[KennyP]

What is your end goal? Do you want to get serius with adding power and tuning, or just want some extra kick from the engine?

If you just want some exta power then any stage 1 tune would do.
Dinan was im guesssing one of the first tunes you could get when this engine was brand new. Now that N54 is 14 year old engine design there are alot of options to choose from. I would not choose something thats only 1 map... set it and forget it type of deal... and would get something that is a full tuning system... different maps for different hardware mods, upgrade path etc.

With cobb i have many maps and an upgrade path to follow if i wish. Used to have 3 different stage 1 maps...
stage 1 drive 95 fuel ( mild)
stage 1 sport 95 fuel ( sporty)
stage 1 agressive 98 fuel only ( agressive)

Now with updated maps i have only 2 variants: stage 1 95 and stage 1 98 map. Of course i still have older maps i can use but new ones are ok and i used most aggressive map previously anyway.

When i get tired of stage 1... and i already am graving for more power. You have new maps ready to go. Add intercooler and chargepipe and you can chage your map to stage1+ FMIC. Its advertised + 30hp.
Swap out to catless down pipes and you can switch to stage 2 maps. thats extra 50hp. Do both and you can run Stage2+ FMIC maps.

Big plus for me is that i can install and uninstall any time i want to. For example when i give my car ot a family member i put it back to stock.
I can data log , monitor gauges, read codes. All this stuff is useful.

And i actually got my Cobb V3 used from ebay UK a lot cheaper than it retails.

Cobb does not work with your car because they are up to 2013 or 2014 Z4 35i for some wierd reason. But there are similar tuners out there that offer upgrade paths and are as a matter of fact newer and better.

MHD is the first one to come in mind. They have also nice upgrade path set up for you and so on. Lot of information available aswell. 4 years ago MHD wasnt as big as it is now. Now if i didnt already have my Cobb accessport i would surely go MHD. Maybe someday i will throw Cobb up for sale on ebay and grab MHD. Probably when i get more serious with building my car up.

On dual cone air filters... I think for stage 1 maps they are not necessary. If you start changing hardware on your car like downpipes and intercoolers then dual cone intakes have an effect. Debris i would not worry about. Also heatsoak does not matter either as air is heated up by turbos anyway and then cooled by the intercooler. Quality of the intake filter is what matters. I would only buy BMS DCI. I saw some other brand dual cone intakes on youtube and the filters started to deteriorate and break apart. Burger motorsport DCI is very popular and havent heard any horror stories, only good things. Also if you are going full bolton inlets(pipes from airfilter to turbo also help turbos breathe better and actually give some gains.
Outlets from turbos to intercooler seem not to do much and are not worth it.

For DCT i have read that some have been able to install M3 GTS software or something on it. Personally i dont see the need for modding it. If DCT starts to slip at bigger power levels there are upgraded clutchpacks you can buy. SSP and DODSON... Not cheap though.

[Asbjorn]

Would recommend mhd stg1 given your hw setup. You can flash 35is dct for free with a laptop. DCIs are not proven to make any difference, even on highly modded z4s. They just add noise, not recommended. The stock box is fine below 450ps according to my testing. Also you don't really want sport cooling. The cars coolers are all waay too small so just let it cool down often and you'll be fine. Its not something that the flash can solve anyway.

[KennyP]

Originally Posted by Asbjorn

You can flash 35is dct for free with a laptop.

Do you have any more information on that? Link? Im interested!

[Asbjorn]

Originally Posted by KennyP

Do you have any more information on that? Link? Im interested!

https://bmw.spoo lstreet.com/threads/recommended-android-apps-for-e89-owners.6076/


Remove the space in the link above and copy paste into your browser. Look at what carabuser wrote.

[rusty_sojah]

Originally Posted by KennyP

What is your end goal? Do you want to get serius with adding power and tuning, or just want some extra kick from the engine?

If you just want some exta power then any stage 1 tune would do.
Dinan was im guesssing one of the first tunes you could get when this engine was brand new. Now that N54 is 14 year old engine design there are alot of options to choose from. I would not choose something thats only 1 map... set it and forget it type of deal... and would get something that is a full tuning system... different maps for different hardware mods, upgrade path etc.

With cobb i have many maps and an upgrade path to follow if i wish. Used to have 3 different stage 1 maps...
stage 1 drive 95 fuel ( mild)
stage 1 sport 95 fuel ( sporty)
stage 1 agressive 98 fuel only ( agressive)

Now with updated maps i have only 2 variants: stage 1 95 and stage 1 98 map. Of course i still have older maps i can use but new ones are ok and i used most aggressive map previously anyway.

When i get tired of stage 1... and i already am graving for more power. You have new maps ready to go. Add intercooler and chargepipe and you can chage your map to stage1+ FMIC. Its advertised + 30hp.
Swap out to catless down pipes and you can switch to stage 2 maps. thats extra 50hp. Do both and you can run Stage2+ FMIC maps.

Big plus for me is that i can install and uninstall any time i want to. For example when i give my car ot a family member i put it back to stock.
I can data log , monitor gauges, read codes. All this stuff is useful.

And i actually got my Cobb V3 used from ebay UK a lot cheaper than it retails.

Cobb does not work with your car because they are up to 2013 or 2014 Z4 35i for some wierd reason. But there are similar tuners out there that offer upgrade paths and are as a matter of fact newer and better.

MHD is the first one to come in mind. They have also nice upgrade path set up for you and so on. Lot of information available aswell. 4 years ago MHD wasnt as big as it is now. Now if i didnt already have my Cobb accessport i would surely go MHD. Maybe someday i will throw Cobb up for sale on ebay and grab MHD. Probably when i get more serious with building my car up.

On dual cone air filters... I think for stage 1 maps they are not necessary. If you start changing hardware on your car like downpipes and intercoolers then dual cone intakes have an effect. Debris i would not worry about. Also heatsoak does not matter either as air is heated up by turbos anyway and then cooled by the intercooler. Quality of the intake filter is what matters. I would only buy BMS DCI. I saw some other brand dual cone intakes on youtube and the filters started to deteriorate and break apart. Burger motorsport DCI is very popular and havent heard any horror stories, only good things. Also if you are going full bolton inlets(pipes from airfilter to turbo also help turbos breathe better and actually give some gains.
Outlets from turbos to intercooler seem not to do much and are not worth it.

For DCT i have read that some have been able to install M3 GTS software or something on it. Personally i dont see the need for modding it. If DCT starts to slip at bigger power levels there are upgraded clutchpacks you can buy. SSP and DODSON... Not cheap though.

I just sold my 2011 335is dct full bolt on running the cobb stg2+

I'm hoping to move to another country very soon and looking presently at a 35i z4 e89 with n54 dct i believe but not 100% sure if dct or not. Anyways I'm having trouble finding any cobb maps for the e89 z4 35i. Do any of you, cough, kennyp, have the maps available? I tried emailing that buraq guy but seems all his stuff is turned off now. I just need a couple maps that work on cobb ap3 with an e89 35i n54 if you wouldn't mind. Please hit me up if anyone has or knows how i can get em. Thanks all.

[KennyP]

Originally Posted by rusty_sojah

I just sold my 2011 335is dct full bolt on running the cobb stg2+

I'm hoping to move to another country very soon and looking presently at a 35i z4 e89 with n54 dct i believe but not 100% sure if dct or not. Anyways I'm having trouble finding any cobb maps for the e89 z4 35i. Do any of you, cough, kennyp, have the maps available? I tried emailing that buraq guy but seems all his stuff is turned off now. I just need a couple maps that work on cobb ap3 with an e89 35i n54 if you wouldn't mind. Please hit me up if anyone has or knows how i can get em. Thanks all.

PM-d you already... if you already have 335i dct maps on your accessport then these maps should be the same... same engine, same gearbox, shouldnt be a problem.
My biggest worry is getting it to install at all... as i had to download my ecu info and send it to cobb... get an update back and after that i could install it to my car. Now as cobb has removed z4 from their website and i even cant see stage 2 maps on there for any n54, im worried that you may not get that update from them to get it to install at all... If you can get it to install then no problem... all maps are already on there.

[rusty_sojah]

So i just found my old 335is maps i was using on my laptop. I have the stg1+ 91 and stg 2+ 91 and stg 2+ 93 octane maps.

Are you saying it was hard to flash the ecu once you had the maps on the AP or hard or may be hard to get the maps onto the Cobb AP?

I still have the Accessport Manager software and maps i need on my laptop so now all i need is another Cobb AP to put them onto right? And the 335i maps should work, since same engine and gearbox?

Thanks for your PM and knowledge.

[KennyP]

With maps it should all be easy.
You may have a problem when plugging accessport in OBD of your new car the very first time.
It may not recognize the ecu right away, because its a different version or something like that...
If it recognizes your ecu all should be fine and easy: install and choose map.
If it doesnt, then it downloads ecu information that you have to send to Cobb so they can update your Accessport to recognize the ECU. When that is done it should run installation and after installing you can choose the map you want and flash it to the car.

You can read accessport manual. Its in there.

Taken from user manual:

The Accessport will attempt to automatically determine the target vehicle for installation. Verify that the identified vehicle is correct and press [OK] to confirm.


If an error occurs:

Please refer to the Troubleshooting Section.

and:

Accessport cannot identify vehicle during installation.

Ensure that the Accessport is running the most recent version of firmware. You can verify this by connecting the Accessport to AP Manager.
If the Accessport is up to date and still cannot identify the vehicle, please contact technical support. It is possible that you have an ECU type that we have never encountered before (e.g. brand new model year, new world market ECU, etc.). Technical support will instruct you on what to do next.

[rusty_sojah]

Originally Posted by KennyP

With maps it should all be easy.
You may have a problem when plugging accessport in OBD of your new car the very first time.
It may not recognize the ecu right away, because its a different version or something like that...
If it recognizes your ecu all should be fine and easy: install and choose map.
If it doesnt, then it downloads ecu information that you have to send to Cobb so they can update your Accessport to recognize the ECU. When that is done it should run installation and after installing you can choose the map you want and flash it to the car.

You can read accessport manual. Its in there.

Taken from user manual:



and:

Thanks KennyP and sorry for so many questions.

So if the Cobb AP reads the ecu just fine will it see the e89 and regognize it as an e89 model or display some other model?

[KennyP]

Originally Posted by rusty_sojah

Thanks KennyP and sorry for so many questions.

So if the Cobb AP reads the ecu just fine will it see the e89 and regognize it as an e89 model or display some other model?

Dont really remember, what cobb showed me... i think it wasnt exactly chassis and model name. i think it was ecu version, DME version or something. Like 8A0S or IJE0S. Something like that.
For me it displayed only one option. So just choose that and move forward with install...

If it doesnt recognize ecu like i talked about above... then it wont give you that DME version to choose and displays that its new type of DME and proceeds to download it so you can send it to Cobb. i had to do that. Then after update accessport recognized my ecu, displayed DME version to choose and after choosing it went forward with install.

You really cant go wrong or choose wrong ecu etc. Its does check things over so you cant really mess up.