[Wraith07]

Hi All,

I would like to reduce the impact weather has on my car's performance, I've noticed some days while it is 60 degrees out and the oil is at 180 degrees my butt-dyno hits like a tank. On other days temperature and oil temp will be the same but it will not go as fast/hit as hard.

Is this a weather related issue?

What is the issue?

What is the solution? How well does this solution work?

On hot days can I make it perform as good as it does on cold good days?

How does VVT-i play into this?

[CHECKERED]

Had a similar issue, it was fixed by getting Methanol/Water injection, the equivalent to running 118 octane all the time
so hot weather or low barometric pressure become irrelevant...

What mods are on your car? And what tune/map do you use?

[Wraith07]

Performance wise, not including suspension mods, JB4 G5, 93 octane, Alpina B3, map 1 or 2. I don't want to take it further than map 1, but I want to stabilize performance.

[CHECKERED]

things to try:

octane booster at every fill up
use some ethanol (around E20) so 3 gallons on E85 and the rest mixed with 93
get a back end flash tune to have a stacked setup to run E30

or get meth injection

[Wraith07]

I was thinking of something I could do setup and forget about, getting ethanol or meth setup is a pretty big mod and requires upkeep.

[CHECKERED]

if you don't want to mod the car further to get more consistency, and don't want to run octane booster...

running small amounts of ethanol doesn't require any mods or upkeep, just filling up twice is a bit inconvenient...but if that is too bothersome

you can use Map 4 (stock performance)

[Nniftyfour]

Do the backend flash then.. Free performance and you only have to do it once.

A turbo car is never going to pull in hot weather like it does in cold weather unless you have a lot of octane to mitigate the effects.

Also do you have a upgraded intercooler.. if not that's going to make a big difference and is the only mod besides fuel mods that will stabilize performance.

I'd say get an intercooler and backend flash on there now.. and then if you want more performance later on get *********... you seem to be someone who would be happy there... one thing I'll say about "downward *****" is it really removes the lag below 3000 rpm... the turbos spool much faster with them. So its a mod you can enjoy everyday.

[Wraith07]

What about mods I can put on the car and forget? Intercoolers or something. The car is my daily and the nearest ethanol station is in DC, DC roads and traffic are hell.

[CHECKERED]

Back end flash will help somewhat, Intercooler upgrade can only do so much, ********* will improve performance but the car will still be inconsistent on the same day; cold morning to hot afternoon, because that’s the nature of a turbo car…

If you have no access to ethanol and don’t want the hassle with big mods, I totally understand…you might want to look into getting a 'fast' naturally aspired car...E92 M3 comes to mind

[Wraith07]

My corolla does the same thing. It's very annoying. Unfortunately selling this car isn't an option at this point anymore.

Originally Posted by Nniftyfour

I'd say get an intercooler and backend flash on there now.. and then if you want more performance later on get *********... you seem to be someone who would be happy there... one thing I'll say about "downward *****" is it really removes the lag below 3000 rpm... the turbos spool much faster with them. So its a mod you can enjoy everyday.

How well does it remove the lag, I really do hate it. It feels like the second turbo doesn't even kick in until 3000 RPM. Can you link to some good info on the intercooler and backend flash? How well will the intercooler help?

[CHECKERED]

Bolt on mods will help the situation but not eliminate it,
don’t go spending 1-2K to go FBO only to realize that 2 months from now (July) the car is a dog again.

it sounds like you want to eliminate the problem

[Wraith07]

Will ********* make the exhaust smell like gas?

Why is d0wn ***** censored

[Nniftyfour]

No the car wont smell like gas.. the exhaust will smell slighty more but not like your thinking because your only removing the first of two cats.. the second one isn't restrictive until high power levels.. 500whp+

Its sensored because Burger Tuning who own the site are based in California where any emissions change is illegal so they cant officially "condone" it.

As for intercooler The ER (Evolution Raceworks) one is really good.. for you I think it will make a nice difference... yes when its 90 degrees out the car wont be as fast as when its 60 degrees, but considering your good on map 1 and 2 I think you'll be fine.

Checkered (and me to certain extent) are used to another level of acceleration, The car will be fast when its hot and super fast when its cold.. that's something you won't completely eliminate. Air is much denser when its cold, and also the hotter the air the less timing you can run without misfiring.. nature of turbo cars.

Calling an FBO 335 a dog in July is a bit harsh IMO.

And ********* will help the spool a lot.. expect the spool to basically double. Down low expect a fews tenths of lag but the boost will build under 3000rpm unlike stock.. Stock I could make maybe 10 psi under 3000rpm.. now I can make full boost (18psi) by 2800rpm. A 3500rpm roll in (roll into gas) I get full boost about twice as fast. I'd say next to JB4 its the biggest change in character the car makes.

*caveat about *********.. it'll make a big difference no matter what, but having healthy turbos makes a big difference too.. these observations were made in a stock turbo car.. but the turbos are pretty new having been replaced by BMW 10,000 miles ago.

[Spxxx]

Just get a meth kit, You'd probably be okay without a FMIC if you get a meth kit. That will add octane and decrease the effects of hot weather. Bottom line, if you don't want to get e85 and want to eliminate the effects of weather on your car, get meth.

[Wraith07]

What kind of a difference will the intercooler make? I've also read that an intercooler can be counter-productive, it can hurt performance in certain conditions?

What kind of upkeep does Meth require? Is it illegal/ticket worthy? Does it need to be refilled? I've got a warranty on the car, rather not scare shops and my warranty away.

Also on a tangent, have any of you driven a 335is? The IS I drove was slamming all of its power from 1500RPM in my face, and I wasn't even being heavy on the throttle. How do I get that? It also seemed to have next to no turbo lag compared to my 335i.

[CHECKERED]

Originally Posted by Wraith07

Will ********* make the exhaust smell like gas?

Once warmed up not a huge difference as long as you keep your secondary cats alone.

Originally Posted by Wraith07

Why is d0wn ***** censored

long story, has to do with emission compliance

Originally Posted by Nniftyfour

No the car wont smell like gas.. the exhaust will smell slightly more but not like your thinking because your only removing the first of two cats..

you contradicted yourself, there will be a noticeable difference when cold, and a small difference when hot.

Originally Posted by Nniftyfour

Calling an FBO 335 a dog in July is a bit harsh IMO.

remember that FBO with no meth, no ethanol, no race gas and no octane booster + hot weather massive timing pulls regardless of how free flowing your exhaust is and how big your intercooler is

Originally Posted by Spxxx

Just get a meth kit, You'd probably be okay without a FMIC if you get a meth kit. That will add octane and decrease the effects of hot weather. Bottom line, if you don't want to get e85 and want to eliminate the effects of weather on your car, get meth.

X2

Originally Posted by Wraith07

What kind of a difference will the intercooler make? I've also read that an intercooler can be counter-productive, it can hurt performance in certain conditions?

there is increased lag and a bigger pressure drop, the bigger the IC the worse this gets.

Originally Posted by Wraith07

What kind of upkeep does Meth require? Is it illegal/ticket worthy? Does it need to be refilled? I've got a warranty on the car, rather not scare shops and my warranty away.

yes meth needs to be refilled, just like you refill your windshield washer fluid or gas tank, a bigger tank will require less frequent refills, there is no other maintains or upkeep involved.
My 1 gallon tank last about 6-7 weeks doing about 1 pull per day, there are 2.3gallon tanks
There are some custom setups that make the kit completely hidden
http://howertonengineering.com/bmw/
as far as tickets, don’t open your trunk without a warrant, (guess what? They don’t have one)
as far as warranty; don’t open the trunk to show it off, have a stealthy install (but if you have a warranty they won’t look to kindly to your tune/intake/DP/IC)

Originally Posted by Wraith07

Also on a tangent, have any of you driven a 335is? The IS I drove was slamming all of its power from 1500RPM in my face, and I wasn't even being heavy on the throttle. How do I get that? It also seemed to have next to no turbo lag compared to my 335i.

was the 335is stock?
The gearing is lower on the 335is due to 7 speed DCT so feels faster

[Nniftyfour]

Originally Posted by CHECKERED

you contradicted yourself, there will be a noticeable difference when cold, and a small difference when hot.

This is very true. +1 better said then me.. but still I dont think its that bad. Smells like an older pre direct injection high milage car when cold...

You guys need to start considering who your talking to when you recommend things.. its pretty clear this guy isn't a hardcore nut like some of us.. So far from his responses I don't think hes a good candidate for meth.. Meth is serious business.

He uses map 1 and 2 for petes sake.

I saw no noticeable difference in spool going from stock intercooler to VRSF 7 inch.. That car always spooled well though. I don't think there's any real downsides to the cores that are off the shelf for this platform.

Did anyone else see a notable difference when they swapped theirs out?

[CHECKERED]

Originally Posted by Nniftyfour

You guys need to start considering who your talking to when you recommend things.. its pretty clear this guy isn't a hardcore nut like some of us.. So far from his responses I don't think hes a good candidate for meth.. Meth is serious business.

which is why I offered multiple solutions, meth being the best solution,
Going FBO and optimizing the setup and tune is not exactly a cake walk either

[Nniftyfour]

Originally Posted by CHECKERED

which is why I offered multiple solutions, meth being the best solution,
Going FBO and optimizing the setup and tune is not exactly a cake walk either

IMO running meth or E% is way more work than him installing these parts one time and not touching it again like he said he wanted. Or if hes not comfortable with doing his own work which is very possible he could have a shop install these parts and be done with it.

He's running JB4 he doesn't need to do any tuning other than load a backend flash. He doesn't even need to do that. (but without it you will have a service engine light but no performance will be lost.. but the gain wont be had either FBO it could be about 20 25 whp just for the flash in combo with JB4)

So yeah the setup is a cakewalk compared to maintaining a fueling system (with more dangerous fuel that burns 100% clear)/ or mixing different gases when one of the gases you cant even be sure of the exact composition. Pump e85 could be anything from E70 to E85 no way to tell. Sometimes the difference can even be greater!

Also he needs ********* to get that feeling he got in the 335is.. I didn't see that earlier, easiest way to good power from 1500rpm is ********* simple as that.

Checkered without being disrespectful I think you've been in this game too long to remember what its like to be a beginner. This guy is looking for set it and forget it performance and clearly doesn't know a lot about all this yet judging from his responses.

Meth as octane is a band aid for advanced users. Things can go wrong very quickly when your relying on meth for octane. That's a fact, you can argue that proper procedure could avoid that, but from what he has said he is not ready for that. He just wants a fast car that he doesn't have to fiddle with.

Sorry to butt heads on this. But as someone with a few "basic enthusiast" friends that just want fast cars and don't know a whole lot, I think I know where this guy might be coming from/ understand most people don't see it like one of us who know how everything exactly operates on the car front to back.

Bottom line Wraith meth would solve your original concern about temperature vs performance but from from your responses I don't believe its the best fit for you. ********* will give you that performance down low your looking for and an Intercooler will help your performance in the summer without requiring any upkeep.. I wouldn't worry about any downsides to the intercooler I didn't see any and I haven't heard of other people complaining, the intercoolers for this car aren't that big and we have two very good turbos. I recommend the VRSF 7 inch. (It requires minor trimming of plastic but its worth it)

[ba114]

lol @ set and forget.

i bought my 135i with the aim of keeping it stock. 1 year and thousands of dollars later, it's far from a stock car. the addiction keeps growing

[AWSAWS]

Try a 1/7 reset if temps have varied alot. i.e. winter to summer. Summer to winter.

[Wraith07]

Originally Posted by ba114

lol @ set and forget.

i bought my 135i with the aim of keeping it stock. 1 year and thousands of dollars later, it's far from a stock car. the addiction keeps growing

Yeah me too, that's what I told myself when I bought the car, I've got too many other things to handle for the next 3 years so the modding I'm trying to keep to a minimum. I'm not afraid to get my hands dirty and get inside the car but I just don't have the time for it right now.

I'm also a nut...mostly from the computer world though, overclocking, rigging wires across PCBs, making custom BIOSes (kinda like ECUs) for an extra %5 performance . Just don't have time for it these days.

Wish I didn't have to sleep.

[Wraith07]

Originally Posted by Nniftyfour

Bottom line Wraith meth would solve your original concern about temperature vs performance but from from your responses I don't believe its the best fit for you. ********* will give you that performance down low your looking for and an Intercooler will help your performance in the summer without requiring any upkeep.. I wouldn't worry about any downsides to the intercooler I didn't see any and I haven't heard of other people complaining, the intercoolers for this car aren't that big and we have two very good turbos. I recommend the VRSF 7 inch. (It requires minor trimming of plastic but its worth it)

Right, doesn't the IS have extra cooling/intercooler ?

[AWSAWS]

Yes I thought just a JB4, will do.

Then I hated the yellow angels and went for Cree LEDs

Then decide down ***** would be cool. 30 or 40 HP, nice.

Brakes weren't the best so went slightly better.

Then my brother beat me in his M5 so I thought just some meth will be good.

For the meth I thought a charge pipe was better than cutting into anything.

Now I'm thinking the stock intercooler isn't the best and I've always wanted an LSD but I have a welded version, open diff.

Since changing the charge pipe, there was oil in there so I've gone for an OCC and decided to get braided brake lines so the shipping to England is justifiable.

[Wraith07]

sound just like me. If I had $7k to spend on the car, I'd be so happy.