Stage 1 tune

Pond

Zorg Guru (III)
British Zeds
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Dec 26, 2016
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144
Location
Spaldingski, Lincs
Model of Z
Z3 project and E89 Z4
Our engines may not produce anything like the power theirs do, but we don't have to write them off every couple of thousand miles.
Unless it was made by TVR and has the words 'speed six' anywhere near it.;)
 

bear2020

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Norwich
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Z3 3.0 & Z4 2.5
I have always tuned diesel cars and never been disappointed. The only petrol I have remapped have been turbo charged cars and again been happy. For NA i have never bothered as unless you are decatting, exhaust headers, air flow can't really see the gains to be made
 

Duncodin

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Sep 8, 2021
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139
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Pontrhydyrun
Model of Z
Z3 M44
It's not just high revs that give an F1 lots of power.

The F1 engine, inlets, exhaust are all optimized to keep the torque going at high revs. Most road cars aren't.
 

Pond

Zorg Guru (III)
British Zeds
Joined
Dec 26, 2016
Points
144
Location
Spaldingski, Lincs
Model of Z
Z3 project and E89 Z4
Lotus have had problems, too. They can make sizeable holes in the block for no apparent reason.
IIRC Lotus have never built an engine (for a road car), though. They take crate engines from others and 'adjust' them.
 

bear2020

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Points
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Model of Z
Z3 3.0 & Z4 2.5
IIRC Lotus have never built an engine (for a road car), though. They take crate engines from others and 'adjust' them.
Lotus designed and built the 900 series engine and the 907 was the first road production engine they used in their own cars and supplied to Jenson. They built the 900 series engine in different forms for botn track, rally and road cars from 72 - 99
 

Sajk

Zorg Legend
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Oct 27, 2017
Points
74
Yup. Without getting more air and fuel in then more power is not going to happen.

Having said that...

There are gains to be had from the manufacturers tune which has to work from below sea level in Holland to 7000 feet above sea level in Colarado on whatever fuel meets the requirement by FINE tuning for local conditions and fuel. Vanos can be adjusted, timing can be advanced at altitude where cylinder pressures are lower etc.

For example my s54 runs +1 degree of timing as I am at 5500 feet.

But this ain't an off the shelf tune.
 
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Duncodin

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139
Location
Pontrhydyrun
Model of Z
Z3 M44
. . .
A cheap remap, increasing the boost pressure and a new fuel map will get 280BHP and 350NM of torque at 2500rpm without any hardware changes and is pretty safe (as the engine was designed for 250BHP and 320nm). Now that is worth having (ask me how I know).
Ok. I'll ask. How do you know . :)
 
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Pond

Zorg Guru (III)
British Zeds
Joined
Dec 26, 2016
Points
144
Location
Spaldingski, Lincs
Model of Z
Z3 project and E89 Z4
Ok. I'll ask. How do you know . :)
Cos I've done it. Turns the lowly little N20 into a very rapid car. The torque increase is amazing.
I am still contemplating doing it again on our latest E89 (20i with 180bhp can't remember the torque figures) and my B48 320i with the same power.
The remaps for these engines really do transform them for very little money. Insurance and selling on are the only problems IME.
 

Steve Medlock

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British Zeds
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May 11, 2016
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105
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Tenterden, Kent
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2.8 Roadster
Just to add to this, the value of torque and bhp increases really depends upon where in the rev range the increases occur. A while back, I did the 2.8 manifold swop to go with other mods and had a remap to suit. The benefit to me was the pulling power in the lower rev ranges - I can drive everywhere in fifth!. The BHP increase though is most likely much farther up the rev range than I can go on the roads around here.
 

Mike Fishwick

Zorg Guru (II)
French Zeds
Joined
Sep 23, 2021
Points
109
Location
Daglan, France
Model of Z
2.8 Roadster
It is not difficult to get a gain of 10% or so from a normally aspirated engine running on decent 98 octane fuel, but on 95 e10 filth at would take a miracle! A lot of engines which have a restricted advance curve for use on poor quality fuel can be usefully improved by a remap, but not all. The Z3 owners manual tells us that the M44 1.9 engine's 140 bhp is only a 'rated' output on 95 octane, but can be improved on 98 the octane for which it is designed. Use of a poorer fuel will siimply cause the ECU to retard the ignition timing to suit.

Have a look at this:

 
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