330Ci Engine tuning
Discussion
Probably a question that's been brought up before, but as the search facility is notworking and i've gone through a dozen pages, thought I'd ask the question.
Can anyone recommend somewhere that they have used with good exp in the North of England, or even Cumbria?
What power gain could I expect from standard and is an induction kit a good idea?
Oh, it's a 2004 face lifted E46.
Cheers,
Can anyone recommend somewhere that they have used with good exp in the North of England, or even Cumbria?
What power gain could I expect from standard and is an induction kit a good idea?
Oh, it's a 2004 face lifted E46.
Cheers,
roofer said:
A supercharger is the only simple(ish) way to gain more power, everyting else....is a waste of cash...imho.
If your after power then WHS. If you want to improve the driving experiance then put a full system and CIA kit on. Response will be crisper and the sound will give the impression your going faster. Without internal work you will not get alot more out of the 330 lump. Easier to buy an M3 TBH.
could ditch 2 of the 4 cats, get a decent air filter and then map it?? your very limited though with the 330 engine and that will give you 30+bhp tops, i looked into fettleing my 330 but the only thing that was worth doing imo was forced induction, but by the time you have thrown that kinda money at it you might aswell get an m3, or the newer 330/ 130 with the more powerful engine
Now I'm depressed! 
I thought I might gain about 15-20HP from a chip/remap?
What's this WHS
and a CIA?
Not really messed about with a car for a long time. Not going to throw silly money at it because I don't know how long I will keep it and also you don't get it back.
Fancy an induction kit but don't want to cause any damage to engine. Could this cause things to fail more quickly, or are they fairly robust?
I thought I might gain about 15-20HP from a chip/remap?
What's this WHS
and a CIA?
Not really messed about with a car for a long time. Not going to throw silly money at it because I don't know how long I will keep it and also you don't get it back.
Fancy an induction kit but don't want to cause any damage to engine. Could this cause things to fail more quickly, or are they fairly robust?
davy9449 said:
Hmm, still wonder whether it's worth getting a chip? Claims are that you can gain more mpg also!?
Had a tuning box fitted on diesel before now and that seemed to give better mpg hen not being driven hard.
OR, supercharge it, then remove s/c when you sell the car on, and sell that on seperately... they seem to make a fair bit of their money back when sold on.
I'm always thinking about a supercharger for my Z4, but it's about £5000 when being realistic. For £6000 more than my current car is worth I could get into a Z4 M, an Alpina Roadster, or a TVR Tamora or something like that.
It's just not really worth tuning these now when the M models exist for about the difference in cost, with upgraded everything to go with the power too!
Doesn't stop you tinkering though. I'm messing with making my exhaust more fruity sounding and free-flowing, and want to tinker with the ECU info too. You are lucky with MS43 since it can be OBD remapped, Z4 is MS45 and an ECU out job (unless you have a Dinan tool 
I don't )
Dave
I'm always thinking about a supercharger for my Z4, but it's about £5000 when being realistic. For £6000 more than my current car is worth I could get into a Z4 M, an Alpina Roadster, or a TVR Tamora or something like that.
It's just not really worth tuning these now when the M models exist for about the difference in cost, with upgraded everything to go with the power too!
Doesn't stop you tinkering though. I'm messing with making my exhaust more fruity sounding and free-flowing, and want to tinker with the ECU info too. You are lucky with MS43 since it can be OBD remapped, Z4 is MS45 and an ECU out job
(unless you have a Dinan tool I don't )Dave
Looked at supercharging this engine too - I got as far as chatting to Simpson Motorsport about supercharging my 530, and it is tempting, but.... not sure if it is worth the effort, even though I don’t really want an “M” car for various reasons.
The blower can be removed, and sold separately for quite a good price by all accounts, but it is a lot of effort, and while it gives you a lot of power for a 330/530, it still has the brakes and suspension of the original car unless you spend a fair bit on upgrades, and similar power to an M3. So, probably the £5,000 blower kit becomes a £7,000+ total re-vamp. Not wholly ridiculous, given what one can sell a 330/530 for, and given what else is available for that plus even £7k, and that one would have a thoroughly known and sorted car. I like the overall nature of the 530, and the slightly “sleeper” quality a s/c one would have; the fuel consumption is supposed to be quite reasonable when cruising, too. Personally, I am still pondering this one, but if one just wants a quicker car, it is not worth it.
Chipping etc. seems to be a waste of time on these engines – turbo’d motors have big gains available, but these don’t.
The blower can be removed, and sold separately for quite a good price by all accounts, but it is a lot of effort, and while it gives you a lot of power for a 330/530, it still has the brakes and suspension of the original car unless you spend a fair bit on upgrades, and similar power to an M3. So, probably the £5,000 blower kit becomes a £7,000+ total re-vamp. Not wholly ridiculous, given what one can sell a 330/530 for, and given what else is available for that plus even £7k, and that one would have a thoroughly known and sorted car. I like the overall nature of the 530, and the slightly “sleeper” quality a s/c one would have; the fuel consumption is supposed to be quite reasonable when cruising, too. Personally, I am still pondering this one, but if one just wants a quicker car, it is not worth it.
Chipping etc. seems to be a waste of time on these engines – turbo’d motors have big gains available, but these don’t.
I was thinking about supercharging this morning, and I just thought if it actually needed to be THAT quick, as I went down most of the roads on the way into work quickly enough already!
What my car needs really is more occasion, more focus to the driver, but again, that can be bought by moving to a Tamora or maybe a 911, rather than the £5k charger + £3k of upgrades (clutch, brakes, exhaust, suspension etc)...
You can't beat a car designed to be the way it is out of the box either... everything is designed to work with that large power output and stiffer suspension etc etc...
These superchargers were great back when a Z4 or 330Ci were worth £20,000+ still, but now upgrades look to be costing as much as the car is worth, then they don't... well, not unless you specifically want one anyway.
Dave
What my car needs really is more occasion, more focus to the driver, but again, that can be bought by moving to a Tamora or maybe a 911, rather than the £5k charger + £3k of upgrades (clutch, brakes, exhaust, suspension etc)...
You can't beat a car designed to be the way it is out of the box either... everything is designed to work with that large power output and stiffer suspension etc etc...
These superchargers were great back when a Z4 or 330Ci were worth £20,000+ still, but now upgrades look to be costing as much as the car is worth, then they don't... well, not unless you specifically want one anyway.
Dave
Edited by Mr Whippy on Tuesday 14th September 10:02
davy9449 said:
So I guess not even 20 horses with a re map then?
I've looked into it (I have same car) and seen claims of 15-18bhp for £300 to £500 which I didn't find very interesting. If I expected to keep the car for another 5 years maybe I'd feel more like doing it. Edited by a_bread on Tuesday 14th September 12:20
a_bread said:
davy9449 said:
So I guess not even 20 horses with a re map then?
I've looked into it (I have same car) and seen claims of 15-18bhp for £300 to £500 which I didn't find very interesting. If I expected to keep the car for another 5 years maybe I'd feel more like doing it. Edited by a_bread on Tuesday 14th September 12:20
15-18bhp is basically an elaborate lie, proven by shoddily used inertia dynos with weird corrections between runs to give you very little extra wheel horsepower, but a load more flywheel!
Remapping is probably worthwhile, depending on what is done. I'd only trust someone honest about their claims to do it though, so ESS or Dinan.
Dave
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