N55 Vs. N54 (x35i Engine) remaps

[dele]

Hello chaps

Placed my order for a 335i on Saturday, did some research when i got home and saw that the old Twin Turbo unit (N54) is being replaced with a Twin Scroll unit (N55)

Seems to be little information on the N55 tuning on the web, so has anyone had their N55 engine remapped and what were the gains? (I know theres more to it than figures, but its nice to get an idea)

[Bezerk]

The N54 engine is long gone for the 335i. Well over a year.
Birds are chipping the N55 to a claimed 375hp, with a 400hp conversion in development.

However, if you really want to spend that kind of money I think you'd be better off with a LSD first.. I am wishing I brought a nearly new M3 instead.

http://www.birdsauto.com

Edited by Bezerk on Tuesday 19th July 14:15

[JNW1]

Bezerk said:

The N54 engine is long gone for the 335i. Well over a year.
Birds are chipping the N55 to a claimed 375hp, with a 400hp conversion in development.

However, if you really want to spend that kind of money I think you'd be better off with a LSD first.. I am wishing I brought a nearly new M3 instead.

http://www.birdsauto.com

Edited by Bezerk on Tuesday 19th July 14:15

Interesting! I would have thought a 335i with the Birds treatment (remap and suspension upgrade including a LSD) would be a very handy road car and in some ways preferable to an M3 (lots more torque available across quite a wide rev range for a start!).

I assume you're saying you bought a 335i brand new and are now wishing you'd bought a second-hand M3 instead? Fair point if that's the case but I guess you could have also bought a nearly new 335i and had it modified by someone like Birds for similar money? Question then is would the Birds B3 make for a nicer road car than the M3? Not having driven either I don't know but I suspect as an everyday machine the B3 may even have the edge; however, come resale time it will only be a modified 335i and hence it may not be the best financial proposition! Alpina B3S may make more sense if you don't mind an auto!

[dele]

Read my car blog, i did buy a nearly new M3 and it was in the garage for warranty work on a monthly basis, not saying they are all that bad as after reasearch it just look like i was really unlucky, but ive part-ex'd it towards a new 335i Convertible

[Bezerk]

Yes, I took delivery of my new 335i in March 2011.
It would be great with the addition of a LSD, but I am not one of those people who will spend extra money on a car and not get it back come resale time. If I was planning to keep it longer than 3 years maybe..

To be honest I never even thought about the lack of LSD until recently. The traction control/DSC is pretty annoying if you aren't on a perfect road surface.

In my opinion, chipping it to 375hp+ is a waste of time without the LSD.

[gangzoom]

Get an LSD before upping the power, on all but the smoothest roads you're have no problems lighting up the TC in 2nd gear. Even with the LSD installed the TC will kick if your not carful with your right foot!!

The ride can also be quite harsh and on my local B roads its actually pretty much impossible to get all the power down without the car skipping across the road, I think the suspension kit developed by Birds improves this alot....I'm still in 2 mind about getting that fitted or going for more power via an intercooler / intake / exhaust.

Edited by gangzoom on Wednesday 20th July 07:54

[JNW1]

gangzoom said:

Get an LSD before upping the power, on all but the smoothest roads you're have no problems lighting up the TC in 2nd gear. Even with the LSD installed the TC will kick if your not carful with your right foot!!

The ride can also be quite harsh and on my local B roads its actually pretty much impossible to get all the power down without the car skipping across the road, I think the suspension kit developed by Birds improves this alot....I'm still in 2 mind about getting that fitted or going for more power via an intercooler / intake / exhaust.

Edited by gangzoom on Wednesday 20th July 07:54

Based on your comments above I think a chassis upgrade would be my priority on the basis you'll feel the benefit all of the time whereas you'll be able to exploit additional power only occasionally; in addition, perhaps a suspension upgrade would make more of the existing power accessible more of the time and therefore a further power hike may seem less essential? Given your comments on the ride and handling it sounds like extra power is about the last thing you need at the moment!

[Crackie]

Go on dele ~ get the map ( and the intercooler ). You'll have the same power, more torque & less weight than the Alpina in the link below. Prior to getting the Quaife, Your right foot is capable of determining how many of the 420~430 torques get unleashed

http://imageshack.us/f/221/autobildsportscarsb3svs...

Edited by Crackie on Wednesday 20th July 22:10

[JNW1]

Crackie said:

Go on dele ~ get the map ( and the intercooler ). You'll have the same power, more torque & less weight than the Alpina in the link below.
http://imageshack.us/f/221/autobildsportscarsb3svs...

Edited by Crackie on Wednesday 20th July 22:10

True but you'll also still have the standard chassis which, to judge from a couple of the other posts on this thread, struggles to handle the standard power and torque output adequately never mind 400bhp and over 400lb/ft of torque! That being the case, won't a remap without a chassis upgrade just mean you end-up using less right foot?!

Having said that, perhaps not everyone has the same view of the chassis on the standard car so hope the trip to Evolve goes well!

[Vtec Abuser]

DMS do a map for the N55. I know of 2 N55 135i's that have had the DMS treatment. DCT managed 369bhp 380+lb/ft with less than 2k on the clock, manual made 380bhp / 400+lb/ft with 20k on the clock..
Cracking set up there too and Rob is a walking encyclopaedia when it comes to mapping/modding BMW's..

Edited by Vtec Abuser on Thursday 21st July 11:45

[Crackie]

JNW1 said:

Crackie said:

Go on dele ~ get the map ( and the intercooler ). You'll have the same power, more torque & less weight than the Alpina in the link below.
http://imageshack.us/f/221/autobildsportscarsb3svs...

True but you'll also still have the standard chassis which, to judge from a couple of the other posts on this thread, struggles to handle the standard power and torque output adequately never mind 400bhp and over 400lb/ft of torque! That being the case, won't a remap without a chassis upgrade just mean you end-up using less right foot?!

Having said that, perhaps not everyone has the same view of the chassis on the standard car so hope the trip to Evolve goes well!

The Evolve trip went very well cheers ~ 2007 45K mile N54 made 315hp and 339lb/ft pre map and 372hp and 403lb/ft post; the next service is due in 1100 miles so I'm very happy with those results. Once the service is out of the way I'll be back for stage 2 and I'll post again to confirm if any missing horses return as a result of fresh oil & new filter.

Traction was just fine and far better than I expected on the trip back from Luton to Huntingdon ~ very very quick in the mid range now . Imho the E92 SE setup ( with 235/19 front 265/19 rear Falken 452s ) coped really well with the damp, variable grip conditions when the surface was good but could easily imagine that a Quaife / Wavetrac LSD would be good to have on poorer surfaces.

Edited by Crackie on Friday 22 July 14:48

[JNW1]

Crackie said:

The Evolve trip went very well cheers ~ 2007 45K mile N54 made 315hp and 339lb/ft pre map and 372hp and 403lb/ft post; the next service is due in 1100 miles so I'm very happy with those results. Once the service is out of the way I'll be back for stage 2 and I'll post again to confirm in any missing horses return as a result of fresh oil & new filter.

Traction was just fine and far better than I expected on the trip back from Luton to Huntingdon ~ very very quick in the mid range now :tumbup:. Imho the E92 SE setup ( with 235/19 front 265/19 rear Falken 452s ) coped really well with the damp, variable grip conditions when the surface was good but could easily imagine that a Quaife / Wavetrac LSD would good to have on poorer surfaces.

Edited by Crackie on Friday 22 July 00:24

Both pre and post numbers are impressive! Long been rumoured that BMW understated the power and torque figures for the N54 and those figures seem to support the theory; 339lb/ft betters the published figure by around 15% if my maths is correct?! Over 370 horses and 400lb/ft should make for a very rapid machine and if fuel consumption improves a touch in normal driving as well that's a real result!

[Crackie]

JNW1 said:

Crackie said:

The Evolve trip went very well cheers ~ 2007 45K mile N54 made 315hp and 339lb/ft pre map and 372hp and 403lb/ft post; the next service is due in 1100 miles so I'm very happy with those results. Once the service is out of the way I'll be back for stage 2 and I'll post again to confirm in any missing horses return as a result of fresh oil & new filter.

Traction was just fine and far better than I expected on the trip back from Luton to Huntingdon ~ very very quick in the mid range now . Imho the E92 SE setup ( with 235/19 front 265/19 rear Falken 452s ) coped really well with the damp, variable grip conditions when the surface was good but could easily imagine that a Quaife / Wavetrac LSD would good to have on poorer surfaces.

Both pre and post numbers are impressive! Long been rumoured that BMW understated the power and torque figures for the N54 and those figures seem to support the theory; 339lb/ft betters the published figure by around 15% if my maths is correct?! Over 370 horses and 400lb/ft should make for a very rapid machine and if fuel consumption improves a touch in normal driving as well that's a real result!

No doubt BMW marketing didn't want to give the 335i a bigger headline torque figure than the E90/92 M3 so they specced the N54 as 295 lb/ft 'from 1300~5000 revs' rather than quote its max output. In practice many of the standard N54 dyno plots I've seen show 325+ between 3k and 3.5K. I can't comment about the 'post map' fuel consumption just yet, driving has been of the ASBO variety so far.

Apologies to dele for moving off topic ref your question about N55 remaps. I think the current state of play is that the N55 twin scroll is about 10Hp & 10lb/ft down on the N54 twin turbo's figures after mapping. That gap may disappear as the relatively new N55 software gets further refined.

Edited by Crackie on Friday 22 July 18:04