fryeje

I was planning to do the same upgrade (or similar w/o the suspension mods) I'm having a hard time with the $/Hp ratio. I'd love to hear your impressions and any data on performance gains. Are they doing a dyno before/after? Does anyone know about high flow injectors for a 5, 6, or 745 4.4L? Maybe the guys at MWW know of an upgrade?

Thanks and wish I was doing those mods now....Let us know the results!

response_surface

how much hp and torque do you gain? do you know of any dyno graphs?

thanks

KREED_550i

Details Please

jm545i

Ok - first report - just picked it up and drove it back into the City - with traffic I didn't really get a chance to stretch its legs. I'll post some initial reactions, then follow up with a longer writeup after my trip up the Merritt Parkway tomorrow (for those who don't live around NYC, the MP is one of the best driver's highways around).

Mods done so far are everything except the suspension and the rear stress bar - all engine mods plus the front strut brace are in.

Butt Dyno: Without question there is some additional power, easily felt even though I only had a couple of chances to open it up. Is it an overwhelming amount? Clearly not. Most of the differences are in the upper ranges of the tach. The car was always quick, it's now quicker, without a doubt. Lit up the rear tires a bit sooner than I recalled when pulling through first gear. That is about an unscientific a measurement as I can think of, but it's something. Note that I noticed little difference at low RPM's (less than 2k) EXCEPT, and this is very important - the throttle response is simply amazing. I don't know if it is truly linear all the way through the end of travel, but the dead spots that you have to move through off idle with the stock accelerator response are now gone.

Throttle Response: MUCH improved. Part of this is likely merely the sprint-booster-like accelerator pedal reprogram, but that's not all of it, as the intake and throttle body (and the exhaust) all seem to combine to free things up. I get the impression with the stock motor that while it certainly revs without trouble, there is a certain laboring feel when coming off idle. All that is gone. Hit the accelerator, it revs. Rev matching is now MUCH easier, not only because you can hear the engine now to match revs by sound rather than looking at the tach, but because the engine revs now very predictably. Curiously, I noticed a much more crisp off-throttle response, meaning that lifting off the throttle the way I used to in the car would result in a bit of a driveline jerk that I had never felt before. It makes sense I suppose, as prior to the reprogram the final bit of travel in the accelerator pedal represented a comparatively low amount of actual throttle opening. In comparison I'm probably slamming the throttle shut - clearly something I'll have to get used to.

Exhaust Sound, upon startup and idle, part throttle: Oh man. Stunning and perfect. Just enough of a hint at hooliganism at idle. Sounds INCREDIBLE in the enclosed space of my garage. Upon startup, barks just a bit and then settles into a nice, gorgeous-sounding v-8 rumble. Short blips of the throttle now remind me of an slightly quieter E39 M5. Hard to describe, and no youtube clip could ever do it justice (just like no clip really seems to do any exhaust justice), but it is just restrained enough to be sophisticated, and yet.....

Exhaust & Intake Sound, Wide open throttle. HOLY COW. Sounds amazing. At this point you hear both the intake working AND the exhaust. It honestly sounds in a tunnel like a barely muffled V-8 race car. I don't mean by volume (it's loud, but not that ridiculous), but the texture and quality of the sound is similar. When ripping up the tachometer, the car simply roars with an exotic sports-car sound.

Handling: Only the front strut brace was intalled (waiting for Konis), but the tech points out that with the aluminum front end on the vehicle, the stock strut brace was clearly installed because it was needed. Knowing that, and also knowing that the stock brace is quite bendable, he gets a lot of good reactions from customers after installing the Dinan strut braces. I want a little more time in the car to make a judgement on this one. While things definitely felt tighter when going over the various bumps and rough pavement endemic to NYC driving, I can't really comment fully yet given the traffic and will reserve judgement until tomorrow.

Looks: The only outward appearance are the exhaust tips, and I think they look great. They installed them so the tips are just outside the line of the bumper, and they look great. From directly behind the tips could be ever so slightly larger, but from the sides they look perfect to me. Inside the pedal pads look fine - nothing I would ordinarily pay so much for but it's part of the package.

e6t.lab.rat

I absolutely enjoyed reading this review. Thank You so much for your time and sharing this with us.

I understand your S1 package is not yet quite complete (less Koni's) but based on what you've experience thus far, was it worth it?

I'd kill for that kind of throttle response in my 545. it is by far the worst, most annoying thing i just cannot get over. some days i choose not to drive my 545 because of this.

jm545i

Was it worth it? Well, that's a slightly complicated question. The way I look at it, I've now got a vehicle that I'm thrilled with, whereas before I had an expensive car that I really liked, but wasn't what I call thrilled to drive all the time. It is clearly a quick car in stock form, but in spending what I spent on the base car, I was a little disappointed. How ridiculous is it to spend the kind of money one did on the base car and not be thrilled.

So I look at not just the cost of the Dinan upgrade, but what I spent on the entire vehicle including the Dinan upgrade, of which the Dinan upgrade is a comparatively low portion. So was the money worth the relatively mild power gains? Perhaps not in isolation, but when you now combine the throttle response, the feel and sound of the exhaust in addition to the power gains - all in a package that works incredibly well together and makes it feel like a slightly de-tuned M-car, it starts to make more sense.

danzanchy

great review! now the lsd is a must!

jm545i

No kidding, right? An LSD would really let you put the power down in this car. DTC just doesn't cut it.

zen68

Your review is spot on

zen68

May I recommend the throttle body and stage3 software? If you have limited budget, this is where you should spend the money. This alone would improve throttle response significantly (quick but more linear, not jerky like sprint booster).