katheikia

I am EAGERLY awaiting your impression of the remap. I'm sure it will be tough to pinpoint the remap since you had alot done to your car, but I'm very interested in the difference with the throttle response.

Roleez

I'll get my first impressions tomorrow evening. Can't make the 45 mile drive to Morgan Hill tomorrow, so Dinan is having a rep deliver my car to me so he can pick up the Dinan3 loaner. Steve Dinan has test driven my car and says that with the new remap + exhaust + throttle body, overall response has improved dramatically and that the car's drivability has improved, especially after installing Stage 1 Dinan suspension. However being the engineer that he is, Steve Dinan did admit to me that the 550 does have a some difficulty getting the power down with utter immediacy. The only way to improve that to (as Steve said) "transform the car into a rocket" is to add the 3.45 diff, the lightened flywheel, and in a few months down the line, the cold-air intake. Without a doubt, that can transform any 550i manual to a 400+ hp rocketship, a la E39 M5. We'll see ... but for now, just another 24 hours to go till my car is delivered. I'll update this thread with my overall impressions after I take the car out for a weekend excursion.

vegastrashed

Please ask for a dyno sheet and post it. Thanks!

my530i

8hp is nothing. So no dyno needed

AlB

I agree on the 345 dif and the light flywheel. it is very difficult for the butt dyno to feel anything less than 20-25 hp. The torque multplication of the 345 dif and the lower rotating mass of the flywheel should be noticeable. Unfortunately, the 550i along with many other NA BMW models are difficult to change radically and the little changes that can be had (exhaust, CAI, software and T are difficult to feel and are expensive.

I would be extremely interested in your impression of the exhaust note. A sound clip would be super.

Best of luck with your mods

al

Roleez

BUMMER ...

Looks like I'll have to wait another week before taking delivery. Was on a conference call with Dinan and his software engineers Friday morning. Apparently, their downloading tools can only extract ~50% of what got programmed into my car's ECU. So it looks like Dinan has his software guys working into the night and through the weekend to meet a strict deadline by mid-week to get the problem solved and the remap downloaded for distribution. If the downloading bug is fixed, the 550i software will begin shipping later this month. If the bug doesn't get fixed by the deadline, the software won't be available till April. Hopefully everything works out b/c a lot of 550i/650i owners are waiting eagerly to get the remap. Regardless, I'll post my impressions by next weekend after I get my car back (FINALLY ... I hope) next Friday.

Sorry vegastrashed, no dynos were done on my car per Dinan's reps. I found that a bit odd. I wonder where they get their numbers from??? Before I leave with my car next week, I'll be sure to ask for some concrete numbers.

And for the exhaust clip as requested ... DINAN

AlB

Too bad about the delay. I'm sure you are anxious. Hopefully Dinan will iron everything out. I hope you are geting some deep discounts for their products. And thanks for the link to the exhaust video. If beggars can be choosy, i sure would like to hear a clip of the under load going to full throttle. If I lived close, I would be happy to film you taking off. Also, have you ever heard the Eisenman exhaust for the 550i?

Again, good luck with the return of your car.

al

CWG

the 8 hp increase on the dinan software seems like a pretty small increase - I have always heard that if you have your Air cond on full blast that it takes somewhere in the 5 to 10 hp range, so if you wanted to feel what the difference the software would make, then turning the air off and on will while at full throttle will give you an idea of the difference that an 8 hp boost will give you. you can feel it but it is not much. I put a chip in my 90 C2 porsche and the difference was supposed to be in the 10- hp range and it did pretty much feel like the difference when I put the air off and on while at full throttle.

Also, I notice that the euro cars for the 550 seem to have a 367 hp rating as opposed to the 360 hp listed for the us cars. Any one who can enlighten me on this?

After looking at another thread, I checked out the Dgital Tuning site which apparently is a swiss company that does programs for a lot of different cars. They are claiming 390 Hp and a 16% increase of tq out of the 550i. I am wondering why the Dinan software is so much less than this. Any one know anything about this company?

I had a 90 535i that I put the dinan motor chip in and it made a big difference, I also did the the trans chip and the stage 3 suspension so I have been Dinan fan for a long time, but wonder whats up with the marginal improvement on the V8 motor?

AlexFW

The same of stock exhaust : $1300 for having the same sound ...

JetBlack

The exhaust has a way better sound than stock. Just reving the engine withou load does not do it justice. My buddy with a viper told me my car sounded like a race car when I came blasting down the street. Someone has to get a clip of the exhaust under acceleration.