Sorry in advance if my questions are wacky... I'm just learning about sways and strut bars.

You say you feel less body roll with the sways in. But I thought sway bars generally help with understeer/oversteer, and it's strut bars that are for reducing body roll by increasing rigidity?

Here's where I was reading about them a bit: Strut Bars - Strut Tower Bar

As an aside, are you considering a front strut bar too, and if not, how come?

The RD site says the sways "are adjustable to be between 16 and 33% stiffer than the factory sway bars". That's why I was asking what setting you went with? I would think your impressions of them would be affected by that if you set them for only 16% stiffer, for example...

 

Sorry. I forgot to specify I am 2/3 up front and 3/3 in the rear; 3 being the stiffest setting.

Evan

 

I changed the spark plugs, found some local high-octane fuel, put the JB4 to Map 5, and did some testing. Average 0-60 was 4.68 and 4.37 was the best. I may try starting in 2nd gear and see if that doesn't save some time, the transmission is SO SLOW shifting, it is unbelievable. Hopefully I will have the SAT software flash done on Monday. These numbers are from Dynolicious so they are not 100% accurate, more like 94% accurate.


Front Bumper, Rear Bumper, and Fenders are at LTMW for paint. That place before SEMA is nuts, tons of eye-candy. Wide-body E91, full OEM E46 M3 Wagon conversion, LTMW & Liberty Walk E92 M3, LP-640, 458 Italias, and GTR Keep your eyes on them at SEMA.

Evan

 

You're so bloody lucky to have race gas available at a pump! It costs double that here anywhere I've looked at getting some. If you ever do DP's and an FMIC too, you could probably get close to 450 crank HP on a race gas map! Drool...

Which flash for the tranny is that? People for the E90 have found an Alpina flash they rave about, but when I asked, IIRC, someone said you can't do it on an E61, even though it's got the same engine:

Alpina Trans Flash for N54

PS What app are you using to measure your 0-60? I believe most people launch in 2nd gear on their cars. You're turning off fully the DTC I presume (hold down 5 seconds).

 

Downpipes and FMIC will be the first mods added after warranty, this engine produces a tremendous amount of heat!

I am using Dynolicious, I tried launching from 2nd gear this morning but it hesitated off the line and dropped back down to 1st..definitely a sequence I don't plan on repeating. I brake boosted to 2,300rpm so maybe that affected the behavior of the transmission. Any insight?

I am not completely up to speed on the Alpina flash, I briefly researched it and it looks like it may work on a 535i but not 535xi? Regardless, I am trying to complete the SAT flash today, I will report back.

Evan

 

Is this Dynolicious free? Looked like $10 when I searched for it. If so, is it worth it?

I've got the "BMW M Power Meter" that's supposed to also do 0-60, but last time I tried it, I couldn't get it to work. It's free.

Can't give you any launch tips, sorry, never tried it on mine funny enough, and haven't read enough on people's techniques to know, other than for the really high HP cars, pretty sure they all say to launch in 2nd. Go to E90Post, there should be lots of info there.

What's the SAT flash? Any info on it, or links?

 

Here are the links I used the most regarding the SAT flash:
SAT Flash - N54tech.com | BMW N54 N55 135 335 535 Turbo Performance Forum
E60 hidden SPORT mode unlocked....... - Page 5 check post #44 for exact files needed.

I tried launching again in 2nd: with no breake boosting it is significantly slower to 60mph.
I tried brake boosting up to 1,800 in 2nd and it hesitated a bit like it was thinking of downshifting and then it held onto 2nd, again not very quick to 60.
I did another turbo spool up to 2,600 and the same frantic downshift to 1st happened.
I have tried launching in 2nd with DTC pressed and also completely off.
So maybe I am missing something, the car is way slower 0-60 in 2nd and if I spool the turbos to roughly 2,000rpm or above, the transmission downshifts to 1st.


Yes, Dynolicious is $10-$12 and I believe it is worth it. If you are accurate with the weight of the car (the app needs this info for calculations), it has shown to be fairly accurate.

Evan

 

Thanks for the info on the SAT flash. I'll check it out and will eagerly await your review. I don't recall seeing anyone on this forum talking about it, so might be good to start up a new thread on just that.

Can't provide any feedback on the launch, though I'd think brake boosting is needed, but maybe others on E90post are doing something different. The reason I think everyone's been launching in 2nd was because they couldn't get any traction in 1st.

 

Haha AWD for the win!

I hope to have the flash done today, it is a matter of finding a shop that uses an appropriate coding software to facilitate the flash. I plan on buying a K+DCAN cable in the near future, the cable + WinKFD software + a PC Laptop = a wide range of coding abilities.... and I like customization.

 

With AWD, always start in 1st. Its the RWD cars that get better results starting in 2nd. Also, sounds like you are hitting the kickdown switch when flooring the throttle, search around for the mod to disable it.

I have my tranny flashed with the SAT and the difference is amazing. I have not done the hardware yet, so no heavy steering, but the shift times are much quicker, and the throttle blips are pretty cool to.

Great thread!