DIY tuning

[PFS]

Steven,

Those fuel pressures look much better! Can't wait to see that Garrett make some boost!

It's a spin-off company of VTT.

Hey Jake,

While VTT/Tony has been a huge asset with regard to set up/resources (good to have a friend in the business) Tony is not involved with any day-to-day operations, building, testing, promotions, sales, shipping, emails, etc.

 

[hardparker]

I hope that turbo turns out to be dreamy! Why do you have an N54 actuator rigged up on it? Why not just move over your N55 actuator?

VTT turbo all setup and ready to go.

View attachment 21118

 

[Chris@VargasTurboTech]

N54 actuator on all of them as the N55 actuator is garbage, prone to failure and not sold by themselves. The N54 actuators hold vacuum better, are much more precise, and can be replaced very inexpensively (~$25). Every N55 turbo will come with an actuator set up and ready to install.

 

[houtan]

nice result Steve. Thanks for sharing the dyno graph and more importantly, log!

Just as another data point, I got 491 whp, 501 wtq, at ~21 psi with similar modifications (log: https://datazap.me/u/houtan/sbrach-v466-v28-dyno-load-run-6-7-8?log=0&data=4-18-24). Link to dyno graph is here: https://www.1addicts.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1405434. I believe the main difference between our cars is, I am stock flywheel, charge pipe meth, and that dyno was on commanded wgdc tune.

The speed at which you get work done at home is impressive. I think it took me about a week to get my stock turbo out! Looking forward to hearing how the new turbo performs.

 

[Sbrach]

Thanks houtan. You were at sea level vs my 1300ft, correct? What exhaust? I don't think the magnaflow on my car flows very well.

 

[houtan]

Yeah. Per Wikipedia we are at 52’.

For the exhaust, I just removed the back half of the stock piping. I wanted bigger piping with the least amount of bends so I ended up with what you see below. I really like the way it turned out.

I had a muffler shop order a 2x2.25” into 3.5” y and a 3.5” muffler. The muffler is a magnaflow. I think magnaflow only had one muffler at 3.5” that fit well. The sound is a little deeper than I like (but magnaflow's have more of a deep tone so it probably sounds similar to your car) and there is a little drone from around 1-2k, but it’s not that bad and I am old haha. I will probably go back one day and have a couple of resonators installed. Also, one really odd thing that happened is my turbo whine through the exhaust is completely gone, which sucks because I love that sound.

Most importantly, it definitely freed up a few ponies, which was the main objective. Not sure if it will get you anything over your current set up though.

 

[Jake@MHD]

Hey Jake,

While VTT/Tony has been a huge asset with regard to set up/resources (good to have a friend in the business) Tony is not involved with any day-to-day operations, building, testing, promotions, sales, shipping, emails, etc.

Ahh cool, did not know that. So who's the owner? Looked like the same exact work bench that the product photos were taken on

 

[hardparker]

N54 actuator on all of them as the N55 actuator is garbage, prone to failure and not sold by themselves. The N54 actuators hold vacuum better, are much more precise, and can be replaced very inexpensively (~$25). Every N55 turbo will come with an actuator set up and ready to install.

The Mini Cooper S pneumatic actuators are a direct fit replacement for N55 actuators and go for around $30. FWIW.

 

[PFS]

Ahh cool, did not know that. So who's the owner? Looked like the same exact work bench that the product photos were taken on

There were a few people involved in getting PFS off the ground and all of them are part owners with different roles as agreed upon (obviously myself included). If you're just asking if Tony is one of those owners/investors, yes, however he has no active role within the company. I do consider him both a friend as well as a valuable resource though, and we regularly talk about new ideas/testing/changing platform needs. Not sure what bench you're talking about -could be an old photo before we sorted out who was doing what and it might have been his bench. Any new shots I take are either in the workshop or in the photobooth (customer car shots aside). Feel free to shoot me an email if I can ever help you with anything fueling related.

 

[houtan]

There were a few people involved in getting PFS off the ground and all of them are part owners with different roles as agreed upon (obviously myself included). If you're just asking if Tony is one of those owners/investors, yes, however he has no active role within the company. I do consider him both a friend as well as a valuable resource though, and we regularly talk about new ideas/testing/changing platform needs. Not sure what bench you're talking about -could be an old photo before we sorted out who was doing what and it might have been his bench. Any new shots I take are either in the workshop or in the photobooth (customer car shots aside). Feel free to shoot me an email if I can ever help you with anything fueling related.

What’s the website?

 

[PFS]

Don't mean to bugger up Steven's thread.... https://performancefuelingsolutions.com/ Sorry Steven!

 

[Sbrach]

Time for an update. I know its been a while, January ended up being super busy for me at work. I've been in CT for most of the time since the holidays. The kit fits great, installs like stock including the lines which obviously had to be changed to support the Garrett CHRA. Had some issues with the WG actuation which had me chasing my tail looking for a boost leak that wasn't there. Running 29psi to redline now and it feels great. Hope to get on the dyno within the next week or so. More info to come once I finish dialing in the tune and get dyno numbers. Sneak peak for now;

 

[houtan]

Thanks for the update Steve. That log looks great; especially post shift boost! Is there something you figured out to keep the boost on target right after shift?

Looking forward to your Dyno results. But based on the log, she must be movin’!

How has the car been with the new flywheel? Are the phantom misfires completely gone? That is the next modification I need to do.

 

[doublespaces]

Looks good, interested to see more

 

[CNM135i]

Any DIY tuners for the F-series? I have an early PWG F20 so I assume that is much like tuning a N54?

 

[houtan]

Hey Steve. How are things going?

 

[MatthewLC]

This thread has been super helpful as I'm just starting to get into the BMW world of tuning! I'm starting to do my own exploring and was interested in knowing what the F series N55 guys are using as an XDF file (PWG or EWG)?

Would I be able to open an M2 ROM in the XDF files found on GitHub? I'm assuming no as those definitions related to the E series ROM? Are there any F series XDF files that can be shared?

 

[Sbrach]

This thread has been super helpful as I'm just starting to get into the BMW world of tuning! I'm starting to do my own exploring and was interested in knowing what the F series N55 guys are using as an XDF file (PWG or EWG)?

Would I be able to open an M2 ROM in the XDF files found on GitHub? I'm assuming no as those definitions related to the E series ROM? Are there any F series XDF files that can be shared?

Thanks, I’m glad you’ve found my posts useful. Email MHD and see if they will provide the F series XDFs. Not sure why they wouldn’t be on Github now that F series MHD is out of beta. You need to use the xdf for the M2 software version that MHD supports.

 

[Sbrach]

Hey Steve. How are things going?

It’s going well. No issues with the VTT turbo. Been street tuning at roughly 28psi. Haven’t had as much free time to work on it due to starting a new position at work.

I did get it on the dyno again but unfortunately it didn’t run well, I didn’t have enough scheduled dyno time to troubleshoot, and on top of that I was sick and ended up in the ER the next day (all is well now.)

The car was heatsoaked on the dyno and pulled a lot of timing. I had some vanos changes I wanted to try for the reduced back pressure and didn’t get a chance to. It made more than I managed with the PS2 but less than what I think the turbo can do max effort. I don’t think it would be right to share these results due to that. It pulled 9 degrees on multiple cylinders and IAT was in the 100s.

I’m going to try and get back on the dyno in the coming weeks. Downside is that it’s getting hot again in Phx so I already missed being able to dyno at similar ambient temps to the PS2. It’s going to be at least 20-30 degrees hotter.

 

[houtan]

It’s going well. No issues with the VTT turbo. Been street tuning at roughly 28psi. Haven’t had as much free time to work on it due to starting a new position at work.

I did get it on the dyno again but unfortunately it didn’t run well, I didn’t have enough scheduled dyno time to troubleshoot, and on top of that I was sick and ended up in the ER the next day (all is well now.)

The car was heatsoaked on the dyno and pulled a lot of timing. I had some vanos changes I wanted to try for the reduced back pressure and didn’t get a chance to. It made more than I managed with the PS2 but less than what I think the turbo can do max effort. I don’t think it would be right to share these results due to that. It pulled 9 degrees on multiple cylinders and IAT was in the 100s.

I’m going to try and get back on the dyno in the coming weeks. Downside is that it’s getting hot again in Phx so I already missed being able to dyno at similar ambient temps to the PS2. It’s going to be at least 20-30 degrees hotter.

Thanks for the update and glad you’re feeling better. Going to the ER is never fun.

I know you were working hard on tuning. Have you finalized your approach or are you still working on tables, etc? If you’re pretty much finalized could you please share a little bit with what your preferred approach is? I’m still on commanded wastegate and based on your logs whatever you are doing seems to be working better.

Also, Is the flywheel a 100% fix or are you still seeing random phantom misfires? Sorry , I know you’re busy but just trying to kill two birds with one stone.

The flywheel is next for me, but I’m only willing to do it if the tuning is there too.