Management questions

[Psymon69]

Hey guys, its with mixed emotions that I post this.

seems as if my car has stumped my mechanic and together we have changed and swopped out all that we can think of. id like him to post on here aswell and maybe share his side.

So now it seems the best way to fix the car is fit management. im sure it can be fixed by chucking money at the car but then even if it does get fixed I still have the same power. With management atleast ill have more power and a good base. thoughts?

im leaning towards gotech. does anyone have any contacts? I like spitronics but as I learned today you cant set the fueling like you can on gotech.

I really just want this car fixed and I want to drive it like its ment to be driven. Its a strong car and in the last year its had the bottom and top rebuilt. It deserves to be all it can be and i feel management can do that.

please leave opinions, i just need things to think about. I miss my car after a week of not driving it and anyone thats ever had an E30 will know how this feels. I miss the way my 323 could just pull from 1500rpm in 3rd all the way to the limiter without issues and I want that again. it wasnt the fastest car but it had the never die attitude. this new car has loads more power but is being held back every step of the way!

Okay im getting emotional and its late and its not the state to be making decisions.

over to you

signed :argh:

 

[rick540]

Have you checked the engine is not sucking in air through a bad seal somwhere as this will find it's way into the intake as unmetered air.

By all means fit a management system, but dont now go and buy that till you know the original cause. How would you feel fitting a new mgmt system to discover the problem was something mechanical all along and you start from step one again?

 

[Psymon69]

im also very afraid of that, but im assured the engine is fine. it doesnt smoke or anything like that.

i know its gona sound if im wanting to waste money (and im not, believe me); but atleast it will be easier to diagnose:fencelook:

yes checked that a few times

 

[zaleonardz]

Have you checked cylinder 3 for pidgeons ?

 

[Psymon69]

dont think ive been on the forum long enough to get that:rollsmile:

 

[Nic_s]

How about trying a piggyback first? Might be able to borrow one?

 

[Technician]

Management brings along its own problems when invited to the party.

you say the best way to sort the car out is management?
what have you swapped out? what is the problem with the motor or car?
what are your symptoms?

if it were my car i'd try fix the problem first...

 

[Psymon69]

@ technition: Heres the thread I started a while ago and answers most of ut questions http://www.bmwfanatics.co.za/showthread.php?tid=26285

@Nic: i can try that, but i want to cancel out all the electronics and basically just have the block running on management so nothing can interfere, but if the piggy back can be tested on it why not, might be cheaper

 

[netercol]

imho , the only valid reason for fitting aftermarket management, is when the oem management cannot be altered/mapped/tuned to a satisfactory level after changes (turbo,major flow increase, ect) has been done to the engine.

in all cases, many many hours has to be spent on aftermarket management to get it at least as smooth as oem. this is after all sensor/wiring/retrofit issues have been sorted.

i think you will be swapping one set of troubles for another set. if the car is stock, nothing will match the oem management for smoothness (bmw did spend 1000's of ours on a dyno perfecting it after all) you will be better off rebuilding the stock management from scratch..

that said, the gotech is prolly the best of the cheaper aftermarket ecu's..

 

[rick540]

I know you are battling to find the problem and with all due respect you may be doing it completely wrong, is it mainly parts that you have replaced/substituted?

You need to do some D.I.A.G.N.O.S.T.I.C.S which uses brain power and not money. Like measuring fuel pressure which is good but what else did you measure?

None of what you have tried worked so you need to identify the problem by going a bit hardcore with this by looking at live data for spark on an ocilliscope for starters and then the waveforms being sent to the ECU by sensors. Then you need live readouts of FP, fuel mixture, AFM reading and very importantly the air temparature being sent to the ECU by the sensors.

To run properly the engine needs a spark of the correct strength timed correctly and an adequate air fuel mixture sucked at the correct time. That's it if these are there it HAS to run right.

This is not as hard as you think to solve either, you start with a list of required sensor readings remove the wiring cover to the ECU and start ticking them off as functional till you get to the one that is not.

I am at fault here too suggesting you substitute this or that part to see if it makes a difference. this is wrong, one needs to measure the signals going to the ECU and if this or that is right you dont need to change it, just move on to the next. It's a much faster and more scientific approach I should have suggested in the beginning.

Now you can throw bucket loads of cash at this or you can wait till I have a day free to help you out as I have all the scopes, equipment etc to solve this if you would like to give it a try?

 

[Psymon69]

I get what you saying rick. I like the scientific way and would also have wanted to do it this way but didnt have the tools. Also after starting to eliminate components it started to be a bit useless to go to a real garage as they would charge ne thousands to do all the troubleshooting that i did.

All that said i think you are right. Whenever you can help i will be there so will wait to hear from you thanx