Question to Bmw N54 Owners

[DSC]

Guys

a tuner in Kzn has told me That with downpipes , dci and a charge pipe upgrade and his tuning he can get me 65wkw and 150 nm torque with tuning and a separate map over 300wkw and 700nm with 20% ethanol for weekend fun .

I know there are a few N54 fundi’s here with real experience , So these where your expertise comes in ..

1. Is this figures at all possible ?
2. What is pros/ cons of having a flash tune instead of jb4 and mhd ?
3. What percentage of ethanol can a stock bmw n54 handle safely .
4. Is Ethanol readily available in Kzn ?
5. Can Ethanol be used in a non tuned stock bmw n54 and what differences in power and torque and performance .
6. What are the power limits for the stock clutch before they start to slip

He quoted me R6000 for a tune with stage 1 map and ethanol 20% map . Is this about right ?

 

[M@rk]

Guys

a tuner in Kzn has told me That with downpipes , dci and a charge pipe upgrade and his tuning he can get me 65wkw and 150 nm torque with tuning and a separate map over 300wkw and 700nm with 20% ethanol for weekend fun .

I know there are a few N54 fundi’s here with real experience , So these where your expertise comes in ..

1. Is this figures at all possible ?
2. What is pros/ cons of having a flash tune instead of jb4 and mhd ?
3. What percentage of ethanol can a stock bmw n54 handle safely .
4. Is Ethanol readily available in Kzn ?
5. Can Ethanol be used in a non tuned stock bmw n54 and what differences in power and torque and performance .
6. What are the power limits for the stock clutch before they start to slip
He quoted me R6000 for a tune with stage 1 map and ethanol 20% map . Is this about right ?

1. Is this figures at all possible ? with similar mods I made +-260 wkw but its all dyno dependent i do think 300 wkw is a long shot for those mods
2. What is pros/ cons of having a flash tune instead of jb4 and mhd ?i had mhd and jb4 jb4+BEF is my advise since you keep all the jb safety feature and meth is all integrated .
3. What percentage of ethanol can a stock bmw n54 handle safely .30 % on stock LPFP
4. Is Ethanol readily available in Kzn ? Yes
5. Can Ethanol be used in a non tuned stock bmw n54 and what differences in power and torque and performance . 10% can be used in most newer cars ,power increase is not easy to say
6. What are the power limits for the stock clutch before they start to slip Not sure depending if DCT ,Step tronic /manual ,clutch millage etc

 

[DSC]

Thanks Mark

Around what torque figures did you get with 260wkw ?

With regards to clutch question - Manual version .

So slapping in 30% of ethanol on stock n54 will not yield results without a jb4 or tune ?

 

[Twinz]

Whats your goal with the car must always be the first question.

Secondly, how healthy is the car at this stage...remember these cars are pretty old now even if they got low milage.

Dynos is not a good measure of the health of the car but its a good yardstick of its potential. Dyno it stock. Then dyno as you add the mods & tune.

Jb4 with BEF all the way.:thumbs:

 

[DSC]

Whats your goal with the car must always be the first question.

Secondly, how healthy is the car at this stage...remember these cars are pretty old now even if they got low milage.

Dynos is not a good measure of the health of the car but its a good yardstick of its potential. Dyno it stock. Then dyno as you add the mods & tune.

Jb4 with BEF all the way.:thumbs:

Thanks Twinz

Well goal is to get a little more out of it but not a full on drag car . Car is healthy with no issues thus far .

With just a jb4 with mhd BEF , downpipes , dci what are the expected range of kw and nm ? Pump fuel LET ALONE 20% ethanol ?

i HAVE READ SOME horror stories on getting a 2nd hand jb4 ? ur thawts ?
what does a new jb4 sell for ?

 

[Iceman12596]

Whats your goal with the car must always be the first question.

Secondly, how healthy is the car at this stage...remember these cars are pretty old now even if they got low milage.

Dynos is not a good measure of the health of the car but its a good yardstick of its potential. Dyno it stock. Then dyno as you add the mods & tune.

Jb4 with BEF all the way.:thumbs:

Thanks Twinz

Well goal is to get a little more out of it but not a full on drag car . Car is healthy with no issues thus far .

With just a jb4 with mhd BEF , downpipes , dci what are the expected range of kw and nm ? Pump fuel LET ALONE 20% ethanol ?

i HAVE READ SOME horror stories on getting a 2nd hand jb4 ? ur thawts ?
what does a new jb4 sell for ?

That's exactly what they are......stories bud, I got my JB4 used and have it going for 3 years now with 0 issues, unless its proven bud, dont believe all the BS that people tell you, With just those mods, its difficult to say bud, its like asking how long is a piece of string, do it the way twiz advises dyno before and as you progress dyno after each mod etc

Good luck bud

 

[KarshS]

On an n54 i would start with maintenance that was not done yet.
You can throw 50k worth of mods on a sick car and it will not make the power.

Carbon Clean
Spark plugs
Coils
Change oil
Do a general check on the belts and pulleys.

Then start with mods if you know the car is healthy

With regards to JB4.
No problems with getting a used JB4 if its from a trusted source and you know your way around it.
Remember the previous guy might have had serious mods set on high boost. You will need to make sure your JB is set back to its default settings and theres no easy way to do this. You need to manualy check everything.

I would seriously buy a JB4 new from a company thats well known and that will provide you the right advise and assist you with the required support. You not just buying a JB at the end if the day you also getting support from said house.

Good luck its not an easy task with the n54 but when you get it right its smiles all around.

 

[FiRi@Rennzport]

Whats your goal with the car must always be the first question.

Secondly, how healthy is the car at this stage...remember these cars are pretty old now even if they got low milage.

Dynos is not a good measure of the health of the car but its a good yardstick of its potential. Dyno it stock. Then dyno as you add the mods & tune.

Jb4 with BEF all the way.:thumbs:

Thanks Twinz

Well goal is to get a little more out of it but not a full on drag car . Car is healthy with no issues thus far .

With just a jb4 with mhd BEF , downpipes , dci what are the expected range of kw and nm ? Pump fuel LET ALONE 20% ethanol ?

i HAVE READ SOME horror stories on getting a 2nd hand jb4 ? ur thawts ?
what does a new jb4 sell for ?

That's exactly what they are......stories bud, I got my JB4 used and have it going for 3 years now with 0 issues, unless its proven bud, dont believe all the BS that people tell you, With just those mods, its difficult to say bud, its like asking how long is a piece of string, do it the way twiz advises dyno before and as you progress dyno after each mod etc

Good luck bud

Ive seen 2 used jb4 units pop tmap sensors after car was started. Boards were faulty, guys paid for the jb4s. We removed the units, left the harnesses and plugged another unit after putting in another tmap sensor...presto worked. So its BS stories, you do get faulty units.

Secondly when buying a used JB4,

1) backup service is probably non existent and youhave to rely on emails back forth to bms only which nowadays the response is not a great and prompt as it used to be, hense why buying one from a local tuning company gets you that support.

2) make sure you always get a usb, and settings, firmware etc arw set to default, as Karsh mentioned, now now its sets to some other settings and not default, you cpuld end up harming the car.

No 2 cars are the same, and I never ran my car on a dyno without better fuel. I find 150nm increase on pump fuel a HUGE increase and I have reservations towards those figures. I would say a 50kw and 100nm would be more reasonable.



Sent from my SM-N950F using Tapatalk

 

[maleven-GP]

Whats your goal with the car must always be the first question.

Secondly, how healthy is the car at this stage...remember these cars are pretty old now even if they got low milage.

Dynos is not a good measure of the health of the car but its a good yardstick of its potential. Dyno it stock. Then dyno as you add the mods & tune.

Jb4 with BEF all the way.:thumbs:

Thanks Twinz

Well goal is to get a little more out of it but not a full on drag car . Car is healthy with no issues thus far .

With just a jb4 with mhd BEF , downpipes , dci what are the expected range of kw and nm ? Pump fuel LET ALONE 20% ethanol ?

i HAVE READ SOME horror stories on getting a 2nd hand jb4 ? ur thawts ?
what does a new jb4 sell for ?

Maybe the horror stories were referring to cars that had JB4 removed just before they were sold, without even disclosing..:dunnoanymore:

 

[DSC]

Whats your goal with the car must always be the first question.

Secondly, how healthy is the car at this stage...remember these cars are pretty old now even if they got low milage.

Dynos is not a good measure of the health of the car but its a good yardstick of its potential. Dyno it stock. Then dyno as you add the mods & tune.

Jb4 with BEF all the way.:thumbs:

Thanks Twinz

Well goal is to get a little more out of it but not a full on drag car . Car is healthy with no issues thus far .

With just a jb4 with mhd BEF , downpipes , dci what are the expected range of kw and nm ? Pump fuel LET ALONE 20% ethanol ?

i HAVE READ SOME horror stories on getting a 2nd hand jb4 ? ur thawts ?
what does a new jb4 sell for ?

That's exactly what they are......stories bud, I got my JB4 used and have it going for 3 years now with 0 issues, unless its proven bud, dont believe all the BS that people tell you, With just those mods, its difficult to say bud, its like asking how long is a piece of string, do it the way twiz advises dyno before and as you progress dyno after each mod etc

Good luck bud

Ive seen 2 used jb4 units pop tmap sensors after car was started. Boards were faulty, guys paid for the jb4s. We removed the units, left the harnesses and plugged another unit after putting in another tmap sensor...presto worked. So its BS stories, you do get faulty units.

Secondly when buying a used JB4,

1) backup service is probably non existent and youhave to rely on emails back forth to bms only which nowadays the response is not a great and prompt as it used to be, hense why buying one from a local tuning company gets you that support.

2) make sure you always get a usb, and settings, firmware etc arw set to default, as Karsh mentioned, now now its sets to some other settings and not default, you cpuld end up harming the car.

No 2 cars are the same, and I never ran my car on a dyno without better fuel. I find 150nm increase on pump fuel a HUGE increase and I have reservations towards those figures. I would say a 50kw and 100nm would be more reasonable.



Sent from my SM-N950F using Tapatalk

T

---

Whats your goal with the car must always be the first question.

Secondly, how healthy is the car at this stage...remember these cars are pretty old now even if they got low milage.

Dynos is not a good measure of the health of the car but its a good yardstick of its potential. Dyno it stock. Then dyno as you add the mods & tune.

Jb4 with BEF all the way.:thumbs:

Thanks Twinz

Well goal is to get a little more out of it but not a full on drag car . Car is healthy with no issues thus far .

With just a jb4 with mhd BEF , downpipes , dci what are the expected range of kw and nm ? Pump fuel LET ALONE 20% ethanol ?

i HAVE READ SOME horror stories on getting a 2nd hand jb4 ? ur thawts ?
what does a new jb4 sell for ?

That's exactly what they are......stories bud, I got my JB4 used and have it going for 3 years now with 0 issues, unless its proven bud, dont believe all the BS that people tell you, With just those mods, its difficult to say bud, its like asking how long is a piece of string, do it the way twiz advises dyno before and as you progress dyno after each mod etc

Good luck bud

Ive seen 2 used jb4 units pop tmap sensors after car was started. Boards were faulty, guys paid for the jb4s. We removed the units, left the harnesses and plugged another unit after putting in another tmap sensor...presto worked. So its BS stories, you do get faulty units.

Secondly when buying a used JB4,

1) backup service is probably non existent and youhave to rely on emails back forth to bms only which nowadays the response is not a great and prompt as it used to be, hense why buying one from a local tuning company gets you that support.

2) make sure you always get a usb, and settings, firmware etc arw set to default, as Karsh mentioned, now now its sets to some other settings and not default, you cpuld end up harming the car.

No 2 cars are the same, and I never ran my car on a dyno without better fuel. I find 150nm increase on pump fuel a HUGE increase and I have reservations towards those figures. I would say a 50kw and 100nm would be more reasonable.



Sent from my SM-N950F using Tapatalk

Thanks Firi .

All the relevant done . Carbon clean . oils . Pulleys and belts .

IS there an agent for jb4 Durban ?

 

[WADEE]

I have seen cars almost double stock KW . And some with more than double.. 450+Kw
Depends on quality of parts and Tuner..

 

[FiRi@Rennzport]

Whats your goal with the car must always be the first question.

Secondly, how healthy is the car at this stage...remember these cars are pretty old now even if they got low milage.

Dynos is not a good measure of the health of the car but its a good yardstick of its potential. Dyno it stock. Then dyno as you add the mods & tune.

Jb4 with BEF all the way.:thumbs:

Thanks Twinz

Well goal is to get a little more out of it but not a full on drag car . Car is healthy with no issues thus far .

With just a jb4 with mhd BEF , downpipes , dci what are the expected range of kw and nm ? Pump fuel LET ALONE 20% ethanol ?

i HAVE READ SOME horror stories on getting a 2nd hand jb4 ? ur thawts ?
what does a new jb4 sell for ?

That's exactly what they are......stories bud, I got my JB4 used and have it going for 3 years now with 0 issues, unless its proven bud, dont believe all the BS that people tell you, With just those mods, its difficult to say bud, its like asking how long is a piece of string, do it the way twiz advises dyno before and as you progress dyno after each mod etc

Good luck bud

Ive seen 2 used jb4 units pop tmap sensors after car was started. Boards were faulty, guys paid for the jb4s. We removed the units, left the harnesses and plugged another unit after putting in another tmap sensor...presto worked. So its BS stories, you do get faulty units.

Secondly when buying a used JB4,

1) backup service is probably non existent and youhave to rely on emails back forth to bms only which nowadays the response is not a great and prompt as it used to be, hense why buying one from a local tuning company gets you that support.

2) make sure you always get a usb, and settings, firmware etc arw set to default, as Karsh mentioned, now now its sets to some other settings and not default, you cpuld end up harming the car.

No 2 cars are the same, and I never ran my car on a dyno without better fuel. I find 150nm increase on pump fuel a HUGE increase and I have reservations towards those figures. I would say a 50kw and 100nm would be more reasonable.



Sent from my SM-N950F using Tapatalk

T

---

Whats your goal with the car must always be the first question.

Secondly, how healthy is the car at this stage...remember these cars are pretty old now even if they got low milage.

Dynos is not a good measure of the health of the car but its a good yardstick of its potential. Dyno it stock. Then dyno as you add the mods & tune.

Jb4 with BEF all the way.:thumbs:

Thanks Twinz

Well goal is to get a little more out of it but not a full on drag car . Car is healthy with no issues thus far .

With just a jb4 with mhd BEF , downpipes , dci what are the expected range of kw and nm ? Pump fuel LET ALONE 20% ethanol ?

i HAVE READ SOME horror stories on getting a 2nd hand jb4 ? ur thawts ?
what does a new jb4 sell for ?

That's exactly what they are......stories bud, I got my JB4 used and have it going for 3 years now with 0 issues, unless its proven bud, dont believe all the BS that people tell you, With just those mods, its difficult to say bud, its like asking how long is a piece of string, do it the way twiz advises dyno before and as you progress dyno after each mod etc

Good luck bud

Ive seen 2 used jb4 units pop tmap sensors after car was started. Boards were faulty, guys paid for the jb4s. We removed the units, left the harnesses and plugged another unit after putting in another tmap sensor...presto worked. So its BS stories, you do get faulty units.

Secondly when buying a used JB4,

1) backup service is probably non existent and youhave to rely on emails back forth to bms only which nowadays the response is not a great and prompt as it used to be, hense why buying one from a local tuning company gets you that support.

2) make sure you always get a usb, and settings, firmware etc arw set to default, as Karsh mentioned, now now its sets to some other settings and not default, you cpuld end up harming the car.

No 2 cars are the same, and I never ran my car on a dyno without better fuel. I find 150nm increase on pump fuel a HUGE increase and I have reservations towards those figures. I would say a 50kw and 100nm would be more reasonable.



Sent from my SM-N950F using Tapatalk

Thanks Firi .

All the relevant done . Carbon clean . oils . Pulleys and belts .

IS there an agent for jb4 Durban ?

---

Yes.

Email us at [email protected] and we can set it up for you.

Sent from my CLT-L29 using Tapatalk

 

[ver328i]

On an n54 i would start with maintenance that was not done yet.
You can throw 50k worth of mods on a sick car and it will not make the power.

Carbon Clean
Spark plugs
Coils
Change oil
Do a general check on the belts and pulleys.

Then start with mods if you know the car is healthy

:thumbs::thumbs::thumbs: Best N54 advice ever...might as well get used to maintenance from the get go