Hey guys,

Our R56 finally arrived! It’s a pepper white 6spd, with the only options being a posi and an arm rest. Talk about a tuners dream.


Anyway its been a rough first day. With 20 miles on the odo the shifter fell off on a hard 1-2 shift, and the car is throwing cyl 3 misfire codes left and right. I suspect it has a bad coil pack or plug. :( I’m going to run out the dealer gas out and try some quality gas first. But if that doesn’t solve the misfire back to the dealer we go at only 200 miles.

But some good news: I did a lot of OBDII data logging and confirmed the car runs a similar closed loop adaptive timing system to the 335i, which means that the R56 can automatically adjust timing up or down based on fuel quality, ambient conditions, and most importantly modifications. In the coming weeks we’ll test the limits of this system to determine the fail safe range.

I also installed a boost gauge and verified ~11-12psi under normal mode, and ~15psi in ‘over boost’ mode. No surprises here. The next step in the boost department is to determine whether or not the ECU changes the boost targets based on altitude or IAT temperature.

In monitoring the factory wideband via the OBDII I did notice a light ‘saw-tooth’ air/fuel ratio behavior like we’ve seen in dyno charts, but I’ll install the LM1 wideband this weekend to confirm. This may be a symptom of poor MAF metering.

I also noticed a 40 degree spread between ambient temperature and air intake temperature, which tells me the factory intercooler efficiency is rather average. We’ll see if that delta holds up under hotter ambient temperatures and higher boost levels.

Just as a general observation I was rather impressed with the quality of the factory air intake and charge piping. It’s hard to imagine any apples to apples (e.g. same boost level) gains from swapping out either, but we’ll be doing plenty of testing.

Stay tuned!

 

Hopefully everything goes great. I was so close to buying an Alta Ecu, but now that your developing the JB for the R56, im investing my money into other mods until your all done. It's nice to see some tuning solutions considering the R56 has been out for so little time

 

I've heard nice things about the Unichip, but with $500-600 reflashes around the corner the R56 tuning market is pretty fluid right now. I'm not so sure any piggyback solutions costing more than $500 are going to sell or hold their value. Our objective is to come in well below this price, in a package that is easy to install and remove. I would encourage those who are on the fence about tuning to sit back and see what other options come out in the next few months.

 

Exactly my plan, Terry...lots of exciting things developing for the R56, can't wait to see how they all turn out. Theoretically your product is the most appealing, being low prices and removable; best of luck with development, and definitely keep us all updated!

 

Interesting to hear this method of clutch break-in.

Glad to hear you're getting some datalogging done despite the rough break-in routine. The sawtooth WBO2 is interesting, isn't it!

 

Hehe I had the vbox in the car coming out of the dealer lot and was timing 0-60mph times. So far best was 7.0, but I think the dealer put some bad gas in it. Timing was holding around 6 degrees (a bit low IMHO). Need to drive around and fill it up with some fresh Shell gas.

 

Yea if your timing is holding at 6 degrees there's a problem. It should start there at lower RPM and rise to about 14 by redline, if I recall correctly [just looked at my spreadsheets last week so I'm slightly fresh on those numbers].

Get it on the dyno once the misfire gets worked out.

 

can't wait to see some more tuning options

And love the car, I see you bought the fastest color for your testing.

 

Looking forward to seeing results w/ your ECU. I'm definitely playing the waiting game until there are more (proven) options out there.

 

As far as playing with the ECU goes, I would like to know if we could use a manual boost controller with a resister mod. VW guys put a resister in line with the MAF to trick the ECU so they can use a manual boost controller to up the boost. I would be willing to bet that we can do this and up the boost 4-5 lbs and gain about 20 HP. Anyone willing to be the gopher???

 

I don't think it will work on the R56. I believe the ECU monitors the duty cycle of the boost solenoid required to hit a specific boost target. So if you take the solenoid out of the loop (with a MBC), and then clamp the map signal, it will detect it right away and go to limp mode.

 

congrats & have fun

 

I was thinking the exact same thing.

 

Hey guys, just a quick little update. Our brand new baby came with a cyl 3 misfire code that the dealer is still trying to sort out. But in between service visits we've started sniffing signals and things look promising. Stay tuned.

 

Thanks for the update, Terry- can't wait to see what you guys come up with.

 

really excited to see this more cost effective solution your creating. just dont be like vishnu and disappear! haha

 

Now that I own an R56 I can't really stand to drive around at the stock power level. This car needs 20-30rw desperately.

Happy to report gas mileage is really really good though!

 

You're chip is going to be able to make rear wheel hp?!?!?

 

Terry, any updates in regards to your testing? when should the ''mini box'' be ready?

 

No testing updates yet, still too early. But I've blocked off a lot of time for it next week and hope to have an update then.

 

 

Will you keep the car stock while your testing it or you will test it with some mods like intake, DP and exhaust?

 

Terry will your product be for the US spec cars only or will you look at adapting it for the EU spec cars ie ones with out a MAF?

 

No, I would like the chip to be the only modification. As this is what most customers will want to do. Add one easy to remove device and pickup nice gains.

Later after the chip is released we will explore other modifications to complement it.

 

I believe it will work on either, but I will need to get hold of a wiring diagram to verify. Once we release to the US market I will be looking for EU cars for testing and will keep you in mind.

Thanks,

T