Dinantronics M3/M4 Performance Tuner Review

[hellrotm]

LOL, a waste in my opinion. If you so worried about warranty and also believe the stock car provides enough power as it is. Then either leave it stock or wait for BMW PPK. I have seen Dinan refuse warranty work before, playing the blame game with BMW.

[Bowser330]

Dinan knows tuning, we know this, so they know what to modify. They are purposefully keeping things safe because they are offering the "warranty". But If I ever got the warranty I personally would make damn sure how they would treat the other modifications I would have like downpipe, race fuel, intake, exhaust, or whatever part that is not dinan branded, oh and I would get it in writing.

[Money2536]

Originally Posted by rmedeir1

So I am curious OP if you are going to try and see what your quarter mile pulls are now...

I'm going to take to an airstrip event in January, so maybe we will be able to get the car up against a stock one or see just how bad I get beaten by a JB4 car. I may be looking for volunteers to drive the GT3 to see which car is faster.

[Money2536]

Originally Posted by Cloud9blue

Dinan products are good for those who doesn't want to understand what basic tuning is (this applied to both their engine and suspension products). Which is fine by me, not everyone is an enthusiast and some just want their car to go a bit faster with a big shiny "D" badge

However, one should at least be able to log the engine parameters whenever an aftermarket tune is applied, especially if it is a piggyback that manipulate ECU signals. Conservative/safe tune or not, at $2500, Dinan should at least provide this feature...

I'm definitely no car enthusiast. I'm all about utility and gas mileage. I don't like badges though.

[F82FTW]

Originally Posted by BuraQ

Overall best results comparison

Stock - 430 whp and 405 wtq
Dinan - 443 whp and 454 wtq


13 whp gains
50 wtq gains

Cost $2500

Key point the op is satisfied with the results, for now , and yes Dinan does have good quality mods. Im not a fan of their tuning engineering when it comes to "customer end user" purpose. I know they could probably get 100 whp out of the S55 if they wanted but unfortunately thats not how Steve Dinan rolls

However, Dinan with their flash tuning had done much better with power on previous BMW turbo charges cars. Their stage one for just the N54 and M5 and M6 produced more whp than just 13. They are known to be torque whores, they love tuning for torque on their cars.

So they shine with that torque but not the whp, which needs some serious improvement and I hope they update it.

Anyhow, enjoy your new tune, dont go beating up on the younsters too much

Is it me or do you literally get almost NOTHING for the money?

[MrFukengruven]

Originally Posted by F82FTW

Is it me or do you literally get almost NOTHING for the money?

Maybe we should highlight more about the BIGGEST gains rather than just the 13whp/50wtq peak gain. On the photo of the dyno run on the computer screen, it looks as if the car gained over 40whp from 3500-5000rpm and a steady 10-15whp until redline... not too shabby. I mean it'd be awesome it we saw 30whp peak gains, but the nice thing about the S55... the power doesnt really fall on its face like most STOCK turbo(s) cars these days. As the OP said, the car feels way faster in that 3500-5000 range with explains those gains. I'm not sure where the launch control is set at rpm-wise with the manual, but I'm sure with a DCT and launch control, that extra 40whp and torque would drop acceleration times dramatically, or just create tire smoke

If there happens to be some "early-model" issues and the motors do have problems to the point where they blow up, I think the extra cost is worth it. I'm not sure how expensive an S55 motor replacement is from BMW, but it's surely not cheap. I wouldn't want to have to foot the bill for that whew.

After seeing some dyno #'s heading north of 540whp from other threads on tuned M3/M4's, there's definitely massive power to still be uncorked. I'm looking forward to seeing the results with other upgrades

[psuibmw]

Holding the car from inside the rim, wow .... Looks scary

[wsybert]

I see a 20 HP gain. The peak at the end of run 1 shows a spike as the intake tube blew off.
Plus, there is some nice 30-50 HP gains in the mid range.
If you're a peak number poser, then comparing peak to peak may be what you want. I'm looking for bigger gains across a broad range. That's what I am seeing.

Great write up OP!
I, like you, am an enthusiast who can now afford to have others work on my car. It's a choice. One that I don't take for granted, as I would rather be spending time doing other things I like to do.
Bill

[AutoPG]

I also went to Motorsports at Reeves and got the Dinan tune. I definitely feel the tune has more mid range torque. Car actually breaks loose 1-3 gears where as before just once in a while it did so. Very happy with the service at Reeves and the increased power. Taking the car to the track next month to get the true test. Can't wait for the Dinan exhaust...

[KevinM]

No matter what anyone thinks of Dinan (and I don't mod my cars, at least so far), props to the OP for an objective assessment: pre/post dynos, photos, videos - wow. Great stuff.

[l888apex]

Looks like a nice safe tune with gains everywhere in the curve.

[drlukas]

Sorry but could you be satisfied with such gain? A poor like that does't mach my opinion on gaining power. Dinan promised a 42 hp gain over stock, the figure an unbelievable 516 hp!!! Sorry but it seems Dinan is jocking with customers money. Or I'm wrong?

[dapple]

Look at the overall gains, not the peak bhp gains.

[NeedleBanger]

The #1 thing I would do to a M4 would be the JB4 tune, then the usual bolt-on mods (prob even meth when a kit comes out). Everything else with that platform should be pretty much good to go, just cosmetic upgrades from there.

[JPMD]

Maybe the piggyback did not have enough time to adapt at the time of the dyno.

Has the car felt faster?

Dinan expects a 42 crank HP gain so you should see about 35 WHP on the Dyno.

Maybe do another Dyno and also see if the installation was correct and maybe Dinan can "re-tune" as this has been addressed on the M5 forum

[shortseller]

Originally Posted by JPMD

Maybe the piggyback did not have enough time to adapt at the time of the dyno.

Has the car felt faster?

Dinan expects a 42 crank HP gain so you should see about 35 WHP on the Dyno.

Maybe do another Dyno and also see if the installation was correct and maybe Dinan can "re-tune" as this has been addressed on the M5 forum

That plus quality of gas and climate conditions have impact as well. FL probably is not the best place to dyno because of the high levels of humidity and heat, all performance killers of turbos. The same car would certainly dyno higher in the upper northern parts of the country. Which is probably closer to what the manufacture suggests as the higher end of gains available from the piggyback install.

[Money2536]

Originally Posted by JPMD

Maybe the piggyback did not have enough time to adapt at the time of the dyno.

Has the car felt faster?

Dinan expects a 42 crank HP gain so you should see about 35 WHP on the Dyno.

Maybe do another Dyno and also see if the installation was correct and maybe Dinan can "re-tune" as this has been addressed on the M5 forum

Dinan stated there would be no adaptation time. That's why I drove 90 miles from Tampa right to my local shop. Remember Dinan is in CA with much different weather conditions. In one of the photos the humdity shows 68%, but I did the runs at 80+ percent humidity and almost 90 degrees. Even in these conditions I saw over 50 whp and 75 wtq improvements in the mid-range. Let's say we use a 12% correction factor for drivetrain losses that would yield about 57 chp and 85 ctq. According to my calculations, that is more than advertised.

Again, why does everyone get so hung up on peak hp gains? The gains I'm showing in very harse weather conditions seem very consistent with Dinan's claims. This is not a shop car that I am interested in pushing to the limits of what's possible. I'm taking my family to church and driving to my office.

By the way, thanks for all of the comments and interest. I hope I've helped others make a decision for or against.

Matt

[JPMD]

Thanks for all the info. Good points on the midrange gains (didn't see that). Agree very impressive and usable power.

I'll try and compare this to the dynos and accounts on the M5 forum where we are also discussing Dinan D tronics and comparing to other piggybacks ie BMS

I think all piggybacks , additions like DPs etc do need to adapt. The ECU has to adapt. There are no real ECU tunes at this time that have full control were you will see gains and changes right away

[JoeFromPA]

What we don't know so far, and what frustrates me when comparing tuners, is the longevity of the parts being pushed.

Dinan obviously did not push the high-end as much as it is capable of being pushed. Why? We know Dinan has a long-term multi-platform history of being a more conservative tuner - extracting more power but never at the expense of meaningful daily driver longevity.

So they pulled a very nice gain out of the mid-range but really did not push max power. Is that because they didn't like something at those levels? Something not determined by AFRs and EGTs? Or just because that's what they chose to do.

Power output in a turbocharged engine - when designed - is pretty complex. Turbo efficiency, turbo temps, EGTs, AFRs, cylinder pressures, lubrication....some of these are not measurable with a few probes on a dyno.

I don't mean to either suggest Dinan dialed back their top-end for those reasons nor impugn the good work of other tuners. I am merely stating that we literally do not know the total picture of each tuner's choices or what factors played into those decisions because we don't have the data to make such assessments.

[atg4]

"First, let me explain why I chose it. I've been down the voided warranty road too many times, and for some reason I feel like my luck is about to run out."

Then why put any software? Dinan still voids your warranty...

[Money2536]

Originally Posted by alexandertg21

"First, let me explain why I chose it. I've been down the voided warranty road too many times, and for some reason I feel like my luck is about to run out."

Then why put any software? Dinan still voids your warranty...

http://dinancars.com/warranty/

[Cloud9blue]

I still don't understand how is this a technical review of the tune. OP had it installed by a shop and then put it on a dyno. That was it. OP, post up the installation manual if you can, so the rest of us can get more details on this thing is put together.

But judging from the pictures, it looks the Dinan's stuff look exactly like the JB4 harness. Again, a log of boost psi, timing, fuel trims, etc. would be great at identifying the difference in software between Dinan and JB4. But it doesn't look like Dinan offer that critical features, as I have mentioned earlier.

I will say this again, Dinan's stuff is great for those who don't want to do the research. And for sure, they have the "brand image" that most tuner company could only dream of (at least in US market). Most of their stuff are great quality (I personally run their $300 camber plate spacer myself...). But I just hate their sales and marketing strategy. $2500 for a piggy back tune with no end user adjustability (vs $800 JB4), $3000 turbo upgrade with just a larger compressor wheels and NO WARRANTY (vs $3000 RB/VTT turbos w/ fully upgraded internals and one year warranty), $2400 for a non-adjustable Koni based shock and spring combo (vs. $2000-3000 Ohlins, TC Kline, KW adjustable shocks) just seems crazy to for anyone who knows there are much better products out there.

FYI, Dinan products still void your BMW factory warranty, they just provide you with their aftermarket warranty, meaning you can only get your car repaired at authorized Dinan BMW dealers if anything happens. BMW's warranty service is not that great, but I am sure as hell BMW can provide much better technical support, considering the amount of proprietary software required to diagnose cars like these.

If you worry so much about factory warranty, why are you tuning it at the first place... For pure street use (since you said you wont be tracking the car at all), this car has way enough power already...