Full bolt ons and the car isn't making power. Suggestions?

[Air_harman]

2008 E90 120 grand on the chassis about 60 on the new motor. Swap was done by EAS (amazing guys). Currently the car has all the bolt ons and won't make power.

Base run was already a bit low. 332hp

Top speed x pipe no cats no resonators
Macht Schnell under drive pulleys
Macht Schnell stage 2 intake
Car Treats Exhaust (this came with the car) not a fan

After bolting all those up the car made a whopping gain of 16hp. Bringing the grand total to 348hp.

Any idea on what's killing the car? Mind you i will be ordering a Gintani reflash in about a week. But it doesn't seem to make any sense when the car isn't responding at all to the bolt ons.

Let me know what you think. Kevin if you happen to read this I'll probably be bugging you guys in a bit.

Ps the car was run on a dyno jet

[EJT86]

you dont have a tune with the catless setup?
the intake and the rear section exhaust wont net you any extra power
16HP from the pulleys sounds about right
so that just leaves the tune...

[Air_harman]

Originally Posted by EJT86

you dont have a tune with the catless setup?
the intake and the rear section exhaust wont net you any extra power
16HP from the pulleys sounds about right
so that just leaves the tune...

So that's what I was thinking but here is the kicker the pulley was installed last. We did a pull after the intake and xpipe and the car made 348hp. After the pulley install we dyno'd again and it made absolutely no difference.

[EJT86]

Originally Posted by Air_harman

So that's what I was thinking but here is the kicker the pulley was installed last. We did a pull after the intake and xpipe and the car made 348hp. After the pulley install we dyno'd again and it made absolutely no difference.

many people have tested out the myth that any intake mods make basically no diff maybe 2whp but thats nothing. i mean every dyno run is going to be different from another. i believe removing the cats will gain power without a tune just not nearly as much with the tune. what tune are you running?

[Air_harman]

I'm not running any tune as of yet. The plan was to run Gintani. But the car is just not reacting to any of the other bolt ons. I wasn't expecting 60hp from the intake and exhaust but it's giving me close to nothing. The pulley didn't make a difference at all. I think the pull after the intake and exhaust was 348.33 and the one after the pulley kit was 348.91. I will upload the dyno sheets later today.

[inTgr8r]

If you cleared adaptations it might make a little more as is, but a tune is what's needed to gain full benefit.

[Air_harman]

Originally Posted by inTgr8r

If you cleared adaptations it might make a little more as is, but a tune is what's needed to gain full benefit.

I'll clear it and run it again. I'll keep you guys posted. Headed to the shop right now.

[8500RPM]

Yeah a tune will wake the power up. A dyno is just a tool some read a lot lower than others. Only way to tell if your car is truly down on power for the mods is to race a comparable E9X mod for mod or compare trap times with other
M3's.

Unfortunately you will need a 91 octane tune for Cali unless you go full E85

[azndrunk74]

you need to post the dyno chart so we can see the curves and AFR. old spark plugs, old primary o2 sensors, leak in the manifold, bad t-stat, etc. will cause you to be down on power.

[Yoko22R]

Supercharge.

[Solo_M_Tech]

Originally Posted by Air_harman

I'm not running any tune as of yet. The plan was to run Gintani. But the car is just not reacting to any of the other bolt ons. I wasn't expecting 60hp from the intake and exhaust but it's giving me close to nothing. The pulley didn't make a difference at all. I think the pull after the intake and exhaust was 348.33 and the one after the pulley kit was 348.91. I will upload the dyno sheets later today.

You expect 60 whp from bolt ons without a tune? Really?

Even with a tune, 60 whp is a stretch. I don't know that many M3's making 390whp even with FBO's and a custom tune. You need to lower your expectations.

The only way to make real power improvements on this platform is supercharging.

[JsL]

Save yourself the money of a N/A tune, buy a used Supercharger and spent the tune money to tune the supercharger.

[Air_harman]

Originally Posted by ham_sammich

You expect 60 whp from bolt ons without a tune? Really?

Even with a tune, 60 whp is a stretch. I don't know that many M3's making 390whp even with FBO's and a custom tune. You need to lower your expectations.

The only way to make real power improvements on this platform is supercharging.

If you go back and read what I wrote I said I "wasn't" expecting 60hp. from the bolt ons sir. 60 being an arbitrary number. I was expecting at least 30 over stock. Considering people unlock 20 from the xpipe usually. I understand supercharging is the way to go to make the most power (besides gintani's turbo set up) but I was posting a question to as why after all the bolt ons my car made little to no gain.

[Air_harman]

Originally Posted by azndrunk74

you need to post the dyno chart so we can see the curves and AFR. old spark plugs, old primary o2 sensors, leak in the manifold, bad t-stat, etc. will cause you to be down on power.

I will definitely be posting graphs soon as my buddy opens shop. He took the weekend off for family events. So hopefully Tuesday I'll have the graphs up. I appreciate the input.

[pbonsalb]

I have had my 08 M3 for 7 years and the stock performance was not exciting enough for me after a year. But with all the bolt on mods I think it is entertaining enough. I plan to dyno in the spring and expect to be close to 400 rwhp SAE on a dynojet. The only mods I have beyond the OP are a Dinan tune and a Vishnu Procede with meth injection that raises timing when the meth is flowing.78

If the 08 has not been updated for engine software, an update to 241e will help.

91 octane costs a little power on most cars due to reduced timing allowed by the lower octane, but some cars have had great dyno runs on 91, maybe because their additions had just been reset prior to the dyno?

While I think a tune that includes 241e and an adaptions reset would help the OP, I see the logic in putting that $1000 towards a supercharger — he can also sell the intake and pulley since those are not used with the supercharger. So he might be 20% of the way towards a VT595 ($6995).

If he does not want to spend another $5500 right now, buy the tune. I have been happy with all the bolt on mods for a few years. Sure, I always want more power, but I don’t yet want to spend $5k plus on it. Probably will eventually, though, assuming I keep the car.

[Solo_M_Tech]

Originally Posted by Air_harman

If you go back and read what I wrote I said I "wasn't" expecting 60hp. from the bolt ons sir. 60 being an arbitrary number. I was expecting at least 30 over stock. Considering people unlock 20 from the xpipe usually. I understand supercharging is the way to go to make the most power (besides gintani's turbo set up) but I was posting a question to as why after all the bolt ons my car made little to no gain.

Given that logic, 16 whp with the mods without a tune is perfectly logical. 30whp with a tune would be considered normal. your car is functioning normal.

[dmk08]

Originally Posted by ham_sammich

You expect 60 whp from bolt ons without a tune? Really?

Even with a tune, 60 whp is a stretch. I don't know that many M3's making 390whp even with FBO's and a custom tune. You need to lower your expectations.

The only way to make real power improvements on this platform is supercharging.

I thought e92s only got close to 400whp NA on the EAS magic dyno.

Its sad how many people I have seen dyno crushed hoping for 400whp after seeing those posts/graphs. Even saw a guy with a flex fuel kit etc not able to crack 390 recently. He ordered a 625 the next day lol.

[Solo_M_Tech]

Originally Posted by dmk08

I thought e92s only got close to 400whp NA on the EAS magic dyno.

My understanding is that 90% of our cars make 370-380 whp on a Dyno jet, with fbo and a tune. Anything north of 380ish I consider an anomaly. 400whp might be achieved with e85 and a custom tune for it.

[dmk08]

Originally Posted by ham_sammich

My understanding is that 90% of our cars make 370-380 whp on a Dyno jet, with fbo and a tune. Anything north of 380ish I consider an anomaly. 400whp might be achieved with e85 and a custom tune for it.

See my edit above. Lol

[pbonsalb]

You can check the dyno database for comparisons. Use only dyno jet if you were on one and remember that STD is about 2.5% higher than SAE. If you are starting on the lower end at 332, your end results might also be on the lower end but I would expect an 08 on original software to pick up more with a tune than a 13 that already has it or was updated with it by a dealer during its warranty.

Also if the plugs have never been changed, I’d change them since they affect knock sensing.

[aus]

Make sure EAS gave you updated stock tube 240+. It's the best tune for power for earlier cars.
.

[azndrunk74]

Originally Posted by dmk08

I thought e92s only got close to 400whp NA on the EAS magic dyno.

Its sad how many people I have seen dyno crushed hoping for 400whp after seeing those posts/graphs. Even saw a guy with a flex fuel kit etc not able to crack 390 recently. He ordered a 625 the next day lol.

yeah, unfortunately everyone bases their expectations off of EAS dynos. their numbers are exceptionally high (not bashing EAS, great guys), and ESS even admitted to me they could never replicate EAS numbers on their own dyno in arizona. admittedly, my low N/A dyno with bolts on also accelerated my 625 kit purchased LOL.