dinan chip vs bavarian auto chip

[beckley]

i have an 87 325i (E30) and want to upgrade the chip. has anyone had any experience with either the dinan chip or the bavauto chip for this car. i think that they are priced the exact same, so there isn't a money factor to worry about. thanks in advance for any help.

jim

[Pinecone]

Conforti, buy from many place, but Turner (www.turnermotorsport.com) is the source.

[SharkD]

Conforti (via turner) is the way to go, like Terry said.

[John in VA]

Reasonably priced performance upgrade.

http://www.bmwe34.net/../ETAchips.asp

[SharkD]

Reasonably priced performance upgrade.
http://www.bmwe34.net/../ETAchips.asp

Unfortunately, the E30 chip is "under development," according to that chart...

BTW, [ URL ] is better than [ HTML ] when you post web addresses.

[beckley]

i looked at the conforti chip description and it looks like they put most of the hp and torque gain at about 5000 rpm. as i'm not racing this car (it's a convertible) i'm wondering what the performance of this chip is at the lower end (3000 rpm).

also, i saw that 2 of you pointed me to the turner motor sports website, which was really nice. do they have a better reputation (parts and/or service-wise) than bavarian auto or pelican auto parts? (btw, if you haven't looked at the pelican website for tech info, you should. it has a lot of really simple to follow procedures for E30 and E36's.)

thanks in advance,
jim

[M-technik-3]

Mark D GB on www.e30tech.com http://www.e30tech.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=11696I would say Conforti chip I had one for my M20 and it was nice.

[SharkD]

i looked at the conforti chip description and it looks like they put most of the hp and torque gain at about 5000 rpm. as i'm not racing this car (it's a convertible) i'm wondering what the performance of this chip is at the lower end (3000 rpm).

5,000 's just where the engine is most efficient -- if you look at the original specs for your car, it'll say something along the lines of '160hp @ 4800rpm, 150lb-ft @ 5200rpm; (made up numbers). With the conforti chip in my 325is, it pulled very strongly from 2,800 onward. I could actually chirp the tires going into 3rd gear - the stock chip only chirps in 2nd. (I had to de-chip for SpecE30 - I'd give you my Conforti - but I'm keeping that ecu/chip combo in case I run the car in BMWCCA Club Racing KP.

Honestly, though, the M20 isn't a torquey engine and you're never going to get that much performance gain out of the low-end, even with a chip. The Jim Conforti chips seem to have the broadest range of performance boost, whereas most chips simply advance the timing above 4,000 or so. I'm not sure that you're going to be happy -- esp considering that you'll have to run 93octane and your mpg will drop significantly for a while.

also, i saw that 2 of you pointed me to the turner motor sports website, which was really nice. do they have a better reputation (parts and/or service-wise) than bavarian auto or pelican auto parts? (btw, if you haven't looked at the pelican website for tech info, you should. it has a lot of really simple to follow procedures for E30 and E36's.)

BavAuto is okay, if a bit expensive. Their chips aren't nearly as tuned, though. But Turner is a wholly different animal (as is Bimmerworld, Ireland Engineering, etc) -- they're a race shop & they're good at that - good parts, very helpful and friendly staff - but they're not the OEM parts counter that BavAuto and Pelican serve as (Tischer and www.PacificBMW.com are cheaper, though, generally). Most of Pelican's articles, while useful aren't as E30 specific as they claim -- visit www.e30tech.com, www.r3vlimited.com and www.bmwe30.net if you want info and tech tips specifically for the e30.

[beckley]

great info, SharkD. thanks for the help.
fyi, i talked to joshua at pelican yesterday and he is their e30 guy. he owns a couple of them and was a big help with lots of general/specific info about the car (his extension is 233). i told him that mine has only 80,000 on it and i think that i could hear his jaw hit the floor.