ESS review

[8600RPM]

So a good week of hard driving on ess tune. Had it installed at ess shop who were all great and it's THE cleanest shop you could imagine. So many cool project cars going on, engines out in all their M glory and everything super organized.

I have been running their linear map which I really enjoy more than the regular tune. While you give up some power, the way the boost comes on as rpm rises really creates a much nicer feel to driving aggressively.

I have beaten the car to death, riding 5500 to 7500 rpm range and doing full redline pull after pull and the damn.Engine oil Guage just doest budge. This cooling system we have is incredible, even with a mild tune.

I believe the tune adds 40 to 50 who in linear form and it runs seemlessly, no change in smoothness and no limp mode or engine faults.

I've been running 96 octane by mixing 100 octane to 91 at nearby station for the last 2 days and notice even more pull buy on 91 it also did great.

I find linear tune keeps lag to a minimum too as boost builds with rpm.

Really enjoying the tune and I will let ess comment in future products but you all will be in for a treat with their future f80 offerings from hardware to tunes. Stay tuned!

[GOLFFRR]

Nice man! I am loving my ESS piggy as well. Its seems to work flawless. Enjoy and be safe out there with all that power

[EuroKar]

Great review.
I will be installing the same ESS kit on a client's M4 this coming week when he receives his setup.
Expecting great gains as well

[Roadkiller]

Originally Posted by 8600RPM

So a good week of hard driving on ess tune. Had it installed at ess shop who were all great and it's THE cleanest shop you could imagine. So many cool project cars going on, engines out in all their M glory and everything super organized.

I have been running their linear map which I really enjoy more than the regular tune. While you give up some power, the way the boost comes on as rpm rises really creates a much nicer feel to driving aggressively.

I have beaten the car to death, riding 5500 to 7500 rpm range and doing full redline pull after pull and the damn.Engine oil Guage just doest budge. This cooling system we have is incredible, even with a mild tune.

I believe the tune adds 40 to 50 who in linear form and it runs seemlessly, no change in smoothness and no limp mode or engine faults.

I've been running 96 octane by mixing 100 octane to 91 at nearby station for the last 2 days and notice even more pull buy on 91 it also did great.

I find linear tune keeps lag to a minimum too as boost builds with rpm.

Really enjoying the tune and I will let ess comment in future products but you all will be in for a treat with their future f80 offerings from hardware to tunes. Stay tuned!

Dude, thanks for the review. Any plans for a dyno? I think the initial numbers called for 60 CHP / 60 TQ on 91. Good to know the linear is just as smooth as stock.....looking forward to the install....!

[8600RPM]

Ess posted on their thread a dyno of each and it showed 45 or so whp from linear tune. 60 from regular. 45 to 60 from a tune is my comfort level with a tune so it's a good fit for me. Drivsbility better than stock is key. I tried the regular tune and I didn't like it as much as you had more power in lower rpms but wasn't as easy to put down and preferred feel of linear

[caliM4]

Nice review

[tom @ eas]

Just got our shipment late last week, we'll be dynoing on our shop M4 with a review shortly.

[Roadkiller]

Originally Posted by tom @ eas

Just got our shipment late last week, we'll be dynoing on our shop M4 with a review shortly.

Awesome looking forward to it.

[dmk08]

So has anyone w/ the ESS tune had any CEL or limp mode issues?

[teamwerx]

Originally Posted by dmk08

So has anyone w/ the ESS tune had any CEL or limp mode issues?

Definitely want to know - starting to see some JB issues pop up a little bit.

[sales@ESSTuning]

Thanks for the feedback. Our CAM sensor integration allows us to setup options like our linear map which we can scale boost levels based on RPM's. I am also running the linear map in my personal car and I prefer it as it allows for better traction at lower RPM's and solid overall performance. It does give up a little power overall up top to our full power maps but I do not really notice it on anything but the dyno.

I have been running mine for awhile now and I have not been able to trip a CEL or have any performance issues. I have also not had any reports from my customers or dealers on issues. We do have MAF integration with our controller which can help provide additional fuel during throttle transition and keeps the system from exceeding max MAF values which if not done can cause issues. We also keep boost levels in a range that we have tested and feel confident that the vehicle can run via our piggyback with the amount of control we have so customers should not have performance issues or CEL's.

[dkhm3]

thanks for posting this!

[Roadkiller]

Originally Posted by EuroKar

Great review.
I will be installing the same ESS kit on a client's M4 this coming week when he receives his setup.
Expecting great gains as well

Yep, that would be me.

[8600RPM]

Well I had a couple days to again try the regular ess tune. Remember there are 3. Regular, linear and torque which I am not sure what that looks like.

I was reserving judgement again until I had lots of freeway miles as well on this regular tune which you can see the graphs on the original ess link.

I have to say I think this tune won me over. One big reason, which I know one user will agree with me on, is 3rd gear is a tad long. A common scenario is driving 60 and being at about 5k rpms which is below peak power and to Rev it to 7500 you hit almost 90.

Now if you look at ess regular tune graph, you see it almost can effectively shorten the gear ratio in terms of feels as max power is developed at about 5k and you can simply Rev it out to 7500 still.

So on freeway in 3rd it is extremely fast and works better than thete linear tune as I rarely get past 6500 rpm on a 3rd gear pull. So essentially you can extract full tuned power at 5k rpms vs stock or linear.

I actually had no issue putting power down with only small intrusions by mdm in 2nd and 3rd. 1st is a handful stock so that's still a handful.

But the regular ess tune making 480whp may be even better than linear tune after all and I felt no drop off at high rpms.

temps 75 degrees and after 30 mins of 2nd and 3rd gear wot pulls the cars temp didn't budge and intercooler still cool to touch. It's rather amazing

[carholic]

Thanks for the in-depth review again. Sounds reasonable. I have been running the linear tune but can actually feel it being slower. I just switched it back to normal tune and will try it tomorrow and see.

[parky1215]

I am planning to get this next week. I will probably just use normal tune and let my foot do its job to modulate throttle.

I hope eas has new version in stock.

[tom @ eas]

Originally Posted by parky1215

I am planning to get this next week. I will probably just use normal tune and let my foot do its job to modulate throttle.

I hope eas has new version in stock.

We do. PM me and I'll set one aside for you.