| 02-15-2020, 12:32 AM | #1 |
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F80 M3 Comp: One step at a time
Anyone that knows of me via my previous Subaru, A45 & RS3 project threads will appreciate I like to delve that little bit deeper with my project threads, at least in respect of the kind of testing and information I like to gather and share. I aim to ensure this M3 project thread is no different.
What I aim to do is go into detail about what’s being done, why it’s being done and be utterly truthful about the results, supported by as much evidence as possible. I’m not going to state I’m looking to reinvent the wheel! I’m an enthusiast and love to learn and experience new things. If at least one other person finds this project interesting…… that’s a mega bonus! I still own a 655bhp RS3 but thought I'd buy a proper car and finally get myself a M3.  Don't get me wrong the RS3 is an absolute blast and the engine is simply one of the best engines I've experienced, both from a noise perspective and its tuning potential. I understand the 3ltr in the F80 is pretty epic even if it doesn't sound that epic..... but after only owning the M3 for just over a week I do really like it. No current targets with this project (power wise) but we could very well see a staged approach from Stage 1 through to Stage 3 (hybrid turbos) and possibly beyond. It's not just about power though so I will be looking at other areas. We'll see how it goes. So…. that’s enough of the introductory stuff. I really hope (and encourage) for you all to get stuck in and feel free to contribute to this open discussion thread.  |
| 02-15-2020, 12:35 AM | #2 |
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It's perhaps not the best time of the year to start performance modding a RWD lol, so until the weather picks up I thought I'd just play with some other things to get warmed up.
This car is my daily and not a weekend blaster (I have the RS3 for that) so I need to maintain some level of sensibility about all of this. I like to get stuck into the geeky stuff with cars that I mod so thought I'd look at data logging and car coding at this point. EcuTek Now I appreciate that there are tools such as Bootmod for both mapping the F80/82/87 as well as data logging, however, for this car I will be using EcuTek for both. I've had a fair amount of experience with using (from an end-user perspective) EcuTek before and in 2019 this software suite was released for the F80/82/87 platform. I don't know how it compares to Bootmod, but EcuTek has been a fantastic bit of kit previously so I wanted to go down this route with my preferred tuner (who is an authorised EcuTek Master Tuner) and the F80 platform. Whilst the EcuTek mapping suite provides a lot of control over what the ECU does, currently this platform provides the following functionality from an end-user perspective on the F80/82/87 platform: Switchable maps (via steering wheel controls) Adjustable torque (via steering wheel controls) Recalibrated driver display (which takes any changes in map or torque changes into account) Adjustable pops and bangs (via EcuTek Connect and mobile device) Adjustable torque per gear (via EcuTek Connect and mobile device) High speed data logging (full ECU support via EcuTek Connect and mobile device) Read & clear DTCs (full ECU support via EcuTek Connect and mobile device) Digital dashboard (full ECU support via EcuTek Connect and mobile device) Flexfuel integration (add flexfuel sensor and appropriate mapping) So to enable all of this to its full there are three separate products: EcuTek Licence This is needed to enable your EcuTek custom map to be programmed to your vehicle. Once you have this it stays with the vehicle. ECU Connect This is the bluetooth dongle that plugs into your OBD port to give you access to EcuTek functions via your phone/tablet. I already have this dongle (works with any car that has OBD, but functionality is make/model specific) so plugged it in to get some F80 specific logs.  It's really easy to use via your phone. You choose the BMW PIDs you wish to log, and once you've logged you can email the logfile to yourself (to view) or the tuner. Logfiles are CSV file format so can be viewed in many different applications. ProECU This replicates all that ECU Connect does but also enables you to undertake remote programming via your tuner (I'm not sure what's specifically available for the F80/82/87, but ProECU can also provide the end-user access to tuner enabled adjustments on top of what is listed above). It also has an added [awesome] data logging analysis tool, which you can read in your data logs recorded and analyse the data in many different ways. I need to get the latest version of this but was able to use an older version I have to at least read the log files, which enables you to look at logged data in this format (although there are many other ways to look at the data within ProECU).  It's so easy to look at the logged data (I only logged a few F80 ECU parameters - there's pages of them - to check it was all working), compare and overlay.... I love this data logging software personally. I'll be certainly digging into this more and posting log information as the car starts it's tuning journey. |
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| 02-15-2020, 12:42 AM | #3 |
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BMW Coding - BimmerCode
I'm sure everyone knows about this but I thought I would explain my personal experiences with this and BimmerCode. Simply put this is a no brainer piece of kit to buy as it unlocks quite a few features, that are simply pretty much must haves in my opinion..... just out of sheer convenience and should have been included as part of the basic package of the F80/82/87 (apart from Video in Motion which is a clear grey area for safety if misused). Basically with a cable, your smartphone and an application you can "code" so many options on the F80/82/87 platform easily and in seconds. What do you need?
I went for the ENET cable as they're cheap and can also be used for something like Bootmod. I bought mine off eBay for £6.99. To use the ENET cable with my iPhone I also bought a Lightning to Ethernet adapter for £12.79 (again off eBay). BimmerCode App Download from iTunes (works with Android as well) and but a lifetime licence for £31. What about Carly? Carly is another application (like BimmerCode) but costs £59 per year, plus you still need to buy an adapter. From what I can see the functionality of BimmerCode for coding purposes is exactly the same. From a cost perspective the BimmerCode costs £50.78 all in and will last you a lifetime! No brainer. Let's get coding Phone, cable and app!  Cable plugged into ODB and app connecting to ECU  Connected to ECU.... now select your model  Now identifying your control units  Then select the control unit you want to code!  From end to end it takes a few minutes and you can unleash new coding functions! It's that easy and safe, and each coding stores a backup on your phone so you can "undo" anything you change the code on just as easily. I've also seen other companies charge up to £85 to do this, plus additional costs depending on coding options you choose. Do yourself a favour, buy the gear and do it yourself. So what did I activate?
I found some really useful PDF's from a US BMW Forum which can be downloaded from here: FAQ (tell you what you need to set before you start coding) Coding List (List of modules that can be coded for the F8* series) Happy coding!!! |
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| 02-18-2020, 01:47 PM | #4 |
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Alcantara Cleaning
Here's a nice exciting subject!!! So I have an alcantara steering on this M3 and these things can tend to get dirty. An old and very inexpensive trick is to use baby wipes to clean alcantara. I thought this was a well known method. As far as I was aware this was older than Gods dog! lol That doesn't appear to be the reality when I looked on YT to see. If baby wipes are good enough for a babies bum, they're good enough for alcantara. Anyway.... All you need to do is wipe the alcantara with a baby wipe, aid the cleaning process (and to roughen up the texture of the alcantara again) by using a tooth brush and then use a micro fibre to finish off the cleaning process and aid drying.  Now my wheel wasn't very dirty but areas were starting to get shiny. I've seen wheels that are really bad, but the result after cleaning is the same.... back to what it's supposed to look like. Before    Baby wipe has picked up dirt  After    Sheen has been removed and alcantara is re-textured again. Job done! |
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| 07-15-2020, 10:24 AM | #5 |
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Time for some updates!
There’s quite a bit to cover in this one...... Styling Just as we entered lockdown I received a load of carbon off GBT Autostyling. Front splitter and hockey sticks, together with rear diffuser. They were running a special offer on eBay at the time and the splitter and sticks cost £307 and the diffuser £213. Absolute bargain, assuming quality and fitment were good. I finally got round to fitting the diffuser at the weekend and apart from a minor fitment mod required I’m impressed overall.  Off with the original diffuser first.  Simple job to remove by just unbolting each end (8mm - highlighted) and pulling the clips carefully.  Be careful of these clips (highlighted) as they need slight persuasion to unlock.  OEM rear diffuser removed.  OEM vs GBT Diffuser.  So now on to the fitment. All was fine with the top and bottom clips and one side being bolted up fine, but unfortunately the other side did not line up with the bolt hole. No worries though as I drilled another hole in the carbon which took me 5mins. It then bolted up and perfectly aligned from normal viewing angle (which is what counts) when attached.  Bottom clips were not really clips just guides, so it made sense to slide these between the bumper and shielding. I’ve seen on some diffusers you can pull it out from the bottom, this doesn’t move installed like this.  Final pictures:    I’ll get round to doing the front splitter at some point. Tuning Who cares about styling when we have boosts to build! I wanted to start off with just the basics, so for this phase of tuning just a remap and no changes in hardware...... but I also wanted to add some spice (or shall I say special sauce)! But more on that in a bit. Crank Hub Slip Well documented all over the internet with an extra large portion of scaremongering and out of control panic in my opinion. Done to death this one. Probably due to torque the crank hub can slip which knocks the timing out. Best case scenario the ECU sees the timing change and goes into limp. Worse case the pistons go kiss kiss with the valves. Can the crank hub slip? Yes! Is it only tuned cars that have the problem? No! What’s the chance of it happening? Who knows but I would strongly suggest it is low. Fit a crank hub bolt capture plate for piece of mind and just move on with your life. Here’s one that has slipped on a car that was tuned and is being repaired at Litchfield’s. This didn’t have a capture plate in place and needs the crank hub replacing with a new one piece design. Car still ran and drove to Litchfield’s. BMW wanted £6k apparently and wouldn’t cover under warranty! Lol  The crank hub capture plate fits over the top of the existing crank bolt and then itself bolts into the crank pulley assembly. You can see the OEM crank hub bolt and pulley in the centre of the picture above, and the plate goes over the top of that. This better ensures the bolt and pulley assembly are tied in together.... hence should put paid to any crank slip. Below is a picture of the capture plate.  The car above has already seen an OEM failure (without capture plate) and will need the replacement crank hub which is below.  Anyway..... A crank hub capture plate was fitted to mine as part of this work. Stage 1 Normally seen to be the biggest bang for your buck regardless of platform..... Let’s see how big this bang is. I’m going to be using EcuTEK simply because I was using this 15yrs ago with Subaru’s and quite frankly it’s awesome! It was ahead of the game back then and I still feel it’s the same now. Not only for the tuner but also the end-user, should the end-user want to take advantage of the extra “RaceROM” functionality. The logging facilities are just brilliant as well so if you’re into that kind of thing you can just buy ProECU from EcuTEK, plug a dongle into the OBD port and off you go logging BMW specific PID’s at high resolution and in pretty graphs. If you’re a nerd (like me) you’ll love this! There will be more on logging, comparing maps, showing boost, ignition curves and fuel corrections over the coming weeks/months. It’s dead easy for me to do this. So what features have I got setup on this Stage 1? Switchable Maps 4 map slots are available. These can be switched instantly either via cruise control or dongle & phone app. I have all 4 filled. Want different boost levels, different fuels, valet modes or anti-theft modes. Sorted! Adjustable Max Overall Torque Max limit is set by tuner but user can reduce this across all gears. This can be altered instantly via cruise control or dongle & phone app. Poor weather conditions and want to adjust overall max torque available. Sorted! Adjustable Torque per Gear (1st, 2nd and 3rd) Whilst the max torque is set with the previous option for all gears, you can alter how much of that you want per gear for 1st, 2nd and/or 3rd. This can be altered instantly only via dongle & phone app. Maybe not great weather conditions and you want to fine tune low gear acceleration, or you’re at an event and you want to maximise grip in lower gears depending on surface and tyres (could be awesome for drag / launch control stuff). Even with normal dry weather driving, this gives you the ability to fine tune your torque to ensure you put as much power down on the black stuff you can! Adjustable Pops and Bangs From old man (me) to full asbo machine gun, full control over this via dongle & phone app. Mapping With the car locked and loaded on the dyno we started with the mapping.  Stage 1 software; No hardware; 99oct Fuel Let’s just cut to the chase, the car achieved 539bhp / 508lbft  This is quite exceptional for a Stage 1 on this dyno (normally 520/510), but the engine responded really well which resulted in great power and really smooth curves. Very impressive for just a remap and no hardware! The elephant in the room is the short rev band and the sudden drop off in power at 6100rpm. There was a problem with the dyno (there was a web chat going on with MAHA in Germany, hence the TeamViewer window in the bottom right), which meant we couldn’t rev very high. It doesn’t look pretty at 6k+ but it’s fine on the road. Stage 1 software; No hardware; Special Sauce I wanted to try higher octane fuel with this car to see how the engine would respond. I’ve played with fuels with previous cars many years ago and was using Methanol for a few years with great results. Nowadays water meth injection is the “in thing”. I’m old skool though and don’t have a fondness for meth injection..... I want it stuffed in with the fuel. Meth is cheap, burns very cleanly and aids combustion cooling. Forced induction setups normally love it! I bought 25ltrs from JennyChem which is the dear way of buying it, but it still only worked at £1.36 per litre delivered. You try getting fuel with this octane level for that price in the UK! After all the learning we did in the late noughties with this stuff and Subaru’s we found the best % of Meth with 99 fuel was 20%. So for say 50ltrs of fuel you would use 10ltrs of Meth and 40ltrs of 99. 25ltrs of Meth will give you over 2 full tanks of mix and in reality it’s as dear/cheap as 99oct per ltr in essence. You won’t get no cheaper additional power than this! The biggest downside is that this is not as convenient as using pump fuel. It’s totally workable, but it is more of a pain as you need to be careful about mix and ratios. I ran a car fulltime on a 20% Meth mix for 2yrs with zero issues. So have many others. It’s no big deal if you wish to. This was all about seeing what this would do on the F80 out of interest, but with switchable maps on EcuTEK why not have the facility! I’m not really going to use this that much, and I will be moving to flexfuel with EcuTEK in the near future anyway to make it absolutely convenient. Unfortunately we continued to have dyno issues and we ran out of time so we only managed to achieve 568bhp / 523lbft. Still that’s as good as +30bhp over straight 99 and after all this is still just a remap and no hardware.  We only made minor tweaks to the midrange, so there’s more to be piled in here if needed. Time was spent on 5k+ with ignition. More work needs to be done on this, and I need to get the car back to see what the real potential is. I feel 590bhp is doable with this amount of Meth, as you normally see +10% for a 20% mix and this engine loves it. The graph is exceptionally smooth and the engine responded very well for the ignition advance it was given. Still, as good as damn it 570bhp on just a remap with a bit of sauce is pretty cool! So a pretty good day really. I mentioned before that I have utilised all map slots, which have been set as the following (screen from my EcuTEK app):  Driveability At the same time as the remap I had Litchfield update the transmission and dynamics software. Nothing new in this world but I also had the GTS gearbox software, together with the CS steering, differential and MDM traction control calibrations applied. I am slightly spoilt as I also own a 655bhp RS3, so the power was never going to blow my brains on this M3. I can’t deny that it is bloody quick when you’re on WOT. I am still on the Meth map so I know I have some additional jam, but even though at 540bhp it won’t be a slouch and it’s going to be night and day compared to stock M3 comp levels. The absolute standout takeaway for me is the driveability and tractability of this car. Perhaps things have moved on dramatically in the world, but for this car to put this much power down through the rears and so easily is for me astonishing. It was bone dry on my way home yesterday from Litchos and in a straight line it just grips so hard, from whatever rpm, gear, regardless of any transient throttle inputs or kick down....... it just gets all that power through to the road. A lot of the driveability will be down to the torque management going on. I know they’ve done a fair bit of testing to find what levels work in respect of getting the torque on the black stuff with road tyres, and it really does work. Literally no dramas. This is a daily and that is exactly what I want. This is why I like flat and usable torque curves (as you can see from the dyno graphs). It feels very linear which gives more confidence and in reality better control. Will it do the quickest 100-200 in Dragy or the fastest 1/4m? Who gives a **** I’m nearly 50 and I have other things that are more important to me in a car (although I will be seeing what it does do out of morbid curiosity lol). Back to that torque management, well this is what my car is setup as currently and I will have a play with this alongside asking Litchfield’s for a high torque map so I can dial things in and test myself.  Also that GTS gearbox software – what a difference that makes. Even with the additional power the shifts seem smoother and snappier. Again, for a Stage 1 tune I’m mighty impressed which takes a lot. Overall this does make me feel that I have no inclination to bother with hardware (and I’m a tuning nerd, so that’s pretty weird for me to say that). Everything just works so well, and with this power with stock turbo response is brilliant. Time for some fun, a shedload of data logging and undoubtedly (forget what I said above as I’m too weak) I’ll be back with more jam!!! |
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| 07-18-2020, 04:32 AM | #9 |
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Subscribed. Excellent detail.
Lol, please install a front/rear dash cam, it will be the best DIY guide available for sure.... Which I can follow
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| 07-18-2020, 05:28 AM | #10 |
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Oh wow. It’s so interesting to see we have both followed the similar car routes and both have a passion for data.
 I discovered you in the days with my CLA 45 when you had your A45 onto the RS3 and now we have F80’s Definitely subscribed to this as I have always thoroughly enjoyed your builds and detail you go into them. |
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| 07-19-2020, 04:23 AM | #12 |
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Going good thanks.
I’m loving the F80. It is by far the best smiles per miles car I have owned. Everything about the car ticks all my boxes. The in gear acceleration is second to none. Especially with some of the more aggressive maps. The only downside is the exhaust note but it’s not that bad. The 45 had a mega note when in sport mode but sounded crap like an over stressed lawnmower in normal mode. At least the F80 is still more pleasant than that. The F80 is a more Raw engaging drive that is more nimble and balanced. |
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| 07-20-2020, 06:45 AM | #13 | |
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| 07-21-2020, 01:55 PM | #14 | |
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| 07-21-2020, 01:58 PM | #15 | |
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| 07-29-2020, 03:15 PM | #16 |
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Bit of a benchmark check on the car at its current state of tune (Stage 1 98oct).
Switch from Meth to straight 99 First off I switched back to the pure 98 map (MAP 3 in my case) as I have some mileage to hit over the coming week. Easy to do from Meth. I waited for the tank to get down to a 1/4 and then brimmed with 99 and switched the map from 4 to 3 via the cruise controls. Then using EcuTek I logged the car on a couple of 3rd gear full rpm sweeps and no ignition was being pulled so everything was looking good. The following morning I went to the local airfield and managed to get a quick blast. It's in a good place for a Stage 1 98 map for this time of the year with the Density Altitude as it is.  I sent the data logs over to Litchfield and they're sending me the EcuTek programming dongle along with a new Stage 1 (so I reprogram)..... we'll see what difference that makes to the acceleration numbers. However, I'm happy with where this Stage 1 is from simply just a remap, but let's see if we can improve things. The methanol map feels noticeably quicker than this 98 map, so I would certainly expect that to be well in the 6's 100-200. We'll come back to this soon for sure. Anyhow.... just thought I'd share the baseline Stage 1 98 map data so far. |
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| 08-01-2020, 04:16 PM | #17 |
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Awesome writeup and pics! I really appreciate the detail in both the descriptions and the pictures. Also, awesome cleaning tips for the Alcantara interior. I just got a bunch of the M Performance Alcantara pieces and so everything is perfect, new and clean now... but I was wondering how I would clean it without damaging the Alcantara in the future!
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| 08-02-2020, 03:14 AM | #18 |
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Whilst I wait for my programming dongle and new map files to be sent I thought I'd delve into logging a bit more. I'm a bit of a nerd for this thing, but find it interesting tbh.
Not all tuners take the same approach to their mapping, however, dyno graphs and dragy only tell part of the story. Personally, the most important element to me is reliability and safety. Datalogs can tell you quite a bit about what's going on with your engine. It's very easy to log your car whether you using EcuTEK or something like BootMod. Don't use generic OBD loggers though as you won't be able to see BMW specific sensors, so you'll only be able to see generic ones which won't really be good enough. You can also find log files on the internet from other tunes/tuners. It gets a bit interesting then to compare. Ignition Whilst you need to look at boost, ignition and fuelling when comparing maps overall (and like I said before, tuners can take different approaches), looking at your ignition logs can give a good a indication on map health imo. Let's look at a log from my Stage 1 98oct map from a 3rd gear full sweep pull  Let's explain what's what. Basically this is showing the base ignition map vs what the actual ignition is being seen at each cylinder against rpm. In broad terms this enables you to see target vs actual ignition values, which enables you to see any ignition retard and/or advance over base ignition. All sorts of things can influence actual ignition but main reasons for ignition retard are either too much advance requested, too much boost, too little or too much fuel. You then have things like temperature corrections etc. I do believe though that by looking at ignition gives a good indication of map health and how overall happy the engine could be. In this version of Log Viewer I can only compare up to 5 data elements. This comparison runs from 2800 - 6800rpm approximately. The green line is effectively the baseline/target ignition. The magenta line is the ignition seen at cylinder 4, however, as you can't see any other cylinder colour for 1, 2 & 3 (these are cyan, yellow & red in the legend) this means cylinders 1-4 actuals are all the same and overlay each other on the graph. This means there is no actual ignition variation across each cylinder for the whole rev range for 1-4. For information cylinders 1-6 ignition curves perfectly overlay, but since I can only show 5 values at any one time you'll have to take my word for it. For starters having all cylinders overlay each other is a good initial sign. Then when you compare against the base ignition and that is either the same as actual or lower, that is basically where you want the map to be for the fuel you have been mapped for. Because the green line is not above the magenta line (requested is not above actual) it means there is no ignition retard at all. If you look at the above graph you'll see (as an example) the values in the top left legend for values at 2976rpm: Base ignition: 4.5deg Cylinder 1: 5deg Cylinder 2: 5deg Cylinder 3: 5deg Cylinder 4: 5deg Let's look at a log from another tuner Stage 2 98oct map from a 3rd gear full sweep pull  So this ignition log from another tuners Stage 2 tune doesn't look quite as nice. You can immediately see multiple different coloured lines from 2800 - 5000rpm and again from 6400rpm onwards. This map is pulling ignition from every load point apart from between 5000 - 6400rpm. If you look at the above graph you'll see (as an example) the values in the top left legend for values at 3787rpm: Base ignition: 5.3deg Cylinder 1: 5.5deg Cylinder 2: 4deg Cylinder 3: 5.5deg Cylinder 4: 4.7deg (for completeness cylinder 5 & 6 match cylinder 4 for values) 2 cylinders are putting in advance over base which is fine/good, but then 4 cylinders are pulling ignition. In parts of this map you're seeing up to 2.8degs of ignition retard. The reality is the ECU is doing what it needs to do by controlling ignition, but there's something the ECU is not entirely happy with but it is dealing with it. For me personally I would want to see clean ignition pulls. |
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