DME Almost Fried During Flex Fuel Wire Install

I had a major scare the other day. In the pursuit of speed I decided to upgrade the BMS JB4 unit I have for my N55 engine to have the capability of detecting E85 and adjusting the DME accordingly. It should be good for somewhere around another 40 to 50 hp / tq.

I had to expose the wiring harness of the JB4 unit and first snip two wires. I then had to wire one side together and wire the other side together with an additional sensor that connects to the fuel rail. This sensor has a pin that then goes into a DB25 connector that plugs in to the JB4 unit. Scary stuff. I did everything as outlined in the instructions. I read the thing about 10 times to make sure.

Once all done I tried starting the car. It took a long time to start...then engine light...then dead. After this happened a high pitched ringing sound came from the car speakers until the battery was unhooked. Immediately I had a ball in my throat and felt ill. After quickly disconnecting the battery I rechecked all of my connections. The worst part was that I knew for a fact I had done everything right. The moment you realize everything was done properly is the moment you no longer know what to check next. I emailed the vendor and they quickly got back to me with some things to try. The first round of communications was the usual, making sure I wasn't retarded. During this back and forth I decided to just reverse everything and carefully inspect every part.

It's hard to see in the picture but it shows the problem. The flex fuel add-on module they gave me had one pin that was not completely seated. When connected to the fuel rail it just pushed itself out the back. I pushed on the corresponding wire from the back of the plug and it clicked into place neatly. At this point I was breathing an apprehensive sigh of relief. I still didn't know whether I had fried anything. I was so eager to try this fix that I scratched the shit out of my hand reaching back to the fuel rail connector.  I look like a burn victim. I hooked everything back up and the car started up as though nothing had happened. No issues so far but I still haven't driven out of the garage due to weather. I remain confident though at this point. A very scary moment but it's all worth it in the end. It's just part of the ups and downs of what we do. I also learned that every component, no matter how much you trust the vendor, must be inspected very carefully.

State College to Beaver Springs Drag Strip to Centralia Cruise (5/4/13)

*UPDATE*
We have recently found out that the original date that was planned happens to fall on Blue & White weekend which would rule out any chance of meeting near Beaver Stadium. Beaver Springs is not holding Test & Tune day the following week so we are moving the date forward 2 weeks to 5/4.


*UPDATE*
We have recently found out that the original date that was planned happens to fall on Blue & White weekend which would rule out any chance of meeting near Beaver Stadium. Also, may people would rather attend the game and traffic in and out of town would be a nightmare. We are moving the date forward 1 week to 4/27.

Warm weather is almost here, finally. I just installed some flex fuel wires and spent my first born on new rims and tires. Still need to fit the intercooler, wheels, and cut a diode for isolated boost control firmware but she's getting close to being ready for the Spring.

We're planning a cruise to the old coal mining town of Centralia that's been on fire since 1963. It's my friends idea and it sounds like it's going to be a blast.

We are going to meet up near the Penn State football stadium for some pictures and BS then we're taking some winding back roads to Beaver Springs Drag Way for a test-and-tune session. It's $40 a car to run and I think it's free to spectate. We'll have to check to be sure.

Here's the meeting spot, marked in yellow, across from Beaver Stadium.

This shows 1 of 2 possible meeting spots in State College and then the ensuing route to Beaver Springs.


View Coal Town route - part 1 to Beaver Springs in a larger map

The 1 is hibernating for winter (Sweet pic of it in storage)

It's a sad day. The car is officially put away for winter. I have shop rags stuffed in the tail pipes and the battery is in the house. I went to PepBoys (who I tend to stay away from usually) and purchased a California Car Duster. Not a bad product. I'll probably come out once every couple weeks to dust off the paint and roll the car forward or back a couple feet to prevent flat spots. Now I just need to figure out how to open the trunk without electric power before Spring comes.

I decided to play around with my camera tonight and I got a really cool picture of it as it sits in the garage (seen above). It's nothing special, a Canon SD1300 IS but it can take some excellent pictures if you play with the settings. It was really dark in the garage. The lighting is poor to begin with plus the florescent bulb above the car is burned out. I used a shovel as a tripod :-p.

P.S. After looking at this picture I really need to find a new place for that precarious ladder.

2009 BMW 135i N54 vs. 2011 BMW 135i N55: Round 1

First I'll start with a little history. 

In the BMW 1 series enthusiast world the most debated subject seems to be what year of 135i to buy. For the US we got the 1 series starting in 2008. BMW had a beastly engine already developed to stuff in the small stubby chassis. It was a twin turbo charged, direct injection, 3 liter straight six that developed 300 horsepower and 300 lb/ft of torques (both under rated).

In 2011 BMW decided to switch the lump to the N55 engine that had been developed in 2009 and already doing duty in the 535i GT. This engine is rated at the same output, 300hp 300tq (Also under rated) but there are some key differences. First, the good. In addition to direct injection this version also adopted a technology referred to as Valvetronic. This is BMW's iteration of continuous and precise variable valve lift system. In combination with Double VANOS, continuously variable timing these systems allow for 15% improved fuel efficiency. Supposedly the N55 has less boost lag due to the twin scroll turbo design but I've driven both and I can tell you that's BS. Now, the bad. Because they went to a single turbo design it seems to be limited by the amount of air it can flow. This is evident on the dyno. Where the N54 starts slowly dropping off at high RPMs, the N55 crashes. This presents a problem when trying to get more boost.

Now the dyno runs

Mods:
2009 BMW 135i N54

• Burger Motorsports JB4 Tuner
• Injen Dual Cone air intake
• Berk Race axle back

2011 BMW 135i N55

• Burger Motorsports JB4 Tuner
• Burger Motorsports air intake
• Berk 4" catless down pipe
• Stock axle back

Baseline numbers were similar. I need to double check the exact numbers on the N54 but I believe they were slightly lower, especially in torque because the N55 was dyno'ed after the down pipe install. The baseline on the N55 with a downpipe was 289.6 hp and 301.0 tq. Once the tune was changed to map 2 the N55 put down 322 hp and 369 tq. Not bad, but...The N54 with stock catted down pipe on map 5 put down 343 hp and 370 tq.

N55

N54

The Race

Finally just the other day we got a chance to line them up, on a closed course with professional drivers...bwahaha. We both left some tire on the road in first but no smoke so I'd say we took off pretty well. The N54 pulled a slight lead. Near the top of 2nd gear the N55 started coming back. In to 3rd and the N54 lunged back ahead a few feet. Near the end of 3rd gear the N55 was pulling up to the door. We raced until the end of 3rd gear so about 110mph or so. It was so close but the N54 won by about 5 feet. This is the first time we ran them. Next Spring we'll be going to the drag strip to see what happens. I hate to make excuses but my N55 is still running worn out run flats. In the Spring I'll be getting new tires for sure. But then again the N54 may have down pipes and a larger intercooler too. We'll see. Videos will be taken for sure.

Bimmerfest 2012 was awesome!

Bimmerfest is the largest European car show on the East coast. They host it at Ripken Stadium in Aberdeen, MD. This was a great location. Easy to get in to and out of, hotels abound, not in a City.

Four of us decided to make the three and a half hour trip from central PA to Aberdeen. This was to be a Cannonball run. We took 2 BMW 135i's both easily capable of cruising at 155mph. There was going to need to be some preparation for this venture.

Prep: Our shopping list included performance parts, radar detectors, walkie talkies, and beer.
For more info and pictures follow the jump

Taking a huge lighter to a BMW

First Post! Wow!

Car: 2009 BMW 135i M Sport

Idea: Wire Dré's radar detector to a switch in the dash to avoid the need to use the cigarette lighter sock 

Approach: The US spec model of the 135i with the Sport and M Sport package has 2 non-functional buttons just to the right of the headlight knob. It seems as though buttons are blanks but if you take the switch apart you can cut the end off of a pen and stuff it in the back of the button to make it fully functional again. We were thinking we could find the power wire associated with this button and piggy back off of it to power the radar detector, using a screw close by for a ground.

Process: Dré removed the panels to get to the switch housing. Most of these have no screws. There is 1 Torx T-20 screw under the headlight switch, maybe 2. Everything else just needs to be pried off. As the plastic flexes and creaks under pressure you'll swear it is about to snap in half. Usually at about that point it breaks loose loudly causing an immediate reaction of frantically looking for broken plastic clips. If you're lucky there won't be any. In our case there was a couple heavily deformed plastic pieces but nothing was totally snapped off. That's just a byproduct of working on a Snap Tite car. Remember those car models they used to sell at Wal-Mart? Those were the business when I was a kid. Follow the jump to read more