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      05-25-2012, 09:16 AM   #1
Wichard20
Private First Class
United_States
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140
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Drives: BMW M3CS
Join Date: Jan 2011
Location: NOVA

iTrader: (2)

Installed Evolve Tune

Decided to go with the Evolve tune for the 1M. I had a 335i prior to this car and used both the JB4 and Cobb so I figure try something new. I just got it installed yesterday so I have had little time to play but so far very happy with the tune. This is how the car should of left the factory. Besides the power bump there are no signs that this is a tuned car (smoothness, power delivery, etc).

I took some precautions. A laptop is required to deploy the tune (unless you carry your desktop around or mod the OBD cable to be really long ). I decided to dedicate a laptop for the tune. I had one laying around and figured the less stuff on it the more reliable it will be. Last thing I wanted was an unwanted reboot or something like a BSOD during my flash. Fresh build of Windows 7. Disabled anything that could cause unwanted behavior, screen saver, any kind of power management, sleep mode, windows update, no antivirus, etc. Evolve recommends disabling a lot of these as well.

Per the Evolve guide they recommended using a battery charger during the process. Did some research and saw this was recommended on couple forums and purchased, http://www.amazon.com/Schumacher-INC...7954561&sr=8-1. Some people will build their own solutions for much less but for someone who does not want to from my research this was your best buy. I believe Snap-On sells this as well but for much more as they rebrand it. This battery charger has a flash programming mode. I set it to 13.8 (not 100% this is the voltage that should be used for our ECU but I saw it mentioned couple times).

Also wanted to post my ghetto setup as I found it amusing. Laptop on trashcan with ODB cable through window. Had to run an extension cable to power laptop since there were no plugs near by. Used an upside down recycling bin to sit the battery charger on. The handlebar on my mower let me bring the battery connection cables up so they would not rest on the paint of the car.




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