What's the best way to increase power for daily driver 128i-N51-? [OTHERTHAN EXHAUST]

[128ibro]

I am looking for some advice and suggestions on increasing power for my daily driver it's 128i Convertible N51. I know the car needs a better exhaust to breathe better especially that the N51 has two SULEV catalysts

[desertman123]

Contact Bimmer Performance Center, BimmerLabs for a tune

[rowsdower]

One of the most common power upgrades for the N52 is adding the 3-stage intake manifold (3IM). The N51 already has it! However, it's not fully usable from the factory so you need a tune to activate it.

Bimmerlabs has a free tune that will activate it, but it takes a fair bit of monkeying around with a computer to get it to work. For the cost of the $45 Bimmergeeks cable you can activate the 3IM.

BPC is a company that will sell you an easy-to-install tune for about $600 that will turn on the 3IM.

Nothing you do will make this car screaming fast. I have AA catless headers and the 3IM with a BPC tune and it is quicker, but not drastically so. It was also very expensive, a pain in the ass to install the headers, my car doesn't really run right and hasn't for 6 months, and when I get my car inspected it's going to be a pain.

So in short, if you're comfortable playing with your car's computer and you know your way around Windows, go with the Bimmerlabs tune to unlock your 3IM. If you're not comfortable, go to BPC for a tune. But beyond that I would be looking at getting into a 135i or a Cayman depending on your wallet.

[chris_flies]

I'd you drive around the city, I could definitely vouch for a 3.73 diff swap if your car is a manual. It really puts some pep in its step (and it's brutal when you have an LSD to put the power down).

[gary_william]

Originally Posted by rowsdower

One of the most common power upgrades for the N52 is adding the 3-stage intake manifold (3IM). The N51 already has it! However, it's not fully usable from the factory so you need a tune to activate it.

Bimmerlabs has a free tune that will activate it, but it takes a fair bit of monkeying around with a computer to get it to work. For the cost of the $45 Bimmergeeks cable you can activate the 3IM.

BPC is a company that will sell you an easy-to-install tune for about $600 that will turn on the 3IM.

Nothing you do will make this car screaming fast. I have AA catless headers and the 3IM with a BPC tune and it is quicker, but not drastically so. It was also very expensive, a pain in the ass to install the headers, my car doesn't really run right and hasn't for 6 months, and when I get my car inspected it's going to be a pain.

So in short, if you're comfortable playing with your car's computer and you know your way around Windows, go with the Bimmerlabs tune to unlock your 3IM. If you're not comfortable, go to BPC for a tune. But beyond that I would be looking at getting into a 135i or a Cayman depending on your wallet.

Bimmerlabs tune is not for the N51.

[rowsdower]

Originally Posted by gary_william

Bimmerlabs tune is not for the N51.

Thanks for clarifying this. I Googled and found this recent thread confirming there isn't an N51 tune (Hassmachine runs Bimmerlabs AFAIK). It's good you called out my error, as I was going to try flashing the 130i tune to my N51 but I guess I won't be doing that now... thanks for educating me and the rest of the people who read this thread.

[128ibro]

Originally Posted by rowsdower

One of the most common power upgrades for the N52 is adding the 3-stage intake manifold (3IM). The N51 already has it! However, it's not fully usable from the factory so you need a tune to activate it.

Bimmerlabs has a free tune that will activate it, but it takes a fair bit of monkeying around with a computer to get it to work. For the cost of the $45 Bimmergeeks cable you can activate the 3IM.

BPC is a company that will sell you an easy-to-install tune for about $600 that will turn on the 3IM.

Nothing you do will make this car screaming fast. I have AA catless headers and the 3IM with a BPC tune and it is quicker, but not drastically so. It was also very expensive, a pain in the ass to install the headers, my car doesn't really run right and hasn't for 6 months, and when I get my car inspected it's going to be a pain.

So in short, if you're comfortable playing with your car's computer and you know your way around Windows, go with the Bimmerlabs tune to unlock your 3IM. If you're not comfortable, go to BPC for a tune. But beyond that I would be looking at getting into a 135i or a Cayman depending on your wallet.

Can you please explain how the 3-stage DISA better than the one stage I don't know how they work to understand the difference in their mechanisms.

Without adding any hardware and go with the tuning to get 3IM full functionality which you stated how much power I'll gain from that?

[DSteele41]

Originally Posted by rowsdower

One of the most common power upgrades for the N52 is adding the 3-stage intake manifold (3IM). The N51 already has it! However, it's not fully usable from the factory so you need a tune to activate it.

Bimmerlabs has a free tune that will activate it, but it takes a fair bit of monkeying around with a computer to get it to work. For the cost of the $45 Bimmergeeks cable you can activate the 3IM.

BPC is a company that will sell you an easy-to-install tune for about $600 that will turn on the 3IM.

Nothing you do will make this car screaming fast. I have AA catless headers and the 3IM with a BPC tune and it is quicker, but not drastically so. It was also very expensive, a pain in the ass to install the headers, my car doesn't really run right and hasn't for 6 months, and when I get my car inspected it's going to be a pain.

So in short, if you're comfortable playing with your car's computer and you know your way around Windows, go with the Bimmerlabs tune to unlock your 3IM. If you're not comfortable, go to BPC for a tune. But beyond that I would be looking at getting into a 135i or a Cayman depending on your wallet.

Good Post and response....I have the same car could you post link to

"Bimmerlabs has a free tune that will activate it, but it takes a fair bit of monkeying around with a computer to get it to work"

Im pretty famaliar with windows and computers....do you need a special cable ?
Maybe a K+DN cable (I think thats the name of it ) that Ive seen people post on here
Thanks
DSteele41

[asiflicious]

I'd honestly forget about making more power. Don't spend money on tunes and bolt ons on an N51. If you want to have fun and go faster around corners, that is definitely possible

[sprp85]

3Stage is already fully activated on N51.

For N51, the other options for tune are AA and BPC

[rowsdower]

Originally Posted by sprp85

3Stage is already fully activated on N51.

For N51, the other options for tune are AA and BPC

Interesting, I always thought that N51 was not fully using the 3IM and a tune would fully unlock it (among other things).

All we've learned in this thread is that I don't know what I'm talking about. Y'all should call up BPC to get some more power. They had a sale last December, so maybe wait to see if they have it again this year.

[Zombie_Head]

Here in Germany, tuners just give the 125i (with the detuned N52 engine) a software tune and call it a day.

Generally speaking, i would recommend the same, unless you want more then the US guys will tell you a 3 stage intake and some tinkering with the valve lift.

I know the 130i in Europe can do some cam work and squeeze a claimed 20 hp more, however i have no evidence of that.