Bimmer-Bob's 128i Belated Build Thread

[E91WAG3N]

Great little update with the sidemarkers. This issue seems to be present on a lot of e46+ era cars. Mine are pretty hazy as well and they will be included on my next parts order.

Any chance of posting a pic of your new rear fog with the blacklines?

[Bimmer-Bob]

Originally Posted by ubersteuer

Great little update with the sidemarkers. This issue seems to be present on a lot of e46+ era cars. Mine are pretty hazy as well and they will be included on my next parts order.

Any chance of posting a pic of your new rear fog with the blacklines?

They're pretty bright!

Regular tail lamps:

With rear fogs turned on:

[Kgolf31]

Yea don't drive with your rear fogs on unless you absolutely need to and the conditions state that. Basically it's a light reflected straight back.

[Bimmer-Bob]

Originally Posted by Kgolf31

Yea don't drive with your rear fogs on unless you absolutely need to and the conditions state that. Basically it's a light reflected straight back.

Oh yeah - I just wanted them for low vis when I'm worried about someone rear ending me. And because they're already there, just waiting to be enabled, lol.

Also, IRL they don't look quite as bright and blinding as the pic. You can probably tell that the brightness is even a little exaggerated in the first pic, too. It's just a function of the camera exposure.

[E91WAG3N]

Originally Posted by Bimmer-Bob

Oh yeah - I just wanted them for low vis when I'm worried about someone rear ending me. And because they're already there, just waiting to be enabled, lol.

Also, IRL they don't look quite as bright and blinding as the pic. You can probably tell that the brightness is even a little exaggerated in the first pic, too. It's just a function of the camera exposure.

Looks great, didn't realize it was both sides. I thought they were supposed to be a single side on the leading edge so a car passing on the left (or right in UK etc.) in the fog could tell that they're not brake lights.

Neat option to enable even if you only use it once a year.

[Kgolf31]

Originally Posted by Bimmer-Bob

Oh yeah - I just wanted them for low vis when I'm worried about someone rear ending me. And because they're already there, just waiting to be enabled, lol.

Also, IRL they don't look quite as bright and blinding as the pic. You can probably tell that the brightness is even a little exaggerated in the first pic, too. It's just a function of the camera exposure.

Oh I have them too but people like to abuse them. They think it's like front fogs and turn them on all the time

[Kgolf31]

Originally Posted by Bimmer-Bob

Oh yeah - I just wanted them for low vis when I'm worried about someone rear ending me. And because they're already there, just waiting to be enabled, lol.

Also, IRL they don't look quite as bright and blinding as the pic. You can probably tell that the brightness is even a little exaggerated in the first pic, too. It's just a function of the camera exposure.

Oh I have them too but people like to abuse them. They think it's like front fogs and turn them on all the time

[Bimmer-Bob]

Originally Posted by Kgolf31

Oh I have them too but people like to abuse them. They think it's like front fogs and turn them on all the time

I don't really get the ubiquity of fog lamps in general, or their prevailing use as fashion lights. Functionally, they have a role, but for most people in most places, it's a pretty limited one. I actually think that on our cars (at least if you have xenons) the front fogs are pretty superfluous - at least I never felt like they aided my own visibility, and I suspect the light output of the xenons is great enough that other drivers always see me well enough. I'm more concerned with being seen from behind in fog or heavy rain.

I also had a useless front fog lamp switch since fitting the Performance aero kit, so this mod allowed me to delete the useless switch while simultaneously enabling the unused bulbs in the rear assembly. Plus, the fact that the switch is Euro-spec makes it kind of cool to have IMO.

There is also a little bit of nostalgia value for me, as my first car (a 1987 Volvo 740 GLE) had rear fog lamps, and I haven't really ever seen them since.

[Solo_M_Tech]

That is a beautiful car!

[Bimmer-Bob]

Somebody get TheAxiom in here, because we got a dyno to talk about.

Took the car in for a few pulls at National Speed in Wilmington, NC. Took a little video for y'all:

My primary motivation was to get AFR readings so that AA could tweak my tune, but I admit that I was also pretty curious as to what sort of power I was putting down. Here's the dyno sheet:

So, as you can see, max wheel horsepower was 238.70...that's good, right? I mean, assuming a 17% driveline loss (which is what I always hear these cars get), then that should put me up around 287 horsepower. Not bad! Is my math correct?

The dyno guy said the car was running "very lean" (as you can see), and felt like there was more power to be had with a richer mixture. I sent the dyno sheet in to Active, who sent me back a revised tune for fuel adjustments. I haven't uploaded it to the ECU yet, but I will soon and plan to re-dyno in a few weeks as time permits.

[asbrr]

Very nice! Yes I think that's a healthy number even for a Dynojet (IIRC those read a bit higher than others, someone correct me if I'm wrong).

I'm sure TheAxiom will chime in shortly

Car sounds nice too...smooth and "OEM+" like, not bad for something with headers and full cat-back system.

[Gangplank]

I've got a 128i fever... following this thread.

How much of the 280 HP do you think is attib. to the AA exhaust downpipes?

[Bimmer-Bob]

Originally Posted by asbrr

Very nice! Yes I think that's a healthy number even for a Dynojet (IIRC those read a bit higher than others, someone correct me if I'm wrong).

I'm sure TheAxiom will chime in shortly

Car sounds nice too...smooth and "OEM+" like, not bad for something with headers and full cat-back system.

Yeah, I've read that Mustang dynos read low. No idea if that means Dynojets read high, or which of the two is closer to manufacturer stated numbers. Really, I think this whole dyno business is more or less useless, unless you get a baseline and all your pulls are on the same machine, in the same atmospheric conditions. Even then, ther may be variation over time if the owner hasn't properly kept up with maintenance or calibration requirements, whatever those may be. Can you tell I'm sort of a skeptic?

But, in this case, I was mainly after the air-fuel ratios for custom tuning purposes. It nice to get a HP number, so long as you remember it doesn't really mean that much out of context.

[Bimmer-Bob]

Originally Posted by Gangplank

I've got a 128i fever... following this thread.

How much of the 280 HP do you think is attib. to the AA exhaust downpipes?

I think the headers are a big part of it, perhaps the biggest part, baed on feel. Unfortunately I don't have baseline and serial dynos to compare.

[Bimmer-Bob]

I'm FaceBook famous!

The full-size photo is actually pretty good quality; I'm guessing they used a DSLR. Nabbed for Garage pic.

[Taskmaster]

Ok, you're going to hate me for saying this, buuuutt - they seem low?

CF is STD, which corrects for humidity, pressure and temperature to read numbers a bit higher than SAE. That A/F looks super lean, especially for the header tune, but @tetsuo111 had the same issue with his tune, oddly enough changes on his intake side actually corrected it to what the range the normal header tune should be and he gained over 18whp...

Where ia the torque figure?

[Bimmer-Bob]

Originally Posted by TheAxiom

Ok, you're going to hate me for saying this, buuuutt - they seem low?

CF is STD, which corrects for humidity, pressure and temperature to read numbers a bit higher than SAE. That A/F looks super lean, especially for the header tune, but @tetsuo111 had the same issue with his tune, oddly enough changes on his intake side actually corrected it to what the range the normal header tune should be and he gained over 18whp...

Where ia the torque figure?

Glad you chimed in, because I'm no good with dynos.

Don't worry, you won't hurt my feelings. What kind of numbers should I be seeing on a Dynojet? All the dynos I Googled were lower than mine, but they may have been on Mustangs.

Don't know why the AFR is so lean, but the dyno guy mentioned it right away. I have a revised tune from AA sitting in my inbox right now that I will upload tonight, and will re-dyno hopefully before the end of the year.

As for the torque values, I don't have an answer. I didn't notice they were missing until I got home. I'll make sure they're on the next ones.

Thanks for any input!

[Taskmaster]

Originally Posted by Bimmer-Bob

Glad you chimed in, because I'm no good with dynos.

Don't worry, you won't hurt my feelings. What kind of numbers should I be seeing on a Dynojet? All the dynos I Googled were lower than mine, but they may have been on Mustangs.

Don't know why the AFR is so lean, but the dyno guy mentioned it right away. I have a revised tune from AA sitting in my inbox right now that I will upload tonight, and will re-dyno hopefully before the end of the year.

As for the torque values, I don't have an answer. I didn't notice they were missing until I got home. I'll make sure they're on the next ones.

Thanks for any input!

Did you get the run files, I can post them?

[Bimmer-Bob]

Originally Posted by TheAxiom

Did you get the run files, I can post them?

The run files? What you see is what I got.

[Taskmaster]

Originally Posted by Bimmer-Bob

The run files? What you see is what I got.

Reposted it the dyno thread, check it out.

[andrey_gta]

Dyno is healthy - assuming Disa & Tune top out at around 225 whp in STD or 220 in SAE based on what I saw.
Then a 238 STD is in the league of the highest STD numbers, most likely true when factoring in the Atmosphere and the Sea-level altitude. Good Job.

Where is the wTQ curve, its my fav curve ?

Do you have the RM intake elbow or air scoops? RM will add maybe 2 ponies to get you to 240 STD which may convert to about a max of 230-235 whp SAE

Get the .drf files from the dyno place

[Taskmaster]

Originally Posted by andrey_gta

Dyno is healthy - assuming Disa & Tune top out at around 225 whp in STD or 220 in SAE based on what I saw.
Then a 238 STD is in the league of the highest STD numbers, most likely true when factoring in the Atmosphere and the Sea-level altitude. Good Job.

Where is the wTQ curve, its my fav curve ?

Do you have the RM intake elbow or air scoops? RM will add maybe 2 ponies to get you to 240 STD which may convert to about a max of 230-235 whp SAE

Get the .drf files from the dyno place

I have to disagree, I was 236 STD on 3 stage, intake and tune only. There is a problem here for sure - it should be 24xwhp.