View Single Post
      06-06-2012, 04:31 AM   #81
RagingKileak
Brigadier General
United Kingdom
190
Rep
4,655
Posts

Drives: M3 CS
Join Date: Jan 2009
Location: Yorkshire

iTrader: (2)

Morning all,

Another update and this time it's a bit more of a major one.

This weekend Ant (Ant1985) came round and we decided to fit what we thought would be a couple of easy parts.

The first thing to go in was a JB4 supplied via another forum member here, which to be honest is just as easy to fit as the JB3, although I maintain that Terry@BMS leaves a fair bit to the imagination with his guides.

This time (unlike with the JB3 we fit to my 135i) I wanted to run the USB cable into the glovebox and as the second half of this update will explain, I also wanted to fit a STETT CAI, so Ant had a lot of plastics to remove from the engine bay.

With the JB4 plugged in and both of us wanting to get things done, I decided to unlock the car so we could get the JB4 USB cable wired through the firewall. Unfortunately, the hole we were feeding the wire through was completely wrong and it just wouldn't come out the other side.

What followed was me (rather unhappily) suggesting that Ant lifts the whole ECU + JB4 + tons of wires in the air (as far as the wires will stretch) whilst I fed the cable in underneath it and out of the correct hole at the back of the ECU casing. Fun times were not had as obviously I was fairly convinced that something would be damaged or that one or another ECU/JB cable would become disconnected with the ECU awake, causing carnage.

As it happened, it went well enough and the ECU casing was put back together successfully, with the wire also fed into the glovebox for datalogging and updates at another time.

So, with all the plastics out at the top of the engine bay, we went to work on removing the stock airbox, grille air feed pipe and other associated bits and pieces. Ant also took the passenger side front wheel off, along with its arch lining. All of this is required to fit the STETT Cool Air Intake I purchased from yet another member here.

I had been made aware that there can be fitment issues on low cars, but noone had specifically mentioned right hand drive cars. The STETT guide suggests the removel of a plastic cover which sits behind the open part of the fog light grill in order to feed cool air into the intake.

Unfortunately, on my car, this exists on the drivers side and not the passenger side. Instead, my car had a piece of solid black plastic about six inches long which forms part of the whole piece that surrounds the fog light. We took the fog light out for a closer look and decided that the blanking plate could easily be cut down to size without compromising the fog light in any way and without the cut being visible.

I got busy with the hacksaw whilst Ant fettled the STETT pipework this way and that to fit it in the crowded engine bay. As per the guide, we also removed the Power Steering reservoir bracket, but still struggled for space.

In the end, with the pipe positioned upside down (the bend at the top instead of the bottom) and the rubber join placed at a slight angle, we were able to fit the pipe (and the filter) in a good location behind (and slightly above) the newly cut foglight grill.

The next tricky step was to replace the wheel arch liner which we had offerred up several times during the process. It is now an incredibly tight fit and I can really see why it could be an issue on a lower car. My liner did go back on, but only just.

Finally, we were left with the issue of the Power Steering Reservoir. The STETT guide apparently has a suggestion for this, but I didn't get the full guide - only a DIY post on this forum. So, we cable tied the reservoir to the engine bay via the same boltholes as the original bracket had been secured - it now sits fairly still and in an upright position, but will need to be bolted more securely later.

Also, in fitting the CAI one of the stock hoses going to the frontmost diverter valve has been put under significantly more pressure than before, so I will be replacing the DV's soon - as I had planned to anyway.

With the car back together the only thing left to do was a test drive. I mentioned before that I think the information provided by BMS is a bit sketchy, even if their aftersales is also superb. To that end, I have not been able to find a clear and comprehensive guide about how to use a JB4 via the steering wheel etc, but I did manage to figure it out via forum posts and so on.

I set the car to map 5 (autolearn) and went for a spin. Firstly I love the way the car now feels and goes - its a smoother and more powerful delivery than I recall with the JB3 and it seems to work perfectly with the DCT gearbox. I will do some datalogging soon, but am basically very pleased with the results so far.

I have a lot of mods to come, plus I was running on a half V-Power/half Esso standard fuel mix, so it will be interesting to see how the JB4 scales up with the changes I make in the future.

On the JB4 itself, I love some of the new features. Tach/Speedo control is much easier than the pedal based method used in the JB3 and I also really like the optimum shift indicator too, as it just catches the corner of my eye when driving in manual mode.

I also like the oil/fuel guage hijack in principle, but I would be interested in knowing more about it. Forum posts seem to have concluded that the fuel guage represents boost, but I have no idea what the oil temp guage is now doing so if anyone can fill me in, I would appreciate it.

The STETT CAI is also a decent bit of kit, if not specifically much use to us in the UK. If I had paid full price for it, I would be fairly dissapointed by its fit, but the performance seems to be reasonable enough. I've tried it with the JB4 set to 0 and it makes the car feel a bit more zippy than it did before. It also sounds nice and offers a pleasant, quiet induction howl which never becomes obtrusive, so that's nice. I will do some AIT tests IF the JB4 allows that kind of thing once I can.

So, next will probably be a DIY of DV's + possibly charge pipe and then shortly after (or even before depending how things go) I will be getting the Intercooler and Downpipes fitted, probably along with an oil cooler.

I am not 100% sure I will be able to get the suspension/LSD upgrade done before I go to the Ring in August, but I will certainly try.

I've attached a couple of pics of the fitting process although one is very blurred. I will take some of the fog light cut and the filter fitment etc when I can, along with some datalogging information.

Thanks
Regards
Matt
Attached Images
  
Appreciate 0