I'll throw in my .02.
The Dinan Flash is clearly superbly engineered and designed to bring on as much boost as is posible considering the design weeknesses of the turbos, the block and the standard parts that transfer heat. Any other tuners talk in those terms? Dinan cleary states the car can be pushed over it's thermal limits. What can help reduce heat? Bigger Intercooler, bigger oil cooler, reduced boost, higher water pump speeds, running alcohol/water injection, going with catless downpipes and moving the very hot cats back down the exhaust system and out of the engine compartment, shifting before redline, adding RL water wetter to radiator, lower tempature thermostat, running less than a 50/50 mix of antifreeze, bigger radiator (everyone chime in for other ideas) and finally TUNING THE DME TO MANAGE THE HEAT BETTER. How many of you know the turbos are cooled both by coolant and oil?
Nits: 93 octane and 85 mph fans will produce optimum results
What I was very intersted in was the statement that results would change significantly with changes in Octane....OOohh, you mean 100 Octane would get me more power at the racetrack
. Does this mean the Dinan flash takes into account fuel quality and I don't need a separate flash when I go to the track and want max power for say 95 Octane? That would be cool. Switch back to pump gas for everyday driving...adjustment automatic, sweet.
Please people, with few exceptions, people here don't understand dyno numbers, it's the difference, not the absolute numbers that matter. Think percent change at a given rpm from the stock number to the flashed number. Dyno numbers mean nothing unless performed on the same car, same day (to account for changes in Tempature and Atmospheric preassure). Oh, and the same dyno. Dyno to Dyno tests really are very difficult to compare with any accuracy. Unfortunately, HP sells. When is the last time you saw an ad that said: Wow! 12% difference in horsepower! It would be a laugh for an exhaust: Wow! New! $1,359 for a 1% difference in HP with our super spinifty exhaust!!
The Dinan parts are more expensive because of the dealer distribution structure, warranty and the heavy R & D required to get warranty coverage. BTW has the ALMS Dinan equiped S62 Race Motor ever broke in the last two years....nope, And it's been on the podium a few times. Does that make this flash the best? No, but it does show Steve Dinan's commitment to build quality products.
I have seen lots of turbo cars towed from the race track. I've never, with rare exception, seen this on a naturally aspirated BMW. We used to take bets on which turbo cars would be the first to break. In the morning they would smoke us (cool tempatures) and in the afternoon they would quit early or break, usually heat related or stress related failures. Evo's, Porsches (944 turbos-chipped), WRX's, and especially Supras. We CAN'T HELP but want more horsepower under the hood, and with a turbo all you have to do is pump it up a bit...then bang. The beauty of the Dinan is the engineering for longevity that is built in and Warranted. Some people will buy that. Breaking your car sucks.
Now, I'm a tinkerer, so when I get my 135i, I will be employing some of the heat reducing strategies above myself, evaluating what others have used to find the best solutions/manufacturers and best value. But on the flash, I'll probably go Dinan. With a 200,000 rpm limit on the stock turbos, according to Dinan, this is as much boost as you can take without sacraficing longevity of the turbos, and that's one of the reasons the boost is tappered off at higher RPM's, heat another and the blocks torque limit the last. (What a cool R&D job; "Keep adding boost Jimmy till the sucker blows!!" )
Again, just my .02.
Now, thanks Stan for posting, get your flame suit on as it would be nice for you to chime in and bring some experienced engineering background to the conversation.