[smellypoo]

Originally Posted by richk84

When my injectors were done last year I had one faulty and they replaced the lot. Apparently that's what the PUMA document is now recommending. As a minimum I think it's not recommended to mix and match on banks.Since mine were done the car has ran great for a good 9 months now

I also read something about the internals being slightly different on index 11, apparently anything below 11 can be 'mixed' but 11 onwards should be the same for a bank. Before I had my 2 faulty injectors replaced, I had 2x index 11 and 1x index 4 on each bank. No idea why, other than thinking someone decided to do a fix as cheaply as possible.

(sorry about the thread-jacking Tim!)

[tim_s]

No worries about the thread-jacking! I think I might have misread and thought you'd mixed and matched index 11s and 4s (rather than p.o.).
I've still not had time to look into n53 binary differences, been too busy looking into old porsche ecus at the mo (I've a 986 boxster). I think it might prove quite a challenge, I'm hoping there's some decent similarities between MSD8x dmes so that my damos/a2ls from n52/n54s are of some use, as I don't have one for an n53.

[richk84]

Originally Posted by tim_s

No worries about the thread-jacking! I think I might have misread and thought you'd mixed and matched index 11s and 4s (rather than p.o.).
I've still not had time to look into n53 binary differences, been too busy looking into old porsche ecus at the mo (I've a 986 boxster). I think it might prove quite a challenge, I'm hoping there's some decent similarities between MSD8x dmes so that my damos/a2ls from n52/n54s are of some use, as I don't have one for an n53.

How do you find the Boxster? I'm really thinking of going to a Boxster next - probably a 981S.

[smellypoo]

Oh nice! I very nearly bought a 986 Boxster, but at the time (8-9 years ago now) the (regular and potential) maintenance costs scared me so I ended up with the Z4, which doesn't handle as well as the Porsche but other than the roof motor playing up it's been an excellent car. I'd have one now though, if I could get it past 'the management'...

How much scope is there for ECU tweakery on the Porsche? I know very little about it on any car, other than some are more 'open' than others...

[tim_s]

Originally Posted by richk84

How do you find the Boxster? I'm really thinking of going to a Boxster next - probably a 981S.

I'm a big fan of boxsters, but they’re one of those I’m not sure that I could in good faith recommend to someone else due to mine not exactly having been the most reliable– I think newer ones are probably a good deal better in that regard though. I’ve owned mine for about 9 years or so I think. 981 is a completely different proposition, I’ve driven quite a few of them, whevener the 986 goes in for a service at opc they give either a new boxster or cayman as a courtesy car. I always find I get in the 981 and love the interior and the toys and how much more refined it is than the 986, how much better the hood is (much less wind noise, much better electric operation) etc. I really like pdk on them too and the noise of the blips on shifting, the engine sounds pretty fruity too and they’re faster than the 986. They’re a brilliant car and quite different to the 986. They look fantastic too. But I almost invariably find when I get back into the 986 on being returned it it feels so much more raw and focused and noisy and stiff than the new ones, has better steering and more pointy handling. To live with and in terms of refinement a 981 would be much better, but as a toy I really like the old 986, that I’ve kept it for so long is probably a testament to that!

Originally Posted by smellypoo

Oh nice! I very nearly bought a 986 Boxster, but at the time (8-9 years ago now) the (regular and potential) maintenance costs scared me so I ended up with the Z4, which doesn't handle as well as the Porsche but other than the roof motor playing up it's been an excellent car. I'd have one now though, if I could get it past 'the management'...

How much scope is there for ECU tweakery on the Porsche? I know very little about it on any car, other than some are more 'open' than others...

Probably quite wise to be scared off by the potential issues on them. There seem to be plenty of them with the M96 engines. Mine’s been quite a pain over the years, it has gone wrong a few times – it let me down (cooling issues) on the way to the ‘ring a few years ago after I’d spent quite a bit of time prepping it (fitting cayman brakes, sticky tyres etc), didn’t even make it to dover as I caught a load of traffic and it started to overheat, didn’t want to risk it so nursed it home and swapped to the e36 M3, which even without any prep for the trip was absolutely brilliant as usual. I bought it on 80k and it’s now on 110k, it’s had off the top of my head:
-M030 suspension (shocks, springs, arbs), new coffin arms, top mounts, link arms, tie rods
-Engine mounts (993 RS to replace the hydraulic factory mounts)
-New rads, rad resistors, water pump, t stat, expansion tank
-Clutch/flywheel
-Alternator and idler pulley
-MAF, coilpacks, air oil separator
-New brake lines
-Rear wheel bearings
-Exhaust manifolds
-Oil cooler (stuck a 996 one in)
I’ve done a bunch of other stuff that’s not been needed such as fitting a shorter ratio gearbox off a 2.5, brakes and a 987 airbox which is a much better design, but the above were due replaced due to wear or issues.
I think with the new intake and fancy exhaust there’s some room for some tweakery, it’s got a generic flash on it at the moment. I’ve got good definitions for ME7.8 DMEs in the later cars, sadly mine’s an earlier ME7.2 ECU which I don’t have definitions for so have had to work by comparing my remapped file to my standard file and a file from a 3.4 and looking at other ME7.2 ECUs from different cars that may share similarities.

[tim_s]

Nothing new to report on the 330, mileage is creeping up , now on 102k, but I've temporarily donated it to my old man while I've been having fun playing with porsches and my m3. I bought a beautiful 996 c4s for a steal which I've been busy doing a lot of work to and has been absolutely brilliant, was planning to keep it for a while with an eye to it selling it in summer but got a decent offer so it's now gone only a few months after buying it.. my wallet appreciated it but I do miss it a great deal. I did manage to do a fantastic trip up to the isle of skye in it, they remain one of my favourite porsches of all time, and this one made me much more of a fan of tiptronic as I fitted flappy paddles to it which transformed it.






Promise I'll get around to actually posting something about the 330 at some point, probably involving having done some work on understanding how to tune the dme! Will hopefully be moving house shortly which may entail some more selling of cars which may well mean the 330 becoming the only car which undoubtedly will result in me giving it a load more attention.

[NicoGueguen]

Hi Tim,

Your topic is very interesting. I'm currently getting rid of all the DTC I have on my E91 325i (N53). There is no hurry, but I think I would like to flash a 330i software at the end. I would appreciate if I could benefit from your experience
I'm not against tuners, but I would really enjoy having a "pure" BMW setting in my car. First task: find the intake manifold!

[HOLO SEALS]

Originally Posted by tim_s

Thought I'd give a little bit more detail on here about the 330 n53 map due to getting a few PMs about it. You can't flash a BMW N53 330 map onto a 325 because the power class in the DME and in the CAS must match, BMW use this handshake to ensure that you cannot flash from a more powerful model onto a lower power model - exactly what we're trying to do here. This mechanism is used in several different BMW DMEs where there is a significant power bump by remapping alone. There are many approaches to getting around this, but what I've done here is some binary modification (and subsequent checksum correction!) on the dme to still handshake as a 325 while all the rest of the data is from a 330. Other than this change the binary is unchanged, it is identical to a 330 ecu other than that it will work in a 325; it reports as a 330i software version. This is quite a different approach to the generic flash file that is available at many places (which still reports itself as the original software version). Having said that, on this car also I had pretty good results using a generic flash (which I bought from a company on the internet and flashed on myself), I just prefer to have the car running original BMW software and think that this is the better approach as I now know for certain the ECU is identical to a 330.
Hope this helps, any questions please feel free to ask on here! I'm happy to perform this on anyone's 325 for a small contribution (less than a generic flash!) to recover some of the costs/risk I invested in this and the tooling.
Tim

Hi Tim!

Any chance I can take you up on your offer? Would happily pay a fee for this

I would prefer to have original BMW software running on my car instead of a generic map

Kind regards,

Nathan

[mafrystbeamr]

Fascinating thread this. Is tim_s still about? I'd be very interested in this ECU swap. Does it require the 3-stage manifold to get the best results?

I couldn't find a 330ci and being in a rush to swap the old car ended up with a 57-plate, 2008 registered 325i 2-door, thinking as it was a 3L it'd still be about the same power as the 330ci. Now I find even though it's the same (N53?) engine it doesn't have the power of the 330ci at all. So I'd like to make it up if at all possible.

Is mine an E92 because it's a 2-door and the E90 just means it's the 4-door version?

Sorry for all the questions!

[spudulike]

Originally Posted by mafrystbeamr

Fascinating thread this. Is tim_s still about? I'd be very interested in this ECU swap. Does it require the 3-stage manifold to get the best results?

I couldn't find a 330ci and being in a rush to swap the old car ended up with a 57-plate, 2008 registered 325i 2-door, thinking as it was a 3L it'd still be about the same power as the 330ci. Now I find even though it's the same (N53?) engine it doesn't have the power of the 330ci at all. So I'd like to make it up if at all possible.

Is mine an E92 because it's a 2-door and the E90 just means it's the 4-door version?

Sorry for all the questions!

330ci was the E46 coupe to differentiate it from the 330i saloon.
For the E9x series they're all 330i (or 325i) but the E90 is the saloon, E91 touring, E92 coupe, E93 convertible.

Without the 3-stage manifold you'll struggle to get the engine breathing correctly throughout the rev-range. The swapped ECU won't be a happy bunny.

The best performance gain for your buck that you can get for the N53 is walnut blasting the inlets. That'll clear out all the crud and get it breathing properly again.

[mafrystbeamr]

Any idea what the item code is for the 3-stage manifold? Is this correct: 11617593004?

[tim_s]

Looks like I've not touched this for over 2 and a half years, probably sums up the story of the car which has pretty much just done family duties for the last couple of years, think I've done about 35k in it. But of late, partly because I had a e93 335 earlier in the year, found a bit of love for the 325 and decided to do a few bits in an effort to stave off boredom! I was impressed at the NA throttle response and it really wasn't much different to the 335 performance-wise (when standard!) which I guess is in large part due to the cab being so much heavier. I'm now firmly of the opinion that for the family wagon the n53 is better for me, esp as running costs are much cheaper.

Anyway, mapping. Having spent a load of time with the n54, thought I'd revisit the n53 and finally actually have a proper look at the main maps etc. Is relatively interesting, 325 is load limited on one map compared to the 330, especially at low-mid rpm and again at over 6k, and the torque monitoring is set lower. The fuel targets are the same between the two, vanos angles a bit different esp again in the midrange, and the 325 actually runs a little more spark advance. Ultimately I'm not sure this entirely covers the difference in performance between the two, but there are many more differences between the files that I can't currently correlate to any known maps, that and I think it would be useful to do a bunch more datalogging on a 325 map. For me that ship has sailed really as I'm running the 330 map and not going back even for testing.
The map I originally bought for the 325 and ran for a bit that actually drove much better than factory was a bit disappointing when I looked into it as doesn't appear to have addressed the load limits/torque monitoring nor does it look much like the 330 map. The way I reported it feeling (perkier at part throttle in particular) appears to mainly be due to a more aggressive torque request at middling pedal %, running more advance and increasing knock thresholds. Basically I'm glad I'm not running it and that I'm running a 330 map as the baseline.
When I get some time I intend to make a few little tweaks to the 330 map including optimising target AFRs for performance as it runs leaner than I'd like on WOT until high rpms, possibly making the inl vanos a bit more aggressive (I've had good success on M cars doing this), possibly see if I can tune the sparks a little. But they'd be trivial changes and I wouldn't expect much for my troubles, and I need to do a load of datalogging on the current setup before I make any changes. Ideally I'd need a few hours on rollers to test changes but I don't really see the point.

In other news I've bought some v3 Depos for it as I don't want to blind people with the LED dip beams I have in there, but don't want to lose them either. I've also bought some eibach springs, a 15mm rear ARB, 3.23 diff and a RacingDiffs progressive LSD conversion. Oh and some rear balljoints as one of mine is tired. I changed my mind on the RacingDiffs and wanted to go for a helical but as no-one's bought the RacingDiffs setup off me and the diff is currently on the bench, I thought I'd stick it in and see how I get on. I'm currently not having much luck with it as I think can't get the pin that holds the spider gears to fit through the LSD sandwich plate assembly, looks like potentially my side gears are closer together than the RacingDiffs kit is designed for. I'm waiting for them to get back to me, their comms so far have been really good so hopefully they'll sort it out.
I wanted to go for a shorter diff ratio but this one was v cheap so decided to give it a go for a bit and keep my eye out for a shorter one. I did toy with changing the gs6-17 for a gs6-37 as in the 330, but with a 350nm max torque and as it's fitted to plenty of turbo 4 pots that make plenty of power, that and mine seems in fine fettle, I've left it alone. At some point I'll probably have it off as the car looks to have a little oil weap probably from the crank seal.
I'll add some photos later!

[tim_s]

Oh and my apologies to anyone who's PM'd me, I've not been on here for a while. Happy to answer stuff on this thread or by pm.

[Dormermike]

Good to see some n53 action. I think its a superb engine and even hauls my f10 along nicely.

I was eying up a used supercharger on ebay the other day. That would be interesting, but just a bit of idle dreaming for me, i dont have the time for tinkering too much at the moment.

[4foothill]

Originally Posted by tim_s

Looks like I've not touched this for over 2 and a half years, probably sums up the story of the car which has pretty much just done family duties for the last couple of years, think I've done about 35k in it. But of late, partly because I had a e93 335 earlier in the year, found a bit of love for the 325 and decided to do a few bits in an effort to stave off boredom! I was impressed at the NA throttle response and it really wasn't much different to the 335 performance-wise (when standard!) which I guess is in large part due to the cab being so much heavier. I'm now firmly of the opinion that for the family wagon the n53 is better for me, esp as running costs are much cheaper.

Anyway, mapping. Having spent a load of time with the n54, thought I'd revisit the n53 and finally actually have a proper look at the main maps etc. Is relatively interesting, 325 is load limited on one map compared to the 330, especially at low-mid rpm and again at over 6k, and the torque monitoring is set lower. The fuel targets are the same between the two, vanos angles a bit different esp again in the midrange, and the 325 actually runs a little more spark advance. Ultimately I'm not sure this entirely covers the difference in performance between the two, but there are many more differences between the files that I can't currently correlate to any known maps, that and I think it would be useful to do a bunch more datalogging on a 325 map. For me that ship has sailed really as I'm running the 330 map and not going back even for testing.
The map I originally bought for the 325 and ran for a bit that actually drove much better than factory was a bit disappointing when I looked into it as doesn't appear to have addressed the load limits/torque monitoring nor does it look much like the 330 map. The way I reported it feeling (perkier at part throttle in particular) appears to mainly be due to a more aggressive torque request at middling pedal %, running more advance and increasing knock thresholds. Basically I'm glad I'm not running it and that I'm running a 330 map as the baseline.
When I get some time I intend to make a few little tweaks to the 330 map including optimising target AFRs for performance as it runs leaner than I'd like on WOT until high rpms, possibly making the inl vanos a bit more aggressive (I've had good success on M cars doing this), possibly see if I can tune the sparks a little. But they'd be trivial changes and I wouldn't expect much for my troubles, and I need to do a load of datalogging on the current setup before I make any changes. Ideally I'd need a few hours on rollers to test changes but I don't really see the point.

In other news I've bought some v3 Depos for it as I don't want to blind people with the LED dip beams I have in there, but don't want to lose them either. I've also bought some eibach springs, a 15mm rear ARB, 3.23 diff and a RacingDiffs progressive LSD conversion. Oh and some rear balljoints as one of mine is tired. I changed my mind on the RacingDiffs and wanted to go for a helical but as no-one's bought the RacingDiffs setup off me and the diff is currently on the bench, I thought I'd stick it in and see how I get on. I'm currently not having much luck with it as I think can't get the pin that holds the spider gears to fit through the LSD sandwich plate assembly, looks like potentially my side gears are closer together than the RacingDiffs kit is designed for. I'm waiting for them to get back to me, their comms so far have been really good so hopefully they'll sort it out.
I wanted to go for a shorter diff ratio but this one was v cheap so decided to give it a go for a bit and keep my eye out for a shorter one. I did toy with changing the gs6-17 for a gs6-37 as in the 330, but with a 350nm max torque and as it's fitted to plenty of turbo 4 pots that make plenty of power, that and mine seems in fine fettle, I've left it alone. At some point I'll probably have it off as the car looks to have a little oil weap probably from the crank seal.
I'll add some photos later!

The RacingDiffs 188L kit does not fit the n53 differential, I spent a good few weeks sending measurements and trying different things. They originally tried to claim I had a non-standard differential but I tried it in my original one as well and it didn't fit that either so after a bit fighting they did rectify it and sent me a 188LW kit which apparently will fit. I've not tried it yet but I will do so tomorrow so I can report back.

Would be interested to hear about your tuning adventures. I recommend playing with the throttle response tables (they're easy to discover if you follow the same technique as this thread, or I can dig out my partially mapped n53 winOLS file if you can't find them).

[tim_s]

Ahh that's good to know, mine's actually not an n53 diff either, I can get a 14.1mm od socket to fit into the assembly but not their 15mm pin, the side gears measure ~26mm apart (as does the conversion once the plates are fitted hence the snug fit!). I've been talking to them this morning and asked them what spacing between the gears they expect, I'll maybe mention that perhaps I need a 188LW one
And thanks regarding the throttle response tables, I played with them on the n54 but not the n53, I actually opened that xdf last night and thought I should translate it to the n53 but didn't get around to it, I sorted the diff ratio instead in advance of changing the diff. I'll keep you posted on how I get on with changes to the 330i map, and likewise if there's anything you need let me know and would be interested to hear what you're up to.

[Markos ZimZimma]

Originally Posted by tim_s

Looks like I've not touched this for over 2 and a half years, probably sums up the story of the car which has pretty much just done family duties for the last couple of years, think I've done about 35k in it. But of late, partly because I had a e93 335 earlier in the year, found a bit of love for the 325 and decided to do a few bits in an effort to stave off boredom! I was impressed at the NA throttle response and it really wasn't much different to the 335 performance-wise (when standard!) which I guess is in large part due to the cab being so much heavier. I'm now firmly of the opinion that for the family wagon the n53 is better for me, esp as running costs are much cheaper.

Anyway, mapping. Having spent a load of time with the n54, thought I'd revisit the n53 and finally actually have a proper look at the main maps etc. Is relatively interesting, 325 is load limited on one map compared to the 330, especially at low-mid rpm and again at over 6k, and the torque monitoring is set lower. The fuel targets are the same between the two, vanos angles a bit different esp again in the midrange, and the 325 actually runs a little more spark advance. Ultimately I'm not sure this entirely covers the difference in performance between the two, but there are many more differences between the files that I can't currently correlate to any known maps, that and I think it would be useful to do a bunch more datalogging on a 325 map. For me that ship has sailed really as I'm running the 330 map and not going back even for testing.
The map I originally bought for the 325 and ran for a bit that actually drove much better than factory was a bit disappointing when I looked into it as doesn't appear to have addressed the load limits/torque monitoring nor does it look much like the 330 map. The way I reported it feeling (perkier at part throttle in particular) appears to mainly be due to a more aggressive torque request at middling pedal %, running more advance and increasing knock thresholds. Basically I'm glad I'm not running it and that I'm running a 330 map as the baseline.
When I get some time I intend to make a few little tweaks to the 330 map including optimising target AFRs for performance as it runs leaner than I'd like on WOT until high rpms, possibly making the inl vanos a bit more aggressive (I've had good success on M cars doing this), possibly see if I can tune the sparks a little. But they'd be trivial changes and I wouldn't expect much for my troubles, and I need to do a load of datalogging on the current setup before I make any changes. Ideally I'd need a few hours on rollers to test changes but I don't really see the point.

In other news I've bought some v3 Depos for it as I don't want to blind people with the LED dip beams I have in there, but don't want to lose them either. I've also bought some eibach springs, a 15mm rear ARB, 3.23 diff and a RacingDiffs progressive LSD conversion. Oh and some rear balljoints as one of mine is tired. I changed my mind on the RacingDiffs and wanted to go for a helical but as no-one's bought the RacingDiffs setup off me and the diff is currently on the bench, I thought I'd stick it in and see how I get on. I'm currently not having much luck with it as I think can't get the pin that holds the spider gears to fit through the LSD sandwich plate assembly, looks like potentially my side gears are closer together than the RacingDiffs kit is designed for. I'm waiting for them to get back to me, their comms so far have been really good so hopefully they'll sort it out.
I wanted to go for a shorter diff ratio but this one was v cheap so decided to give it a go for a bit and keep my eye out for a shorter one. I did toy with changing the gs6-17 for a gs6-37 as in the 330, but with a 350nm max torque and as it's fitted to plenty of turbo 4 pots that make plenty of power, that and mine seems in fine fettle, I've left it alone. At some point I'll probably have it off as the car looks to have a little oil weap probably from the crank seal.
I'll add some photos later!

Had my N53 325i E91 for a year now and tempted to map it, so this thread has been a really useful read and been good to see your recent update Tim: great work and thanks for the info and updates

[4foothill]

Yep, exactly the same issue I had - fitment was 1mm off (I measured about 26.34 and the 188L kit requires 27.4) and they said the 188LW has a gap of 26.6mm so my carrier must be of 188LW specs. If your diff isn't n53 then what is it? Are you sure the flange is compatible?

I originally copied random matching maps from the n54/MSD81 damos to a winOLS project, but I've since started again by just comparing the binaries and tweaking the n54 XDF offsets. Once I've had time to boot my VM and test/tweak them in TunerPro I'll whack it on Github so you can use it/contribute.

I'm mostly interested in seeing if I can disable the ageing NOX cat DTC since I've got a working sensor and my engine is performing great, but I still get that error once a year when winter hits. I've mapped the DTC table but not attempted to disable it yet.

[tim_s]

Thanks for the info, I'll measure mine more carefully at some point, my verniers didn't go in deep enough really, but I measured at ~26.1mm. I'll see whether I've some sockets or something I can use to measure it with. How did you remove the assembly, just tap it out and let the springs fly out? Wondering whether I ought to try to make up some more locking tabs and bolt it back together with the retaining screws then use the vice to let it out.

As for the diff, nope the input flange off it def won't fit, don't think the backplate or the output flanges will fit either! Will swap flanges and backplate over from the original diff, it's a 188L so physically I'm hoping it's the same and I figure while everything is apart it's easy enough to check/set the preload on the input flange anyway. I'll prob check backlash too while at it, I marked out the CW against the carrier to ensure it goes back where it came out in case there's any run-out, but would be interesting to check. Worst case if the housing is different I can swap everything into the e90 housing and hope I can get the backlash right, hoping none of that will be necessary though. Basically the diff was £60 posted so worth a punt.
It should be easy to disable the DTC. A good while back I sucked it up and bought a new NOX sensor, I've not actually read the codes off mine in a long time! Have you adjusted the throttle sensitivity on yours?

[4foothill]

Yep, a block of wood and some gentle taps and it came out. It did leave a small lip on the edge of the friction plate though, nothing that couldn't be debured but not ideal if you plan on selling or returning it. The springs didn't fly out really so nothing too dangerous.

That's a great price, I'd be interested to know how you get on with that, I've been debating replacing the bearings on mine whilst it's off but they seem fine and setting the preload sounds fiddly.

I did replace the Nox sensor and that's all working fine looking at the logs but I think my Nox cat has surpassed it's lifespan. The DTC was easy enough to find, hopefully disabling it will keep stratified mode working without emitting a bunch of nasty gasses.

I can't remember what table I tweaked for throttle but I just copied one of the screenshots in one of the replies on the thread.

[tim_s]

Thanks for that, did you manage to try out the 188LW one?
Setting preload on the pinion isn't as bad as it sounds, you just need some serious torque to crush the washer. I haven't touched one in ages since e30/6 days having said that.
Interesting idea on seeing if removing DTCs results in the DME not prohibiting stratified running. I think NOXoff maps normally just turn off DTCs so it might do. Could try testing with nox sensor connector disconnected and its DTC off. It would be really useful to have a damos, I imagine there's a calibration table with thresholds which if exceeded throw the cat ageing DTC.

I started to look at the throttle lag settings yesterday on the IJEOS xdf, I've 0'd out the basic lag, found that several 0'd out maps on the n54 are populated on the n53 and looked like some of the other maps (clutch intervention etc) have different values. Did you find all the maps on the n53? Have you tried messing around with linear torque request or 1M torque request? I looked at a 1M bin yesterday out of interest but am not sure I'm going to touch anything. The map I had for the 325 map had much higher request at mid throttle, was more aggressive than the 'low' / sport torque request.
I've just fitted the Depo headlights and waiting on some bulbs etc so won't have the car running til next week, I may do some datalogging and try a new map and this lag change - I reckon just the fuel changes should be worth a bit (apart from right at the top) but we'll see.

[tim_s]

Just done a NOX off map by disabling all nox dtcs, will test it and see what modes it runs if I get some spare time.