My Frank Smith Tuning Experience / M3 experience Saga

[shanes_bmw]

Thought I would post this up here since he can tune e9x cars too.

Sorry for the long story, but I wanted to share my experience with everyone.

I picked up my M3 in October of this year from the member OneFastSicilian.

http://www.m3forum.net/m3forum/showthread.php?t=457792

I picked up this car because of all of the work/maintenance that was done to it (OneFastSicilian was not the one that did all the work to it). I have a kid on the way, and my zhp needed some maintenance, so my awesome wife and best friend convinced me to get an M3 while I can.

Initially I was super pumped, but the car wasn't quite what I was expecting. I came out of an Active stage 2 ZHP that was around 335 to the wheels.

I promptly purchased an Active Autowerke Gen 6 exhaust which gave me the illusion that I was going faster because of the sound. Still unhappy, I purchased SuperSprint V1 headers and a CPI CRT Cat/Resonated section 1. This woke the car up a little, but I still wanted more (we all do). I also found that the K&N probably had never been cleaned. It weighed 5 lbs with gunk all over it. I took that out and replaced it with a BMC filter and sprayed the hell out of the MAF with cleaner.

Well needless to say, still didn't make the difference that I was looking for. I decided to take the car down to Frank Smith since he is local. I figured maybe a tune would help. He promptly put it on the dyno, and this is what he found.




Wow what is going on there? M3 with headers and high flow cats? 274? Why is it tanking a little after 6500? Well remember all the work that was done by the previous owner? One of those items was a Dr. Vanos. Frank told me that he had seen this before and it was a VANOS issue. At this point I am panicking because I have heard and read horror stories. Apparently if the proper BMW tools are not used, it will cause issues like these. In comes Dave (Dafoe) to the rescue. Dave was able to diagnose and fix the alignment. Dave said the exhaust side was a few teeth off I believe.

Well here is the next dyno, pre-tune just vanos aligned properly.



Getting better right? Now for the fun. Time to tune.



So lets get this straight, I drive in with 274 HP and leave with 307 HP? Wow not bad for a 106k mile car.

Here is the final comparison:



Now let me finish by talking about the feel of the tune. If you are curious its not magical, its still no supercharged car, but I can honestly say, I don't miss my old car anymore.

- The car is smoother, it feels like I have more torque in the bottom end and I don't have to make the car work as hard to get up to speed. I am old enough now that I appreciate the smoothness.

- The car pulls a lot harder. Enough said.

- Sport button memory. This is a perk to a tune. Must have for me.

- Piece of mind. I know the car is running right and that everything is in spec, including the valves (thanks Dave).

I am not sure if Frank is on this forum, but I wanted to say thanks for helping me fall in love with my car. It's nice to have a good guy like you near by.

I will update later in the week once all of the adaptations have taken effect and give a review of my normal commuting and drive-ability.

[L4ces]

Originally Posted by shanes_bmw

Thought I would post this up here since he can tune e9x cars too.

Sorry for the long story, but I wanted to share my experience with everyone.

I picked up my M3 in October of this year from the member OneFastSicilian.

http://www.m3forum.net/m3forum/showthread.php?t=457792

I picked up this car because of all of the work/maintenance that was done to it (OneFastSicilian was not the one that did all the work to it). I have a kid on the way, and my zhp needed some maintenance, so my awesome wife and best friend convinced me to get an M3 while I can.

Initially I was super pumped, but the car wasn't quite what I was expecting. I came out of an Active stage 2 ZHP that was around 335 to the wheels.

I promptly purchased an Active Autowerke Gen 6 exhaust which gave me the illusion that I was going faster because of the sound. Still unhappy, I purchased SuperSprint V1 headers and a CPI CRT Cat/Resonated section 1. This woke the car up a little, but I still wanted more (we all do). I also found that the K&N probably had never been cleaned. It weighed 5 lbs with gunk all over it. I took that out and replaced it with a BMC filter and sprayed the hell out of the MAF with cleaner.

Well needless to say, still didn't make the difference that I was looking for. I decided to take the car down to Frank Smith since he is local. I figured maybe a tune would help. He promptly put it on the dyno, and this is what he found.




Wow what is going on there? M3 with headers and high flow cats? 274? Why is it tanking a little after 6500? Well remember all the work that was done by the previous owner? One of those items was a Dr. Vanos. Frank told me that he had seen this before and it was a VANOS issue. At this point I am panicking because I have heard and read horror stories. Apparently if the proper BMW tools are not used, it will cause issues like these. In comes Dave (Dafoe) to the rescue. Dave was able to diagnose and fix the alignment. Dave said the exhaust side was a few teeth off I believe.

Well here is the next dyno, pre-tune just vanos aligned properly.



Getting better right? Now for the fun. Time to tune.



So lets get this straight, I drive in with 274 HP and leave with 307 HP? Wow not bad for a 106k mile car.

Here is the final comparison:



Now let me finish by talking about the feel of the tune. If you are curious its not magical, its still no supercharged car, but I can honestly say, I don't miss my old car anymore.

- The car is smoother, it feels like I have more torque in the bottom end and I don't have to make the car work as hard to get up to speed. I am old enough now that I appreciate the smoothness.

- The car pulls a lot harder. Enough said.

- Sport button memory. This is a perk to a tune. Must have for me.

- Piece of mind. I know the car is running right and that everything is in spec, including the valves (thanks Dave).

I am not sure if Frank is on this forum, but I wanted to say thanks for helping me fall in love with my car. It's nice to have a good guy like you near by.

I will update later in the week once all of the adaptations have taken effect and give a review of my normal commuting and drive-ability.

Awesome man. I enjoyed reading this writeup and I learned something new!

[Dave07997S]

My E46 M3 made 302rwhp with just a SuperSprint V1 headers and 100cpi metallic cats, Supersprint midsection with no resonator and a Borla muffler, no tune.

Its nice to see that E46 with that kind of mileage able to put down those kind of numbers.

Congrats.

Dave

[Sirius Black]

Frank really knows his way around our cars software. He had my E90 M3 putting down 420whp with just bolts ons and his tune. Now it's over 600whp with Stage 3 AA Gen 2 SC and his tweaks. What I love the most about his work is not only do you gain power, but the smoothness of that added power is what's most impressive to me.

[happos2]

OHHHHHHH, this is for an E46. I was going to say you have a major issue if you are still only making 307 rwhp on an E9x M3...

glad you got more of the power that you were looking for!

[Superfly_M3]

420 whp on only bolt ons? Sounds like a new record. If this guy can tune a NA E9x to 420whp with just bolt ons people should be all over this. None of the other tuners have been able to come close to 420whp.

Whats really going on here?

[Sales@Evolve]

Very nice write up.

[W///]

Originally Posted by Superfly_M3

420 whp on only bolt ons? Sounds like a new record. If this guy can tune a NA E9x to 420whp with just bolt ons people should be all over this. None of the other tuners have been able to come close to 420whp.

Whats really going on here?

+1. 400 whp is considered excellent

[Irishace]

Originally Posted by Sirius Black

Frank really knows his way around our cars software. He had my E90 M3 putting down 420whp with just bolts ons and his tune. Now it's over 600whp with Stage 3 AA Gen 2 SC and his tweaks. What I love the most about his work is not only do you gain power, but the smoothness of that added power is what's most impressive to me.

OP had me lost until I realized he was posting about an E46.

Now, for the 420whp comment, would love to see a dyno / mod spec for this car because noone on the planet has been able to do this. Color me skeptical.

[happos2]

Originally Posted by Irishace

OP had me lost until I realized he was posting about an E46.

Now, for the 420whp comment, would love to see a dyno / mod spec for this car because noone on the planet has been able to do this. Color me skeptical.

Dang, I just ran out of the Crayon color. Back to the store.

[Sirius Black]

We backed up the Dyno dynamics runs on the Dyno jet next door. 416std/405sae - the numbers are real, he's that good. Mods at the time were AA green filter, MS pulleys, TTP, fabspeed xpipe, AE rear section, and Franks tune. I also believe all the fluids were fresh, diff, trans, engine oil, and fresh plugs.

[Black Gold]

Originally Posted by Sirius Black

We backed up the Dyno dynamics runs on the Dyno jet next door. 416std/405sae - the numbers are real, he's that good. Mods at the time were AA green filter, MS pulleys, TTP, fabspeed xpipe, AE rear section, and Franks tune. I also believe all the fluids were fresh, diff, trans, engine oil, and fresh plugs.

what were the numbers with the bolt ons prior to the tune?

[Sirius Black]

Originally Posted by KennyPowers

what were the numbers with the bolt ons prior to the tune?

The car was at 390whp with the same bolts ons and a can tune from another vendor.
He hadn't touched the car before this run.

[Black Gold]

did you run the car on the same dyno pre and post tune on the same day?

not being critical, just trying to get an apples / apples comparison.

[pbonsalb]

405 SAE on a Dynojet might be a record for an E9xM3 with just bolt on mods on pump gas. That is a great result.

[Irishace]

Now you can color me stoked, very impressive results Sirius. Now if he could only remote tune

And sincere apologies to the OP for the threadjack.

[Sirius Black]

Originally Posted by Irishace

Now you can color me stoked, very impressive results Sirius. Now if he could only remote tune

And sincere apologies to the OP for the threadjack.

Yes, sorry for the thread jack. Although, he is another of Frank's customers, and I'm sure he won't mind him getting some props for his hard work.

[Sirius Black]

Originally Posted by KennyPowers

did you run the car on the same dyno pre and post tune on the same day?

not being critical, just trying to get an apples / apples comparison.

Not the same day, but just days apart. The biggest difference aside from the added power was the smoothness of the car after Frank retuned it. The on/off throttle modulation was greatly improved. Oh, and it got better fuel mileage as well. Just about 1.5mpgs, but any improvement is welcome with this thirsty beast.

[shanes_bmw]

Originally Posted by Dave07997S

My E46 M3 made 302rwhp with just a SuperSprint V1 headers and 100cpi metallic cats, Supersprint midsection with no resonator and a Borla muffler, no tune.

Its nice to see that E46 with that kind of mileage able to put down those kind of numbers.

Congrats.

Dave

Wow. Imagine if it had a tune. My cats are 400cpi.

I am pretty stoked.

Originally Posted by Sirius Black

Frank really knows his way around our cars software. He had my E90 M3 putting down 420whp with just bolts ons and his tune. Now it's over 600whp with Stage 3 AA Gen 2 SC and his tweaks. What I love the most about his work is not only do you gain power, but the smoothness of that added power is what's most impressive to me.

Wow, I will have to let my friend know this. He needs to get his e92 tuned.

Originally Posted by happos2

OHHHHHHH, this is for an E46. I was going to say you have a major issue if you are still only making 307 rwhp on an E9x M3...

glad you got more of the power that you were looking for!

Yeah. Haha slow e46 m3

Originally Posted by Sal@Evolve

Very nice write up.

Thanks.

Originally Posted by W///

+1. 400 whp is considered excellent

Yes it is.

Originally Posted by Irishace

Now you can color me stoked, very impressive results Sirius. Now if he could only remote tune

And sincere apologies to the OP for the threadjack.

No worries. As I said above, I have a friend that would like this information.

Originally Posted by Sirius Black

Yes, sorry for the thread jack. Although, he is another of Frank's customers, and I'm sure he won't mind him getting some props for his hard work.

[BPMSport]

Very nice! Glad you were able to solve your vanos issues - we've seen a lot of them in E46 M3's and E39 M5's.. It's always a good idea to have that checked using a factory tool as it can check response time as well as movement to ensure it's working properly. Here is a shot of what this test looks like (we performed it today on our newly acquired E46):



The E46 is a fantastic car, enjoy it in good health!

[dparm]

Why are these dynos stopping short of 8000rpm?

[shanes_bmw]

We actually ran the autologic against it first and it read in spec, but it was still mis-aligned.

Not sure if your tool is any better or worse than the autologic.

Thanks, I love it!