Initial Review of ESS G1 Kit

[Shrike360]

Haven’t seen a lot of people who grab these kits give a review, so figured I’d give a stab at it. Quick note about the rest of my car; has test pipes + Corsa, also have the Autosolutions SSK. Placed my order through Kevin@EAS (absolutely great to work with, thanks for putting up with me Kevin!) at the beginning of July, received everything about 6 weeks later in the middle of August. Was considering installing the kit myself, but my work schedule has been hammering me and I wanted to drive the car before putting it away for the winter. So, I had my shop install it, and picked it up a week later.

Break in period was going great, until I parked it up and came back home from a grocery run to a puddle of coolant on the floor. I determined the coolant was dripping out of the coolant line at the back of the manifold. Tightened up the hose but no luck, it was definitely coming from the threading of the barbed fitting. Ended up having to drain the coolant, remove the manifold and re-seal the fitting with some high temp thread sealant. Turned out there was almost no sealant applied to the fitting. I should note I was talking with EAS and ESS at this time; ESS claimed they never had an issue with the fittings. Well, first time for everything, I guess.

Onto the driving. Have now done a nice variety of driving since the install; including backroad runs, freeway trips and around town commute. I did make a mistake during the break-in period, purely out of reflex, and accidently met full power. Mid 60s out, lightly raining on the freeway. Had an Outback doing the standard PNW passive aggressive move of trying to slowly pass me on the left as I came up on slow traffic. Did the standard drop to 3rd and punch it around instinct. This resulted in the rear tires breaking loose and the car surging from about 70 to 95 with 1-2s of throttle. Definitely a “Holy $#!+” introduction to the kit.

On the backroads, the kit is fantastic. Very linear, power is easy to adjust. Adds a little bit of low end, a good amount of mid-range and a manic top end. It adds a lot of flexibility with the additional torque. You can now ride it around in 3rd in some of the tighter stuff, and keep a very quick pace. Or if you feel like a lunatic, drop it to 2nd and hammer it. Just need to have the skill to not slide it into a tree. I’m still getting used to how much I can push it before lighting up the rears. There is a slight delay coming off throttle compared to NA, as the kit does have to vent boost. But it’s not so long as to be irritating. In a straight line, you have to manage 1st gear or else you just spin. My 285 PS4S’ are actually holding onto 2nd, unless the outside temps get low (was about 50 this morning) or the surface is rough. I’ve realized that I now start reading the road surface much more carefully, to figure out if I can go full throttle without spin. 3rd hooks perfectly, unless you find a bit of water on the road. MDM (Euro coded) doesn’t intervene at all in a straight, which I can’t complain about. The 8300 RPM limiter comes up FAST, you have to adjust or constantly smack it. Really could use a few extra hundred RPM.

On the freeway, there is a slight whine, which blends in pretty closely to the engine sound. It’s more obvious with the windows down, but easily muted out with the radio. Really, no drawbacks here. On the commute, wow. There’s just this little bit of extra torque (starting about 1800 RPM) that makes the car… effortless. Imagine just driving around everywhere with a strong tail wind helping you out. Even shifting feels smoother (from the slight throttle off delay introduced). Not what the kit was really designed for, but kudos!

Onto the drawbacks. In high temps (or after letting the car sit) or stop and go, the temps do go up and you do feel the power reducing. I think it mostly starts throttling after 110 F, but it definitely makes more power with colder temps. Seems happiest below about 70F ambient. Pretty workable in the PNW, but I wouldn’t mind an expanded coolant tank that fit into the left side of the trunk. You also lose the induction noise, which is definitely a little sad. In return, you gain some “turbo” flutter at high RPMs, and a bit of a supercharger whine. Kind of like having a jet turbine strapped to your front hood. The exhaust note also becomes VERY angry. ESS won’t kill the cold start, either, so I’ve been trying to get out of the house and neighborhood quickly. It is LOUD, had a walker glaring at me a few weeks back. I also really need to start upgrading suspension (plus a BBK), car squats hard on throttle.

Now that everything is settled, I can say it’s a great kit. You do lose some of the character of the induction noise (with a bit of an exchange). It does lose some power as it gets hot out. Otherwise, it’s a really great kit and am happy to have power that competes with cars in 2022, just in a far more exciting way.

[BlackDelta]

Thanks for the honest review. Can you make an audio recording of the blow off sound? Thanks

[pbonsalb]

You could convert the barbed fittings to threaded and make or buy hose with hose ends. You could alternative upgrade the barbed fittings to pushlok style that are used in many hydraulic applications and also available from automotive performance hose and fitting companies and pushlok hose like the blue aeroquip.

[kerrit]

good review!

interesting, ESS gave me a cold start delete tune when I asked for it.

edit: maybe it's due to the EPA cracking down hard on aftermarket tuners

[nycplumber]

Once you supercharge this car theres no going back. Best mod for the s65 IMO

[Shrike360]

Originally Posted by BlackDelta

Thanks for the honest review. Can you make an audio recording of the blow off sound? Thanks

One of the early reviews put a mic into the engine bay; captures the sound pretty well:

Originally Posted by pbonsalb

You could convert the barbed fittings to threaded and make or buy hose with hose ends. You could alternative upgrade the barbed fittings to pushlok style that are used in many hydraulic applications and also available from automotive performance hose and fitting companies and pushlok hose like the blue aeroquip.

Interesting idea. For now, it's holding up well. Though the proximity of the coolant line to the oil blowby/return line is a bit tight for my taste.

Originally Posted by kerrit

good review!

interesting, ESS gave me a cold start delete tune when I asked for it.

edit: maybe it's due to the EPA cracking down hard on aftermarket tuners

I was told that they no longer do a cold start delete because of concerns of some cars stalling. Was also told they don't do CEL delete, but still haven't got an error yet...

[akkando]

Originally Posted by kerrit

good review!

interesting, ESS gave me a cold start delete tune when I asked for it.

edit: maybe it's due to the EPA cracking down hard on aftermarket tuners

Maybe just a super charger tune thing? They provided me with a cold start delete tune and one that retains cold start.

[Shrike360]

Threw the car on the rollers to see how it was running. 91 octane pulley (running Costco 92), ESS G1. Pretty solid results, 2nd run was basically back to back. Car was the most heatsoaked I've ever seen on the way home. They were telling me that the typical bolt on E9x does about 370 whp on this dyno. About 160whp gain is right in the advertised ballpark

[Soden82]

Nice review, I just bought a G1 supercharged M3 and have had it for a week. Drove an older ESS supercharged M3 the week prior so it's an interesting comparison.

I definitely think above 2500rpm there is constant supercharger wine/hum. Top of the rev range sounds like a turbo flutter which is cool.

The car came with the 91 pulley but will be switching to the 93 pulley for next year cause we have that at the pump.

My car also did not come with the cold start delete, so cold starts are loud. I just bought a turner valved exhaust that I'm going to put on to help.

The supercharger definitely seems pretty chatty at idle when your on the outside of the car. Haven't heard the old ESS supercharger at idle to compare though.

[pbonsalb]

If you can get a tuner to raise the idle rpm in the tune, the blower may be quieter. Test at 850 rpm in neutral. Worked for Vortech in my experience on another BMW with a Vortech.

[Shrike360]

Originally Posted by pbonsalb

If you can get a tuner to raise the idle rpm in the tune, the blower may be quieter. Test at 850 rpm in neutral. Worked for Vortech in my experience on another BMW with a Vortech.

Default ESS tune idle is set at 850 RPM for the G1. I think every centri blower will make some noise, very obvious if you stand outside the car while it's idling.

A lot of the supercharger noise I was super sensitive to on install has pretty much faded into the background.

After more time with kit, I'll say it makes the car feel much more serious, in both the good and bad ways. Stock is pretty happy go lucky to drive; not much thought required, figure out the corners, line it up and punch it when you can. Supercharged requires much more thought about throttle input. It hauls, but shifts and moves around depending on road surface. Very fun, but you have to be thinking before you can get on it. Though you do have the advantage of going up a gear if the surface isn't ideal, and still being very fast.

[kerrit]

Originally Posted by pbonsalb

If you can get a tuner to raise the idle rpm in the tune, the blower may be quieter. Test at 850 rpm in neutral. Worked for Vortech in my experience on another BMW with a Vortech.

The vortech on my ESS-550 kit definitely had a grinding type noise at idle, to the point where some people thought there was something wrong with my car.

My G1 has more of a smoother gear whine, sounds wayyy better.

[chutak]

Gosh, these kits put down impressive power, especially for what they cost. Well done, sir.

[Shrike360]

One year later follow-up. Figured I'd copy my post from the "what have you done to your M3 today" thread.

Just did the break-in oil change for the ESS G1. Kind of awkward to do. It's hard to tell you've gotten all the old oil out. I've looked up videos, and the Mustang kits are able to get the syringe all the way into the check port. I couldn't get that to happen, and the mounting bracket is also in the way. When filling, bit of a guess to verify you've gotten the right amount in (I just used up the second half of the first bottle). I guess the vent will sort everything out, just make things a bit messier for a while. Though now that I've done that change, I have two full bottles of oil, or 4 oil changes and 30000 miles worth of oil. I put on ~2500 miles a year on the car, so 12 years worth of oil right there.

So now that I've put 2500 miles on it, I feel like I can properly provide feedback on the kit. I'll start with the downsides. Yes, you do lose a lot of the induction note. If you like cruising in gear and playing with the throttle, you'll notice this. Yes, in hot weather, it does heatsoak and you probably lose 50 whp in most scenarios. If you heatsoak really bad, probably close to 100 whp. If I wanted to go harder or track the car, I'd be looking at implementing an interchiller or a big reservoir in the trunk. There is an interesting transition/recirc reaction point between 4k-5k rpm that can feel a little inconsistent with boost transition. There is a slight delay in reaction when letting off the throttle as the boost bleeds off. You can hear some high pitched SC noise while cruising at freeway speeds, though it's pretty minor. It doesn't add a lot of low end torque (like a Harrop) below 2.5-3k; it drives very similar to stock with way more top end.

All that out of the way, I have no regrets with the kit. Dynoed at 535 whp; playing around on the street I can confirm it's roughly the speed of a 600cc sport bike. The exhaust note (Corsa + TP) sounds angrier and is just perfection. You gain the turbine like whine of the SC, wooshing noises from the blower + recirc, and a very nice exhaust pop when shifting. It feels like you're driving a supercar. But the real benefit I rarely see brought up is how much it wakes up the chassis. When I installed the kit, it felt like it wanted me dead (mainly because the 5 year old PS4S' in the back). With time and fresh tires, I've gained the confidence to really poke the car. The power is transformational, even on relatively stock suspension. It has a shocking amount of grip with the 285 PS4S' in the back. If it's high 70s outside and I have a bit of heat in the tires, I can get it to hook in first. All grip in 2nd on. When NA, the car felt almost AWD. Now when you get on power through a corner, you can really feel the tires digging into the ground, the rear axle squat and then it working to launch you out the exit. It's also much easier to provoke the car on the street. It's very easy to get on the throttle a little early and heavy, then feel the rear end skate out of the corner with incredible precision and control. It really highlights how good the rest of the car is.

All in all, I strongly recommend the kit. Completely transformational, and quite the deal given the $7800 price it sits at today. Plus, I had no issue passing through emissions check (after putting in the stock cats, and with one unready monitor allowed) with the system.

[nah dude]

Originally Posted by Shrike360

Dynoed at 535 whp; playing around on the street I can confirm it's roughly the speed of a 600cc sport bike.

Car is doing 0-60 in under 3 seconds and a 10 second quarter with the charger?

[Blindside_137]

Thanks for sharing. I have been disappointed with the look of the new plenums even if it does offer more performance. I miss the ribbed look.

[Soden82]

Originally Posted by Blindside_137

Thanks for sharing. I have been disappointed with the look of the new plenums even if it does offer more performance. I miss the ribbed look.

I’m quite the opposite, I wouldn’t mind trading my OG plenum for the newer style. But I don’t want to shell out $1500 just for aesthetics