Alpine Tune GB e9X M3: 2021

[Matthew III]

Originally Posted by Ccieszyn

At the risk of sounding like a "butt dyno" guy, I'll say that in terms of power (the primary reason I wanted the tune) the car does seem to have more get up and go, especially from a dead stop, which is great because that's this car's only real weakness. Very satisfied from this perspective.

Servotronics is interesting. It does make the car feel more like my old E46es in terms of firm and stiff steering, but I'm not sure I prefer it in concert with my somewhat slippery Alcantara wheel. Not a problem of the tune, of course. I might not keep it long term. Or maybe I can reach out to Alex to go halfway between the standard and the tune.

6MT launch control is cool. It's strange for the car to be limited to 3500 whenever it's not moving, but I'm not doing lots of rev stands in parking lots or at lights, so being able to launch a little more consistently when I want to might be a good trade off. Verdict still out, leaning towards keeping it.

Haven't gotten or tried the E85 map yet, but I look forward to doing so in the near future.

how long did the whole process take?

[smokinjoe64]

Originally Posted by Matthew III

how long did the whole process take?

Load times:

• Download 'original/stock' map to backup ~40min
• Flash tune ~7min

Essentially, loading new Maps to experiment easy, fast...more fun!

[smokinjoe64]

Originally Posted by Ccieszyn

At the risk of sounding like a "butt dyno" guy, I'll say that in terms of power (the primary reason I wanted the tune) the car does seem to have more get up and go, especially from a dead stop, which is great because that's this car's only real weakness. Very satisfied from this perspective.

Servotronics is interesting. It does make the car feel more like my old E46es in terms of firm and stiff steering, but I'm not sure I prefer it in concert with my somewhat slippery Alcantara wheel. Not a problem of the tune, of course. I might not keep it long term. Or maybe I can reach out to Alex to go halfway between the standard and the tune.

6MT launch control is cool. It's strange for the car to be limited to 3500 whenever it's not moving, but I'm not doing lots of rev stands in parking lots or at lights, so being able to launch a little more consistently when I want to might be a good trade off. Verdict still out, leaning towards keeping it.

Haven't gotten or tried the E85 map yet, but I look forward to doing so in the near future.

E85...hmmm 🤔

Does the fuel conversion require more than just a new map/tune?
Risks/issues?

[t04d]

Originally Posted by smokinjoe64

E85...hmmm 🤔

Does the fuel conversion require more than just a new map/tune?
Risks/issues?

I'm no expert by any means, but did some research on this a while back. From my understanding you need something like this in order to be able to run e85 safely in these cars: https://www.advancedfueldynamics.com...e91-e92-e93-m3

In regards to the tune, I'm still getting used to the car in general so it's hard to weigh in at all. I've only owned the car a few weeks and I did the tune, then the intake arrived the next day, and then pulleys arrived a few days after that so I'm probably doing it a bit backwards. I will say the car feels great and I've had a lot of fun driving it so far. It's definitely much quicker now then it was when I purchased it and I'm really glad I got in on the group buy!

[smokinjoe64]

Originally Posted by t04d

I'm no expert by any means, but did some research on this a while back. From my understanding you need something like this in order to be able to run e85 safely in these cars: https://www.advancedfueldynamics.com...e91-e92-e93-m3

In regards to the tune, I'm still getting used to the car in general so it's hard to weigh in at all. I've only owned the car a few weeks and I did the tune, then the intake arrived the next day, and then pulleys arrived a few days after that so I'm probably doing it a bit backwards. I will say the car feels great and I've had a lot of fun driving it so far. It's definitely much quicker now then it was when I purchased it and I'm really glad I got in on the group buy!

Interesting, thx for the info...anyone have experience with the ProFlex Commander?

[Ccieszyn]

Originally Posted by Matthew III

how long did the whole process take?

SmokinJoe is correct. 40 min for the backup, then 7 mins for each flash. Pretty simple.

[Ccieszyn]

Originally Posted by smokinjoe64

Interesting, thx for the info...anyone have experience with the ProFlex Commander?

The ProFlex Commander and APE FlexFuel solutions are only needed if you want to swap back and forth between regular gas and E85 on the fly. They use a harness and a small computer to adjust the car’s systems to work with either or a mix, based on what is currently flowing through the injectors. The Alpine E85 tune is a semi-permanent solution; you’re either mapped to run E85 or you’re not. If you want to switch from one to another you also need to reflash. Since there’s no other fuel system components changed, I’m certain there’s no difference in safety between the two.

The reason I paid for the Alpine option was that it seemed like a cheap way to try E85 on the car prior to looking at something like the ProFlex. But my car also does not get driven enough to have E85 in the tank all the time, so it’s actually likely that this is the better solution for my use case. If I like it, I’ll just end up mapping to E85 when I know I’m going to go through a tank or two quickly.

[smokinjoe64]

Originally Posted by Ccieszyn

The ProFlex Commander and APE FlexFuel solutions are only needed if you want to swap back and forth between regular gas and E85 on the fly. They use a harness and a small computer to adjust the car’s systems to work with either or a mix, based on what is currently flowing through the injectors. The Alpine E85 tune is a semi-permanent solution; you’re either mapped to run E85 or you’re not. If you want to switch from one to another you also need to reflash. Since there’s no other fuel system components changed, I’m certain there’s no difference in safety between the two.

The reason I paid for the Alpine option was that it seemed like a cheap way to try E85 on the car prior to looking at something like the ProFlex. But my car also does not get driven enough to have E85 in the tank all the time, so it’s actually likely that this is the better solution for my use case. If I like it, I’ll just end up mapping to E85 when I know I’m going to go through a tank or two quickly.

Appreciate the insight and explanation.
The measured approach to 'try-b4-buy' more stuff makes good sense.

Assuming the fuel tank will need to be essentially 'empty' for each fuel type since mixing maybe problematic for ECU.

Looks like, need to have the ole laptop handy to flash at the gas station for each new tankful.

[Ccieszyn]

Originally Posted by smokinjoe64

Appreciate the insight and explanation.
The measured approach to 'try-b4-buy' more stuff makes good sense.

Assuming the fuel tank will need to be essentially 'empty' for each fuel type since mixing maybe problematic for ECU.

Looks like, need to have the ole laptop handy to flash at the gas station for each new tankful.

That's right. Get your tank as close to empty as possible, fill with E85, flash at the gas station, drive. Same to go back to regular gas.

[sbo76]

Alex let me in on the group buy even though i am late as usual. Thank you Alex looking forward to this plus the AA test pipes i ordered today to go along with it. I added the GTS/DTS Euro coding as an added bonus. Waiting on pins and needles here!