[Willizm]

So a few of my friends and I got together and decided to get some runs in at No Limit Raceway in Indiana since I'm home this weekend. I was going to bring the Turbo Trans Am but fried my 3-4 clutches,,,,again,,,,, 4l80e with a trans brake on the way


First it should be said that this track sucks when it comes to prep. We showed up and tech'd in early. It's a pretty quiet track so getting runs in is easy. We had some issues with my buddy Jay's nitrous spraying properly which we were able to fix later on. I had a few good runs. My best run was against Jay although he was spinning a bit and nitrous no worky. Ambient temps were 84 degrees and DA was about 2400.

Willizm - 335xi - 6at - air filters, chargepipe, downpipes, FMIC, and Cobb AP stage 2 +fmic aggressive on 93 octane

Hugger1975 - Z28 - 6mt - H/C/I, 9" spool,

Enjoy.

I didn't think I could even hang with his car, but even with all the disadvantages of crap prep and nitrous not working his worst pass still beat my best pass. I slept the light a bit and that cost me. I'm happy with my sedan though. Overall I was running consistent 12.6's with a 1.8 60'. Jay was getting a bit faster once we got the nitrous running properly.


So this begs the obvious question. In cooler temps what else could I do to get this thing low 12's and possibly dipping into 11's? Not going to do weight reduction or reworked turbo's.

[gdub]

colder air, protuned w/ e85 and you should be in the 11s i'd think.

[benzy89]

Originally Posted by gdub

colder air, protuned w/ e85 and you should be in the 11s i'd think.

+1 Lower IATs, Custom E85 Mapping (contact Jake@PTF), Sticky Tires


The AWD is killing your power:weight ratio, but it's probably helping a lot off the line. IF you really want to shave some time, consider stripping some weight by removing the rear seats

[nailer335]

Stack a JB4 on top of your Cobb and run METH

My car is an addict. This will put you at a 12 flat, conservatively. It can be done inexpensively too- used JB4s aren't hard to find and you can piece together a TRUNK kit for just as inexpensive. I believe it was dzenno that did a good DIY on stacking Cobb & JB4. Lots of high power guys do it, relieving you of the feeling that you're taking an unknown risk.

[King mode]

Nice job man! And good work not looking like a child racing on the streets.

[Willizm]

Btw this pass was a 12.5@111mph

[Willizm]

Originally Posted by nailer335

Stack a JB4 on top of your Cobb and run METH

My car is an addict. This will put you at a 12 flat, conservatively. It can be done inexpensively too- used JB4s aren't hard to find and you can piece together a TRUNK kit for just as inexpensive. I believe it was dzenno that did a good DIY on stacking Cobb & JB4. Lots of high power guys do it, relieving you of the feeling that you're taking an unknown risk.

Do you have a link? I do have a jb4 and fsb meth kit that's currently unused. I also run straight e85 in my TA so I'm not opposed to that either.

[benzy89]

Originally Posted by Willizm

I also run straight e85 in my TA so I'm not opposed to that either.

We can't run straight E85 yet (no aftermarket fuel pumps or upgraded fuel injectors), but if you tune for a mild-blend of E85 (25-30%), you'll get a very nice increase in power with almost zero timing corrections

[nailer335]

Originally Posted by Willizm

Do you have a link? I do have a jb4 and fsb meth kit that's currently unused. I also run straight e85 in my TA so I'm not opposed to that either.

http://www.n54tech.com/forums/showthread.php?t=14469

[spool twice]

Originally Posted by benzy89

We can't run straight E85 yet (no aftermarket fuel pumps or upgraded fuel injectors), but if you tune for a mild-blend of E85 (25-30%), you'll get a very nice increase in power with almost zero timing corrections

+1 on the near zero timing corrections, makes every map feel stronger.

[Willizm]

Well what would you guys do if you had the following in your garage at your disposal? I have backup e85 for my TA plus all my stuff for methanol that I removed when I went cobb. I sorta dropped out of the n54 world because I was getting my Turbo TA wrapped up and tuned on e85 so haven't really seen the latest developments.

5gal of e85(90% ethanol)
5gal of e85(87% ethanol)
5gal of MS109
5gal of M1 Methanol
JB4 PNP standard board
FSB WW meth kit
Cobb AP

Plus keep in mind my 335xi is FBO with stock catback. I'm looking to do one last hurrah before putting the 335xi on purely DD status. I also have a 135i that I want to get into more road course stuff and of course my TA for the strip.

[benzy89]

Originally Posted by Willizm

Plus keep in mind my 335xi is FBO with stock catback. I'm looking to do one last hurrah before putting the 335xi on purely DD status. I also have a 135i that I want to get into more road course stuff and of course my TA for the strip.

Personally, I'd just run E85 blends & get ProTuned to maximize the performance of the COBB tune (allow you to run better boost curves, more aggressive timing, aim for optimal AFRs), and do this for both your DD 335xi & the 135 (especially if you're gonna track this car, a ProTune would be ideal). If you just want to run pump gas, you could also get a ProTune for just 91/93 octane which will still give you really nice DD performance

E85 (as you know) runs cooler & offers tremendous gains on turbo'd cars. It's also significantly more cost effective than running Race Gas (only downside is MPG loss, which I don't think is a make or break thing on a track focus car). You can tune your the 135 to run a decent e85 blend (35%), but anything higher will prob cancel out the benefits. The biggest problem with the N54 is that we don't have Aftermarket Fuel Injectors or Fuel Pumps currently available -- creating a restriction on how much E85 we can use before it diminishes performance.

Like I said in an early post, contact the guys at ProTuning Freaks --- they're N54 specialist & will be able to not only give you a great deal on a tune, they'll be able to share their knowledge on what would be the ideal fuel blends for street + track performance.

[Willizm]

^I am leaning toward the e85 blending and willing to do some data logs and such. I'm just trying to figure out what is the best way to calculate the blend. I can try to get a rough estimate by calculating the remaining 93 octane in my tank based off of MPG and miles remaining on the cars display, but not sure if that is accurate or if there is a better way you guys do it. i test my e85 and have a station about a mile from my house that has great e85(anywhere from 85-90% ethanol). I would look for a good 93/e85 tune from PTF to have for track days and such, but then just run a 93 map for most of it's DD use.

[benzy89]

Jake@PTF & I agreed that a 3.5 gallon blend (between 20-25%) would be ideal for me since I use 93 as a base fuel (would've gone more aggressive if I only had access to 91). I usually just fill 1/2 way with 93, add my 3.5 gallons of E85 & then top off with 93. I love it, the car pulls significantly harder than my ProTune Pump Gas map. Only downside is the nearest E85 pump is ~20 mins from my house

[ar design II]

1.83 60ft nice work!

[pits200]

Originally Posted by Kai @ AR Design

1.83 60ft nice work!

Not being a debby downer but don't forget he is an xi.

1.83 is only decent and can easily be cut to the low 1.7x consistently with the xi.

After some practice and track prep, you can get to the mid to high 1.6s consistently.

That will help out big time since our xi's lose a lot on the back 1/8th of the quarter mile compared to the i guys.

Good run either way.

[Willizm]

Originally Posted by pits200

Not being a debby downer but don't forget he is an xi.

1.83 is only decent and can easily be cut to the low 1.7x consistently with the xi.

After some practice and track prep, you can get to the mid to high 1.6s consistently.

That will help out big time since our xi's lose a lot on the back 1/8th of the quarter mile compared to the i guys.

Good run either way.

The track was actually prepped for crap. that's why my buddy was running mid 12's and not high 11's like he regularly does. We are going to a better track called Byron that has excellent track prep.

[Eracer76]

Originally Posted by Willizm

The track was actually prepped for crap. that's why my buddy was running mid 12's and not high 11's like he regularly does. We are going to a better track called Byron that has excellent track prep.

When are you going to Byron? Thats where I go all the time

If I were you, being that you've been out of the scene for a while, I'd ditch the Cobb and do the free 15ohm upgrade to the JB4 and reinstall it with the meth kit! I was happy when I ditched my Cobb 5 months ago, and the JB4 firmware has gotten much better since then! Just load up the latest firmware that automatically adjusts to E85 mixes and I bet money you will not miss the Cobb at all! The newest firmware is butter smooth, and VERY powerful, especially when running mixed E85 and 93 octane with a small shot of meth

Check out my best time/mods in my signature... that was done back in April when Terry first came out with the new firmware for E85 and I was running 30% E85 on the old JB4 board... he has since updated the firmware a couple more times (it got better every time) and now I'm also running the new G5 board with a 50/50 E85 mix and the car is insanely fast! I cant wait to get back to the track soon!


P.S... and don't be afraid to launch that xi a little harder next time... that last time I was at the track, my worst 60' of the day was a 1.71

[Willizm]

Originally Posted by Eracer76

When are you going to Byron? Thats where I go all the time

If I were you, being that you've been out of the scene for a while, I'd ditch the Cobb and do the free 15ohm upgrade to the JB4 and reinstall it with the meth kit! I was happy when I ditched my Cobb 5 months ago, and the JB4 firmware has gotten much better since then! Just load up the latest firmware that automatically adjusts to E85 mixes and I bet money you will not miss the Cobb at all! The newest firmware is butter smooth, and VERY powerful, especially when running mixed E85 and 93 octane with a small shot of meth

Check out my best time/mods in my signature... that was done back in April when Terry first came out with the new firmware for E85 and I was running 30% E85 on the old JB4 board... he has since updated the firmware a couple more times (it got better every time) and now I'm also running the new G5 board with a 50/50 E85 mix and the car is insanely fast! I cant wait to get back to the track soon!


P.S... and don't be afraid to launch that xi a little harder next time... that last time I was at the track, my worst 60' of the day was a 1.71

Thanks for the advice. I'm actually doing some cobb custom tuning with 35% e85 since I have great ethanol less than a mile from my house. I have my WW FSB meth kit as well, but I might not need it. I try all my options so we will see how this goes and I might very well go with the newer G5 board. I also have a 135i out in vegas that is basically stock so might slap the JB4/e85/meth on that since the gas out there is poor.

almost 90% ethanol less than a mile from my house. Viva la Shell!!