Which tuner ? TRM, RK, RPD? others?

[andrewtp]

Hi all,

Been out of the loop e36 wise and am slowly getting back in. Car is not a track car or anything just spirited driving. Been a while since I've looked into this - which tuner is best for a relatively low mod NA setup? and in terms of getting the tune do they send the cable out to you to upload yourself these days or do you have to send your unit into them?

Planned mods are:
M50 manifold
24 lb injectors
3.5 Porsche Maf
possibly cams (still undecided but likely no because the high cost of internals to run the higher degree cams)

Appreciate any and all advice.

Cheers
Andrew

[aeronaut]

A spotty history for me. (OBD1)
TRM 10 years ago did me good, great support via phone.
RK and RPD didn't impress me about 3 years ago. IIRC, one didn't work without several revs, and the other didn't get idle speed and redline as requested. so I went with a local.
RK just recently didn't impress me, sent me a chip that didn't work, then finally after round and round via email, got a chip that worked "ok". Not great power under 4500 then a light switch.

A local dyno tune will always be better especially if you get cams.

Maybe all the ones you listed have much better luck with OBDII.

[golgo13]

Are you just looking for suggestions? I think all of these are 100% remote tuners

HTE
Epic
Severn Tuning

[andrewtp]

Thanks for replies. I'm looking for recommendations and experiences of the various off the shelf tunes. I'm in southern california and I'm sure there are tuners around but have been out of touch with the car world lately. I wouldn't be against a local tuner but I feel like an off the shelf tune would be more convenient.

[Braymond141]

HTE is your best bet in 2022. He's in another country so it's remote only, but he's polite and a good tuner. You can't say that for a lot of the others.

[andrewtp]

HTE is your best bet in 2022. He's in another country so it's remote only, but he's polite and a good tuner. You can't say that for a lot of the others.

Never even heard of HTE until today, but I will look into them. Any others use HTE?

[hakentt]

For spirited driving on public roads the best tune is stock tune but people don't want to hear this.
M50 manifold is not good for every day spirited driving, there is about 20lb/tq loss where you need it most for just 10hp more on 5500-6500 rpm where you won't spend much time unless you track it and stay in that rpm range most of the time.
24lb injectors are pointless when stock ones do not max out
catback is pointless when stock one is not restrictive at all
more aggressive cams than stock are pointless unless you are fine tuning it for a track and fine tuning it for specific rpm range, same with m50 manifold.

Car is not a track car or anything just spirited driving. Been a while since I've looked into this - which tuner is best for a relatively low mod NA setup?
Planned mods are:
M50 manifold
24 lb injectors
catback exhaust
possibly cams (still undecided but likely no because the high cost of internals to run the higher degree cams)

[Braymond141]

What Hackett left out is he also sells tuned ECU for you and openly advertises emission readiness defeat bypass on a public forum at a time where tuners are being flushed out by the EPA. Definitely take his advice and get a tune from him.

[golgo13]

Hahahah

[andrewtp]

Interesting, lol. Any others have any experience with any off-the-shelf tunes recently?

[Braymond141]

Interesting, lol. Any others have any experience with any off-the-shelf tunes recently?

The gains are very modest for off the shelf or custom dyno tunes. Turner (Jim C) are of decent quality if you want the most up to date software in the world of self programmers.

You can also get into romraider.com, buy this software: https://bmwtuningtools.gumroad.com/l/ms41quickflash, and this cable: https://www.ebay.com/itm/28496472422...sAAOSwwIFjQKHF

Between those three things and research, you can tune the car yourself or obtain a copy of a tune you want to try yourself.

[andrewtp]

Thank you for the info.

Would I be able to tune it without a dyno? (obviously dyno will be optimal)

The gains are very modest for off the shelf or custom dyno tunes. Turner (Jim C) are of decent quality if you want the most up to date software in the world of self programmers.

You can also get into romraider.com, buy this software: https://bmwtuningtools.gumroad.com/l/ms41quickflash, and this cable: https://www.ebay.com/itm/28496472422...sAAOSwwIFjQKHF

Between those three things and research, you can tune the car yourself or obtain a copy of a tune you want to try yourself.

[aeronaut]

Thank you for the info.

Would I be able to tune it without a dyno? (obviously dyno will be optimal)

There are 2 aspects to tuning.
- Changing parameters: idle speed, redline, EWS disable, etc.
- Optimizing power and driving characteristics.

One of those is "easy" without a dyno, one isn't.
"Easy" in quotes, because the need to buy, integrate, and learn the hardware and software needed to download, modify, and install a tune.

[Boost112]

Interesting, lol. Any others have any experience with any off-the-shelf tunes recently?

...ill jump in on this...i have purchased tunes from RKtunes and then switched to 22rpd...my reason was that Rk hasn't really adjusted their tunes for N/A for a while...where as 22rpd has been going beyond where everyone left the tunes at back in 2002...lol...i will say that there was a difference going from RK to 22rpd...maybe 10 hp...but the nice thing is that both are remote tunable and they provide a flashing cable. 22rpd will ask you to make an appointment with them to be able to flash...as where RKtunes will send you the file and you flash yourself.

Also...the main reason i got tuned was to get rid of the dip in torque with the M50 manifold...the tune cured this mostly...the bimmerworld midpipe was the magic sauce to get rid of the dip...and get some actual gains...

Let me know if you have any other questions...but i was pretty happy with both...22rpd was just more up to date and makes more power...imo...

[Mless5]

I used Kassel Performance for m50 manifold, intake and a catback. I had to ship them my ECU, but the turn around was quick. I did it all at once and have not noticed any dips, but the car now keeps pulling all the way to the limiter instead of running out of breath around 3-4K. I've had no issues since I had it installed, it's been a few years - car runs great.

There was also Markertmotorworks I was considering at the time.

[Rugbyfan]

I’ve been very happy with TRM. Unfortunately I’m OBD-1 on my s52 as OBD 2 swaps weren’t really a thing in 2011. I don’t really want to go through the hassle of converting back to OBD 2. I saw something about Ostrich. Does anybody know how to “burn” chips at home? I’d love to be able to half ass remote tune. Do some dyno runs with AFR send them to TRM and they send me a better file to burn. Thoughts?

[Johal E32]

I've had great experience with Hassan from HTE.

[andrewtp]

Seems like a toss up between TRM, RPD22 and HTE. Might be a stupid thought but since HTE and RPD are newer companies- are their tunes more “current” meaning any better than TRM that has been in the game much longer? I ask because I’ve read posts that the Jim Conforti tune has not been updated since it came out long ago.

[pbonsalb]

Braymond141 says Conforti is updating his tuning for Turner, so maybe I am wrong that it is the same stuff that he developed a decade ago. Conforti was one of the best and maybe the first to reverse engineer the OBD2 ECU — I just have not read anything about him being active in a long time. Most of the rest learned by copying a Conforti tune and trying to figure out what he changed. But some of them have been at it for a while and seem to do a pretty good job. And in recent years, apparently copies of tuners’ tunes have been appearing on romraider or similar sites.

[RBNetEngr]

A data point…

I have had a Conforti tune in my OBD1 M3 since 2000, and it has never caused any problems. It was purchased with the Conforti intake and 3.5” MAF, so the tune optimizes for the intake, removed the 137mph speed limiter, raised the redline 200rpm and optimized for 93 octane fuel.

Granted an OBD1 tune is not an OBD2 tune, but Conforti produced quality tunes. My understanding was that the business (Josh @ Eurosport) was sold to TRM, so that’s how TRM sells the Conforti tune. In fact, in 2012, my itg foam air filter (the original intake filter) was disintegrating and TRM provided me with a replacement that was highly discounted, even though the original intake kit was sold by Eurosport.

That’s great customer service!

[propcar]

I've always been a big supporter of TRM, I've had their tune for years and its generally given me no issues. One thing about TRM in the past is that their tunes were also optimized in racing application since alot of their customers and TRM themselves were club racing. I think they did a good job of it. Their customer service has always been good as well as RBNetEngr mentioned, although it seems they are quite busy with professional racing these days.

I don't think you have to be racing to appreciate the M50 manifold and tune gains... you just have to appreciate going above 3.5k RPM to redline. The character of the S52 with the M50 manifold matches how the S50 runs and how the euro motors gain power in the higher rpm range. Nobody's complaining about lack of torque on S50's... I don't get why anyone would complain about having the S52's torque shifted slightly above in the higher rpm range with the additional HP increase. I wouldn't go back to the S52 manifold for any reason... but I definitely wouldn't run M50 manifold without a proper tune.

[aeronaut]

Turner isn't going to give shit for support, and without knowing what and when they plan to "update" the Conforti tune, it's kinda meaningless.

I'd go with TRM or HTE.

[Boost112]

Seems like a toss up between TRM, RPD22 and HTE. Might be a stupid thought but since HTE and RPD are newer companies- are their tunes more “current” meaning any better than TRM that has been in the game much longer? I ask because I’ve read posts that the Jim Conforti tune has not been updated since it came out long ago.

The main reason for the switch to 22rpd...was because their tunes are very current, you can tune at home...meaning you don't have to go to a shop or another location...and they will remote tune for what ever you want...never had an issue getting a hold of them via email or phone...also im in south Florida and their shop is in washington...good customer service...just sharing my experience with the tuners i have used.

[QtheGenius]

I have an Epic tune with mostly the same mods as you. intake, manifold, injectors, headers, cat delete.

The one thing you might want to look into is CA has the new law where a modified ECU won't pass smog. If you "know a guy," then you're good, but it's just something to consider.

[Braymond141]

I have an Epic tune with mostly the same mods as you. intake, manifold, injectors, headers, cat delete.

The one thing you might want to look into is CA has the new law where a modified ECU won't pass smog. If you "know a guy," then you're good, but it's just something to consider.

That is not applicable to MS41. They aren't reading the tunes off these ECU. Provided the tuning is done correctly without any emission deletes.

You can even have all the readiness monitors permanently set to be ready and the car will pass. This really saves a lot of time and unnecessary fuel when trying to set the damn SAP.