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      05-22-2015, 01:57 PM   #1
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Z4 3.0i VF Engineering “Stage 1.5”

Z4 3.0i VF Engineering “Stage 1.5”
I recently got my car back from Tuning Tech FS (Frank Smith’s shop) with the following installed:

- 3.33” pulley (8-9 psi) and smaller belt
- AEM water/meth injection (WMI) kit with a trunk-mounted tank
- Custom dyno tune

The car saw a 12.3% gain in peak horsepower and 11.4% gain in peak torque… very healthy numbers. The baseline I did on a Dynojet netted a max of 285 whp (average peak 282 whp). TTFS’s baseline dyno was 266.6 whp, so it seems to read a little lower than a Dynojet. My final number was 299.5 whp on TTFS’s dyno, so it should be well north of 300 whp on a Dynojet.



I’m most impressed with the midrange, with a 12% gain in “average horsepower” from 3000 rpm to redline. Combined with the 3.64 final drive, the car pulls hard in any gear. The only change in drivability I’ve noticed is a slight lag in power when rapidly downshifting and accelerating. This could be the WMI pump spooling up. It doesn’t happen all the time, and I think it may be isolated to the first spray of the day.

The car is set up to run a 50/50 mix of methanol and water. I have no plans to experiment with other mixtures, as the car is tuned for 50/50, and 50/50 is stable enough that it won’t catch my trunk on fire in the event of an accident.

Catless OBD2 readiness is not an option with the MS45 DME. If you plan to run catless headers, you either need a catted mid-pipe or have the O2 sensors turned off (OBD2 emissions failure but no CEL).

No new sounds came with the meth install. There may be more hiss from boost due to the increased volume of air being pumped by the supercharger, but it’s hard to say. The vibration I was experiencing (high gear at <2k rpm with moderate throttle), which I had attributed to my lightweight flywheel, is gone. There is some flywheel chatter at heavy loads and low rpm (which I normally avoid, but I experimented as I noticed the vibration had disappeared). I'm not entirely sure why the vibration disappeared, or what was causing it for that matter, but I'm happy that it's gone.

Overall, the install is very clean and I’m happy with the end result. Thanks to Kyle @ TTFS for the great work!







I’m done with power mods on this car. At 135k miles, I don’t want to push it any further. TTFS agrees. An intercooler isn’t needed when running these boost levels with methanol injection, and it would cause an increase in backpressure which would have to be overcome with even more boost. The intake manifold isn’t designed for boost; 8-9 psi is the safe limit. There are people out there running higher boost pressure, but there isn’t much information about long term reliability. While a stout motor, the M54 is no S54. FWIW, my ESS Z4M pulled 417 whp on TTFS’s dyno at only 6-6.5 psi. The S54 is a 1000 whp motor with the right prep. An M54 is lucky to break 500 whp, but an S54 can do it with a bolt on supercharger kit and meth injection. It’s a great motor for daily driving though, and I now feel this motor is “reliably maxed”. It’s got some fire to it, as one unsuspecting C5 Corvette owner discovered
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      05-22-2015, 02:29 PM   #2
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To compare m54 to S54 you should look at torque.
S54 gets it's power from revs, but torque shows potential.
That said the s54 probably still is the better performer as it also has a longer stroke.
But high revs and long stroke seem to have some impact on lifespan from what I read...
Nobody revs the m54 as high as the s54; the s54 has a lot of features for high revs; the racing heritage shows in the mechanics, in both performance and lifespan.

M54 has been tuned to 800whp/881Nm wtq by the way (obviously with extensive mods ) by some swedish tuner.
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      05-26-2015, 02:44 AM   #3
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Pokey, Looks great mate. impressive number too. the build quality looks great too, but how does the meth/h2o injection work? is that automatic? or manual? and how much does it use?

and what does that mean for your roadworthy check if the obd2 emissions fails?
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      05-26-2015, 11:26 AM   #4
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Looks good Josh.

Your shop installed the nozzle in the charge pipe instead of the "nose" of the blower!!

The WMI pump is progressive and works using the parameters set by the controller.
The spray is linear between those set values instead of just dumping the full spray as soon as the pump is energized.
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      05-26-2015, 02:55 PM   #5
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Quote:
Originally Posted by GuidoK View Post
M54 has been tuned to 800whp/881Nm wtq by the way (obviously with extensive mods ) by some swedish tuner.
I saw this over on BB. Impressive! That tuner spent a lot more than I'm willing to spend though
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      05-26-2015, 03:00 PM   #6
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Vanne View Post
Pokey, Looks great mate. impressive number too. the build quality looks great too, but how does the meth/h2o injection work? is that automatic? or manual? and how much does it use?

and what does that mean for your roadworthy check if the obd2 emissions fails?
The WMI is automatic. At 4 psi, it starts to spray. It doesn't use much. After a full tank of gas, I used less than 1/2" of the mixture in the tank. I bet the WMI tank would last 6-8 tanks of gas, depending on how often you're at high boost.

OBD2 emissions are unaffected. What I meant was you can't tune out the secondary O2 sensors if you are running catless. You will either have a CEL, or the test will return "not ready". Either one is an emissions failure. The only way to pass OBD2 readiness with catless headers is with relocated O2 sensors and aftermarket cats. With stock cats, there is no issue (other than leaving a lot of power/sound on the table).
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      05-26-2015, 03:15 PM   #7
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Quote:
Originally Posted by dbarton62 View Post
Looks good Josh.

Your shop installed the nozzle in the charge pipe instead of the "nose" of the blower!!

The WMI pump is progressive and works using the parameters set by the controller.
The spray is linear between those set values instead of just dumping the full spray as soon as the pump is energized.
I know, I saw that they didn't put it in the location they originally told me they would use. That spot most have been better. I'm not sure how much this would affect tune, should you follow the same path. With their remote tuning option, they should be able to tune for the different location on your car .
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      03-07-2018, 11:08 AM   #8
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Quote:
Originally Posted by pokeybritches View Post

Catless OBD2 readiness is not an option with the MS45 DME. If you plan to run catless headers, you either need a catted mid-pipe or have the O2 sensors turned off (OBD2 emissions failure but no CEL).
Can you use a simulator? Or have you one that works for the VF setup with headers?
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