I official now

[don 147]

I finely bought a car yesterday. It's an 06 z4 3.0 i had wanted a si but couldn't find one in the shape I wanted for a price I was willing to pay. This car is pretty nice, 51,000 miles. Has lots of stuff on it, and for what i am going to do it has plenty of power. I'll get some photos as soon as I can. Not that you folks have never seen one before, lol

I appreciate all the answers to the crazy questions I ask before the purchase. It was helpful. I'm sure there will be many more.

[JeffchaPz]

Congrats Don - you'll love it.

Be ready to work on it your self and save big bucks.

[don 147]

Originally Posted by JeffchaPz

Congrats Don - you'll love it.

Be ready to work on it your self and save big bucks.

Hey I see you're in Austin, I'm in College Station, but come over there sometimes.
I plan to do what ever I can my self, but if it's over my head I will find a indy to do it.

[Vanne]

Congrats mate enjoy

[newbizie]

Originally Posted by Vanne

Congrats mate enjoy

+1

[Huz-Z]

Excellent news!! Try to post some pics so we can share in your excitement!

[Jstic]

Good luck with your new Z4. If you are interested in obtaining 3.0si power you can do the manifold upgrade and get your DME reflashed. You can pick up about 40 hp.

[don 147]

Originally Posted by Jstic

Good luck with your new Z4. If you are interested in obtaining 3.0si power you can do the manifold upgrade and get your DME reflashed. You can pick up about 40 hp.

About what would that cost?

[Jstic]

Originally Posted by don 147

About what would that cost?

That depends on if you are going to do the work yourself. I bought a used Z4 3.0si manifold for $300 and installed it myself. The software flash can be done by Active Autowerks or Turner for as little as $499, or as much as $999. You can use the manifold from any car with the N52 engine that has the 3 stage manifold. I think X3(3.0si version) and 330i also used that same manifold, possibly others.

I have only done the manifold so far as I am researching a cheaper way to flash my DME using the readily available software tools for our cars(NCS, INPA, DIS/Progman) and a cheap OBD2 cable. Others have done both with good results. Lots of good info from a forum member here:http://www.zpost.com/forums/showthread.php?t=455180

If I ever get the DME software flash figured out I will certainly share with forum members. Even without the software flash, I got a nice bump in power and torque with just the manifold.

[gas-can]

Jstic,

I'm also interested in figuring out the flashing without shelling out 500 bucks. I have experience in low level programming (x86 assembly/avr assembly) so figuring out the coding shouldn't be too much of a challenge (or so in theory!!). If you want to bounce ideas, I'm willing to join.

When I did the initial research a while ago, my original thought was to grab a si data dump/flash from either a wreck or somewhere and copy the fuel maps,etc data tables to mine. If I recall, the challenge might have been that most of the rom is checksummed so getting around that might be tricky? I'll have to do some more research though b/c it's been a while and I might be full of crap .


I haven't gotten around to looking too much into it cause I haven't gotten bored with the stock 3.0 power yet.

-gas-can

[Jstic]

gas-can,

I havent' dug too deep myself, but always figured there is a much cheaper method than the $500 price tag tuners charge. I don't remember the details, but I did look into some software that verifies or gets around checksum. There is downloadable software out there and my thinking is the same as yours, find the throttle mapping lines of code in the 3.0si ROM and just copy them to the 3.0i DME. There were other things that needed to be done as well that can be accomplished with NCS expert and INPA.

Would love to have someone with some code experience to join in and get this resolved. I too have not been real aggessive about getting this done, especially after I did the manifold swap and got about 15-20 HP when I wasn't expecting it.

I'll be taking my car out of storeage in the next few weeks and will start looking into this again. Will PM you with the details of where I am and where I got stuck.

[gas-can]

That would be great jstic. I'll also start doing some more research again to bring myself up to speed.

I didn't realize the 3 stage intake had such a large effect. Is the power actually noticeable? That's one of the reasons why I haven't followed this project too much yet- when I test drove the 3.0si, I remember it being a bit faster but not holy crap faster. The numbers (40hp) tells me it should be faster, but I can't remember how much that translates to feel. To be fair though, I haven't driven a si immediately after a 3.0i so that screws up the match.

By the way Don, I just realized that we kind of hijacked your thread.
Really sorry! Congrats on the new score but you seriously need to post some pics Also, if you haven't tried it yet, try some night time top down driving when its cool outside. It's one of the most amazing driving experiences you will experience!

-gc

[don 147]

Gas-can, I have had the top down several times already, it's actually still down from 2 days ago. The first day I had the car it was cold so I just put on a jacket, cranked up the heater and seat warmers and went on down the road. I haven't been out with the top down at night yet though. I will post some photos as soon as I get time. I'm a sports photographer and I had a gig this past weekend, National Cheerleader Championships. I shot over 2100 photos so I've been busy editing. I finished yesterday so maybe I will have time to shoot the car.
I took it on the trip, which was 2.5 hrs away, and had a problem with it. The problem was keeping it below 80 mph. LOL I had a blast just going to and from the meet.

[don 147]

The weather has been crappy almost since I got the car, but it cleared enough to grab some quick shots in the back yard. I'll have to take the ol' girl to a better location for some "glamor" shots later.

[don 147]

Also had my 1st issue with the car today. I hadn't driven in for 6 days, it just sat in the garage. Today I jumped in and nothing…. the battery was DEAD. I put a charger on it for about 1.5 hrs and all seemed well. I didn't leave anything on that I know of, so now I have to get the battery checked. It's a BMW battery and looks fairly new, but who knows.

[Yvette]

probably time for new battery
if its original, 8years old

[newbizie]

Looks good!! Make sure the light in the cubby hole is not on all the time i know on my 05 the tab broke off and that light stays on until i lock the car

[don 147]

Originally Posted by newbizie

Looks good!! Make sure the light in the cubby hole is not on all the time i know on my 05 the tab broke off and that light stays on until i lock the car

I'll check that out, thanks

[mtrhed]

Nice! Welcome and enjoy!

[Vanne]

very nice looking zed mate, thx for putting up some pics so we can all share in your new acquisition. very very nice mate, any mods planned? shots from the inside too please.

[don 147]

Originally Posted by Vanne

very nice looking zed mate, thx for putting up some pics so we can all share in your new acquisition. very very nice mate, any mods planned? shots from the inside too please.

I don't have any plans for mods yet, with the exception of going to non RFT's. I'm sure this will change when I get more into the car. I am planing to get some better photo when the weather gets better, I'll get some good shots of the inside then.
Thanks

[ricanbandit]

Looks great! You are most definitely going to enjoy that ride!