[chepy24]

Hey guys! new poster (longtime lurker). I recently got myself an 09 335 and plan to tune (still cant decide between jb4 or cobb). I will also be doing the dci. My question is how bad am i at a disadvantage being at altitude in Denver with the tune and 91 octane we have here. Also woul like to know if theres any extra measures i need to take to take care of the vehicle. Thanks in advance!!

[135Pats]

Well everyone is at a disadvantage when the air is that thin/O2 deprived. Being forced induction, you will be at less of a disadvantage due to the car’s ability to flow air at a rate not doable on a NA platform. So you can beat up on NA cars that normally would be much faster. Honestly it’s the 91 octane that will limit you, not the air.

Oh and welcome!

[chepy24]

Originally Posted by 135Pats

Well everyone is at a disadvantage when the air is that thin/O2 deprived. Being forced induction, you will be at less of a disadvantage due to the car’s ability to flow air at a rate not doable on a NA platform. So you can beat up on NA cars that normally would be much faster. Honestly it’s the 91 octane that will limit you, not the air.

Oh and welcome!

thanks! yea from what i have been reading the 91 octane is a downer. Iv been trying to find if any gas stations in the area have at least 93. iv heard that some do so fingers crossed haha. so i should be ok running either tune will one or the other work better for my situation? i only plan on doing the tune and DCI....but i heard that never holds true with these bad boys lol (not trying to start a tune war here just trying to inform myself before dropping the cash)

[enrita]

E85?
U dont need dci at all till u have a strong tune, fmic and dps

[135Pats]

Originally Posted by chepy24

thanks! yea from what i have been reading the 91 octane is a downer. Iv been trying to find if any gas stations in the area have at least 93. iv heard that some do so fingers crossed haha. so i should be ok running either tune will one or the other work better for my situation? i only plan on doing the tune and DCI....but i heard that never holds true with these bad boys lol (not trying to start a tune war here just trying to inform myself before dropping the cash)

Any tune will work on 91 pump, just adjust your expectations accordingly with how poor quality that fuel is. These are very, very octane hungry motors. If you can find some E85, jump all over it.

Originally Posted by enrita

E85?
U dont need dci at all till u have a strong tune, fmic and dps

Agreed 100%. Never understood why people fuss so much over intakes. First off, it’s just not going to net you more than what 5whp even on a modestly tuned car. For a FBO stock turbo car, we’re talking a handful of horsepower up top where flow can become an isue on the stock box. But that’s it….there are no 20whp gains to be had. I wouldn’t worry about a tune until other bolt ons were already installed.

[Carl Morris]

You're in luck that a lot of E85 is easily available in Colorado. With the xDrive you should be able to squeeze a high 13 out of it stock if you're willing to push it. The stock turbos probably can't get you into the 12s on 91 octane though at stock hardware with any tune, though. So we're a little slow compared to sea level. 12s are easy with E85 or upgraded parts...not sure if anybody has gotten into the 11s here.

My personal recommendation is Cobb. The way the piggybacks fool the ECU doesn't seem to work as well at high elevation as far as I can tell.

[chepy24]

so for e85 what needs to be done?(sorry noob here) iv been told injectors and things like that need to be "upgraded". Doing a search and all i get is wrx and sti answers on google. Also i see people mixing 50/50 and things like that..how is this beneficial?

[chepy24]

Originally Posted by Carl Morris

You're in luck that a lot of E85 is easily available in Colorado. With the xDrive you should be able to squeeze a high 13 out of it stock if you're willing to push it. The stock turbos probably can't get you into the 12s on 91 octane though at stock hardware with any tune, though. So we're a little slow compared to sea level. 12s are easy with E85 or upgraded parts...not sure if anybody has gotten into the 11s here.

My personal recommendation is Cobb. The way the piggybacks fool the ECU doesn't seem to work as well at high elevation as far as I can tell.

yea e85 is everywhere here i hear it all the time with people in their civics and evos but what do i ned to i guess "convert" it to e85? glad to see other members from CO on here

[Carl Morris]

Keep reading up on it...there are a few issues you can have with it that you might not want to deal with. But the Cobb and the ATR software makes it very easy to run...there is a fuel scalar in the tables that you can adjust for whatever percentage you want to run, and you don't have to be precise. We have wideband O2 sensors from the factory and trims that can adjust up to about 30% without throwing a code.

But I wouldn't mess with it until you are ready to really get into tuning yourself. So you have to figure out for yourself when you want to start fooling with such things.

[chepy24]

Originally Posted by Carl Morris

Keep reading up on it...there are a few issues you can have with it that you might not want to deal with. But the Cobb and the ATR software makes it very easy to run...there is a fuel scalar in the tables that you can adjust for whatever percentage you want to run, and you don't have to be precise. We have wideband O2 sensors from the factory and trims that can adjust up to about 30% without throwing a code.

But I wouldn't mess with it until you are ready to really get into tuning yourself. So you have to figure out for yourself when you want to start fooling with such things.

Thanks! ill keep reading up on it and decide what i want to do and go from there.

[marc@x-ph.com]

Good advice from everyone.

COBB is a great choice. You can start off by running stage 1 and taking it from there by adding E85 and some supporting mods to the game.

Btw, most of us mix E85 with refular gas, because we don;t have upgraded LPFP. The stock one fails to meet requested pressure usually around 50% ethanol content (depending on its health as well).

feel free to come back with questions.

[King mode]

I have the Cobb and a k&n filter. I run stage 1 aggressive on 91 octane and run consistant 13.1xx's@106mph in high heat at bandimere. My logs are clean running 91 instead of 93 octane. If you want extra safety, put 3 gallons of e85 in with each fill (which I do fairly often).

My car seems to run very smooth and I have been using this setup for almost 20,000 miles.

There is a guy that ran 12.7@106-107mph with a jb4 using 50/50 e85 and DCI's. However, his car was all over the place. He would run a 13.1 then a 13.7 then a 12.9 etc... And he has an auto tranny xdrive.

Hope that helps.

[Proflyer]

I just put the JB4 on my 335xi with the DCIs. I run it on map 1 for regular 91 fuel and change it to map 5 which is an auto map of sorts when I put in e85. It's a different car for sure with the JB4 and DCIs (dual cone intakes). I looked at the COBB, but I like the JB4 better for several reasons, one being that it's a piggyback and won't show that the ECU was flashed if BMW needs to work on it. Plus it's really easy to change the map and has a few cool added features you can turn on/off as well. If you do get it, get the USB cable with it and run it into your glovebox. If you have an android phone you can download JuiceOTG from the play store and get a USB to micro cable and run logs on your phone which is neat. Burger had a special for the JB4, the cable and the DCIs for $599 which is a steal I think. Catless downpipes are next then I'm done...

Also, invest in their oil catch can (OCC) which is $180. Simple install and keeps oil out of the intake. I also got the cowl filters so I could leave off all the cowl stuff under the hood for easy access.

I spent $1000 with them and got a great setup. Oh I did the thermostat too in the oil cooler. The car does run cooler with it.

[King mode]

Originally Posted by 135Pats

Well everyone is at a disadvantage when the air is that thin/O2 deprived. Being forced induction, you will be at less of a disadvantage due to the car’s ability to flow air at a rate not doable on a NA platform. So you can beat up on NA cars that normally would be much faster. Honestly it’s the 91 octane that will limit you, not the air.

Oh and welcome!

I have to strongly disagree with the statement in bold. I am an avid drag racer and with all things equal including fuel, N/A cars are 1-1.5 seconds slower and turbo cars are .4-.7 seconds slower at this altitude.

The first part of your statement is correct though

[135Pats]

Originally Posted by King mode

I have to strongly disagree with the statement in bold. I am an avid drag racer and with all things equal including fuel, N/A cars are 1-1.5 seconds slower and turbo cars are .4-.7 seconds slower at this altitude.

The first part of your statement is correct though

Eh. Well you live in Denver, not me, so I’ll defer. But if ET is what we’re talking, just think about the difference between a 91 oct tune and say an E60 tune. That is a major, major difference in output. 91 octane is horrendous.

Point taken though

[cvc 22349a]

Originally Posted by King mode

I have to strongly disagree with the statement in bold. I am an avid drag racer and with all things equal including fuel, N/A cars are 1-1.5 seconds slower and turbo cars are .4-.7 seconds slower at this altitude.

The first part of your statement is correct though

+1 Lower octane fuel works well with less O2 in the air

[chepy24]

Originally Posted by King mode

I have the Cobb and a k&n filter. I run stage 1 aggressive on 91 octane and run consistant 13.1xx's@106mph in high heat at bandimere. My logs are clean running 91 instead of 93 octane. If you want extra safety, put 3 gallons of e85 in with each fill (which I do fairly often).

My car seems to run very smooth and I have been using this setup for almost 20,000 miles.

There is a guy that ran 12.7@106-107mph with a jb4 using 50/50 e85 and DCI's. However, his car was all over the place. He would run a 13.1 then a 13.7 then a 12.9 etc... And he has an auto tranny xdrive.

Hope that helps.

thanks King! so i can just throw in the 3 gallons of the e85 and the rest 91 with no issues? (would log of course to make sure everything is up to par)

[Carl Morris]

Originally Posted by chepy24

thanks King! so i can just throw in the 3 gallons of the e85 and the rest 91 with no issues? (would log of course to make sure everything is up to par)

Yes, you can. But it won't gain you much/anything unless you had a bit of knock before. The big gains from E85 come from using a known amount and increasing the ignition timing to take advantage of the extra octane and cooler charge.

[chepy24]

Originally Posted by Proflyer

I just put the JB4 on my 335xi with the DCIs. I run it on map 1 for regular 91 fuel and change it to map 5 which is an auto map of sorts when I put in e85. It's a different car for sure with the JB4 and DCIs (dual cone intakes). I looked at the COBB, but I like the JB4 better for several reasons, one being that it's a piggyback and won't show that the ECU was flashed if BMW needs to work on it. Plus it's really easy to change the map and has a few cool added features you can turn on/off as well. If you do get it, get the USB cable with it and run it into your glovebox. If you have an android phone you can download JuiceOTG from the play store and get a USB to micro cable and run logs on your phone which is neat. Burger had a special for the JB4, the cable and the DCIs for $599 which is a steal I think. Catless downpipes are next then I'm done...

Also, invest in their oil catch can (OCC) which is $180. Simple install and keeps oil out of the intake. I also got the cowl filters so I could leave off all the cowl stuff under the hood for easy access.

I spent $1000 with them and got a great setup. Oh I did the thermostat too in the oil cooler. The car does run cooler with it.

thanks i think my car already comes with a OCC from what i read im leaning towards the jb4 just something about the features it has appeals to me. However the simplicity of the cobb instal keeps me lurking im kindof a V to install the jb4 on my own and my buddy has a cobb on his wrx and swears by it but from my searching they are pretty neck and neck performance wise.

[chepy24]

Originally Posted by Carl Morris

Yes, you can. But it won't gain you much/anything unless you had a bit of knock before. The big gains from E85 come from using a known amount and increasing the ignition timing to take advantage of the extra octane and cooler charge.

sweet ill do some more research on this! quick off topic question, cobb v2 and v3 from what i read unless you use the features and like the look of the new v3 theres no real need to upgrade?

[techwhiz]

Originally Posted by Carl Morris

Yes, you can. But it won't gain you much/anything unless you had a bit of knock before. The big gains from E85 come from using a known amount and increasing the ignition timing to take advantage of the extra octane and cooler charge.

Actually it gives you the safety margin to run the STGE1 Aggressive map.
I don't use the aggressive map, but e85 is so cheap I throw a few gallons in anyway.

[King mode]

Originally Posted by techwhiz

Actually it gives you the safety margin to run the STGE1 Aggressive map.
I don't use the aggressive map, but e85 is so cheap I throw a few gallons in anyway.

^ this.