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      10-02-2014, 09:39 PM   #1
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Dinantronics M3/M4 Performance Tuner Review

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As promised, I decided to throw together a review of my recent Dinantronics install. I posted this in my Journal, but I thought more might be interested here.

First, let me explain why I chose it. I've been down the voided warranty road too many times, and for some reason I feel like my luck is about to run out. The only Turbo car I've ever owned was a 1988 Pontiac Sunfire GT (I know...awesome...right?), so I just got a weird vibe that JB4 or what ever else comes out wasn't going to be right for me. I don't want to press for more HP when I feel like the car has enough already. I just wanted to get a little more out of the car as safely as possible.

Call me a sellout, but I'm a huge Dinan fan. I understand they charge more for their stuff, but I'm a sucker for quality. I know exactly what I'm going to get with a Dinan product. I haven't been let down yet and will continue to support them.

I paid sticker price at $2,500 plus $180 for install.
http://dinancars.com/product/d440-16...ries&mid=1178/

I decided for my own piece of mind to get a baseline dyno done. Add piece of mind to the fact that it's just plain fun to go play with your car on the dyno. I came to find out that BRC racing has a DynoJet, and they are right in my backyard! They were awesome! I was in there messing around with the computer myself and helping get the car set-up. The blue collar in me loves doing stuff like this. I had the baseline done on Monday afternoon.























We discovered that finding the correct wire on the coil pack is not easy. We had to pull the cover off the engine, then disconnect one of the induction tubes to get to the wiring harness. As you can see on Run 1, the tube blew off because we didn't tighten it enough. It scared the crap out of me. You can see the drop off at around 6,500 RPMs. You can also hear it shot off in the video below.



I was happy with the numbers the car put down. It was hot and super sticky as it usually is in Central Florida. We had 89% Humidity and 90 degrees, so I'm sure that stole some power. You can see the power drop off in Run 2 and 3 as the car got hotter. I'm using Run 2 as my baseline.

The next morning I got an early start and took the back roads to Tampa. It was about a two hour drive. I hit 1,200 miles, so I wanted the opportunity to beat on the car a bit. I took the car to redline several times on the trip, so I would be able to compare the performance after my tune was done. I had the 1,200 mile service done at 9:00 AM, and then headed over to Reeves Motorsports at about 10:30 AM.

To my delight, there was a Agate Grey 991 GT3 with an Innotech exhaust on it that I got to see and hear in person. I'm working on getting a GT3, so I killed two birds with one stone.

Install took about and hour and a half. I'm trying to turn over a new leaf where I try not to stress about my cars. I have always done all of the work myself, which usually leads to busted knuckles, bleeding, headaches, and sleepless nights. I'm now in a position in life where I can afford to let the professionals do the work, so I'm not even sure where they put the control until. I just read a book in the waiting room and waited for the car to be done. It was rather refreshing to let go for once in my life.

Since I brought my camera along, I took a few shots of the dirty car in the parking lot. The guys at Reeves Motorsports were super cool.

























As I was driving home the 90 miles back home, I decided I had three choices:

1.) Go to the gym.
2.) Wash my super dirty car.
3.) Call the guys and BRC and get a dyno done.

I chose option 3. My day started at 5:30AM, but I wanted to see the results. I calculated in my head that would get about 450 whp and 430 wtq. Those were the numbers I was hoping to see to feel justified in my $2,680 expense.



















So I ended up with a little less peak HP than thought I wanted, but got a lot more torque than I assumed I would get. It was in the mid 80s that day, but humidity was still about 80%. I think the numbers look good. The dyno was having a hard time getting a signal from the coilpack, so there is some interference in the run. I think you can fill in the gaps.

Here is the Dyno video:




There really isn't much to say about how the tune performs. As you can see in the dyno graphs it performs exactly like stock just with some more power and torque. You can really feel the difference from 3,000-5,000 RPMs where I spend most of my time. The car will break lose in 3rd gear if I'm not careful, but the power is very manageable.

The car does sound a little different as well. There is a very noticeable audible difference coming from the engine bay. You can hear the turbos in Sport and Sport + modes even with the windows up. It sounds pretty darn cool hearing them spool up. I could hear them before with the windows down, but they are considerably louder now. The car sound angry. I need an exhaust so badly.

So all in all, I am very pleased with what I got. I think you get what is advertised from Dinan. It is a very conservative tune that they stand behind with a warranty. I would highly recommend it to others.

Thanks for reading,
Matt
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      10-02-2014, 09:57 PM   #2
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Matt
Thanks for sharing! I always love hearing what you have to say and I can usually validate all of your reasoning. Nothing really changes in this case. The gains actually aren't bad at all compared to what you were looking for.
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      10-02-2014, 10:51 PM   #3
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Thank you Matt for the honest and forthright review. We are all proud of the tunes and products we produce at Dinan and positive customer responses are always appreciated. Not to mention the video is right up my wheelhouse. My office is on the other side of the wall of our shop and I always find that turbo spool intoxicating when it revs up. It was nice to hear a nice quality version of it in the video.

As a side note, are you in the media industry? Photography / Video? If you aren't I would recommend you do it on the side at least. It looks like you may have a knack for it. =)
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      10-02-2014, 10:59 PM   #4
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I like dinan products but the gains don't justify the price
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      10-02-2014, 11:30 PM   #5
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Nice. Thanks for the info
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      10-03-2014, 12:32 AM   #6
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Overall best results comparison

Stock - 430 whp and 405 wtq
Dinan - 443 whp and 454 wtq


13 whp gains
50 wtq gains

Cost $2500

Key point the op is satisfied with the results, for now , and yes Dinan does have good quality mods. Im not a fan of their tuning engineering when it comes to "customer end user" purpose. I know they could probably get 100 whp out of the S55 if they wanted but unfortunately thats not how Steve Dinan rolls

However, Dinan with their flash tuning had done much better with power on previous BMW turbo charges cars. Their stage one for just the N54 and M5 and M6 produced more whp than just 13. They are known to be torque whores, they love tuning for torque on their cars.

So they shine with that torque but not the whp, which needs some serious improvement and I hope they update it.

Anyhow, enjoy your new tune, dont go beating up on the younsters too much
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      10-03-2014, 08:47 AM   #7
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I'm a fan too and a user of Dinan products in the past. My guess is, as they have done in the past, eg S1, S2, S3, they will come with more stages that add more performamce. The problem might be rising costs, as they tend to require hardware upgrades as you dial in more power which makes pricing go higher, which has been the "big knock" on Dinan. It's conservative and it's how they do things, and enables them to offer a matching warranty.

The above gains, especially the Tq is nice but I too would have expected more from $2500 + 1.5 hrs labor. Looking forward to a stage 3 or better where things would get interesting. Also a FFE would be great!

One footnote for those that are newbies to Dinan, if you watch the website and/or sign up for emails, they do tend to offer discounts and package deals pretty much monthly, 10, 15, even 20% 'ers at times.

OP, thanks again for all you have done to bring us the numbers, it looked like a hectic couple of days, but glad to hear you were pleased with your results. My guess is you won't stop here, Dinan will further be looking to enhance our M experience, no doubt.

CCBs, nice!
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      10-03-2014, 08:55 AM   #8
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the result looking good, have you ever thought to try more modification?
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      10-03-2014, 09:46 AM   #9
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Thanks for the write up, enjoy your car
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      10-03-2014, 05:19 PM   #10
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Big props for getting all that done and doing such an extensive write up. This will help a lot of people with their decisions and helps tone down a lot of the back and forth guessing. Thanks.
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      10-03-2014, 07:51 PM   #11
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Dinan_Engineering View Post
As a side note, are you in the media industry? Photography / Video? If you aren't I would recommend you do it on the side at least. It looks like you may have a knack for it. =)
My wife is a photographer so I have nice gear, but I don't have any aspirations to do anything. I'm just highly organized and will to put in the effort.

I could be convinced to do some more Dinan write-ups in exchange for Beta testing that intake and exhaust...
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      10-03-2014, 07:53 PM   #12
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Quote:
Originally Posted by shortseller View Post
I'm a fan too and a user of Dinan products in the past. My guess is, as they have done in the past, eg S1, S2, S3, they will come with more stages that add more performamce. The problem might be rising costs, as they tend to require hardware upgrades as you dial in more power which makes pricing go higher, which has been the "big knock" on Dinan. It's conservative and it's how they do things, and enables them to offer a matching warranty.

The above gains, especially the Tq is nice but I too would have expected more from $2500 + 1.5 hrs labor. Looking forward to a stage 3 or better where things would get interesting. Also a FFE would be great!

One footnote for those that are newbies to Dinan, if you watch the website and/or sign up for emails, they do tend to offer discounts and package deals pretty much monthly, 10, 15, even 20% 'ers at times.

OP, thanks again for all you have done to bring us the numbers, it looked like a hectic couple of days, but glad to hear you were pleased with your results. My guess is you won't stop here, Dinan will further be looking to enhance our M experience, no doubt.

CCBs, nice!
Yeah, I've always tried to wait for a sale, but I got too impatient this time. I can't explain to you how much I love the CCBs. I was so torn on spending the money, but now I don't think about planking down the money at all.
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      10-03-2014, 07:54 PM   #13
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Quote:
Originally Posted by SHLin View Post
the result looking good, have you ever thought to try more modification?
I have a lot more stuff on the way. KW HAS, Cosmetic Stuff, Spacers, Eisenmann Exhaust, etc. I'll do Dinan Stage 2 whenever it comes out.
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      10-03-2014, 07:57 PM   #14
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Quote:
Originally Posted by BuraQ View Post
Overall best results comparison

Stock - 430 whp and 405 wtq
Dinan - 443 whp and 454 wtq


13 whp gains
50 wtq gains

Cost $2500

Key point the op is satisfied with the results, for now , and yes Dinan does have good quality mods. Im not a fan of their tuning engineering when it comes to "customer end user" purpose. I know they could probably get 100 whp out of the S55 if they wanted but unfortunately thats not how Steve Dinan rolls

However, Dinan with their flash tuning had done much better with power on previous BMW turbo charges cars. Their stage one for just the N54 and M5 and M6 produced more whp than just 13. They are known to be torque whores, they love tuning for torque on their cars.

So they shine with that torque but not the whp, which needs some serious improvement and I hope they update it.

Anyhow, enjoy your new tune, dont go beating up on the younsters too much
I agree with you. Remember the peak WHP gain is minimal, but there are substantial gains in the mid-range. That is where I spend 99% of my time, so I'm okay with the numbers.
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      10-03-2014, 09:23 PM   #15
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A TQ increase of 50 is much more than you will get from BMW in whatever pkg they offer(if) and most likely will cost more than $2500 is my guess.
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      10-03-2014, 09:35 PM   #16
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very good info there OP thanks for posting all that.

no pics of the GT3?
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      10-03-2014, 09:40 PM   #17
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Quote:
Originally Posted by shortseller View Post
A TQ increase of 50 is much more than you will get from BMW in whatever pkg they offer(if) and most likely will cost more than $2500 is my guess.
Honestly, BMW NA wanted in on what Dinan was doing from the get go, thats how the PPK was introduced. I am 100% positive BMW is going to come out with a PPK software "FLASHABLE" to the DME. That was one of their MAIN purpose of locking down the DME to eliminate the competition.

It wasnt just to protect warranty fraud and save money, as they already know about piggybacks, but to also make money in the enthusiast market when the time comes, and still hold a warranty. Now think about it, if ONLY BMW can flash, they have no competitors, a flash tune by the engineers themselves will produce much muhc better results than a piggyback.

I think BMW NA is just waiting for the right time when thins settle with the S55 and they get all the bugs out youll see a flashbable PPK software.
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      10-03-2014, 09:44 PM   #18
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Quote:
Originally Posted by GOLFFRR View Post
very good info there OP thanks for posting all that.

no pics of the GT3?
No GT3 yet. I'm heading to the dealership tomorrow to try and trade my 991 C2S. We'll see.
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      10-03-2014, 09:47 PM   #19
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Money2536 View Post
No GT3 yet. I'm heading to the dealership tomorrow to try and trade my 991 C2S. We'll see.
awesome man looking forward to seeing the pics!
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      10-03-2014, 09:59 PM   #20
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I too did the dinan tune 2 weeks ago but I also have DPs ,car felt smoother and definitely stronger.
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      10-03-2014, 10:27 PM   #21
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Money2536 View Post
My wife is a photographer so I have nice gear, but I don't have any aspirations to do anything. I'm just highly organized and will to put in the effort.

I could be convinced to do some more Dinan write-ups in exchange for Beta testing that intake and exhaust...
Well the organization and work ethic shows through.

I will let engineering know of your generous offer, maybe they need to implement some sort of humidity test or something for both items.
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      10-03-2014, 10:43 PM   #22
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Quote:
Originally Posted by nofear View Post
I too did the dinan tune 2 weeks ago but I also have DPs ,car felt smoother and definitely stronger,........but I think the JB4 will be bad ass
I personally believe it ultimately comes down to what you are after in a tune as there are a lot of different elements to assess but that is a separate topic. Regardless, I am sure if you did switch to the BMS tune on an M3/M4 platform you would have a lot of interested parties in a direct comparison. As I would imagine you would be the first to have tried both.
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