S50B32 performance chip

[Mr. Horsepower]

I was searching Ebay the other day, and bumped into a chip seller.
He was selling a 356hp/398nm chip for the S50B32.

I have heard that the S50B32 runs on the edge of lean from the factory, and that chipping is not very good for these engines. So, I e-mailed the seller and asked how they did get all the HP and what about the A/F Ratio.

This is the answer I got;

Hi mate,
There are many thing on internet that can be read...
It is not some crazy tuning, it's comletely safe for your car.
It's tested on many applications worldwide, this chip is really great.
We offer only quality chiptuning.
Thank you.


Well, I don't think one can get such HP from a S50B32 with only a chip. When people put CF box, cams, vanos delet and stand alone engine management and get like 360hp if they are lucky.

What do you think? I'm tempted to buy one and dyno the car, put the chip in, and dyno again to see. It also moves the rev.limit to 8000rpm, which I also have heard that is not healthy for the S50B32.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/BMW-E36-M3-Z3-M-3-2-S50B32-chip-Dyno-made-356HP-398NM-/170595796194?pt=UK_CarsParts_Vehicles_CarParts_SM& hash=item27b84d44e2

[Ian Bowers]

Someone on eBay is giving you information that their product will only be beneficial. They are a salesman.

[Wh33lhop]

They sound pretty full of shit to me. If you want to get one just to dyno it as opposed to run it in your car, fine, but what are you going to do when you find out it's a crock of shit? Sell it?

[Mr. Horsepower]

Put it on the floor and drive over it ;)

[Leo_328i]

Ermmm because its S50B32 then it would actually be OBD2 which requires a flash, not a chip?

[gobuffs]

S50B32 is not OBDII but does require a reflash not a chip.

[ChaseN]

I am at a loss as to what they are selling? No chip in a S50b32 (as said above)

P.S. According to the fellow I bought my motor off of, many club racers in the US run a 8000 RPM redline on otherwise stock engines without problems. I spin mine to 8k (street car) and am not worried about it based on his experience in BMWCCA CR for many years.

Since the b32 makes peak power at 7600, spinning to 8000 ensures you don't drop as far out of the powerband when shifting (especially important if you have a Grp N tune)

[e30s50dan]

Red flag is when he started with. "hi mate".lol

[M3 euro ltw]

Chipping S50B32

You guys got it right...

The S50B30 can be chipped, and there are chips out there for that engine.

Incidentally, to really properly chip the last of the BMW "M" motors that CAN be chipped, one would also have to revise the vanos controller to really optimize the tune, not just the Motronic dme from that engine.

For owners of the S50B32 engine in europe, there are many, many tuning shops with dyno's that can do custom tunes. A shop could also just "drop" a flash on that is "generic" and you might get some benefit, but it would not be as good as what a real custom dyno would yield tuned for your choice of gas and such...

While I can not prove this theory, I think that the S50B32 is pretty well tuned from the factory. The Group N tunes that I've had and seen improve the smoothness and responsiveness of the engine, extend the redline to 8K, and do make "just a bit" more power. But...not as much as you might hope for in terms of big advances...but it is noticeable for sure.

The S50B32 had relatively relaxed emissions requirements to meet, so they could tune it pretty well and effectively. Re-tuning it without regard to emissions gets you some benefit, but not necessarily as much as you might think.

(Much older engines that used flapper doors, distributors etc can benefit quite a bit by modern retuning and revision to ignore emissions, but the S50B32 I think straddles a unique position.... minimal emissions requirements, very good computers, COP and injection etc, so its pretty good out of the box)

The S54 had much more stringent requirements, and for that reason, (although I can't prove it) in stock form, if you are willing to abandon all emissions needs, I think you can get proportionately more out of it by custom tuning, ie moving the cams back and forth, WB tuning etc.. than you can from a S50B32 doing similar things.

End of ramble.