Adding vanos to a non-vanos engine

[Kerrath]

Hell yeah! I totally agree. The only thing that blows with the non-vanos turbo is that you basically are strapped down to a standalone ecu cause theres no good way to tune the stock ECU and only 2 or 3 people actually do it. The vanos ecu is easy to tune and you can get a pretty good one from TRM at a pretty good price.

I stuck with the NV motor and now im buying an Autronic SM4 (standalone ecu) to control it.

Turboing is definitely a later on possibility. Either that or supercharging it, but that'll be quite a while, once I firmly get it established that everything is ship shape. I was thinking VMS for standalone if I turbo or supercharge it because I've heard it can do sequential injection. Can that Autronic SM4 one do that too? And cost too. One of the things is I'm wary of engine efficiency. I'm hoping to stick within 25-30 mpg since it's gonna be my dd.

On a side note, finally got insurance today. Looking to get the resonator installed and O2 bung added tuesday and get it smogged wednesday. Very excited.

[So Live]

Vems is a pretty capable system but its basically a hopped up Megasquirt.

Autronic is like VEMS on steroids but it costs about twice as much... It does all kinds of crazy stuff. It even has trimable cylinders so you can tune each cylinder by itself if you can get data from each one.

25-30mpg on any aftermarket forced induction bmw is going to be a challenge. You might get there with a supercharger kit. If your planning on S/C id buy a vanos motor and get an Active kit or something like that.

[Kerrath]

Lol, I'm worried about being cheap on gas and you suggest a 4000+ dollar supercharger kit and a new engine. I really wish that was within my reach though.

The only reason I'd've chosen VEMS over MS is because of the sequential injection. Autronic just sounds totally ridiculous but intriguing.

So there's an efficiency advantage of supercharging over turbocharging? I thought it'd be backwards since you'd mostly be boosting with a turbo at higher RPMs.

[So Live]

I guess if you dont romp on it a turbo is more efficient than a supercharger. But whats the fun in that?! Im under the impression that its harder to up the boost with a SC kit because you need to buy new pulleys and find a new belt, maybe get injectors and a new tune. If you put together a turbo kit and you think like i do, youll probably design your kit with some headroom so more power is easily available. More power = more fuel consumption.

And trust me if its there its tuff not to use it.

And anything forced induction gets expensive. Yes you can piece together a turbo kit for $2 grand but once everything is squared away and its reliable and makes as much power as you want it to, it costs as much if not more than the bolt on, no headaches supercharger kits.

And if your really worried about the gas mileage, maybe FI isnt something for you. Id just get an S50 which is a good middle of the road with a little less cost, less power, and better gas mileage.

[matt]

Autronic is like VEMS on steroids but it costs about twice as much... It does all kinds of crazy stuff. It even has trimable cylinders so you can tune each cylinder by itself if you can get data from each one.

Every stock BMW ECU since 1996 does this automatically from the factory.

[Kerrath]

Every stock BMW ECU since 1996 does this automatically from the factory.

Yeah, but doesn't run boost without a special tune.