what dme???

[nu-B]

I have both 153 and a 173 DME and wondering what would be best...

[StereoInstaller1]

173

[jlevie]

Well, it depends. I have a collection of good 173 & 153 DME's. Usually, on the dyno, I find that a 153 makes a tad more power than a 173. But the disadvantages of a 153 are that the engine idle won't be as good, it doesn't support the stomp test, and can't be chipped.

Given that 153 & 173 DME's are all twenty'ish year old parts there can be quite a bit of difference in how either perform. While the guts of the DME is digital and either works or doesn't, the interface to the engine is analog and those parts can age. When we dyno tune a Spec E30 we take 6-8 salvage yard DME's with us. The first step is always to do a pull with each DME to find the best ones and those that don't work well. It isn't unusual to see one or more DME's be really bad, which we mark as such. Of the rest one or two will perform better than the others and those (or one of them) are then ones we tune against. We have a good relationship with a local salvage yard and they let us take a collection and only charge for the ones we don't return..

[nu-B]

jlevie thanks for those tips. I ended up using the 173 because its 4 years newer and seems to run fine with it. I will look into getting a few more to play with in the future.