A few questions on self tuning

[MoreBoost]

Hi Everyone.
I'm planning to do some self tuning. Have bought various tunes over the years.
Car is IJE0S, DCT, 335i with 19T turbos, catless DP and exhaust, 3.5bar tmap, 535lpfp, inlets, outlets, HD Race FMIC. Was running a JB4 and Meth injection. BL harness, R8 coils.
I've been an N54 owner for a long time. My car has been off the road for quite a while. Bad injector(s) I suspected.

Now I've installed 6 new index 12s, which are coded with INPA. More work is necessary on the car before it's road worthy.
I put on self made tune. The car is misfiring, usually cylinders 2, 5 and 6 on cold start.
I just wanted a basic flash that is drivable. I already made the 3 cell change for the TMAP and selected BL Coils.
I need to rescale load, given the TMAP. Think I understand how to do that. Wouldn't be driving anything but slowly at this point anyway.

My questions are. Given the BL coils, do I need to do anything in any tables, given I've checked that option when writing the flash to the car?
Secondly. Do I need to do anything given the stronger lpfp, for example on the fuel start table?

At the moment I'm targeting 1.00 to 1.05 fuel scalars. Fuel here is 5% ethanol. I am just creating a pump fuel tune at the moment. Low boost, low timing.
I've ordered new ngk spark plugs. Current ones are gapped to 0.020" but a bit fouled so are being replaced. Coils seem ok but I may test their resistance soon.
I will probably pull the injectors again to see that they look ok.
I was getting a 2ABD DME: Boost-pressure sensor, overrun so I wonder if my TMAP may have gone bad?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

 

[wheela]

Have you read this thread about needing to modify the R8 coils for n54?

Technical - BL Coil Investigation and Solution

First off I'd like to thank @SlowE93 and @doublespaces for posting about bimmerlife tuning Motorsport Ignition Upgrade kit issues and solutions. While there had been misfire reports on various forums, we had not experienced them (yet), but were planning to investigate. Misfires at a Sunday track...

www.spoolstreet.com

If you haven't modded them, it could be the reason for your misfires.

 

[ShocknAwe]

Ditch the R8 coils, now that the B58 coils are compatible there's no reason to use anything else, stock to stock or B58.

As for tuning. I see you have a DCT. This is likely your other complicating factor. You need to read the DCT tuning threads and account for those tables and how they effect what you're doing in load/wgdc especially with throttle limits. It's just not straight forward like manual tuning.

 

[MoreBoost]

Have you read this thread about needing to modify the R8 coils for n54?

Technical - BL Coil Investigation and Solution

First off I'd like to thank @SlowE93 and @doublespaces for posting about bimmerlife tuning Motorsport Ignition Upgrade kit issues and solutions. While there had been misfire reports on various forums, we had not experienced them (yet), but were planning to investigate. Misfires at a Sunday track...

www.spoolstreet.com

If you haven't modded them, it could be the reason for your misfires.

Yes. I've been running the coils very soon after they first came out. A number of years but thank you for checking.

 

[MoreBoost]

Ditch the R8 coils, now that the B58 coils are compatible there's no reason to use anything else, stock to stock or B58.

As for tuning. I see you have a DCT. This is likely your other complicating factor. You need to read the DCT tuning threads and account for those tables and how they effect what you're doing in load/wgdc especially with throttle limits. It's just not straight forward like manual tuning.

Ah yes. DCT is different. Oh joy!

Well I suspect my TMAP may be bad so I'll replace that and throw in new gapped spark plugs first.
Fingers crossed it starts and idles without misfires.

 

[carabuser]

The only difference with the DCT is that it's sensitive to torque reporting. All auto transmissions are but the slushboxes are more tolerant to the clutch slip you get when you under report.

As long as you proportionally increase the load as you scale the tmap you'll be ok. It's not ideal, but it's the only way to target above 22psi.

Ideally you want to scale the tmap as little as possible. So only scale as far as you need rather than going full scale on the 3.5bar and only using 25psi of it.

 

[MoreBoost]

The only difference with the DCT is that it's sensitive to torque reporting. All auto transmissions are but the slushboxes are more tolerant to the clutch slip you get when you under report.

As long as you proportionally increase the load as you scale the tmap you'll be ok. It's not ideal, but it's the only way to target above 22psi.

Ideally you want to scale the tmap as little as possible. So only scale as far as you need rather than going full scale on the 3.5bar and only using 25psi of it.

Hey thanks Carabuser.
That's very useful info.

At first I will just be creating a tune for regular driving. Probably no more than 16 psi.
Until I'm happy the car is happy and healthy.

I'm hoping my misfires on startup will be remedied by the new plugs and TMAP sensor. Feels like I can't even get past the start line yet.
I also have an electrical issue between the DME and the siren/alarm draining the battery. I think the issue is a contact damaged by an LED I swapped for a bulb in the overhead lights.

It'll be nice to have he car back driving again and then finally push some real power. I have XHP stage 3 for the DCT but I assume I still need to report torque as high as possible without hitting limiters.

 

[carabuser]

Hey thanks Carabuser.
That's very useful info.

At first I will just be creating a tune for regular driving. Probably no more than 16 psi.
Until I'm happy the car is happy and healthy.

I'm hoping my misfires on startup will be remedied by the new plugs and TMAP sensor. Feels like I can't even get past the start line yet.
I also have an electrical issue between the DME and the siren/alarm draining the battery. I think the issue is a contact damaged by an LED I swapped for a bulb in the overhead lights.

It'll be nice to have he car back driving again and then finally push some real power. I have XHP stage 3 for the DCT but I assume I still need to report torque as high as possible without hitting limiters.

Misfire unlikely to be just plugs unless they are fully broken. Like already mentioned the coils might have problems.

You don't really want to to report torque higher, just keep it as close as possible to the stock reporting.

 

[MoreBoost]

I tried swapping the 2.5 bar TMAP back in until my new 3.5 arrives.
Switched the map back for 2 cell map.

Got the misfires again on cold start and these codes

29CC - DME: Combustion misfires, several cylinders
29D1 - DME: Combustion misfires, cylinder 5
29D2 - DME: Combustion misfires, cylinder 6
2D2E - DME: throttle-valve angle - intake manifold vacuum, correlation
2F15 - DME: Charge air temperature
3100 - DME: Boost-Pressure control, deactivation

Any advice would be great. I will try to calibrate the throttle body, holding it down on full for 30+ seconds.

I have not yet tried swapping coils.

 

[carabuser]

2f15 and 2d2e are related to bad tmap. Make sure you have the 3 wires in the right order. The pinout for the 3.5bar and 2.5bar are different.

 

[MoreBoost]

2f15 and 2d2e are related to bad tmap. Make sure you have the 3 wires in the right order. The pinout for the 3.5bar and 2.5bar are different.

I have the burger tuning adapter so I removed that. Put in my original 2.5 bar tmap. It's quite old so may be bad also.

 

[MoreBoost]

With a 535lpfp, coming in at 85psi fuel pressure, could this cause the car to run too rich on cold start(is it open loop when it starts?), and trigger misfires?

I'm going to try my standard coilpacks tonight and test the r8 coils to see if I've got any bad ones when I remove them.

 

[carabuser]

No, fuel delivery is regulated by the injectors, extra low side pressure will have no effect.

Cold start injection quantity is handled by your fuel start tables. If too rich then you have then set too high.

 

[MoreBoost]

No, fuel delivery is regulated by the injectors, extra low side pressure will have no effect.

Cold start injection quantity is handled by your fuel start tables. If too rich then you have then set too high.

Thank you I will take a look.
I thought that table was good but I will take a closer look.
My old injectors didn't have any issues.
Might be an issue with connections to the coils which I removed to get to the injectors.

 

[turbohugh]

Have you read this thread about needing to modify the R8 coils for n54?

Technical - BL Coil Investigation and Solution

First off I'd like to thank @SlowE93 and @doublespaces for posting about bimmerlife tuning Motorsport Ignition Upgrade kit issues and solutions. While there had been misfire reports on various forums, we had not experienced them (yet), but were planning to investigate. Misfires at a Sunday track...

www.spoolstreet.com

If you haven't modded them, it could be the reason for your misfires.

I had those R8 coils with the BL coil harness. After modding the coils I actually had one catch fire. Luck for me I had the engine cover on and could smell the electrical fire smell on startup. I now use the b58 coils.

 

[wheela]

I had those R8 coils with the BL coil harness. After modding the coils I actually had one catch fire. Luck for me I had the engine cover on and could smell the electrical fire smell on startup. I now use the b58 coils.

Ughh... Yeah I've seen multiple threads of peoples' cars that almost burnt down with those coils. I don't have the thread handy, but I recall one guy's car started smoking while parked. Luckily, he was there to see it, and had the warewithal to go straight for the trunk to disconnect his battery. He cought it just in time to save his car. Seems like a risky mod...

 

[MoreBoost]

I had those R8 coils with the BL coil harness. After modding the coils I actually had one catch fire. Luck for me I had the engine cover on and could smell the electrical fire smell on startup. I now use the b58 coils.

I've run mine for I'd guess 5 years or more.
Luckily nothing like that has happened to me but I did have coil 3 go bad about 2 years ago.
I replaced that one.
I'm wondering now if 5 and 6 have gone bad now. It's so long ago that I can barely remember how I tested the coils with the multimeter.

I'm keen to keep the r8 coils as they have more energy than b58 coils as far as I know and it saves money (rather than), getting the B58 bits.

I could do with replacing the brittle connectors on it. I have to be so careful not to crush them in my hands when unplugging things.

 

[turbohugh]

Yeah I'm not sure why mine caught fire. Since I've switched to B58 coils I'm also running B58 plugs. The top of the plugs are different for the b58 coils . I think when I modified my R8 coils I may have made some kind of mistake. They were great until they weren't . Full disclosure, I removed the metal shields and trimmed the boots as described in that post. I got a fire after that. YMMV .. I would suggest trying basic diagnosis- move the coil see if the issue follows, as a start.

 

[turbohugh]

Ughh... Yeah I've seen multiple threads of peoples' cars that almost burnt down with those coils. I don't have the thread handy, but I recall one guy's car started smoking while parked. Luckily, he was there to see it, and had the warewithal to go straight for the trunk to disconnect his battery. He cought it just in time to save his car. Seems like a risky mod...

Yes. In my case, It was a morning cold start; car ran rough and I could smell the burning scent - I shut down the car grabbed my extinguisher but I must have shutdown before it really got started. Got burnt wires from it.

 

[MoreBoost]

Yes. In my case, It was a morning cold start; car ran rough and I could smell the burning scent - I shut down the car grabbed my extinguisher but I must have shutdown before it really got started. Got burnt wires from it.

View attachment 112513

Wow!

Glad you caught it early!

I think my main issue is 2ABD confusing the MAF on cold starts.

My fuel (long term and short term) trims seem to be quite negative, even though I have fuel scalar as 1.0 and reduced cold start fuel by 15%.

Might be something like airflow or FF being incorrect perhaps.

I'm trying a new coolant temp sensor as well as I saw that could cause noise and confuse the TMAP somehow. I actually got an error on coolant temp intermittently.

Interestingly cylinders 5 and 6 are always responsible for any misfires. I'll try swapping the coils but I think it's down to then being most prone.