BJ's M3 goes in for tuning (evolving thread from Bimmer Forms)

After numerous months of backfires, tuning flat spots, poor idling, and lackluster performance, I drove my fully built M3 up to Northern California (Mountain View near San Jose) for some serious tuning. The place? Sias Tuning. (www.siastuning.com)

When I arrived, Vic Sias, owner of Sias Tuning, was ready and awaiting to perform miracles with my crippled M3. As I pulled in, to my delight, outside was one of Sias Tuning's race prepared M3's that was going to the track the next day. I breathed a sigh of relief to see a tuner who was active in the racing scene with the same car I drove on a daily basis. He knew my car inside and out...a specialist. There's no doubt, that my car needed a specialist.

SoCal has their share of stories regarding bad tuning. It only takes a moment to do a search on tuning and find that, for the most part, SoCal is lacking quality tuners who have a great understanding and history with our cars. In my ignorance I thought as long as I have all the performance goodies installed, my car would be a competitor. What a lie.

Through the build up of my car, I have learned that there is nothing more important than tuning. Whether your supercharged, turbocharged, or normally aspirated, if the car isn't tuned right, you won't be maximizing the investment you made in performance modifications. Moreover, bad tuning can also cause unnecessary engine wear.

This is why I decided to see an expert. Someone who specializes in tuning. Someone who has experience with our cars, races our cars, and knows all the little but important idiosyncrasies.

Sias Tuning will be using the Electromotive TEC3 system for fuel and engine management. I have heard and seen great results with these units. In fact, on a normal basis, Sias Tuning pumps out 420 whp on a basic supercharger set up with stock internals. (my mods are in my sig)

Only time will tell what will happen with my car. But I am happy to say, that I am not only excited to see what transpires, but confident that my car is in the right hands with Sias Tuning.

Updates to follow soon including before and after dyno charts...

February 7, 2003
BJ Birtwell contacted Vic Sias of Sias Tuning a while back to see about a Tec 3 install and some tuning. BJ drove his car from Orange County up to Mountain View for Vic work on.

February 11, 2003
Vic installed the Tec 3 today and after some initial tuning, decided that he needed to consult with BJ in order to move ahead. We're looking into removing the AC so that we can fit an electric fan to keep the oversized aluminum radiator cool. We spoke with Matt at RMS about getting an overflow bottle for their radiator. Car drives good but the aqua mister system needs to be installed

Unplugging the factory harness from the ECU.

February 14
Removed air conditioning and added the fan.

Air conditioning out.
 

February 22
Installed Aquamist

BJ's motor. Note the oversized aluminum radiator.

Electromotive TEC 3 installed.

New fan goes in.

February 28
With everything in place, we're headed to the Dyno room. Here is the Dyno chart and BJ's comments.



To make a long story short, SIAS tuning took the car to a new level. Without their expertise, we would have never seen the performance gains we did. More importantly however, everyday drivability of the car was achieved through good tuning. No more intermittent stalls, rough idles, etc. Thank you SIAS Tuning.

For those that are not aware of the performance gains, when the car was delivered to SIAS Tuning it made 330whp. When the car left SIAS tuning with the custom tuned TEC3 unit, the car made 404 whp with 11psi on 91 octane. Plus, the torque on this car is literally breath taking.

The car could easily achieve more power with an upgraded S/C pulley, however the current results are more than enough for me right now.

I appreciate all the hard work that has been performed on this car by several people, but most of all to SIAS tuning.

There are some last minute things that will be done to the car before the magazine shoot, and then...well, the car will be on the market.

Thanks to everyone for their support, advice, and encouragement over the past 12 months...you all know it has been a long road.