Dinan? 325i?

[jkerouac@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]

Dinan?  325i?

With Dinan's shop in my neighborhood, I am a customer there for certain 
needs.
Here about Dinan:
      He has high overhead, and any pollution control stuff he sells for 
the street must be CARB certified.
      His two shop is $ilicon Valley costs a fortune per square foot 
compared to industrial space in Kansas City, or in the farmland of New 
Jersey.  Dinan is also in bed with BMW on selling major components like 
engines rather than for example, pulling the head and replacing the 
valves.  When I had my misshift, they were hard sell that my engine is 
toast that it must have a hole in a piston.  Pure BS.  Only bent valves 
were the damage.
      So at Dinan, you aren't getting the innovation and the search for 
that extra winning margin that the KC warehouse or NJ farmland people 
constantly strive for.  And you're paying for his prime Silicon Valley 
real estate and California certifications.
      You're also paying for trhe cost of him assuming the warranty that 
many of his parts void.  Rarely few other performance shops will 
warranty their work as he does.  there's one nasty proviso:  only if you 
buy parts with his brand name only.  For instance:
      If you buy Dinan's ECU remapping and use a different brand 
aftermarket exhaust, no warranty.  The same remapping with Dinan's or a 
stock exhaust, you're warranteed.  No difference in what he charges.

      Dinan also detoxifies a lot of the engine mods.  For example to my 
diligent stopwatch, his remap for the E36 //M3 is marignally hotter than 
stock.
By stock I define it as the most recent factory burn that you can have 
your dealer zap into your ECU for free, in conjuncton with any campaign 
that specified an ECU remap.  One of these is the Crankshaft Position 
Sensor recall.
      The only measureable acceleration difference is due the increase 
in the rev limit.  No change in seat of the pants feel.
That's less than a half a tenth of a second 60 to eighty in third gear. 
  If I shift at factor redlines, no difference.
      So dump the ECU remap.  Not worth it.
What you get with Dinan component$ at his prices is high reliability 
that you won't have a failure from your modifications.

Dinan will give you superior level of customer service, (imo), and the 
quality of his shop's work, for me, has been a consistent 9.5 out of 10.
      At $100. an hour for labor, in the Bay Area, his rates are below 
dealer and competitive with the other high end marque shops.
      An example of the quality of service is that I go there for my 
wheel balances.  At 143mph the balancing is true.  Can't come close to 
saying that for any big name tire chain.  At $50. per wheel the only 
standard I can give for if its worth the price is if I pay it, and for 
the results I get I willingly choose to.
      Also with their engine/trans/rear/ oil changes, the valve cover 
always is drop free with the //M on the oil filler cap facing the right 
direction, and the bottom of the trans and rear show no remnants of 
droppy gear oil drips.

No I don't work for them (<:, just use them when I don't have the time 
or mechanical alility to do something myself.

325i //E46 engine mods that are worth it?

To quote Metric Mechanic,  people want torque but they but horsepower.

      Get a take off exhaust from a 330i.  They're cheap, can be had for 
$250 or less.  Factory fit, since it _is factory.  If you don't live in 
a snow belt it will last the life of your car.  Can't say that about 
many common buzzbomb stainless systems available.

      Do put in a K&N air filter.

      Remove any restrictive air silencer cone and ducting from the 
front end of the air filter box.  $400. carbon fiber snouts look nice, 
but on the dyno under 6000 rpm show nearly no HP improvement, and 
produce the same or less torque as a factory airbox with restrictor removed.

      Spark plugs:
Bosch Platinum 4 contact.  Factory OEM plugs are used because they will 
go the long 30k mile manufacturer spec with near zero chance of causing 
the car to fail a Federal Emissions test cycle.  with the factory paying 
for service included in the car price, you get short changed here.  The 
Platinums need changing at 15k miles, or 10k miles if you're a purist.

      Friction reduction via Lubrication:
Mobil 1 //5w30, Redline D4 ATF in the trans, Redline 75w90NS in the rear.
Also, Redline SL1 in the gas every few tanks.

      Cylinder head:
      This is something done on nearly any competitive Stock Legal engine.
      If you're going to bite the bullet on a $$ item, pull the head and 
shave to factory spec of .018.  Here's one area where the factory isn't 
cutting us short.  You will gain a noticeable few pounds of torque 
across the board.  Since its built to spec, no question on warranty 
issues.  If you're out of warranty, and pull the valves too, shim the 
lifter by a mm.

      Weight:
This applies to all E36/46:
There is ~75 pounds of sound deadener lining the trunk, rear deck, under 
the rear seat, and inside the rear inner body trim panels.  If you keep 
you rear seat in and leave the trunk mat in place there's barely an 
increase in road noise that comes through.  Many feel the car sounds too 
sterile inside anyway.
      Remove the spare tire.  Carry fix a flat, a plug kit and bike pump 
instead.  If the hole is too big for Fix a Flat to seal, I can plug a 
tire and repump it quicker than jacking the car and changing it. There's 
another 35 pounds out.  On long trips with the car loaded up or with a 
designated female passenger, I still carry the spare, as well as an air 
tank so I won't have to depend on gas station pumps.
      This 100 pound quick reduction is free.  Same acceleration 
improvement as increasing your power across the board by the same amount.
Wheel Weight:
      Wheels are rotational mass.  The rule of thumb is one pound of 
rotating mass reduction equals ten pounds of stationary mass reduction.
So if you replace the factory wheels with wheels 5 pounds lighter each, 
easy to do at reasonable cost, you have removed the effective difference 
of another 100 pounds of body weight.  I suggest E36//M3 forged style 
takeoffs if you want to keep a factory appearance.

      Conclusion:
If you have to pull the head, _definitely shave it dowm to factory spec.

If you strip out the sound deadener, spend less than $2000 on a set of 
wheels, you have the minimum effective improvement of 200 pounds of body 
weight lighter.  That's a 6% higher power curve across the board. 
Compared to a tuner's engine dyno of 7.5% at the top end and little or 
no improvement in low and midrange, its your choice.
Enjoy,

'jk

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