[uucdigest] Wednesday, February 26 2003 Volume 03 : Number 6148
_________________________________________________________________ | | Search the ARCHIVES: | http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED] | | Visit Richard Nott's Ultimate BMW Database: | http://www.bmwdatabase.com | | For all available Digest commands including unsubscribe/subscribe, | visit the BMW UUC Digest page: http://www.uucdigest.com | | Send SUBMISSIONS to [EMAIL PROTECTED] | Complaints? Send 'em to [EMAIL PROTECTED] if you must. | Technical Problems? Send 'em to [EMAIL PROTECTED] |__________________________________________________________________ In this BMW UUC Digest: Re: [uuc] Re: Custom Chip Programming/OFFER of help RE: [uuc] Oil Loss in S50 RE: [uuc] Re: Custom Chip Programming [uuc] Re: calibration development Re: [uuc] Re: Custom Chip Programming/OFFER of help [uuc] 1995 BMW 540i 6-speed pre-purchase info? [uuc] Custom Chip Programming Re: [uuc] Custom Chip Programming ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 26 Feb 2003 09:06:17 -0500 From: "Eurowerks" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Re: [uuc] Re: Custom Chip Programming/OFFER of help What does he have to lose? How about an ECU! I wish you all of the best as well, but you are going to damage the first one in the learning curve, so you should have a spare lying around. My only contribution to this effort would be to offer a spare ECU that I know is working correctly for $50.00. Brad, if you have any interest, I can and will sell you a spare to play with. If I dig, I think that I actually have the BOSCH theory and operation technicians reference for the E28's. I will have to dig, and it may take me a week, but there are numbered graphs (three dimensional) that explain in detail at what percentage of throttle opening what is happening in the ECU mapping. Let me know if I need to start digging. If I do find it, (9,000 sqare feet of shop, totally full of BMW, MB, Volvo's and parts from that last 13 years!) I will be happy to make a copy. Kirk A. Gilchrist EURO-WERKS / Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Volvo Service and Repair 8 South Highland St. / Winchester, KY 40391 / 859-745-0125 [EMAIL PROTECTED] / 888-522-0271 toll free ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 26 Feb 2003 06:36:21 -0800 From: "Brad Houser" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: RE: [uuc] Oil Loss in S50 You could be literally burning oil. Are you seeing smoke in the exhaust, especially during clutching? A smog check can measure it. Did you try a compression test? Remove the spark coil to distributor wire, remove the spark plugs, insert the pressure gauge in the spark plug hole (some can be screwed in, others just held), have a friend turn the starter. Write down the results. Squirt some oil in the cylinder, and remeasure. Repeat for each cylinder. If the pressure changes with the oil, you have leaky rings. If two adjacent cylinders are low, you have a bad head gasket. Another possible cause of low pressure is leaky valves. Brad Houser > -----Original Message----- > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Chris Scott > Sent: Tuesday, February 25, 2003 7:17 PM > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Subject: [uuc] Oil Loss in S50 > > > My car seems to be burning way to much oil lately, 1+ quart > every 1k. I am unable to find any leaks, I found a tiny bit > of oil on the head behind the t-stat housing, but it appeared > to be minute. The Valve cover gasket seems to be good. > Under the car looks good. Anyone have any thoughts or > suggestions? Thanks Chris > > ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 26 Feb 2003 10:30:26 -0500 From: "Robinson, Lee" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: RE: [uuc] Re: Custom Chip Programming > I'm pretty sure Jose S. (Canary Island Macau blau E30 M3) is pretty > much there figuring out all the Motronic code for the E30 M3 > DME. Even > Jim C seemed impressed when he posted some code from his E30 > M3 chip on > the list and Jose knew exactly what it was. In fact we've used Jose's > notes on E30 M3 DME repairs twice to successfully repair the loping > idle condition on an E30 M3 when the ICV fries some of the transistors > on the DME. There's a nice failure mode for you in a BMW, bad ICV > toasts a good DME (what $800 or so?). We shouldn't try to discourage > folks like Brad or Micheal McC. from learning this stuff it may prove > very useful to folks on this list or at least to their friends in the > future. :-) Jose's work with the control units in these cars is very impressive. He completely decoded the idle circuit. I'm one of the guys who benefitted from Jose's work. We managed to fix a few guys in ATL's cars through this. We were all facing $1000 for a new DME that ended up being fixed by a $.50 TIP31 transistor from radio shack. I bought a ton of these & shipped them to every end of the country so everyone could rid themselves of annoying high-idling cars!!! We need folks who are willing to tear into this stuff and find ways to repair/improve these systems. For those of you who forget, I'm an automation engineer for Siemens (the company who makes the ECU's for all you guy's OBDII cars). I can tell you what happens. BMW's engineers design an engine. They send some parameters to Bosch/Siemens with specific requirements for engine management as well as physical durability. To the best of their knowledge, electrical & computer engineers come up with a control unit to what they believe, best suits the requirements. Is it excellent work? Yes. Is it the best, simplest solution? Definitely not. Is it able to be figured out? Definitely. While these guys are great engineers, do you really believe they know the engine's requirements for things like fuel/air optimization, idling, heat sink, etc as well as the engine designer, or even experts like Don Fields, Brett A or Jose? Best of luck to anyone willing to tear into an ECU.....you're doing us all a favor. > > Carlos > 91 M3 <--with a Dinan chip that kind of sucks compared to a Jim C one > 88 iS <--completely stock Lee 88 M3->jeeze, one damn driver's school & now the car's got more squeaks & a buzzy shifter this is in addition to a finished set of R-compounds ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 26 Feb 2003 11:16:47 -0500 From: ben keyes <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: [uuc] Re: calibration development "Robinson, Lee" wrote: > I can tell you what happens. BMW's engineers design an > engine. They send some parameters to Bosch/Siemens with specific > requirements for engine management as well as physical durability. To the > best of their knowledge, electrical & computer engineers come up with a > control unit to what they believe, best suits the requirements. Is it > excellent work? Yes. Is it the best, simplest solution? Definitely not. > Is it able to be figured out? Definitely. While these guys are great > engineers, do you really believe they know the engine's requirements for > things like fuel/air optimization, idling, heat sink, etc as well as the > engine designer, or even experts like Don Fields, Brett A or Jose? I think you're simplifying the relationship between the calibration engineers, the designers of the physical hardware DME & the engine people. I seriously doubt BMW just throw the desired parameters over the wall to the calibration guys & lets them come up with what they think is the best solution to the problem. there might be a bookshelf approach to the actual hardware of the DME & it's associated circuitry, but that's not going to have any major effect on the ability of the calibration people to write an optimal map to fit the requirements. the players all work together to come up with the calibration that best suits the specific regulations & operating conditions under which the engine will have to handle. when you take out things like stupid owners putting in the wrong octane fuel, off-throttle emissions mapping & the list into account, there are certainly areas for improvement. viewed relative to the Motoronic for DME's originally designed in the mid-80's things are a lot farther along now. witness JimC having no desire to put out a re-flash for the S54 engine as he feels that it's pretty much optimized to the knife's edge already & there is little or nothing to be gained by messing with it. perhaps his "I'm not going to put out a new calibration just to raise the rev limit 50rpm & claim marginal improvement in minor areas, I I'm not going to do one period." statement is really him being unable to decode what was done in the DME, but I seriously doubt it. Ben not a calibrator, wouldn't dream of playing one on TV, hasn't stayed at an HIE for several months... ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 26 Feb 2003 08:46:10 -0800 (PST) From: Brad Couvillon <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Re: [uuc] Re: Custom Chip Programming/OFFER of help I would like to thank everyone that has provided support. Whether I actually succeed or not, it's worth $400 to me to learn as much about Motronic 1.x ECUs as I can. Whereas most people would start digging, find out how much time and work it will be, and quit, I'm not that kind of person. When I want to learn something or get something done, I'll try my best to learn it / get it done. Take my auto-to-manual tranny swap. It took me about 2 months to mostly finish and another few weeks to get the bugs worked out. Any normal DIYer would've stopped after about a month and taken it to the mechanic to fix. Perhaps it was lack of funds that made me press on, but I got the thing done. By the way, it was worth every penny of that $1200 I spent and every second of those 2 months I spent. I drive my car every second I can and try to imagine what it was like "back when I had the auto." : -) You can see my saga here: http://www.fatdaddybmw.com/tranny/ Back to the point: I've got three ECUs already. One has a stock chip, one has a Dinan chip (in my car), and one has a Mark D'Sylva chip that I'll put in my car once I do the clutch job this Saturday. Having two performance chips to compare to a stock chip is a wonderful thing indeed. If I burn up an ECU, no biggie; I know where I can get these things for $40 - $50 all day. To Kirk G, I would be more than appreciative if you were so kind as to find some e28-related information for me. Just for clarification, my car is an '87 528e (M20B27) and runs Motronic 1.0. The ECU is the same for model year 85 through 87. '88 had Motronic 1.1 and pre-85 had the soldered in chip. I would imagine the pre-85 maps are the same, but just to be safe, 85 - - 87 would be my best bet. But hey, I can deal with anything you can provide me!!! Thanks again to everyone that's offering to help. Brad Couvillon '87 528e www.fatdaddybmw.com - --- Eurowerks <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > What does he have to lose? How about an ECU! > I wish you all of the best as well, but you are > going to damage the first > one in the learning curve, so you should have a > spare lying around. > My only contribution to this effort would be to > offer a spare ECU that I > know is working correctly for $50.00. > Brad, if you have any interest, I can and will sell > you a spare to play > with. > If I dig, I think that I actually have the BOSCH > theory and operation > technicians reference for the E28's. I will have to > dig, and it may take me > a week, but there are numbered graphs (three > dimensional) that explain in > detail at what percentage of throttle opening what > is happening in the ECU > mapping. > Let me know if I need to start digging. If I do > find it, (9,000 sqare feet > of shop, totally full of BMW, MB, Volvo's and parts > from that last 13 > years!) I will be happy to make a copy. > > Kirk A. Gilchrist > EURO-WERKS / Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Volvo Service and > Repair > 8 South Highland St. / Winchester, KY 40391 / > 859-745-0125 > [EMAIL PROTECTED] / 888-522-0271 toll free > > __________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Tax Center - forms, calculators, tips, more http://taxes.yahoo.com/ ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 26 Feb 2003 09:21:22 -0800 (PST) From: Howard Poe <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: [uuc] 1995 BMW 540i 6-speed pre-purchase info? I'm looking at the possible purchase of a '95 540i with 6 speed transmission. Car has 130k miles, and original nikasil engine block, but has been exclusively on the west coast, so probably hasn't been exposed to sulfurous fuel. Car looks to be in good condition. It is not a 540i sport, however it does have the M technic suspension and seats. Guy is asking $15k for it, book is $13,500 for private party retail sale. I'm hoping I can talk him down a bit. I'm thinking about the advantages of the 6 speed over the automatic... any thoughts? Only other problem is that it's black on black, which will get very hot and dusty here in the summer. Is the A/C good on the 540i (my 325iX didn't like to cool sitting stuck in traffic or in a drive through on hot days)? Anything to look for problem wise with this car? Car has new tires, clutch and brakes. - -Howard ex-'89 325iX (rear-ended) ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 26 Feb 2003 12:48:27 -0500 From: "Dorffer, Rich" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: [uuc] Custom Chip Programming Chris wrote > > I don't think "hacker" and "hack" equate quite the way you imply. Seems > to me that the original poster was quite interested in learning the > fundamentals as much as possible, and looking for any tips that may help > speed up the process. I, for one, am mighty impressed with the > initiative. What the hell has he got to lose? Umm....a motor perhaps! But, we are talking about Brad here....he probably has a spare motor cobbled together from parts other people were getting rid of and would be able to swap it in over a weekend if need be. :-) Regards, Rich - Brad's nemesis...but also cheering him on, don't forget about me when your able to do custom programming ;-) ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 26 Feb 2003 10:00:40 -0800 (PST) From: Andre Yew <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Re: [uuc] Custom Chip Programming Brad, > What it looks like I'm going to need is a ROM > emulator. I saw one for about $175 called the > ROMuLator or something silly like that. Looks like it > could work, but I feel like I can cobble some parts > together and do it for about half that. That's what > I'm looking for: a sub-$100 ROM emulator. If you're willing to spend some time cobbling your own ROM emulator, that's doable as well, though I don't know of any resources off-hand to point to you. It's a tradeoff between time and money. There are lots of kids reverse-engineering their game consoles these days, so there's got to be pretty affordable DIY ROM emulation solutions out there. The ROMulator looks like a decent product at a decent price. Just make sure you have a serial port on your laptop. I think it's great project even if you end up destroying a couple of ECUs --- you learn as much from failure as success. I don't normally work with 16-bit micros like the 8051, but let me know if you need help on the computer or programming end of things. - --Andre ------------------------------ End of [uucdigest] V3 #6148 *************************** | | In memory of Michel Potheau - friend, enthusiast, founder of the BMW CCA. |________________________________________ | Please visit these UUC-approved BMW parts vendors/service providers: | (listed alphabetically) | | Autoscope-Motorsports - http://www.autoscope-motorsports.com | |==================================================== | | Koala MotorSport . 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