difference between our ecu's and the the e36 obd's for FI?

Whats so different about the 2 systems and why does it seem so much easier for e36's to run piggyback or change there engine management systems for FI. i guess this is kind of leading back to the age old question why are e46 so hard to tune. is it just a time difference in that the e36 has been out for so much longer?

95 and below e36s have OBD I. I think the 96+ E36 and all e46's have OBD II. OBD I was made before the gov. put certain environmental restrictiosn on the engines, thats why theyre so easy to tune.

most e36 r obd I.....it's HARD to find one with an obd II

this is why e36 m3 is much deadlier than the e46 m3 when it comes to get down dirty with the crazy mods

The difference is about 12000 lines of code.

any1 know what program is used to re-write the code? not that im trying that, just curious. i was watching rides the other nite and they had a guy who was changes the afr codes, wondered what he used to do it

Originally Posted by B3AM3R

any1 know what program is used to re-write the code? not that im trying that, just curious. i was watching rides the other nite and they had a guy who was changes the afr codes, wondered what he used to do it

Its not only the code....the difference is that the government made tighter regulations AND added a bunch various sensors etc to the mix. O2 sensor, MAF, all that kind of crap.....with OBDII came a crapload of stuff that needed to be added(not sure which sensors exactly). Before you change the code, you would need to take all that crap out. Its been done on E36's m3's....the so called OBDI conversion, but never on an e46.

If you are serious about tuning your engine and want to be able to make changes like AFR, timing, fuel maps, etc etc etc get yourself a stand alone ecu and bypass the bmw setup. I am currently looking at a new ecu setup which will allow me to bypass the FPR and MAF all togheter. Not sure if im going to do it yet, I dont want to take my car off the road for another 2 weeks and tare it apart once again.


The system I am looking at is Autronic, this is the engine management software that went into the new shelby

Originally Posted by crispvx

If you are serious about tuning your engine and want to be able to make changes like AFR, timing, fuel maps, etc etc etc get yourself a stand alone ecu and bypass the bmw setup. I am currently looking at a new ecu setup which will allow me to bypass the FPR and MAF all togheter. Not sure if im going to do it yet, I dont want to take my car off the road for another 2 weeks and tare it apart once again.


The system I am looking at is Autronic, this is the engine management software that went into the new shelby

Do you know what youre getting yourself into? Cost? Hours upon hours on the dyno?

Originally Posted by Roshan

Do you know what youre getting yourself into? Cost? Hours upon hours on the dyno?

it should be interesting to see what he comes up with though..

Originally Posted by xS3x

it should be interesting to see what he comes up with though..

i totally agree, even if it ends up not working, to me it would still be worth the money and time becasue i would have learned something

Its totally going to be worth it, well if I do decide to ever swap it out. For now im going to wait for the renn sport software and maybe during the summer I will consider the swap. I know autronic is releasing a new ecu sometime during the spring, another reason to wait

The costs would be 0 as I would do all the work myself.

how much is the autronic ecu and everything else you need for installation

I am estimating total costs to be around 1500.00 when its all done, this is with me doing the install.

Originally Posted by crispvx

I am estimating total costs to be around 1500.00 when its all done, this is with me doing the install.

who's gonna tune it?

My friend is the # 4 largest distributor for autronic, thats whos going to tune it.

But like I said before, not sure if this is going to happend. I am going to get the renn sport software first and im sure thats going to please me.

I didnt know that your friend was a distributor. Makes much more sense now.

Im sure youll be happy with the RENNsport ECU. At this point, unless youre planning on a turbo..seems like a stand alone is overboard. Either way, props.