UK based tuner for petrol turbo BMWs.
Gone are the days of basic "chip tuning". Modern cars demand customised tuning and custom software, real, personalised DME mapping based upon YOUR unique engine and modifications, for the safest most powerful tune.
This is not just a canned, off the shelf map, one size fits all. Your engine and modifications are unique, and even 2 engines with the same modifications do not respond the same and each should be custom tuned.
If you have just fitted uprated turbos, whilst your car will start and drive on the stock or off the shelf MHD maps, you still should get a custom tune because fuelling will run lean, throttle will close and you'll overboost unless the map is written for your specific setup.
What is real custom tuning?
Proper custom tuning is creating a base map, based upon known safe parameters, with extra fuelling and low boost and timing, to allow us to see the state of your engine health and spot any anomalies.
You will then log (to a CSV file) all channels available on the engine (which we will guide you on), we will read these logs on datazap.me and then make incremental tweaks, send you a revised binary file to load to your DME (ECU), you will again create another set of logs, usually via logging from 2000-7000RPM at full throttle and sending back the new CSV, this process repeats until we start to see the limits of your setup, and we will then work towards the final revision, which is not right at the edge of the sun but will be as close to the maximum power available for your setup as possible without taking unnecessary risks.
We often check in with our customers months later to make sure all is fine and making further map amendments as necessary to make it perfect.
You will find that seasonal variation affects boost; in both boost target, car response, and lastly -the actual fuel mix varies season by season with the additive pack as well as ethanol content, which can push fuel trims out of wack. For this reason, within the mapping, we will try to set the car as close to 0% added or taken away to hit the fuel ratio as possible. This in turn means should you have particularly different fuel, the car is able to add or remove around 30% fuel as necessary to keep within the target AFR.
When considering tuning companies, check whether they are actually tuning themselves or just phoning home, getting someone remotely to send them a map and then loading it for you (without any idea themselves of what's being done or why it is being done). Some of these companies will not even do any reading of your engine logs and will simply have a canned map to load on, which can never be optimal for safety and power for every setup.
Do you do dyno tuning/dyno mapping?
We can tune you on a dyno but the DME does not (YET!- but it's coming) support live tuning, therefore you will take logs of your run, we will adjust, you'll flash a new map, log, further adjustments will be made. Usually after around 15 revisions your tune will be completed (although this may vary depending on the consistency of your fuel fill up and other factors.) (By arrangement we can sit in your car with you on a local dyno to tune, additional fees will apply).
Why TopMountTurbo Tuning?
At each power level, stock, I wanted more power, OTS 2+ wanted more power, I realised I needed to keep upgrading my car to get the next power hit, and once I went to larger turbos, I had to start custom tuning to get the most from my modifications, after being dissatisfied with other tuners, some seemingly franchising and not having any real depth of knowledge mechanically or tuning wise, some companies offering tunes that were outright dangerous with clearly no clue about how to read the feedback from the numerous sensors, other custom tuning companies being slow or I was spotting parameters that I knew were not quite correct, (that said, no issues with the long established well known tuners and respect where it is due). I started tweaking my own car's map, and having reviewed hundreds of logs over the years as well as spending considerable time down the local dyno, soon saw the safe, powerful parameters for these engines.
If you want a tuner who will be able to help diagnose issues with your engine, be responsive to your messages, and create a safe powerful map, you've found them.
Previous setups I have tuned include:
N55 standard turbo
N55 uprated turbo
B58 stock turbo
N54: stock turbos, 16T, 17T, 19T, single turbos: GTX 58MM 66MM 67MM, S366, stock block, built block, hot cammed setup
Fuels: pump 87, 91, 93, Ethanol, Methanol, octane booster.
Do you offer "stage" maps like stage 1,2,3 etc?
The stages of tuning are very much specific to a particular company, and outside of that company pretty meaningless and incomparable. One person's stage 2 is not the same as anothers.
Therefore no these maps are not offered as a stage 1 2 3 or any number tune, the tune is simply to obtain the most power safely from the combination of your modifications (or otherwise stock) car.
