I can now comfortably and unequivocally say that my car with the Evolve intercooled S/C and billet plenum is running correctly. It took roughly 16 months from when the install was first started to today for me to be able to say that.
After countless hours troubleshooting the tune with Evolve, searching for boost leaks, VANOS problems, sensor issues, and myriad other things, it came down to the fuel injectors. The fuel injectors that were sold to me by Evolve were originally 17lb/hr@3bar injectors out of 4 and 6 cylinder Ford engines. They were then reworked to be 42lb/hr@3bar injectors. In the M5, this puts them at 48lb/hr - the same as Bosch Green Giants. I've reached out to Mark at Evolve on these injectors, but have not heard back from them on it.
rao mentioned last year that the injectors could have been the problem, but I was still in my 'lets not throw money at the problem' phase of car/kit ownership. I left them as-is. Fast forward to this spring when I was talking to TTFS, they asked me about my fuel injectors. I pulled the plenum and gave them the part number on the side. They told me to throw the injectors in the trash and put in Bosch Green Giants prior to making the drive out for the tune. I did that last week, and the transformation was immediate.
With the Bosch injectors in the car, my idle issues were simply gone. No more pulling up to a light and having the car drop to a 20 AFR and then struggle to get back to a 14.7. No more having it be almost impossible to start if the engine was hot. It simply ran smoother at all possible RPMs.
I left for TTFS this previous Thursday, and arrived at his shop early afternoon on Friday. After a brief inspection of the car, we threw it up on Franks heartbreaker dyno. He blew away the Evolve tune and put on one that he crafted on the spot for my car. After three revisions to it, we hit these final numbers:
This was a 'hot' pull, the previous run had me at the same WHP but ~405 WTQ. The car is making 8PSI at 7200 RPM all said and done. I have a smaller pulley on order; Frank will be sending me a tune this week for the additional 2PSI of boost it'll generate. I expect to add another ~35 WHP with the smaller pulley. These should translate to fairly decent numbers on a Dynojet dyno.
It has taken a lot longer than I would have liked to get the car driveable. Up until this last week, my plan was to simply get it 'good enough' and then sell it. I was fed up with chasing my tail on issues and fed up with my kit vendor. However, now that I can drive the car and not feel like it's going to strand me, or embarrass me, I will be keeping it. I already have a couple ideas in the works with rao.
A big thanks to everybody who helped me with the car during the last year, and to those who offered encouragement and advice. With out all of that, I would still have a car in the garage that is a complete wreck. I will still be carrying my emergency kit in the trunk ...
After countless hours troubleshooting the tune with Evolve, searching for boost leaks, VANOS problems, sensor issues, and myriad other things, it came down to the fuel injectors. The fuel injectors that were sold to me by Evolve were originally 17lb/hr@3bar injectors out of 4 and 6 cylinder Ford engines. They were then reworked to be 42lb/hr@3bar injectors. In the M5, this puts them at 48lb/hr - the same as Bosch Green Giants. I've reached out to Mark at Evolve on these injectors, but have not heard back from them on it.
rao mentioned last year that the injectors could have been the problem, but I was still in my 'lets not throw money at the problem' phase of car/kit ownership. I left them as-is. Fast forward to this spring when I was talking to TTFS, they asked me about my fuel injectors. I pulled the plenum and gave them the part number on the side. They told me to throw the injectors in the trash and put in Bosch Green Giants prior to making the drive out for the tune. I did that last week, and the transformation was immediate.
With the Bosch injectors in the car, my idle issues were simply gone. No more pulling up to a light and having the car drop to a 20 AFR and then struggle to get back to a 14.7. No more having it be almost impossible to start if the engine was hot. It simply ran smoother at all possible RPMs.
I left for TTFS this previous Thursday, and arrived at his shop early afternoon on Friday. After a brief inspection of the car, we threw it up on Franks heartbreaker dyno. He blew away the Evolve tune and put on one that he crafted on the spot for my car. After three revisions to it, we hit these final numbers:
This was a 'hot' pull, the previous run had me at the same WHP but ~405 WTQ. The car is making 8PSI at 7200 RPM all said and done. I have a smaller pulley on order; Frank will be sending me a tune this week for the additional 2PSI of boost it'll generate. I expect to add another ~35 WHP with the smaller pulley. These should translate to fairly decent numbers on a Dynojet dyno.
It has taken a lot longer than I would have liked to get the car driveable. Up until this last week, my plan was to simply get it 'good enough' and then sell it. I was fed up with chasing my tail on issues and fed up with my kit vendor. However, now that I can drive the car and not feel like it's going to strand me, or embarrass me, I will be keeping it. I already have a couple ideas in the works with rao.
A big thanks to everybody who helped me with the car during the last year, and to those who offered encouragement and advice. With out all of that, I would still have a car in the garage that is a complete wreck. I will still be carrying my emergency kit in the trunk ...