Should I Shant I

Been offered a chip for my 635csi, and don't know whether it is a good idea to mess around with the engine. The main thing i would be worried about would be reliability and is it going to do any damage to the car's engine!

Your advice and feedback would be most apreciated.

Thankyou in advance

Uprated Chip has now been sold, but was from a 535isport with the same engine code. Thanks for the feedback webdunk. Probably was not a good quality item!

Been looking on e-bay the last couple of months and you can get a Dinan chip for the big six for about $75 which i did not think was bad. Probably a much better part!

 Quote Horsetan " If you put the chip in and it works, then the chances are you will have to devote time to uprating the braking system. More power tends to mean more effort to stop it!"

As for braking system upgrade, I have now aquired a  complete system from an 850csi. Was going to have it fitted this week along with a shortshift kit, but unfortunantly my thrust bearing went in my clutch and so brake conversion is on hold. Will have new clutch kit and short shift fitted tomorow with an exspected cost of £650. I am hoping they don't find anything else wrong as I want to put the brake kit on, and the larger this bill is the longer i have to wait.

Your engine work sounds exspensive. I have had most of the parts mentioned fitted about 5 months ago with the exception of the head work and related parts. Have you thought about doing some engine work whilst it is in pieces e.g. Hartge/Alpina conversion. I know fitz bits have full sets of parts and plans to do either of these conversions.  

Thanks for all the input guys and girls (got to be politically correct now). I think the chip thing will probably be avoided although i will pick hartlake brains tomorow on that subject.

Good luck with the car Ivan. You are very wise, and when the time comes to do mine I will do the same although I will be tempted to do up the engine whilst the work happens. Don't want to think about that now though as gota save up again for the Brake conversion fitting.

Horsetan wrote: Sohlman wrote: Good luck with the car Ivan. You are very wise, and when the time comes to do mine I will do the same although I will be tempted to do up the engine whilst the work happens. Don't want to think about that now though as gota save up again for the Brake conversion fitting. NEWS UPDATE: it just got even more expensive. The original head has been found to be cracked ...so it's a new head, basically. And it means I can then use unleaded petrol at last!

If it makes you feel any better Ivan, took head off this week and got a cracked piston.....and these are milled pistons for the 2.7 ....going the whole hog and having a full job done on bottom half and top half checked at same time. Damn it and I thought the divorce was expensive !!!!

Horsetan wrote: Iain H wrote: [QUOTE=Horsetan][QUOTE=Sohlman] If it makes you feel any better Ivan, took head off this week and got a cracked piston.....and these are milled pistons for the 2.7 ....going the whole hog and having a full job done on bottom half and top half checked at same time. Damn it and I thought the divorce was expensive !!!! It does make me feel better. But not much better. Carlos, my BMW tech, gave me the choice of a BMW certified reconditioned head (£650 + VAT), or a brand new bare head (£800 + VAT). I went for the former, on the basis that it was more likely to have hardened valve seats put in, as opposed to new stock which could have been sitting there for ages.

Well my car is certainly leaching my pocket too if this makes either of you feel any better. On changing my clutch it has been found that I have a damaged flywheel that should ideally be replaced at a cost of £200 + fitting.  The steering box has excessive play and should be done in the next 10k at a cost of £200 + fitting, the central track rod is shot and needs imediate changing at a cost of £150 + fitting, The propshaft coupling is cracked £30 and my new exhaust is blowing which means it needs re welding. I also tried to fit new uprated headlamp bulbs and the old bulbs are fused on and so both headlamps need to be removed and cleaned and this is a major job on a six and is probably 2-3 hours labour.

These cars are a LABOUR OF LOVE as a very wise man said to me .....

Just back off hols so I'm catching up here.

Chips aren't worth bothering with unless the engine is modified beyond normal parameters, then it's the icing on the cake. Think a little chip maker knows more & tested more than BMW?

Sorry about your misfortunes Horsetan. I was told a complete new engine from BMW was about £2-3k!

Where were you getting your Alpinas from & what size tyres were  you trying?