Hi guys

Have just registered, and can't see a thread about this anywhere?

I have heard that the 193bhp I get from my 528 T-Reg is intentionally suppressed, but I have no idea how to unleash the power waiting therein?

Is this something my local garage can do by replacing a few parts, or is it more serious (taking the engine to pieces, grinding bits of the engine block etc)?

As you can tell (!) I know very little about cars and would only want to spend about £100-£200 to be honest, so no nitrous injection or anything, just taking it to 230bhp or whatever is possible by buying a few parts and giving them to my mechanical friend?!

A re-mapping of your ecu will give you an extra 10% or so, and a similar increase in torque. Ask Chippeduk for a price but I think its £125.00.

The biggest restrictor is the air intake manifold (m52) taken from the 2 litre model. If you can get your hands on an m50 manifold from a scrapped e36 or e34, Alpina527 will do his magic on it. If you are lucky you might pick up a scrapped one for about 70 quid. You could also do with a big bore throttle body. Alpina527 has a full conversion kit which I will be getting myself shortly, and I think it costs about €350.

If you get the Throttle body/Manifold job followed by the re-mapping you could free an extra 30bhp plus.

Cheers chaps - hmmm

So about €350 for 35bhp

Say €10 per 1bhp

Sounds like quite a lot - not compared to the price of a car obviously, but not cheap as chips.

Do you think 35bhp would be noticeable and great, or barely noticeable or put me in a hedge sideways?!

That's what I was thinking - an increase in torque would probably be more useful/noticeable in general.

What I could really do with is a chip that removes 90% of drivers from the road and turns all traffic lights green...

the torque will be noticable on midrange acceleration but in true terms you wont always notice the extra 10hp or so a chip makes.

Saying that, you always notice the loss of the flat spots and the better fuel economy.

The inlet manifold mod on the other hand is highly noticable and the extra pull from this mod is lovely.

I think the best way to describe the chip and remap is that the engine becomes far more lively.

map only and the price is £125.

power gains are around the 18hp mark with 12hp over 3400rpm

I've done all the mods and can say the engines delivers as a 2.8 should and not be flat or run out of puff in higher revs.

See Alpina527 for a manifold and big bore throttle body and chippeduk for a remap, it will be worth while!!

I've done my mods instages so didn't get a full blown boost in power in one go as some have experienced. But I still noticed an improvement after each individual mod!!

M50 Manifold = revs better mid range and will pull stronger to redline from 4,500rpm instead of getting constipated at 5,000rpm and having to change gear as there isn't much go after this.

Remap = a noticable cleaner pull below 3,000rpm and a bit more free reving at the top end and a slightly nicer noise!! MPG should be about 5-10% better, but I haven't really noted it yet - the throttle seems to have a bit of a sinking feeling.

BBTB (big bore throttle body) = Increased throttle response low down and a better pull to the red part of your tacho.

Fit a good induction kit to embellish the above mods (esp. the manifold/BBTB) as the std air box can be restrictive in this setup.

The above mods won't give a fish tailling slide into the nearest tree, but will give a good improvement over standard giving proper 2.8 performance instead of the constipated feel of the std setup.