[itschrees]

So I figured I'd post up my thoughts on the buildjournal B-Spec/Burble tune now that I've put more than 1,000 miles on the car with the new setup. I know there's a thread going in the tuning subforum but I wanted this to serve as a discussion point for those of us (myself included) who don't often go in there. After going to Euro District last month and seeing a buddy's E46 with another tuner's burble tune installed I decided I wanted one for myself, but I had a hard time swallowing $500 for a tune when I'm planning on mods that will require another tune before this year's end anyway. In my search for tuning options I came across buildjournal, and after doing a little more research on here and other sites I decided to give their performance tune with stage 3 burble feature a shot.

Their website DIYs made the installation a breeze and answered the questions I had about the process. From the time I had sent them the binary file of my factory ECU it was literally one hour before they sent back the new tune. Pretty impressive turnaround time and very user friendly process. The new tune has the standard "add-on" features of sport mode memory, 6mt shift lights, cold start delete, o2 cel delete, etc. and also gives a little bump in performance, as well as adding the burble feature when applying light throttle on deceleration. While I've yet to put the car on the dyno to measure actual power gains, it feels quicker to me and friends who've ridden in my car before and after the new tune. The burble feature is something I honestly expected to be obnoxious and tiresome after a few days, but the more I drive the car the more I enjoy it. Under normal driving the only noticeable difference is a loud crack on WOT upshifts or a few burbles when upshifting at medium throttle. The big backfires and flames really only happen if the exhaust is hot and you go WOT up to redline and then feather the throttle while decelerating down. It's nice that I can drive past cops and not draw too much attention to myself (at least any more than a SS Race section 3 normally draws haha).

All in all, I'm pretty happy with the tune. I kind of doubt it makes as much power as a custom tune from RK or TTFS, but for the cost and ease of install I'm glad I went this route. And again, I have nothing other than my butt dyno and a couple pulls against buddies telling me it's marginally slower than those, nothing scientific here.

The customer service from the guys at buildjournal really surprised me considering the cost of their services. I was expecting to wait a day or two before my questions were answered and absolutely wasn't counting on my tune being ready the same day I ordered it. Their behavior was on par with what I'd expect out of a much more expensive service, including following up a few days after I installed the tune to make sure everything was running well and I was happy with the product.

I know everyone on here is going to be asking for dynos and hard numbers, but I just wanted to share my "average joe" take on the tune.

Here are some videos of my car post-tune:
https://www.instagram.com/p/BTPNRWIg80L/?taken-by=gofastcheatdeath
https://www.instagram.com/p/BUCmCUYA...fastcheatdeath
https://www.instagram.com/p/BTzqDnuAmFI/

[MrCooperS]

Originally Posted by itschrees

So I figured I'd post up my thoughts on the buildjournal B-Spec/Burble tune now that I've put more than 1,000 miles on the car with the new setup. I know there's a thread going in the tuning subforum but I wanted this to serve as a discussion point for those of us (myself included) who don't often go in there. After going to Euro District last month and seeing a buddy's E46 with another tuner's burble tune installed I decided I wanted one for myself, but I had a hard time swallowing $500 for a tune when I'm planning on mods that will require another tune before this year's end anyway. In my search for tuning options I came across buildjournal, and after doing a little more research on here and other sites I decided to give their performance tune with stage 3 burble feature a shot.

Their website DIYs made the installation a breeze and answered the questions I had about the process. From the time I had sent them the binary file of my factory ECU it was literally one hour before they sent back the new tune. Pretty impressive turnaround time and very user friendly process. The new tune has the standard "add-on" features of sport mode memory, 6mt shift lights, cold start delete, o2 cel delete, etc. and also gives a little bump in performance, as well as adding the burble feature when applying light throttle on deceleration. While I've yet to put the car on the dyno to measure actual power gains, it feels quicker to me and friends who've ridden in my car before and after the new tune. The burble feature is something I honestly expected to be obnoxious and tiresome after a few days, but the more I drive the car the more I enjoy it. Under normal driving the only noticeable difference is a loud crack on WOT upshifts or a few burbles when upshifting at medium throttle. The big backfires and flames really only happen if the exhaust is hot and you go WOT up to redline and then feather the throttle while decelerating down. It's nice that I can drive past cops and not draw too much attention to myself (at least any more than a SS Race section 3 normally draws haha).

All in all, I'm pretty happy with the tune. I kind of doubt it makes as much power as a custom tune from RK or TTFS, but for the cost and ease of install I'm glad I went this route. And again, I have nothing other than my butt dyno and a couple pulls against buddies telling me it's marginally slower than those, nothing scientific here.

The customer service from the guys at buildjournal really surprised me considering the cost of their services. I was expecting to wait a day or two before my questions were answered and absolutely wasn't counting on my tune being ready the same day I ordered it. Their behavior was on par with what I'd expect out of a much more expensive service, including following up a few days after I installed the tune to make sure everything was running well and I was happy with the product.

I know everyone on here is going to be asking for dynos and hard numbers, but I just wanted to share my "average joe" take on the tune.

Here are some videos of my car post-tune:
https://www.instagram.com/p/BTPNRWIg80L/?taken-by=s54play
https://www.instagram.com/p/BUCmCUYA...ken-by=s54play
https://www.instagram.com/p/BTzqDnuAmFI/

Glad to see someone write a review. Are there different levels of burbling/backfire? I like the idea of burbling but without the backfire.

Also is a PC required for the flash? Or is it Mac compatible? What did you use to load the tune?

[SeanE46]

Thanks for the review! I'm getting mine tuned in a few weeks also!

[itschrees]

Originally Posted by MrCooperS

Glad to see someone write a review. Are there different levels of burbling/backfire? I like the idea of burbling but without the backfire.



Also is a PC required for the flash? Or is it Mac compatible? What did you use to load the tune?

They have three different stages of the burble, so you should be fine with one of the less aggressive ones. Not sure if you can flash with a Mac, I used my Microsoft Surface.


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[Ninohale]

Burble burble stop riding my ass .




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[Wek^Sos]

Did you see a increase in MPG, daily driving? Overall power band smoothness?

[WyattH]

Originally Posted by Wek^Sos

Did you see a increase in MPG, daily driving? ...

The important questions!

[Dr M3an M3]

Originally Posted by MrCooperS

Also is a PC required for the flash? Or is it Mac compatible? What did you use to load the tune?

Download VirtualBox on your Mac. From there download Windows 10 (Anniversary Edition). It is FREE from Microsoft's website. It will ask for a serial code, but you can skip that step (not needed) and it runs as a full complete version/operating system, as a virtual machine on your Mac. I have Windows 10 and XP running on my mac. Windows XP being my main "car tuning only" virtual computer. They are no different than using a PC, and run all the pc only programs. I almost bought a dedicated cheap pc laptop for car tuning...but considering this option is no different, cheaper, and I ALWAYS have my MCP on me, it was a no brainer.

Originally Posted by WyattH

The important questions!

Genuinely made me

[itschrees]

Originally Posted by Wek^Sos

Did you see a increase in MPG, daily driving? Overall power band smoothness?

Very slight improvement in mpg, maybe .5-1 better per tank. Average post tune is 16.1, before 15.1-15.7. Power band is very smooth, pulls hard all the way to redline.


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[Obioban]

Originally Posted by MrCooperS

Glad to see someone write a review. Are there different levels of burbling/backfire? I like the idea of burbling but without the backfire.

Also is a PC required for the flash? Or is it Mac compatible? What did you use to load the tune?

There is a mac version of bmwflash, if that's what they're using to load/unload the tune.