I always try to keep 1 daily driver in the stable and then one maniac car for raw racing. Little did I know that with the addition of these 2 basic add on parts that this daily driver would become a boosting, tire burning machine! From our baseline dyno, the car made an impressive 260rwhp and 272ft/lbs of torque on our Mustang dyno. Our first step to improve the performance all across the power band was to do an ECU upgrade. Back when we had our 335I, we went with the Active setup. However for our 135I, we wanted to put the best Piggyback ECU possible on it. We hooked up with Terry Burger from Burger Motorsports to add his JB3 plug and play ECU. And as a new dealer, we wanted to show our independent test results of this ECU upgrade.
The installation of this part took about 15 mins and the instructions were very easy to follow. Running the car on our Mustang dyno, you have got to expect lower numbers then say a dyno jet. Out here in Arizona, we also run 91 octane so we lack there in the cool fuel. For the first run with the JB3 was on their basic map. Based upon the system you can change to different maps. Our first dyno run yield a strong gain by adding 40rwhp and 30ft/lbs of torque. Remember that this is the Steptronic transmission too. What is most impressive is the gains throughout the ENTIRE power band. At around 5600rpm there is a gain of almost 60HP and the torque is so much stronger at 2800rpm.
Driving the car only 1 day like this, it was impressive when switching to sport or manually shifting. While in standard DRIVE setting, the car felt like stock. No hiccup or cut in that one would usually expect from a piggypack ECU. The increase in torque allowed the car to rip. Because we are still running the stock exhaust, soon to be replaced with the Berk Technology unit, the top end does die off a bit. Overall, like on many turbocharged cars, this is the best mod for the $$$ in gaining horsepower and performance.
You can view the installation pictures of the JB3 ECU Here and always follow our Project 135I Build Here.
Vivid Racing is an authorized distributor and user of the JB3 ECU for the N54 platform. You can purchase these products here – https://www.vividracing.com/catalog/burger-motorsports-m-492.html
Now that we have finished with the JB3 ECU upgrade and testing, it was time to move to the next mod of helping the turbos breathe better. Generally stock intake boxes are great for those wanting a stock car, however as the power goes up on a turbocharged vehicle, the more volume of air you can bring in, the better. We hooked up with the RISS Racing guys to install their new cold air intake system. Having owned alot of cars, this intake is WAY different then anything I have ever seen. And there is a reason for it cause it works! Their intake is a complete replacement for the OEM unit and the installation took just under an hour. The large K&N filter gave me assurance that I had the best filter possible for the car. The construction of the tubing and bracket along with the welding was top notch.
You can see by the picture below that the stock intake does not offer much in the way of air flow improvement. It is restricted by the front intake ducting. Since the car is intercooled, being open to the air will bring in a larger amount of air flow to the turbos.
You can view our installation pictures of the RISS Racing Intake Kit here.
Now once the intake was installed, we threw that bad boy on our Mustang dyno to see some results. We did 2 different tests. Our first test was with the existing JB3 MAP that we were using. The second test was with the upgraded JB3 stage map to get the best results from the intake kit. The intake held a consistant gain of about 10HP all the way to 5400rpm at that point it stayed consistant with the baseline test using the JB3. We attribute this to the exhaust restriction and not allowing the turbo move as needed. Once we changed the map on the JB3, the intake really shined. We picked up about 12ft/lbs of torque in the initial RPMs and that is important. Nobody drives at 6000rpm. We all want that initial hit and quick launch.
What the RISS Racing intake kit really did for us as improve the throttle response and daily driveability in the low to mid RPM range. Before the car lagged and this intake helped the turbos spool faster. People need to understand that all these mods are like a puzzle and as you put them together they really come alive. With our next addition of the Agency Power downpipes and Berk Technology catback exhaust, we expect to see this car making 350rwhp on our Mustang Dyno. Put race gas in the car and run it on a DynoJet and you got yourself 400 to the wheels. Not bad!
Vivid Racing carries all the RISS Racing performance products here.
Sweet. I want to drive it even more now.
To finish off the intake on our Project 135I, we also added the RISS Racing intake plenum which is designed to use the ducting to direct air flow directly on to the K&N filter. The intake plenum is an aluminum construction and mounts in place of the factory unit. Check out the pics!
It’d be even more dope if it was made of dry carbon..