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Technical Topics B48 4-Cylinder Turbo Engine / Drivetrain / Exhaust Modifications [B46] [G20] Bootmod3 Stage 2 First Impressions

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      03-26-2020, 10:25 AM   #1
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[B46] [G20] Bootmod3 Stage 2 First Impressions

So I just went and did my catless DP at a friend’s shop today, and then I went and did Stage 2 flash shortly after.

Before I get into Stage 2 on The G20, I want to talk about my downpipe. I bought my catless downpipe for the B46 engine on Ebay for about $150, everything fit great. One of the holes on the stock mounting bracket had to be made like 2mm wider but besides that, the install went flawlessly. No leaks either. I was surprised it fit, if anyone is interested in this downpipe, PM me. Reason I cheaped out and went with this Ebay downpipe is because I can’t justify spending almost $700 CAD on a stainless steel pipe if a cheaper one will fit and produce the same results.

Back to Stage 2. I bought the OTS maps bundle and I decided to go with Stage 2 93 Octane, the difference between this and Stage 1 is immediately noticeable. The car is now even sportier than it was in Stage 1. The feeling of throttle response is even more instantaneous compared to before. When in any gear, above 2K RPM, WOT feels like you are going faster than Stage 1 by a small bit, but it’s just the volume of the power, the amount of power you have left before you hit red line, you can feel you have a lot more power than before. If you thought Stage 1 was smooth, this is even smoother now, by a good margin too, it feels really, really good. Now it takes even less effort for me to get up to speed compared to Stage 1. The handling has improved because of the catless DP. You can go into turns much faster now, the throttle response really changed because I no longer feel a resistance in lower gears at high RPM. It makes turning just that much smoother.

TLDR - Stage 2 offers a faster, smoother experience and more instantaneous throttle response compared with Stage 1, enough that you can tell on the first drive after flashing to Stage 2. There is also no more 1st and 2nd gear resistance that you feel with catted dp.

Regarding the exhaust, it’s much louder now. I have a muffler delete + catless DP setup. I don’t like it actually because it drones now at 3K RPM. Since the car is so loud now, it changes the way I drive since I’m no longer driving fast as often because of the sound. I’m not running Stage 2 AGG yet, but just Stage 2 93 Octane pops and cracks like crazy. It’s very loud and almost all of the sounds are cracks, along with smaller burbles following it. I’m eventually going to fix it over the next 2 weeks maybe, and put in two resonators in my Y pipe, that will probably help with the sound.

Let me know if you guys have any questions, I will try my best to respond to everyone ASAP.

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Last edited by g20beam; 04-05-2020 at 12:32 PM..
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      03-26-2020, 10:56 AM   #2
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Thank you for the review, im glad you are happy with BM3 result
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      03-26-2020, 07:49 PM   #3
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The g20 I have was manufactured on 05/2019 do you think bm3 will work for my g20?
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      03-26-2020, 09:17 PM   #4
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Originally Posted by agma View Post
The g20 I have was manufactured on 05/2019 do you think bm3 will work for my g20?
Must be before 03/2019 I believe.
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      03-28-2020, 01:20 AM   #5
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Quote:
Originally Posted by g20beam View Post
So I just went and did my catless DP at a friend’s shop today, and then I went and did Stage 2 flash shortly after.

Before I get into Stage 2 on The G20, I want to talk about my downpipe. I bought my catless downpipe for the B46 engine on Ebay for about $150, everything fit great. One of the holes on the stock mounting bracket had to be made like 2mm wider but besides that, the install went flawlessly. No leaks either. I was surprised it fit, if anyone is interested in this downpipe, PM me. Reason I cheaped out and went with this Ebay downpipe is because I can’t justify spending almost $700 CAD on a stainless steel pipe if a cheaper one will fit and produce the same results.

Back to Stage 2. I bought the OTS maps bundle and I decided to go with Stage 2 93 Octane, the difference between this and Stage 1 is immediately noticeable. The car is now even sportier than it was in Stage 1. The feeling of throttle response is even more instantaneous compared to before. When in any gear, above 2K RPM, WOT feels like you are going faster than Stage 1 by a small bit, but it’s just the volume of the power, the amount of power you have left before you hit red line, you can feel you have a lot more power than before. If you thought Stage 1 was smooth, this is even smoother now, by a good margin too, it feels really, really good. Now it takes even less effort for me to get up to speed compared to Stage 1. The handling has improved because of the catless DP. You can go into turns much faster now, the throttle response really changed because I no longer feel a resistance in lower gears at high RPM. It makes turning just that much smoother.

TLDR - Stage 2 offers a faster, smoother experience and more instantaneous throttle response compared with Stage 1, enough that you can tell on the first drive after flashing to Stage 2. There is also no more 1st and 2nd gear resistance that you feel with catted dp.

Regarding the exhaust, it’s much louder now. I have a muffler delete + catless DP setup. I don’t like it actually because it drones now at 3K RPM. Since the car is so loud now, it changes the way I drive since I’m no longer driving fast as often because of the sound. I’m not running Stage 2 AGG yet, but just Stage 2 93 Octane pops and cracks like crazy. It’s very loud and almost all of the sounds are cracks, along with smaller burbles following it. I’m eventually going to fix it over the next 2 weeks maybe, and put in two resonators in my Y pipe, that will probably help with the sound.

Let me know if you guys have any questions, I will try my best to respond to everyone ASAP.
Any idea what the power gains would be? kW/HP/nm?
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      03-28-2020, 04:49 AM   #6
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Originally Posted by shanknik View Post


Any idea what the power gains would be? kW/HP/nm?
Torque figures haven't changed, still at 380lbft of torque. I haven't looked at the HP figures generated in the M Sport Displays, but it's probably slightly higher than it was at in Stage 1.
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      03-29-2020, 07:33 PM   #7
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Quote:
Originally Posted by agma View Post
The g20 I have was manufactured on 05/2019 do you think bm3 will work for my g20?
Quote:
Originally Posted by g20beam View Post
Must be before 03/2019 I believe.
Also, if you have an older car and take your car in for service and they update your ECU software, you might not be able to obd flash your car. I spoke to someone on another forum and he mentioned he had BM3 stage 1 at first and then took his car in for a service. They flashed his ECU with the updated software and he couldn’t flash BM3 on his car. He’s running a JB4 now.

Edit - He has a G20 330i.
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      03-29-2020, 08:56 PM   #8
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Quote:
Originally Posted by VipinLJ View Post
Quote:
Originally Posted by agma View Post
The g20 I have was manufactured on 05/2019 do you think bm3 will work for my g20?
Quote:
Originally Posted by g20beam View Post
Must be before 03/2019 I believe.
Also, if you have an older car and take your car in for service and they update your ECU software, you might not be able to obd flash your car. I spoke to someone on another forum and he mentioned he had BM3 stage 1 at first and then took his car in for a service. They flashed his ECU with the updated software and he couldn't flash BM3 on his car. He's running a JB4 now.

Edit - He has a G20 330i.
I was planning on Bootmod3 and they updated everything on my car for recalls and now I'm going Jb+
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      03-29-2020, 09:24 PM   #9
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Quote:
Originally Posted by hamzag20 View Post
I was planning on Bootmod3 and they updated everything on my car for recalls and now I'm going Jb+
I did the same. Hopefully by the time warranty almost out BM3 will have figured it out and can flash easily. I figure that would buy me some time before I want to upgrade to a new car!
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      03-29-2020, 10:49 PM   #10
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Originally Posted by hamzag20 View Post
I was planning on Bootmod3 and they updated everything on my car for recalls and now I'm going Jb+
Can you specify which exact recall this was? Just wondering.
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      03-30-2020, 02:54 AM   #11
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Quote:
Originally Posted by g20beam View Post
Quote:
Originally Posted by hamzag20 View Post
I was planning on Bootmod3 and they updated everything on my car for recalls and now I'm going Jb+
Can you specify which exact recall this was? Just wondering.
There was a update and replacement for the front camera that was inside of the windshield near the rear view mirror. There was one for the rear view camera brightness because it didn't meet US safety regulations or something so they had to update. The rest were wiring harness and engine related which I don't really remember.
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      03-30-2020, 05:45 AM   #12
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what was the hp display showing after a stage 1 tune?
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      03-30-2020, 10:59 AM   #13
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Quote:
Originally Posted by agma View Post
what was the hp display showing after a stage 1 tune?
It went up a lot, the M Sport Displays show around 320HP. I will try to get video of the screen next time.
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      03-30-2020, 11:00 AM   #14
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Quote:
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what was the hp display showing after a stage 1 tune?
The stock as well as tunes HP displays are gimmicks I believe. It basically shows what BMW/tuner wants to show. Reason I say it is because, with a piggyback, there’s no change in the HP/TQ display even though the car is producing more than the stock power.
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      03-30-2020, 07:10 PM   #15
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Hey guys, just wanted to post a quick little update.

I was having fun over the weekend and tuned the car to Stage 2 AGG. It sounds insane, gunshots are real. I don't have my dash cam memory card in yet so I can't get clips while driving but I'll try to get some clips soon. For now, I have a idle rev clip, and the revs sound really nice.

I have a muffler delete and a catless downpipe.

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      03-30-2020, 10:08 PM   #16
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Quote:
Originally Posted by VipinLJ View Post
The stock as well as tunes HP displays are gimmicks I believe. It basically shows what BMW/tuner wants to show. Reason I say it is because, with a piggyback, there’s no change in the HP/TQ display even though the car is producing more than the stock power.
On JB4 it doesn't show higher figures in Sport Displays? In BM3 it changes. It shows up to 400lbft of torque and 400hp maximum while tuned. It only reaches 380lbft of torque even in Stage 2. I haven't looked at HP figures but that's what it's at for torque. I believe these values are the figures that the car is making at crank, meaning whp is definitely much lower than what figures show on M Sport Displays.
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      03-30-2020, 10:43 PM   #17
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Quote:
Originally Posted by g20beam View Post
On JB4 it doesn't show higher figures in Sport Displays? In BM3 it changes. It shows up to 400lbft of torque and 400hp maximum while tuned. It only reaches 380lbft of torque even in Stage 2. I haven't looked at HP figures but that's what it's at for torque. I believe these values are the figures that the car is making at crank, meaning whp is definitely much lower than what figures show on M Sport Displays.
Nope. I asked BMS why and they said it’s because the car is being tricked and the DME doesn’t “see” the increased power and hence doesn’t display it. I assumed as much since I thought it probably was a gimmick any way (even the X3 has it and something about the way it showed the power didn’t seem right ). I haven’t checked the sport displays after installing the jb4 but the JB+ didn’t have any effect (I thought it did since it showed almost 280hp which I noticed after installing the JB+ and I was sure I saw it around 250 without it but a recent drive on map 0 (stock map) showed it shows 280 even with the stock tune and bmw claims only 255 hp so yea).
If you look at the BM3 (or any G20 tuner) description, you’ll see that they mention/mentioned calibration of the sport gauges (Edit - I just checked the BM3 and PTF websites and they don’t mention it now - I’m 99pc sure I saw it on one/both websites before).
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      03-31-2020, 11:49 AM   #18
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Quote:
Originally Posted by VipinLJ View Post
Nope. I asked BMS why and they said it’s because the car is being tricked and the DME doesn’t “see” the increased power and hence doesn’t display it. I assumed as much since I thought it probably was a gimmick any way (even the X3 has it and something about the way it showed the power didn’t seem right ). I haven’t checked the sport displays after installing the jb4 but the JB+ didn’t have any effect (I thought it did since it showed almost 280hp which I noticed after installing the JB+ and I was sure I saw it around 250 without it but a recent drive on map 0 (stock map) showed it shows 280 even with the stock tune and bmw claims only 255 hp so yea).
If you look at the BM3 (or any G20 tuner) description, you’ll see that they mention/mentioned calibration of the sport gauges (Edit - I just checked the BM3 and PTF websites and they don’t mention it now - I’m 99pc sure I saw it on one/both websites before).
The last update on Stage 1 map shows what you're talking about. They purposely calibrated sports displays, I'm guessing it's accurate while tuned?
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      03-31-2020, 12:02 PM   #19
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The last update on Stage 1 map shows what you're talking about. They purposely calibrated sports displays, I'm guessing it's accurate while tuned?
Yup. It might be accurate. Or like BMW did, it might be optimistic. Like I mentioned, in my car, even with the stock map, it shows max HP at around 280 and max TQ under 400Nm. It hits only around 290lbft on the meter though BMW claims it to be 295.

How are you enjoying stage 2 so far?
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      03-31-2020, 01:21 PM   #20
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Quote:
Originally Posted by VipinLJ View Post
Yup. It might be accurate. Or like BMW did, it might be optimistic. Like I mentioned, in my car, even with the stock map, it shows max HP at around 280 and max TQ under 400Nm. It hits only around 290lbft on the meter though BMW claims it to be 295.

How are you enjoying stage 2 so far?
Stage 2 AGG is a really good tune. Pops are gunshot loud around 3-4k RPM. Around 1-2k RPM, it is very manageable. The burbles are nice and lowkey, but definitely present. Duration of burbles are about 1-1.5 seconds. 5th gear burbles are mild. This is in Sport Plus.

In Sport, in normal D mode, it is pretty tame, it's actually nicer than Sport in Stage 2 (non AGG). In non AGG, it burbles slightly in Sport, but in Stage 2 AGG, Sport purrs but it doesn't burble. Comfort sounds the same in Stage 2 and Stage 2 AGG. No gunshots unless I am in manual gear or sport gear setting in either Sport or Sport+.

It is very tame in Comfort/Comfort Plus, even with manual gear, there are no burbles at all.

The valve is also fully open in Sport+. I realize in Sport that the valve varies depending on throttle position. But none of that nonsense in Sport+. This results in a crazy sound from the exhaust, very deep and throaty just how I like it. The idle has a really nice boiling sound, it's very nice. I really dig the sound of this exhaust, it's aggressive and tame at the same time.

Performance wise, generally speaking for Stage 2, it is much better than Stage 1. So much smoother, feels like a resistance is lifted in 1st and 2nd gears. There also seems to be way more speed gains at full throttle. The best part is that turbo spool time is much quicker and the turbo initiates much faster at lower RPMs. This really changed the way I drive the car. I don't have to accelerate as hard to get up to speed, and normally I drive less aggressive since I want to keep my exhaust in a tame condition while driving in Sport+ so I don't attract too much attention

Haven't had the time to do a full test yet but there is no lag between shifts at WOT, it's a whole different beast than at medium and low speeds. I really have to give props to how well the BMW technicians and engineers tuned the transmission on the ZF8HP platform, it's insanely quick, almost if not just as fast as a DCT when in manual gear selection mode in Sport+. I am truly amazed.

I will try to get a video up soon. Stay tuned, thanks for reading
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      03-31-2020, 01:43 PM   #21
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I will try to get a video up soon. Stay tuned, thanks for reading
That’s nice. It seems like you’re having lots of fun now. I wonder how it compares to a stock M340i. Even if it’s only a wee bit slower, that would be a win for the tunes 330i.

And yes. A video will be nice. Also, if you can do a launch control video of the speedometer, I’d love to see that and compare it to my car. Just for sh*ts and giggles.
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      03-31-2020, 01:52 PM   #22
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330i is 260 lbs. lighter than a M340i and 379 lbs. lighter than a M340i xdrive, so would be interesting how close a stage 2 with down-pipe would compare.

Last edited by Razor2010; 03-31-2020 at 01:59 PM..
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