MyE28.com

The proverbial Question, “MAF or Chip”

There has always been the debate why use a MAF sensor and or Which chip should I buy. People are always saying they made a MAF kit themselves and it either didn’t work or the tuning was too hard to figure out. And yes there are some people who have managed to make a homegrown and working MAF system.

There are always questions about which chip to buy. There are many BMW specific and very knowledgeable providers such as JimC and Dinan. We can’t answer which chip to buy, but we can ask you to consider this.

When you think about it, JC or Dinan's chips cost them MAYBE 2 dollars to make. When you pay 199 for their chip you are paying for the proprietary knowledge. The Ebay chippers are doing nothing but stealing. I would never want to buy a "Hot" chip. The fact that copyright laws exist and are always being broken does not help the early BMW market to produce any good products. We are just saying this to protect the quality around, in our Older BMW community

As far as our MAF systems go, you're getting Miller Performances Proprietary knowledge, your getting more than one quality part, a CNC machined aluminum housing, a Specific MAF Sensor, all the wiring needed and a quality and customer satisfaction guarantee.

Consider that the price doesn't reflect the chip because of how minuscule the cost is but the time, development and cost of all the components in the system.

A chip for $199 = One item.
MAF for $489 = 12 Items chip included countless hours of development and design.

Other Kits are up in the area of $899 AND don't even work properly with all kinds of existing problems. Some kits don't even use a temp sensor. AND what other MAF System is Chip tuned for the stock ECU? The stock ECU is one of the most adaptive and user friendly engine management systems in the sense of drivability and maintenance.

I don't think people with these cars really compare the costs of a maf kit against the costs of an aftermarket chip. If the costs of your maf kit are reasonable, and a couple early customers share their positive experiences with your product, the market will respond accordingly. Here's the problem, the market may not be large enough to support this product. The guys interested in a maf kit, may be saving up for a turbo, megasquirt, or more verifiable reasons to buy the miller maf. Megasquirt may be your real competition. Bruno marketed the modern performance maf recently. Bruno sold 1 maf kit that I know of. I had this kit, and after 1 trip to the dyno, loved it. It ran well, gained 30+ lb/ft of torque under 4,000 rpm, gained some horsepower up to, gave me a way to fine tune the faked afm input to the dme, & was fun to modify. It worked great, until a connection at one of the manual tuning pots failed, just like JoeS' same box failed. Modern Performance is out of business now.

Can I ask a couple questions about your maf kit for sale?
Are you using bosch maf's similar to the ones used in the later bmw v8's & m3's? They seem to be less durable than the cheaper ProM/ford maf's.
Do you have a maf that works off the ~4.7v supplied by the dme for the afm, or does 12v ignition switched, need to be supplied, like other maf kits?
Can you post screen shots of your tuning software?
Is a serial connection used for tuning? Is there a USB connection?

This forum does appreciate performance products being developed for these old cars. I don't think anyone is against you here. I personally like the tcd turbo kit, a lot. I also like his exchange, disclosure, & willingness to work with forum members. With any forum, a thick skin helps; people should ask questions.

This is a dyno sheet of my 535 with the modern perf maf kit.





I'm using a split second signal box with internal map sensor now. It maps against rpm's & may be slightly better than the modern perf maf. I also never get the occasional check engine light, as the rev mapping against intake pressure allows the singal to null while cranking under 500rpm.
It is really nice, but doesn't translate seamlessly to other m30's. I used a seperate intake air temp sensor. It requires a wideband o2 sensor & some time to tune. RayA tried my configuration on his turbo e28 & really needed a wideband to correct for the differences between our cars. I had a 284 regrind cam, RD headers, 15lb flywheel, & no turbo. Kinetic Motorsport has this box on sale for $239, here, http://www.kineticmotorsport.com/produc ... -34-0.html.