jon dee

This is the new face of marketing as practiced by oil companies, phone companies, power companies, television providers etc. The object is to make direct comparisons between competing products and packages virtually impossible. Works best if they have heaps of add-ons and hidden costs, use unintelligible jargon and generally get the customer so bemused that they just give up trying to work out which is the best value or most appropriate for their needs. Then it just comes down to who is offering the best freebies for signing up Changing the name of the company / package / product / bundle regularly is another part of the strategy. This works because many people think that because a product has been given a new name and packaging, this means the product has been improved. Changed does not equal improved Cheers...

I did trawl the internet for a MSDS and found this... ExxonMobil MSDS_722717.pdf via the site linked above. It is specific to NZ and covers various Mobil fuels including Supreme+ 98. Within the content I can only find one mention of ethanol and that is in a footnote to Section 3. It states... NOTE: Composition may contain up to 0.5% performance additives and / or dyes. The concentration of the components shown above may vary substantially. In certain countries, benzene content may be limited to lower levels. Oxygenates such as tertiary-amyl-methyl ether, ethanol, di-isopropyl ether, and ethyl-tertiary-butyl ether may be present. Because of volatility considerations, gasoline vapor may have concentrations of components very different from those of liquid gasoline. The major components of gasoline vapor are: butane, isobutane, pentane, and isopentane. The reportable component percentages, shown in the composition/information on ingredients section, are based on API's evaluation of a typical gasoline mixture. Oxygenates may be present up to the maximum permitted by New Zealand Engine Fuel Specifications Regulations latest issue. The list of ingredients given in the main body of Section 3 does not mention ethanol. Further, current Mobil advertising for Supreme+ 98 claims amongst other things, that users can expect improved gas mileage. This would be contrary to every other company selling e10 fuels where they grudgingly admit to a small reduction in distance per tank because of the lower energy content. Also, it is almost certain that if Mobil 98 contained ethanol it would be mentioned at the pump as (being NZ) there is bound to be a government regulation requiring that information to be disclosed. So, based on all the above, I am sticking with my conclusion that on the balance of probabilities, Mobil Supreme+ 98 does not contain methanol Cheers...

Interesting... I'd guess that methanol would help, as it absorbs water, and do much the same job as a litre of methylated spirits dumped in the tank ? Cheers...

Note to self... call by the local Mobil station and check the stickers on the 98 pump. Done. Well, looking at the sticker on the pump right beside the nozzle, there is no mention of ethanol, so safe to say Mobil SUPREME+ 98 octane is indeed straight gasoline with no added ethanol. Happy to clear that up. And yes... ethanol does not play well with aluminum fuel system components, so not for carbed engines, mowers, 2-strokes etc. Cheers...

Mobil are very secret squirrel with the specs for their 98octane gas. Some years back they apparently introduced an e10 98 blend but I am unable to confirm if that is still the case, or if they now only serve straight 98 octane gas. Either way it is a win as far as I am concerned. Gull are happy to disclose that their 98 is an e10 blend and they do have a couple of outlets in Wellington, but neither is close for me. Cheers...

Yes... I have noticed that in some societies there has been this curious trend to categorise people into generations or age bands, and then make the broadest of broad assumptions that being in a particular age band means that a person will behave or think in a certain way. This is a simplification so stunning in its naivety that I can only assume that it is an attempt to create divisions in society and set one generation against another. Kind of like the warfare games so popular on US TV... after the democrats vs the republicans, next up the millennials vs the boomers... followed by the British vs the Irish, Russia vs the Ukraine and for the grand finale, Muslims vs the whole western World !!! However, the plot fails when the person being categorised is unfamiliar with (and does not care) which division he/she is supposed to be playing in, and therefore does not know how he/she is supposed to act and think. Generalisations are useful to a point, but when they become a means of turning one age group, minority, race or religion against another it's time to rethink the rules. Just saying... no offence intended to any person living or dead Cheers...

Regardless of what your parents might have told you... closing your eyes DOES NOT make the boogie man go away Cheers... PS: Turn that sh*t up !!!!!

Rage Against The Machine - Guerrilla Radio https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rm1nCYOZB-s Enjoy.... cheers...

Well, it goes like this... I don't wear a watch as my life is not measured in minutes. And I don't carry a phone as I am not available for random calls 24/7. I don't need a GPS as I know where I am going and I am not a cripple, so I can get out of my car, pump my own gas and walk into the store to pay for it at the counter. Three hundred years ago humans trained animals to perform tricks for entertainment and make a little money. These days technology corporates train humans to perform tricks for entertainment and make a huge profits. Outside of that nothing much has changed in the world for centuries, so perhaps we really haven't left the stone age yet ? Cheers... PS: And I don't need a remote for my car stereo

Can I do that with a NOKIA C5 3G ? That;s the only Tamagotchi that I have Cheers...

OK... concensus seems to be that 98e10 works just as well as BP98 so I think that I will just start filling up at Mobil (2 minutes from home) and save myself a 15 minute drive each way to get BP98. I'm all for brand loyalty but I'm not prepared to have my card knocked back when I am at the head of a queue waiting to pay. I've used the same card at half a dozen other stores in the last couple of days and it works fine on modern terminals. Thanks for the input Cheers...

Ethanol has about 30% less energy than gasoline per unit volume. So when you start mixing ethanol with gasoline you need to increase the volume of the mix burned per unit of time to produce the same energy as you produced with straight gasoline. This means that e10 will have about 3% less energy per litre than gasoline requiring the fuel system to flow about 3% more volume to produce the same power. The recommended max ethanol mix for the stock n54 fuel system is e40 and will require about 14% more more flow, which is where the LPFP runs out of pressure/capacity. Gross over-simplification but you get the idea. To run e85 it is actually necessary to flow approx 35% more fuel as high percentage ethanol mixes have to run richer than gasoline due to ethanol having a lower stoich. The performance benefits of e85 are considerable, especially for boosted engines. If was building a racecar it would either be on e85 of straight ethanol Below is the list of cars specified by BMW as requiring 98RON minimum. Cheers...

Topic has most likely been done to death but I see so many diverse opinions on the evils of ethanol that I thought I would post this bit of information. Currently I have a small problem with the BP outlet that I use. After driving across town to get to a station that has 98 on tap, I find that their counter terminals will not accept my card, even the brand new card that I ordered to try and overcome this problem. Fortunately, I had enough cash in my pocket to pay for the gas, but if that had not been the case there would have been a big problem. I might add that the card works fine everywhere else except for the BP station, likely because their terminals are old. As a work around I checked to see if my nearest Mobil (a lot closer to home) had 98 on tap and they do, so I'll considering giving that a shot next time I need to fill up. If anyone has has legitimate problems after changing from BP to Mobil, I'd like to hear about it Cheers...

Awesome !! I had seen this kind of screw used in some of the online DIY's but didn't think that they would be available off the shelf here in NZ. Mitre10 say they have them in stock so I shall grab some next time I am in the store. Cheers...

Interested. I just reused the factory screws but I wasn'r super happy with how much thread engagement they had. Do these "hanger bolts" match the factory thread or do you have to drill the factory thread out before running these in ? Then I guess just a washer and a M6 locknut to hold the IC in place ? Cheers...

Man... I AM getting old I didn't even know anyone built this stuff. I'm thinking that a decent fabricator could make something like this if you let him have the car for a couple of days. Realistically, if he has the car on the hoist to fab the pipes he may as well install the system while he is in there. Looking at this one with just a single small resonator, you better hope your neighbours have double glazing Cheers...

From various comments I have seen on vendors sites, it seems very likely that many of the companies who actually "manufacture" their own intercoolers buy their end tanks and cores from specialist suppliers and then weld them together. Those specialist suppliers could be in the US or they could be in China. Other vendors just short circuit the process by buying the finished article from China and put their sticker on the box, as you say. The art is in selecting the right core for the application, and that seems to be the difficult part... balancing pressure drop and heat transfer to obtain the best result. A lot of reading leads me to believe that a maximum pressure drop of 3psi across the IC is about as much as you want, and a power gain of 20whp is about the maximum you can expect from an aftermarket IC. On a 300whp car 20hp is a little under 7% gain and that will only be felt briefly at around 6000rpm. Not to be sneezed at of course, but most engines don't spend a lot of time at 6000rpm unless you are doing a looooooooong burnout The real world benefits are found further down in the rev range where keeping the IAT down allow the turbos to make the same power with less effort. Or if you like, more power with the same effort. Fast cruising, uphill driving or just pressing on in the twisties while riding the fat part of the torque curve... that's when your upgraded IC will be doing its job and keeping your engine happy. At least that was the thinking behind my decision to put one on my car. Can't say I noticed any difference that I could put down to the IC. Not like that other "plus 20hp" CAI mod that you know is working because it makes more noise Cheers...

Making a guess with absolutely no evidence to back it up, I would think that the pressure drop across a typical Chinese 335i intercooler would be similar to or a little less than across the OEM unit. Over the last few years intercoolers with fabricated end tanks have pretty much disappeared and current versions all use the (now generic) cast end tanks for the stepped intercoolers. The popularity of the Chinese units suggests that they do actually offer some performance improvement over OEM, but does not throw any light on whether it is obtained by reducing the pressure drop, increasing heat transfer, or some combination of both. Dyno testing under controlled conditions with data logging of relevant parameters (as per the graphs above) would be the only way to know for sure, and that needs enough fans to simulate intercooler airflow at road speeds. Probably WGDC from a street pull would be close enough Cheers...

Thought I would add this one just for the sake of the comments Cheers...

That will be an interesting exercise. The internet tells me that there are number of places where the air/gas flow through the N54 intake and exhaust are compromised by packaging requirements. Air filter, inlets, outlets, intercooler, charge pipe, downpipes and catback exhaust are all claimed to be restrictive by the people who sell aftermarket "solutions" that supposedly remove the restrictions and release more performance. However from what I see, all these parts are adequate for the factory design performance target and intended usage. The claimed shortcomings only become obvious when owners begin modifying their vehicles to attain performance levels well beyond factory. Nothing wrong with that... I am one of those owners My understanding is that the turbos have to overcome the total intake pressure drop from the entry of the cold air intake to the intake manifold. So anything that reduces the turbo intake or discharge pressure drop from stock levels will free up some power. The attached graphs are a little bit interesting, although they are old and I am certain that current aftermarket intercoolers will all improve on the OEM version. Lowering the charge temperature is always beneficial as it lowers the risk of detonation allowing more timing for more power. I have seen graphs showing that on a long 4th (?) gear pull, the rise in IAT over the course of the pull was substantially reduced by an aftermarket cooler compared to the OEM unit. However, a bit of research after I bought my intercooler shows that in a temperate climate such as NZ, for normal road use an upgraded intercooler offers very little benefit. So it is a bit like paying extra for premium quality tyres... you may never need the extra performance, but it is nice to know that it is there if you ever need it Cheers...

I haven't installed the tension arms at this stage. The tension arms (upper control arms) don't change the suspension geometry as I understand it, as in they are the same length as the OEM arms. So it is the lower arms that give you the extra camber and a little bit of "stance" They also give you a dangerous amount of toe in until you get the wheels aligned. The car will be unpleasant to drive and your front tires will have excessive wear. As I live a long ways from an alignment shop I elected to do my own alignment using the "string method". Took a lot of messing around to get it about right, but plenty good enough for driving until I get a chance to have a proper alignment done. And yeah... car looks better now that there is a bit of front camber to go with the rear wheel camber. Cheers...

That's the one. I actually talked HZ into making them as the only alloy lower charge pipes I could find at the time were out of Europe and mega expensive. It plugs straight into the intercooler OEM style outlet and gives a full 2.5" pipe up to the upper charge pipe silicone coupler. I didn't install it as you have to dismantle a lot of stuff to get the factory pipe out and install the alloy one. Only issue I could see with it is that HZ can't get inside the pipe to clean up the welds so the impossible to reach ones will have a few dags. Here is a link... https://www.aliexpress.com/store/112612?spm=a2g0o.detail.1000061.1.5dbd6d42roKoQC Ill install it if I ever have to take the radiator out, but seeing as my car already had a radiator replacement a couple of years back, hopefully that will not be for a while. Cheers...

Finally got round to fitting the M3 lower control arms. Didn't do the upper arms as it seems that they don't really change the dynamics at all, just provide an upgrade for the oil lubricated inner bush. I'll leave those until I either need them (currently not leaking) or get bored Went for a lap over my test track this afternoon, and as there was hardly any other traffic on the road I could push on in a spirited manner. In layman's terms what I noticed was that the feeling of imminent understeer has gone. Previously, going into a tightish left hand corner with a bit of speed on, I felt that the car was waiting for a chance to get into the other lane. Likewise, when turning right it seemed ready to head for the fence if I wasn't paying enough attention. Now, with the lower arms installed, even though the camber change is minimal, I no longer live in fear of understeer when going into corners at a few more kph than would be considered prudent . Driving is more enjoyable when you know that your car has the handling to keep you safe on the road when having fun . So big thanks to to you Herb for advising me to get the M3 LCA's 👍 Cheers...

Seem to remember that aluminum lug nuts are a no-no in NZ. Maybe check that out before you buy that kit ? Cheers...

Hiya... I got one from HZ Racing via Aliexpress about 18 moths back. Prices have gone up a bit since then, but looked just like the one pictured above only painted black. OEM type connections both sides and same cast end tanks. HZ are actually a manufacturer rather than a parts store, so you can get good answers to your questions if you have any. Fitted up without any problems. I ordered an HZ alloy lower charge pipe also but never fitted it as getting the OEM one out looked to be more hassle than it was worth at the rime. So if you are after a deal on the pipe let me know Cheers...