macfly
May 27th 2004, 05:33
A review by Grease Monkey.
I had Dinan install the Schrick cams for the S62 motor in my Z8 and they just finished tuning it on their extremely accurate dyno. I only have a few numbers at this time but they are putting together a full graph which will be sent to me later. My Z8, which has Dinan's full S2 setup, had a peak HP reading of 476 with the Schrick cams installed. Their baseline Z8 produced 461 HP with full S2 setup, so they saw a 15 HP increase. My Z8 also has the Eisenmann race exhaust so my guess is the cams added 10 HP and the exhaust contributed the other 5 HP. I say this because Steve Dinan only expected about a 10 HP increase from the cams so the exhaust was probably responsible for the rest. They were able to increase the HP by 4 due to fine tuning of the ECU since the air/fuel mixture was slightly lean initially.
Frankly, the small increase in HP makes it hard to justify the cost of installing the Schrick cams, especially when a switch to 3.64 gears will give a much bigger improvement for less money. For those of you contemplating the Schrick cams, a few words of warning are in order. Dinan is planning to come out with their own cam upgrade for the S62 motor (they may use the Schricks or their own grind) so they do NOT want to do any more installs at this time. If you haven't upgraded the intake and exhaust capabilities of your motor (Dinan S2, Hamann, etc.), installing the Schricks is probably a complete waste. Your engine just won't be able to take advantage of the cams' higher performance profiles. Besides, even a full S2 equipped engine can only expect a 10 HP increase in power and that assumes someone can fine tune the ECU for you. Finally, the clearance for the Schrick cams in the heads is very close and may require some machine work to avoid interference (mine did).
I am looking forward to having my baby back home soon and playing with the new found ponies, but please remember that I live at 6000 feet and need all the help I can get just to experience what most of you get to play with every day in your unmodified Z8s.
Probably the best thing about this project was getting to work with Steve Dinan and his company again. Steve is a true gentleman (not to mention a lunatic fringe enthusiast!) and his company is the most impressive aftermarket organization I have ever seen. Their facility and manufacturing equipment are state-of-the-art and most of his employees have been there for over 20 years! I got the "cook's tour" and was blown away by the level of attention to detail involved in all of the products they manufacture. Besides the BMW upgrades (requiring 2 different facilities), Dinan also has a race engine shop where they produce full-race S62 motors for use in the Rolex Daytona series and nitro-methane burning fuel dragster engines! What fun!
Grease Monkey.
I had Dinan install the Schrick cams for the S62 motor in my Z8 and they just finished tuning it on their extremely accurate dyno. I only have a few numbers at this time but they are putting together a full graph which will be sent to me later. My Z8, which has Dinan's full S2 setup, had a peak HP reading of 476 with the Schrick cams installed. Their baseline Z8 produced 461 HP with full S2 setup, so they saw a 15 HP increase. My Z8 also has the Eisenmann race exhaust so my guess is the cams added 10 HP and the exhaust contributed the other 5 HP. I say this because Steve Dinan only expected about a 10 HP increase from the cams so the exhaust was probably responsible for the rest. They were able to increase the HP by 4 due to fine tuning of the ECU since the air/fuel mixture was slightly lean initially.
Frankly, the small increase in HP makes it hard to justify the cost of installing the Schrick cams, especially when a switch to 3.64 gears will give a much bigger improvement for less money. For those of you contemplating the Schrick cams, a few words of warning are in order. Dinan is planning to come out with their own cam upgrade for the S62 motor (they may use the Schricks or their own grind) so they do NOT want to do any more installs at this time. If you haven't upgraded the intake and exhaust capabilities of your motor (Dinan S2, Hamann, etc.), installing the Schricks is probably a complete waste. Your engine just won't be able to take advantage of the cams' higher performance profiles. Besides, even a full S2 equipped engine can only expect a 10 HP increase in power and that assumes someone can fine tune the ECU for you. Finally, the clearance for the Schrick cams in the heads is very close and may require some machine work to avoid interference (mine did).
I am looking forward to having my baby back home soon and playing with the new found ponies, but please remember that I live at 6000 feet and need all the help I can get just to experience what most of you get to play with every day in your unmodified Z8s.
Probably the best thing about this project was getting to work with Steve Dinan and his company again. Steve is a true gentleman (not to mention a lunatic fringe enthusiast!) and his company is the most impressive aftermarket organization I have ever seen. Their facility and manufacturing equipment are state-of-the-art and most of his employees have been there for over 20 years! I got the "cook's tour" and was blown away by the level of attention to detail involved in all of the products they manufacture. Besides the BMW upgrades (requiring 2 different facilities), Dinan also has a race engine shop where they produce full-race S62 motors for use in the Rolex Daytona series and nitro-methane burning fuel dragster engines! What fun!
Grease Monkey.