BMW M30B35 best standalone option.

Hello everyone!

I'd like to start my first ever performance project. I own a 1988 BMW 535i E34 futuring the M30B35 engine. I wish to turbo it and I'm learning how to do this, so I'd like to ask you guys what standalode ECU should I look at for this project. I'm not trying to go insane with it, it will continue to be my daily driver, so I'm doing this on a budget. I will keep the OEM ignition, and the engine as stock as possible.

I'm looking at the Megasquirt PnP range, from the plug and play perspective, meaning that I don't need to deal with wiring for now. There are even cheaper plug and play alternatives aswell. My main complain is that everything I need to order outside of the EU, it needs to be import taxed.

Can someone with some experience in this particular engine platform and topic, help me figure things out?

Thank you very much.

Stefan,

While I don't have experience with that exact vehicle/engine combo, what features are you looking for?

There's some info here:

https://www.hpacademy.com/technical-articles/which-standalone-ecu-is-the-best/

and here:

https://www.hpacademy.com/previous-webinars/120-selecting-a-suitable-ecu-for-your-application/

There are also some great discussions on this in the forum which may help you out. Aside from wiring being plug and play or not, and the ECU being capable of the cylinder count you have, most of the choice comes down to the functionality you are looking for, and HPA has great discussions on this.

I, really, wasn't able to find much about this engine and topic on the forum, that's why, i decided to open a new discussion, hoping to find someone who has some experience in this matter. I'll take a look at the articles you provided and see if they help. Thank you for that.

As I said, I'm not looking to go crazy with this build. I'm still open to suggestions if someone has any.