Hey guys, I am planning to purchase the Turner Motorsport Conforti Performance Chip ($209) but tonight on eBay I found the Dinan chip for sale for around $50 (some upwards of $100). Here is one of the Dinan chips for sale on eBay right now: http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/BMW-D-nan-Chip-E28-E30-528-325-84-87-ecu-021-027-/230594263931?pt=Motors_Car_Truck_Parts_Accessories&hash=item35b07d3b7b. I hear over and over again buy Conforti over Dinan but at a difference of almost $150, is it really worth it? Most of the posts were referring to purchasing the chip directly from Dinan and Dinan being overpriced... Thanks guys.
I had a Conforti chip, thought it worked great, don't have a comparison comment for Dinan, only did the Conforti. But, for $50, why not try it, and if you don't like it, pass it along on ebay to the next buyer (do an advanced search though on completed listings to see if they're moving - obviously it'd be a bit of a waste to change your mind, go for the more expensive one, and be stuck w/ the Dinan).
By modern standards, what these chips do is pretty simple: they "reprogram" the ignition advance, injected volumes etc for 91 octane fuel. They are not tweaking much, because there isn't much to tweak in an engine of this vintage. In the 25 years since these chips were designed, the dust has settled and we can see through the competitive hype. I am speculating, but I speculate that all brands basically perform the same. (Although eBay's D-nan brand may have issues compared to true Dinan, but I am speculating yet again). For the record, I have Dinan chips in both my 1987 325i and my 1991 318i. Subjectively, I felt a big performance improvement in the 325i and felt none in the 318i. The difference is that the 325i left the factory tuned for 87 octane and the 318i left the factory tuned for 91 octane. In the 318i, the chip did smooth the idle substantially (318i's idle rough) and raised the fuel cut-off point (i.e. raised the red line). For a 87 octane E30, I highly recommend a chip.
Also in the "old days", there was more power to be extracted in car's like Brian's E30 and some E36 vehicles. With everything so highly tuned from BMW these days (my E46 M3 and my 01 330Ci were good examples), you can't make the major hp from just a chip upgrade. Nowadays it seems to serve as a good base for intakes, throttle bodies, etc. One of the more popular past times seems to be Dinan-bashing on the various BMW forums so I typically take that with so many grains of salt. I might add if you really want good "butt-dyno" results, change your diff gears!
I have a Bavarian Autosport chip in my tired old 325e and it made a pretty decent difference. It made the car more lively and fun to drive. It also increased the rev limiter which was a nice improvement. I'd recommend it.