But will you actually have that much better power?? Euro 3.5l engines even w/l-jet in stock form made 218hp and 228 ft/lb torque....

Here is where you are getting things mixed up. The Euro motronic 1.0 put out 218bhp so you aren't loosing anything by running motronic. While the l-jet put out the same, the later runs much better.

The later US 3.5l's made significantly less (something like 188hp stock)... but yes with a chip upgrade it gets much closer....upwards of 210hp, but I haven't seen a chip upgrade that is significantly higher than 220hp. That is, at least without adding a 282 schrick cam to the engine etc.....

Now here is where everything is wrong. The US 3.5L made 182 stock, but the US only motor because it had 8.0:1 compression. The Euro motor with 10:1 compression made 218. The use the same engine management, but the US is more adaptable. If you are using the early motor, the motronic does not drain power, in fact you might even gain some by having the car run correctly at all times. Basically, the 1.3 motronic also does not take away power. The reason why the 1.3 motor only made 208 is because of the compression ratio. If you up the compression then you gain power. The simple fact is you are starting with a motor with decent compression and so the engine managment system is not going to significantly change the starting power, but the motronics does not requires as much maintainance as the l-jet and also is very easy to make more power out of. I mean with a chip in the US 3.5L motronic 1.0 motor gives you 206bhp and that is with 8.0:1 compression. The later 1.3 motor you put in a chip and you are making 222bhp. The reason why this is happening is because the motronic is able to adapt. The reason why the later motor has a bigger jump is because it takes more inputs per second than the earlier motronic. The reason why l-jet won't give lots of power is because it won't adapt. Hope this clears up my point.

Rob
M535i SIG Chief Technical Advisor
www.m535i.org
WH