So, I know that there are several options in the market for reflashing and tuning the Mini ECU to produce good power and loads of torque, but that does not come without a price.

Others are experiencing boost cuts, others non consistent idle, some restricted boost in the first two gears and the list goes on and on...

Thus, the ECU is a pain in the $$$ to tune it perfectly to all sort of stages and configurations.

In the past, I have used standalone racing ECUs with proper harnesses managing to blend the new wiring to the car's wiring network.
I used the standalone to run only the engine and the rest was taken care of the stock ECU. No cels, no malfunctions and everything worked just fine.
The capabilities of a standalone ECU are far more than the stock one and there is some meaty features to be had as well.
To name a few: launch control, flat shifting, torque limiters, antilag, soft and hard cut at the rev limiter, no boost cuts whatsoever, control of chemical turbocharging with mater/methanol/nitrous and many many others...

I was wondering if there is a company that is into researching and providing such a difficult combination for the Prince engine.

I know that in the past JAN had started a thread for such a system, but there is not so much feedback about this.

So ladies and gentleman lets chime in and share our thoughts and experience, maybe something good will come out of this.

Regards,
Themis

 

Hi,

There are plenty available currently. However, it depends on your budget, and more importantly the skill of the tuner installing them. Also depends on the regulations of any competitions you may be entering.

Haltech or moristech are interceptor type units from my part of the world (Australia) that allow a lot of flexibility. You can make more power, but if you have a d**k head programming it you can also lose power, blow engines and other components. You need to have someone punching the buttons who knows what they are doing

Cheers

Robbo

 

I feel the same way about the ecu tuning. Burger stepped out for now, I would love to see a jb4 for the mini, vishnu stepped out, Alta seems ok but they charge more than the Cobb ap and there is one pro tuner, even worse only on map on it. I have been looking at RMW tune and it seems like the guy has to tune it there with your car. So on and so forth with the tune issue, I have no problem spending money but I don't want to spend 800 on something that will not support my current mods and will not support future mods.

I am going to contact Terry and see what's going on, maybe he can get back on the jb for the mini.

 

I think a few questions are in order:

Just what are you expecting from a tune ?

Have any of you considered the stock turbo working parameters/pressures ?

You can't keep trying to up the boost pressure and not have problems on stock components reliability!

If you want BIG power, your going to have to spend BIG $$$

 

True.
That has always been very true. Big power=big money.
We are all spending big money for something we enjoy. Our Minis.
Everything must be done in order. Forge the whole engine and then carefully tune it.
I assume that the stand alone ECU comes in a very high price. Having said that, one of my previous systems from MBE with the wiring harness cost me around 2000. But that was without HPFP control, drive by wire and vanos and and...

 

We are not talking about just a tune, we are talking about the ability to have options. Jb3 offers 7 maps integrated into their tuning software so as you mod, like apple, "they have the map for that"

I have already been looking into a turbo upgrade from Alta; but I don't want to have to install all Alta parts to get the Ap to work right. I.e. I can't use my ags r intake with the ap because "the tune doesn't run well with the ags r"

I want freedom to pick and choose my mods w/o the limitations of tuning software that tells me what I should buy. I base my mods off of the results being posted and the representative of the tuner.. I have spoken to Alta and they were very helpful; however, the one pro tuner for them.... Not impressed. I spoke with M7 and I got some legit information about products and designs. I decided I was going to get all legit parts for my MCS, no eBay no name brands. I am not new to performance vehicles, I just want the hp my MCS deserves.

Big money? Like a 600 dollar intercooler, or a 800 dollar exhaust? We have big spenders in this community, we now not only want but deserve a software upgrade that supports our mods. FYI jb3 for BMW is in the 5-600 range and the power that is freed from it is amazing. Tuning software doesn't have to be expensive to be good, it just needs to be specialized.

 

The price of tuning software is usually directly related to the amount of R&D it took to develop it. It took years and failures by more then a few companies before there were any tuning solutions for the mini. It is an extremely hard ECU to work with. That is why it costs what it does.

Also I am pretty sure RMW will use the AP to tune for whatever mods you have.

 

Is RMW the guy in cali? The only ap pro tuner? If he is, I will never get a tune from him regardless of if it is good or not.

That's just my opinion.

 

I have an RMW tune and its excellent!

 

BTW what mods do you have? other than the intake and charge pipes, what are you referring to as not being supported?

 

When I spoke with the gentleman, he stated "KEEP AS MUCH OF THE STOCK PARTS ON THE CAR as you can. THE ONLY parts to change are intercooler, downpipe and catback. Rest is a waste of money.."

Wasn't really happy with that response when there are dyno results that said otherwise. Alta specifically stated that the M7 AGSR would make the ap not run correctly.

That quote is out of an email.

 

Truth be told he is right, turbo cars make more power one way, and thats more boost. Volumetric efficiency on an n/a car is about 50-60% Adding intakes etc. raises that. With a turbo car once your in boost, you are at over 100% VME. They sound cool and may feed cooler air to the turbo but at the end of the day they dont make power... Im not ******* your choices, i have an NM CAI and i love it, but realistically it doesnt make things faster. There is the marketing side of things and the real side of things. I have been in the car and bike game a good amount and have seen the progression of things... when it comes to turbo, Lowering IATS, freeing flow(exhaust) and raising boost is how its done... now things arent that easy of course you have to make changes to support what you do but just a general point of attack.


The best part of the M7 is the heat shield... that is a nice piece


Unless you witness the dyno run in the same exact conditions, the numbers could be incorrect(i dont mean falsified) but if one run is done mid day the next when theres a difference in temp., humidity, etc.

 

An option to Alta and Jan is to call Dez Ballard at ABF Tech Division. He'll work with you on whatever you want to do, and he works directly with Cobb to program via the AP tool. They also have a new downpipe/catback and fully tested turbo upgrade to push you over 300 HP.

Of course, you'll once again be stuck with coming to California...

You should call Way at WMW to see what he has up his sleeve as well. I can't see Way sitting back and not working with Cobb on this one.

 

300hp is all too easy, nothing new there.

 

I am doing baseline vitals on Saturday. Then I will add the mods and see what type of results I get.

If I was worried about the cost of the part, I would have got a foam filter and a piece of dryer hose and made a ram air intake which would have been "hella fresh" but on a serious note, what sold me on M7 was product line and the information I got from Peter at M7.

Fmic and turbo back exhaust, why the pipes and the intake then? He tunes for Alta and pretty much told me not to buy parts that Alta sells. It was just.... interesting. To say the least

 

If I were you I would talk to Jan over at RMW and just see what he has to say. He is widely considered THE authority on Mini tuning. If you are worried about him only tuning for Alta parts because he uses the AP then don't, he does dyno tunes all over the country that are in no way affiliated with Alta. He also uses Dimsport to tune if you are just fundamentally against the AP, but honestly the AP seems to be the most effective way to tune our ECU right now.

 

Not apposed to ap.. I used it in my 04 wrx.. With the mods I had on it I was pushing 287whp on wastegate boost.

 

@ This thread....


The JB3 is a PIGGYBACK.

A full standalone is a completely different animal...and really, is complete overkill for a street car. Until you are running parts and a fully built motor which absolutely must run outside the parameters available in the stock ECU, there is no need. As far as any parts available on the market for an R56 right now.....you do not need a standalone.

And FWIW, Jan@RMW has tuned numerous 135i/335i cars (one being his own 135i), and his tunes have produced consistently better results over the JB3, not to mention drivability was a whole lot better.

You don't need Alta parts to get the AP to work right. I'm sure their staged/canned maps were specifically designed with them in mind, which makes sense seeing as it's their own company. This does not mean you cannot pick and choose what parts to put on your own car...that's the beauty of the AP. You can get a custom tune done for anything on your car.

best quote of the night.

He told you that from experience. Many others that have spent $$$ on "legit" parts can also tell you the same. You too will go down that road.

I have essentially 2 parts on my car that make any sort of a difference: Bigger turbo+intercooler, tuned using the AP. Hell I even have a stock DP....my intake and exhaust are purely for my aural enjoyment, sure they might help a little but it really won't make or break your numbers. A catless downpipe would help for sure, just haven't gotten around to throwing one on.



Let us know how that goes....

 

I have yet to see an R56 put down 300whp

 

You need to come to Europe!

 

Im not attacking you but "ram" air is non existant on a turbo car ,

 

Well that suggestion is as useful as **** on a bull.

300HP is not easily attainable in the U.S. for reasons we are all quite aware of. However, with more time spent on the R55/56/57 platforms some solutions are beginning to emerge in the U.S. It's all market-driven, of course, and there was not likely to be any real progress "for the masses" until there was more demand. Frankly, there will likely never be huge demand for 300HP MINI's anyway, but at least some shops are focusing more R&D on it, and for that we are grateful.

 

Many Euro Tunners use Flywheel HP ratings, and yes a large amount of US cars have 300 FWHP.

Mellanor, do you have a stock downpipe?

 

Easily i dont think is the right word... financially i think is the biggest barrier. Bolt ons with the jcw turbo swap and a tune i think could get it there. Who wants to drop 1600 on a turbo though!? for the mcs it will actually be easier but more strenuous on the block because of its higher comp. ratio. I am sure it can be done but these blocks are not $500-$1000 units that can be replaced cheaply if destroyed.

 

I'm saving up the money for the downpipe/turbo upgrade now. Sadly, I need to balance MINI upgrades (especially pricey ones) against my wife's constant need to remodel parts of the house and garden...