No worries everybody, thanks for the concerns, those AFR's are only in open loop @ WOT, I'm just driving the car normally for now.
But I just found out it's going to be another week for my part, gonna be a long week.

 

So what is this part that you need? Is it a secret?

 

It's not really something I "NEED" but it is a performance part that I "Want" and do think is benificial as far as performance goes, actually it seems to work pretty well as a "performance" item it's just been a major PITA as far as tuning and everyday use since it was installed.
So for now, yes, it's a secret. Untill I get my problem resolved and know for sure what is causing it, I'm not making accusations, thats been done way too much around here, the part in question is at this time the most likely culprit, won't know for sure if it's truley the cause of my problems until it's changed.

 

No disrespect, but could you clarify a little more how AFRs of < 10:1 are really that bad? I know this article is really old: http://www.europeancarweb.com/projec...ing/index.html. According to it, the stock (or slightly modded) MCS has AFRs this low at WOT. Or is is a combination of really low AFRs combined with the Sprintex mod (i.e HP numbers being that much higher)?

 

I know for a fact that before any tuning was done on my car with the M-45, OE 340cc injectors, DFIC, RMW "shorty" header, ALTA intake, 16% pulley, and GTT 63mm T-Body, My AFR's where mid to low 10's and an occasional high 9 in the upper RPM's. On the other hand from 1500-3000 RPM it would run mid 12's diping into the low/mid 11's at 3500-4000 RPM. This was FACTORY MAPPING, surely the engineeres at BMW knew what they where doing.

(GREEN line is AFR, This is the only STOCK log I have left saved it because it was the best of them.)


Think thats bad look at some of the other recorded values!


TOOO MUCH ignition timing STOCK! Hitting 100 on KNOCK NOISE STOCK, an M-45 cranking out 112* POST I/C air temps in 50* weather STOCK! But BMW knows best.

 

Ouch, that looks like a JCW GP base map instead.

 

Wouldnt know I've never got a chance to compare stock logs between factory tuned cars. Either way look at the timing advance on CYL # 1 it's quite a bit lower across the board from the others. CYL # 1 is the one that failed on my car, and this log was taken in February, my problem may have started long before the Sprintex, the E85, and my tune's.

 

Lol you just contradicted yourself. BMW knows best but like you said they are running more timing then should be.....same with the fuel....just because it comes like that from the factory doesn't make it right. Hell subies run tons of timing then let the Dynamic timing system work its self out adding or taking out timing. Hell STOCK EVO's with ALL STOCK PART still knock like mad from the factory. Does it matter that its how the factory does it? No. Again you have no idea what you are talking about.

Jumping jack: As soon as you go lower then 11.1 you are slowing the flame travel down substantially. Thats one issue with it. Losing power. The other issue is that you are not burning all the fuel with the spark, leaving more unburnt fuel to be reignited by heat after ignition has already gone off, or being pushed out of the exhaust if you are lucky just the later happens. This is not good either way.

 

Got it. Obviously you want to run a bit rich with boostfed setups to keep the temps down, but not too much to the point fuel is wasted and could re-ignite. I just recalled that the stock setup runs that fat on fuel, and obviously it's not good. Guess that's where knock sensing and timing come into the equation to keep it from occurring (I forgot about those). Then again, most MINI owners don't stay WOT at max RPMs (yours truly included).

 

Glad we are finally seeing eye to eye, but still disappointed you cant sence the sarcasim in my last sentance of that post. Why do the OEM's tune in too much fuel and timing? Because not all cars in all areas of the world will run the same, even with the adaptations. You can hide some of the negitive efects of running too much timing by richening the mixture. I have seen tuners do it before, and no doubt I will see it again. For a mass production it's good enough, from a performance standpoint it sucks for us and we need to tune this out to our particular car and part of the world. MINI has their own timing correction factored into the calibration of the ECU, problem is it is still based as an average over many test engines, and adapted to different atmospheric conditions.

I am still not seeing what any of this has to do with the topic of this thread. It was not started as a tuning debate thread, it is a list of SPRINTEX OWNERS and their experiances with the SPRINTEX. Lets not let this one end like all the others, if you want to discuss tuning please start another thread and I will GLADLY join in.

 

Fair enough back on topic.

 

Thanks Shanne.

 

ANy update..

 

As for me, I'm still in a holding pattern, as far as my parts change goes. I'm changing cams to see if this fixes my missfire & unpredictable running conditions. (this is the problem I've had to live with for the last year and a half) first it was weather now it's parts, they should be to me Wed. Hopefully this will finally fix my issues and I can start working on getting the tuning done.

DaveK, what ever became of your boost issue?

 

Parts finally got here this afternoon, seems to have fixed my issues, couple of days of driving and I'll start working on the tuning.

 

and thennnnn... :D

 

Who me? Sorry I'm updating on 3 boards now, it gets confusing. Finally got the cam change done, it seems to have fixed all of my old issues....then murphys law struck again, while I was putting it back together I apparently pinched one of the wires to the #4 injector and it eventually wore through & startes a misfire there, fortunately it was pretty easy to spot, ended up having to splice the pigtail for my 550 directly into the wireing but it worked fine, still had some stubborn misfire issues on #4 that apparently ended up being just adaptation issues (looks like the misfire caused some adaptations to set into the ecu that were causing problems once it was fixed, another time that the F/A software came in really handy) anyway, that took a few days to sort out simply because of the weather & the holidays, so everything seems ok, I'm driving the car everyday and we'll start working on the tuning as much as we can.

 

I think this is the only board you should update because the other ones tend to get attacked. If you pull this off, I'll be the next person to get one.

 

This forum seems to get attacked more than the others. Everyone involved is pounding out thoughts and issues elseware right now (as you know) but, a hater is always gona hate.

 

By chance what are your fuel mods for the system besides 550 injectors. Are you using a FPR and uprated fuel pump? The reason why I asked is because you're using a BVH/CAM setup with the Spritex. Nobody wants to talk about this publicly to help out the Sprintex cause but your logs will look peachy misleading you BUT the stock fuel pump with your BVH/CAM/Sprintex will not be sufficient enough to flow what you'll need it to.

You have a couple of options:
-Convert to returning fuel system. ie., Walbro 225lph(or Aeromotive) and any decent FPR(like Aeromotive).
-Any FPR and Kennebell Boost-A-Pump(or similar product) to increase the voltage of the stock R53 pump to flow more fuel at higher engine rpm and boost ranges.

Those 2 options with a proper tune, assuming you can keep the ECU from inter-populating/relearning over Bytetronik, will allow you to succeed with any pulley you put on it.

D!CKS GARAGE didn't have these things on his car. On top of that he was running E85 which would automatically require fuel pump upgrade with the system.

 

The stock pump is good for 550cc's on gasolene. Injector duty cycle was about 60% on mine with pump gas, and the pump was still supplying 60+ psi to the regulator. Yes when you start playing around E-gas you need more done to the fuel system.

 

Thats why returnless systems suck for trying to make HP. In a return system to run E85 you only need to upgrade the pump and injectors then scale your injectors back by 30%.

 

so whats the word from the owners of this thing. still workin? reliability? issues? worth it?

 

Works great,

19.3 PSI in 5th gear with a 64 pulley
runs 250 km/h while still having some left over - should reach 260

Realiable to me, no problems so far. The problem I had was a melting cat and some rubbish inside the IC and had nothing to do with the Sprintex. I have no complains at all

 

Mine's still working great also, just getting in and driving, working on the tuning now, will take a few more day's since I'm doing it on the street, instead of on a dyno.

As far as being worth it, I say yes, but don't forget I had to replace my M45 anyway, so I really only spent about $1600.00 more than I would have to do the M45.

I'm also planning on doing the 64mm pulley in the spring.