Quoting from Page 3 of the Mini Mania catalog handed out last night at the SF preview of "The Italian Job":

"Coming Soon MINI ECU Upgrade"

"Mini Mania is proud to be a distributor for the first true 'plug and play' ECU upgrade option for the new MINI. The Mini Mania Shark Injector combines an unbeatable low cost of $395.95 with the ultimate in convenience - if you can plug in a computer, you can perform the upgrade yourself! The Mini Shark upgrade, develped by Motronic expert Jim Conforti, provides the ultimate in performance. The modified software adjusts the ignition timing and fuel curves which results in increased performance. Not only do we re-map part-throttle fuel and spark, we also remap other areas of chips other tuners don't touch, such as acceleration enrichment and transition fueling. Estimated availability is late June 2003."

I didn't see this on the Mini Mania website the last time I looked, and I can't get into the website at the moment.

 

Now that sounds like it'll be a worthwhile chip and a great price. Glad to see Jim C getting involved with the Mini
Mike

 

I would like to see some independent dyno runs after the injector comes out. Before I went FI with my M3 I had the shark injector for it. I didn't notice any gains. It was useful only for raising the rev limit and removing the top speed limiter.

I do like that fact that it is plug and play. This is the way it should be. You shouldn't have to send your ECU at all anymore.

Some questions though - I wonder if the software can handle a pulley upgrade? Or, do you need a new software load?

my 2 cents...

 

I wonder how well that will work with the pulley? I'm heading to Helix on June 3rd for my install.

X2

 

Mania also sells the pulley, so it would make sense for them to have a pulley-friendly ECU upgrade. Let's hope so. JR

 

That's cool technology!

Mini-Mania is mistaken though, MTH has been selling a user-installed plug-and-play chip for some time now:

http://www.mth-powerchip.de/e_index.htm

 

>>That's cool technology!
>>
>>Mini-Mania is mistaken though, MTH has been selling a user-installed plug-and-play chip for some time now:
>>
>>http://www.mth-powerchip.de/e_index.htm

Andy, do you know what type of gains you get with the MTH programming?

Thanks,
X2

 

I'll let you know after dynos on Saturday.

 

What would be really cool would be something like the power commander that I have for my motorcycle that let's you completely remap the fuel curve and then download it. This particular device piggybacks on the fuel ignition but it would be cool if you could download directly to the ECU. This way, you could tune your car for whatever mods you have and post your map on the web and other people could download it and download it. This way we could fix the stupid stuble problem that many of us are having. :evil:

 

oooh, Bow down to engine management master Jim Conforti

I can't wait to see the dyno graphs for this software!
excited!
Ryan

 

I'm with you Daytona. Give me a PC III and let the re mapping begin.I can just see the plethera of maps on MCO. Can you imagine, I see different maps for fuel grade, ambient temp, altitude, passenger weight, it's endless.

 

>>I'm with you Daytona. Give me a PC III and let the re mapping begin.I can just see the plethera of maps on MCO. Can you imagine, I see different maps for fuel grade, ambient temp, altitude, passenger weight, it's endless.

Wow! Now that's usin' yur noggin'!

R

 

sounds cool, keep us all updated!!!

 

I'm ready, cash-in-hand. This will most certainly be the next BIG thing in performance mods for the MCS. Everyone will want one. Can't wait to see the dyno results.

 

Hey - anyone care to explain how the whole shark-thing works????

THanks!

 

I was at a Scooby WRX dyno day last week and those guys all had laptops hooked up, they download maps off sites like this and go to town tuning. Some of them were getting gains of 15-20 HP. Very cool. My cousin drives around with a Dell under his passenger side floormat.

Could you compare it to flashing the BIO's on a motherboard???

 

Here's more from MiniMania in response to some questions I had:

"True! We are working with Jim Conforti to develop the MINI Shark Injector.
While he is still in the development stages we hope to have product very
soon. There will be different versions for different levels of equipment on
the car. Installation will be as simple as plugging in the tool and pushing
a button. The program can be removed the same way . Stay tuned to our
website for the latest news."

P.S. Just got their catalog in the mail and there's a picture of the product saying it'll be out this month.

:smile:

 

>>I was at a Scooby WRX dyno day last week and those guys all had laptops hooked up, they download maps off sites like this and go to town tuning. Some of them were getting gains of 15-20 HP. Very cool. My cousin drives around with a Dell under his passenger side floormat.
>>
>>Could you compare it to flashing the BIO's on a motherboard???


WRX guys aren't updating their stock ECUs, they almost all run a piggyback called a UTEC that can be updated via laptop.


--
Cheese

 

"WRX guys aren't updating their stock ECUs, they almost all run a piggyback called a UTEC that can be updated via laptop. "

Cheese, thanks for clarifying that - do you think a similar product will be introduced for the MINI? I expect most of this stuff to be MCS related, but I'm still fascinated by what I'm learning.

 

Well this makes my decision difficult. I was planning on having Randy burn the his ECU upgrade in 2 weeks but if there are comparable products that let me do it myself, potentially with similiar results, becoming available soon at half the cost I must seriously reconsider my options.

So how about that dyno result? What other mods do you have and even if you do'nt have a dyno plot do you at least "feel" a difference?

Thanks for your help and research, I know we all appreciate the info.

Jim

 

Hmmmm, I'm not trying to be nosy, but why wouldn't you get your pulley upgrade before you remap your ECU?? The pulley is the most significant thing you can do (IMHO), so you want your ECU upgrade to take take that variable into effect when it is programmed. In any event, this new product from MiniMania will allow you to re-program your ECU (at home) back to stock (if your going to the dealer for somereason) and then back to the high performance setting -- as many times as you want, all yourself and for under $400.

 

I'm hoping for the best, but the Conforti Shark software for the M3 created extremely modest hp gains, like 3-4 hp, especially if the rest of the car was stock.

I don't think these software mods do much to an OBDII car.

I'm going to need to see a variety of dyno tests before I go this route.

 

>>Hmmmm, I'm not trying to be nosy, but why wouldn't you get your pulley upgrade before you remap your ECU?? The pulley is the most significant thing you can do (IMHO), so you want your ECU upgrade to take take that variable into effect when it is programmed... "

You make a good point. I failed to give full disclosure. I am having Randy do both the pulley and ECU at the same time selecting the mapping for a car with my specific mods on it. I've spoken with Randy a little about this one and, while I will try not to speak for him, I came away with the impression that this is the first ECU he's tested that actually improved performance across the entire curve rather than just upping the rev limiter. He even indicated that the ECU mod he's installing doesn't raise the rev limiter as far as it could because it doesn't really produce much more power in that range and only puts your SC at risk of being over spun.

That said, I agree with you on the point about being able to change the mappings yourself for ony $400. If the performance is really there that's quite a deal but like everyone else, I really need to see the dynos first.

Jim

 

>>I was at a Scooby WRX dyno day last week and those guys all had laptops hooked up, they download maps off sites like this and go to town tuning. Some of them were getting gains of 15-20 HP. Very cool. My cousin drives around with a Dell under his passenger side floormat.
>>
>>Could you compare it to flashing the BIO's on a motherboard???

Like Macncheese said, it's jusst a biggyback but it is just like flashing the BIOS on a motherboard only in this case you flash the piggybacked controler. You don't actuall touch the ECU so if the dealer were to upgrade the software it wouldn't be affected and your fuel maps would still be there.

 

^^^AWESOME, I can't wait to see how it performs...