I do most of my driving between 3,000 and 5500 where the torque is over 180 ft-lbs. I think the biggest benefit from Jan's tune is the increase in sustained torque or area under the torque curve. In other words the car pulls hard and doesn't stop pulling hard.

 

Anybody care to explain why tuning the engine is getting such good results? Also what kind of extra wear and tear will be seen because of this? I mean, if the extra power is available just from software changes it seems like BMW would have done it if there were no reliability issues.

Please enlighten me as if there are no down sides I would love to get it my 03 MCS tuned.

 

I think the basic answer to your question (from someone who has a basic understanding of this) is that from the factory our engines are programmed for basic, street use. That means plenty of safety for the engine (running rich), fuel economy, driveability, etc... These custom tunes can highlight performance and power and get the most out of the engine while still remaining within the realm of safety and fuel economy. Now, the question might remain, "why didn't BMW tune it this way from the beginning?" And to that question, I really don't know.

Someone will chime in here to provide the technical background to answer your question more specifically...

mb

 

I think part of it is that these tunes are helping maximize/optimize the performance of post-purchase modifications that owners have made to their cars. I don't know if the deltas would be as big on a bone-stock car. So, it's possible that the MINI engineers have done a pretty good job of optimizing the performance *of the stock engine*, but that these tunes are "pulling everything together" when it comes to optimizing the combination of the engine plus the mods.

 

They can't spare the production time to tune the cars individually after assembly, so all cars get the production tune regardless of engine and drive train build variances.

 

Plus I don't think BMW wanted the Mini faster than any of "their" cars, .

 

They put in extra safety margin due to the car being sold all over the world and because they know people will use lower octane than recommended/bad quality gasoline.

 

Spot on, spot on!

mb

 

I like the way you think, It's all about Group B Power.

 

Most the ECU tuning from the factory is intended to ensure the engine survives something resembling a real-world "run-to-failure" test. Such a test would consist of using a DynaPack or other load-holding dyno to hold the car at redline at full power for a sustained period of time, like over 24 hours. Obviously NONE of us will subject our engine to such torture; the most we will subject our engines to is 30 second bursts several times per lap for at most 3 hours. Jan's tune is intended to bring the safety level from absurdly non-realistic to "still safe in the real world on-track".

At this last tuning day here in Michigan, some cars showed more power during the tuning process than their final tuning because they were a bit lean, and it's more important to have the car survive than squeak those final few horsepower. Jan fully understands that to finish first, first you must finish.

 

Well considering that without the tune, and a 16% pulley, Alta Intake, DT BPV, Invidia Exhaust, I was putting out 183.4hp over the stock 168 hp or 15.4HP for those mods.

But add on the tune, and on top of that, went from 183.4 to 202.1 or 34.1hp more over stock. I wouldn't think that a tune alone would yield 34hp without some hardware mods.

Consider that the JCW specs are 207hp and 180ft/lbs. and I'm currently putting out 181.3 ft/lbs. I'm happy that I've got a bit more torque though slightly less HP than the JCW kit all thanks to Jan.

Guess my point is that, if I'm operating within the limits of the JCW kit, then I wouldn't think this additional power could be considered detrimental to the life of the engine.

Richard

 

Now that is good to hear . Also on the BMW detuned thing, I belive like most that they want a safe limit for survival, because..........they warranty them, the last thing they want is to replace a bunch of engines for free.

 

I may be wrong but the JCW torque number is TQ at the crank, not at the wheels. Assuming a 12% drivetrain loss, the crank TQ from Jan's tune is about 206 which is 26 more than JCW.

 

OctaneGuy: You're confusing OEM advertised horsepower and torque at the crankshaft and chassis dyno measured "wheel" power and torque. ...Like Larry said above.

 

Yeah I'm not surprised, I'm still a newbie.

Aw ok. So help me understand this so I don't keep writing bad info.

Advertised HP on the MCS is 168hp for the 2005 model??
I had 183.4whp before the tune but with my mods.
The actual difference is??

I had 202.1whp after the tune
Advertised JCW HP is 207bhp.
The actual difference is??

Yes I admit I'm a newbie, but I'm here to learn.

Richard

 

Ok I've now been enlightened!! Thank you Gnatster!!

To answer my own newbie question for others to benefit, I've made some incorrect assumptions.

Starting with 168hp at the crank on the 2005 MINI, after a 12% loss in WHP figures, that would actually be 147.84whp.

So the mods of 16% pulley, Invidia Exhaust, Alta Intake, actually put me at 183.4whp--thus I had a 35.36hp improvement with the mods alone. After the tune of 202.1whp--my total delta from before a stock MCS to a tuned and modded MCS is 54.26 hp.

Since the JCW puts out around 207 to 210 hp at the crank, those actual figures should be 182.16whp to 184.8whp.

So that means, I'm actually putting out 17.3 hp more than the JCW using its higher 210 figure.

Ok I am now enlightened. Thank you!!!

Richard

 

Good work! Your numbers look correct to me.

 

That you do

 

FWIW IMO hardware without the tune is 50% money wasted....

Jan's tune is the biggest bang for the buck mod for the 53..... better than the pulley......

WE owe Jan a lot for literally bringing this quality to the masses at a reasonable/affordable price.....

 

Yup +1

 

Man, jan's work on cars with minimal mods (CAI, reduction pulley, catback) is really eye opening. How long ago was it that 200HP was still a holy grail for non-turbo S's? A little over a year or so?

So for around $2000 (including tune), you can have can have one helluva a good time. Thats at the cost of many aftermarket heads without the tune.

I think I need to reconsider my long-term mod plan.

 

had an 06 on the dyno today

CAI, Magnaflow exhaust, and 15% pulley..... 204whp and 193 ft lbs of torque
car gained 18ft lbs of torque and 13whp peak numbers

it gained 25ft lbs under the curve below 3300 rpm over the stock map

 

How many dyno runs does it take to tune one car?

 

Depends on the car. Too many variables to say definitively.

 

I belive Jan told me they did 3 pulls on the dyno for the 06 he just posted about.