given all the wisdom available here ( and Jan commenting from time to time ) I will be getting a custom tune soon. possibly July?!
anyways my PERFORMANCE ONLY mods to date are:
Alta 15% pulley
Alta 2% crank
Invidia Catback
I just purchased an RMW cam ( literally just now )-jan said it will mabe go out next week.
obviously i need JCW 380s which will be done before the tune but my questions are many...

Jan said i can install the cam and the car will run fine with the stock software
can i add my injectors too? will it cause it to run poorly until the tune?
is there anything else i should do? i run stock belt right now and stock plugs. Im thinking i have to get colder plugs and the NAPA 535 belt or should i not worry about it?
Also i read on a previous post that i shouldnt fill up with shell gas before the tune. what should i get? I thought shell was on of BMWs "top-tier" fuel distributers?
I asked Jan as many questions as i could think of when we chatted but i know hes a busy guy and i didnt want to take up all his time.
any help here would be great or any other things i need to do let me know!

 

buy the 535 belt
drop in the 380cc right away, you need them with the crank pulley
you can also go to the GP spark plug, it's a good plug for your application

 

wonderful, now anyone got a part number for GP plugs?

 

Should be the same as the JCW plugs. I don't know off the top of my head. The NGK plugs are good too. The 7's IIRC are the colder plugs. I think it's ZFR7FIX.

I'm not a fan of crank pulley's. Jan can chime in more on those. Looks like a good setup though, the cam should be fun, and yes, like he said, throw the 380's in when you get them, you'll likely be leaning out a bit on top with that 2% on there.

Helix sells a set of Bosche 380's that are the same thing as the JCW ones. If you can't find a set of cheap JCW 380's, don't hesitate to pick up the Bosche ones, I had a set on my car during my early
modding days and they worked great .

Edit: I did some research on RealOEM. It seems the JCW Spark Plugs are actually just NGK plugs. Part # from MINI is 12120031708. Directly from NGK it's NGK BKR7EQUP.
Item: SPARK PLUG, HIGH POWER Manufacturer Part #: NGK BKR7EQUP OEM Part #: 12120031708

Good luck!

 

Jan do you think my crank pulley should come off before the tune?

 

our research says if you want 17% underdrive use the 17% pulley and stick with the stock crank pulley

 

guess ill run 15% then, i dont feel like putting on another pulley, the crank pulley was alot easier. Ill slap my old one back on. can i still pull decent numbers with 15% reduction?
to tell the truth i really didnt notice too much when i put it on.

 

yes you can pull decent numbers with the 15%

 

I put down 231 whp with the 15%. I'm still running a 15% now. The 05-06 Crank Pulley weighs less than the 02-04 if you can find one cheap (not sure what year your car is).

 

thanks Jan and Rusty. my car is an 03. Ill be running the following by the end of the month
15% Alta Pulley
Stock 05-06 crank
Alta CAI
RMW cam
Invidia Catback
JCW 380s
JCW plugs
anyone can run crap, but i trust those who have the knowledge and been there long before me. I know im still at the "basics" but we have to learn to walk before we can run. As far as that goes you guys are olympians and im the gerber baby . anyways thanks again for all your help and I cant wait for my RMW tune.
BTW rusty what numbers are you putting down now? hopefully I will be able to run circles around the local GPs in my area. ( some of them are good guys but some of them are super snobby. ) and yes i can drive.

 

The plugs are NGK BKR7EIX-11

Sparkplug.com is a very good source.

 

I'll post some #'s on my car soon . Still in development .

You'll definitely be a decent challenge to a GP with all those goodies! Looks like a great set of mods (Probably close to 200-205 HP to the wheels after it's all tuned, 50 over stock!).

 

I have pretty much the same mod as yours (the only different is the IC), 217 whp after Jan's custom tune.

You should be able to keep up with GP easily.

 

Id be increadibly happy with 217. very impressive. how much gain should i expect from the cam and injectors pre-tune?

 

You'll probably see some midrange torque from the cam, but it'll take a tune to really feel the punch.

 

Before the tune is 202 whp @ 6,700 rpm.

After the tune we bumped up the rpm to 7,200 rpm and 217 whp, with gain ALL across the power band. Totally different beast now.

There is some info of my mods from this thread.

 

I saw that you wanted to go with a JCW head, is there any reason? If you're going to go through all the work of pulling the head off, why not put one on that's going to make a difference? Jan isn't really seeing any better numbers on cars that have the JCW head over cars with the stock head. It just doesn't flow.

 

I liked to have just a ported exhaust and intake side and keep the stock valve-train. JCW head seems to fit my need since they have ported on their exhaust side.

After the tune, i'm very happy with the result right now. jan did the custom tune and put everything to work perfectly together.

MINI run great now, much better than before.

 

Jan can sell you a ported only head with the stock valvetrain (I'm not sure I understand why, stock sized valves are going to be a restriction). The difference between the stock and JCW head is so minute you'd be lucky if you even saw the Dyno move (Seriously).

You'd have better luck going with an aftermarket "Port Only" head with stock sized valves. Thumper makes them, Jan can custom make one, etc.

 

I do like some of the JCW accessories ( CF hood scoop ) ( CF mirror caps ) ( CF spoiler ) which i own all of but the "performance" upgrades that JCW put out are a little hokey. i think they could have done alot better performance wise. I was looking into the exhaust and wasnt too impressed and the JCW software is a joke at best. wasnt too impressed when i drove one before i bought my R53. I figured i save myself 3-5 grand and mod it my own way.

 

Yup, the JCW cars are only really putting down 20-25 more whp than the normal MCS. 95% of that is from the pulley. The other 4% from the JCW Intake, and the last 1% from the joke of a head and exhaust.

 

If I recall correctly, when Jan was here in Rochester a strong MCS convertable (with 15% pulley, Alta cai and stock MCS exhaust) put down better #'s than a GP.

 

Seems with the pulley, exhaust, cam and all the other little parts you will get alot more power.. But at what time would someone with this setup want to get a bigger throttle body? I dont see alot of mention about that.

 

Never...

RMW has tons of 250+ whp cars running around on the stock throttle body. Jan himself has had his car up well past the 350 whp point on the stock TB. It's the biggest scam in the performance market.

The vendor takes your TB, machines it for $40, then resells it to you for 10x that ($399).

It causes lots of issues with the ECU, because there's really no way to reprogram it to expect the pressure drop created by widening the TB. It's just problematic.

If cars can make 250+ whp on 10 psi of boost and the stock throttle body, why do people think they need to swap it out when they're making 185 whp?

 

Excellent BS Police commentary Rusty, thanks for setting the record straight. Don't waste $$ on a 'high performance' throttle body. Note that not even the scammers are posting hp/tq values for this thing.