Drivetrain (Cooper S) MINI Cooper S (R56) intakes, exhausts, pulleys, headers, throttle bodies, and any other modifications to the Cooper S drivetrain.

Drivetrain Observations, reflections, & commentary on mods

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Old 08-08-2008, 01:57 PM
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Observations, reflections, & commentary on mods

So I bought the 2007 Mini Cooper S after my wife bought her ragtop cooper S. The main reason was because they were such a cool toy to modify.

I choose the '07 turbo because even though reliability is worse on a turbo, torque & power gains are more impressive.

So the plan was to start modding and hope that at some point the vendor would either have available what i need or I could source time in a machine shop.

So I figured this year to do simple bolt-ons, intake, exhaust, intercooler, boost tubes, blow off valve. I also figured I would locate a way to tune that was flexible enough to deal with the simple stuff, and then be able to re-map once I got as far as internals, head work, bigger turbo, etc.

Of course I also have done the obviously needed suspension work, lowering springs, sway bars, etc.

Now the story gets interesting:

I started with an Alta cold air intake, Alta Cat back. The exhaust was pretty nice, good quality, nicely designed, and childs play to install. The intake, well the mounting bolts didn't line up right, they were slightly narrower than the mount points on my intake manifold. Mind you I say slightly, so I could make it work. I called Alta, my first experience with them... not very satisfying, they wanted pictures or dcoumentation, implying that I was in error. I figured whatever, I have better things to do than humor that.

So next I mounted up a forge FMIC, and M7 hot side boost tube. The FMIC was a dream, nice easy install, clear instructions, excellent mount points, very well made. The boost tube... heck it's a Silicon tube, it fit, it works.

So then I dug out some Zirconia-Silicate fiber cloth did a home made heat wrap for the turbo. Nice mod, highly reccomend it to anyone who owns a turbo. I won't bother to go into the science behind that here, ping me, or read the archive. Aside from the PIA bolts, that was an excellent experience.

Then I did a forge blow off valve adapter. I am firmly planted on the side of the fence that believes the pressure needs to leave the intake in order to prevent compressor stall and keep the blades spinning. Well that bit me in the much later on. I will get back to this, very soon.

So I was pretty happy off to a nice start, the engine was behaving pretty nice, so it was time to look for more power, perhaps an ECU tweak, tune. If you recall from aboe I wanted some flexibility, all my reading, and research kept bringing me back to the Unichip, and the hope that flux would be availible enabling further tuning down the road. It fit my needs, Alta sold it, now they already didn't make friends with me. Twice in fact. The issue with the intake, and then some crap with not be able to control their website and the claim that the payal system worked fine, my issues were on my end. Hmmm, I seem to awful messed up, good thing they are perfect. I asked, apparently if you buy from Unichip, Alta sends it to you anyway, so I went direct to the source. It took 3, yup 3 calls to get the mod list correct, and I am still to this day not confident that they actually got it right, but then I am always wrong so... who knows.

I mount up the Unichip, fabulous performance, impressive the engine really is alive. So after a couple weeks I throw my first 1/2 engine power light. It comes on, then goes away... odd. I figure heck time to pay more attention to the data. I look around, the Alta gauge kits seem to be the most direct path to getting data quickly and without doing alot of parts sourcing trying to get the whole thing together. I know, Alta again, I really am asking for another dance. So I buy the boost and temperature. A month later, no gauges, I email, they claim it will ship in a week, they were waiting on a part. Excellent communication, good thing they already dinged my credit card. So 2 weeks later, hmmm, no gauges, no contact. I email again, and call, I am told that they are waiting on a part, I ask what it is cause I could help source it if they would send the bloody gauges. Magically they found the part that day and sent them, 7 day no priority. Good way to make friends with me!

I install my gauges, more calls for tech help, the instructions are horrid, they do not even match, I end source pig tails and parts any way. Oddly I remember buying the kit so I wouldn't have to source parts. Then to add to the insult during my calls for tech support I hear comments like, the instructions are fine the issue is with you, yep it is me again! No-one else had trouble ike I did... yup it's me again. I really am starting to get a complex... I am sooo stupid! Yes, I should go back to bodyguarding strippers. Anyhow I diverge.

So a couple weeks later Jace is running like a bag of crap, CEL's all the time, 1/2 power, no starts, damn.

I watch, I see, low vacuum, low boost. I leak check, the Alta adapter is a vacuum/boost leak. Nice! turns out the stub that penetrates the intake is undersized. A little tolerance issue there, as well as the O-ring being a little too small to seal. Very nice, I wonder from my past experience if I should call that in? Nope by now I am sick and tired of Alta's crap. I toss the part and source another. Yep I bought this kit to avoid sourcing all the aprts myself. That worked out well. ( ok so I am little sarcastic ) So now the egine doesn't stall, and starts up. Excellent, one down!

However I still have this 1/2 power CEL crap. So follow me here, the Unichip increases boost, meaning we increase flow in the intake. I know that from my past 20 years of building and tuning one needs to pay attention to the MAF sensors ability to keep up as you exceed the limits. Quick lesson here, a MAF sensor is essentially a heated wire, the resistance changes as air rushes past cooling the wire. Since the engine knows the air temp, has an established calibration it can calculate the airflow. This is a critical sentence, it can work within a designed spec range, outside of that it get's confused. This being the case I have in the past changed the MAF to compensate. Here on the Mini, I can't. So how do we get around that, simple restrict the air flow. Well remember that high flow CAI? That's no good anymore. I change over to a paper element, more restrictive. Vola... I see no more 1/2 power CEL's. Pretty cool! I also am a little upset now, remember I wanted a bigger turbo, port and polish... well without a different MAF it ain't gonna happen. So I neeed to source a better MAF before I go further.

One last thing, remeber the forge, well turns out this little engine does not like to have it's boost dumped into the atmosphere upstream of the turbo. It seems to wreck have and cause surge when you slowly apply throttle. I haven't figured that out yet, but for now the forge blow off is off. I will probably try installing a blow off down stream and see, however I need to understand how this ECU thinks first.

The two sad thoughts are:

1. I need to do alot of peripheral work before I go further, ie: MAF, blow off, ECU mod vendor or way to use the Unichip.

2. The path beyond bolt ons is gonna be alot later than this winter, so I guess we won't be ripping Jace's motor down during storage this year.


Hopefully this long post answers questions, hopefully it sheds some light into why I do not appreciate Alta. Mostly I hope someone else may be help or may find an answer in my ramblings
 
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Old 08-08-2008, 06:36 PM
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I am in the middle of installing a Stewart Warner boost/vac with the Alta Pod and Alta manifold tap.. Do you still have the boost gauge installed ? (i.e. no further tap problems??)

Also, if you're pretty knowledgeable on electrical stuff I have a few Q's about gauge lighting, = ground wire, illumination wire.
Thanks!

Sam
 
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Old 08-08-2008, 06:59 PM
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Nice write up. This is very good information to have.
 
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Old 08-09-2008, 03:36 AM
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So if its true that the MAF can't keep up with the increased airflow, shouldnt the fix be as simple as recalibrating the sensor? What about the new JCW cars? Do they use the same MAF?

I know GM and Ford guys mess with MAF's all the time. Aftermarket MAF's run like 200 Dollars... I guess we'd have to wait and see if someone would make a Mini application.
 
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Old 08-09-2008, 04:33 AM
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Originally Posted by samroberto
I am in the middle of installing a Stewart Warner boost/vac with the Alta Pod and Alta manifold tap.. Do you still have the boost gauge installed ? (i.e. no further tap problems??)

Also, if you're pretty knowledgeable on electrical stuff I have a few Q's about gauge lighting, = ground wire, illumination wire.
Thanks!

Sam
Yep, still running the gauge, it is an absolute requirement to know how the engine is doing. I did switch to the ATP from JSC Speed. That one is perfect.

As for wiring, not sure if you have seen this:

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...d.php?t=105832

there is taps in the consumer panel for 12VDC always hot, 12VDC switched, and timed. I did not tie into the panel illumination, however I think you should be able to hit the tach feed.
 
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Old 08-09-2008, 04:38 AM
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Originally Posted by com3tojo3
So if its true that the MAF can't keep up with the increased airflow, shouldnt the fix be as simple as recalibrating the sensor? What about the new JCW cars? Do they use the same MAF?

I know GM and Ford guys mess with MAF's all the time. Aftermarket MAF's run like 200 Dollars... I guess we'd have to wait and see if someone would make a Mini application.
Recal usually is not as easy as the thought, the best approach is to find a higher flow one. Most of the time a manufacturer will have another model or larger engine series that will work. I like the next gen works idea, however they still really are not increasing flow that much. The bigger issue is that currently we are on the edge, it is an intermittent problem. If I increase any further I have a feeling the works one would get overwhelmed as well. So yep need to find soemone to solve the issue. I am looking and thinking, because as I said I am done until I solve that.
 
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Old 08-09-2008, 05:11 AM
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This is a great write-up and should be read by anyone contemplating modifications to their MINI. Most of us aren't as technically astute as jacemini and would probably be stuck with the problems and perpetual cel's. I'm on my second R56 and learned a lot of the same lessons with the first. This time I'm just happy to live with JCW engineering, keeping the extra money to enjoy driving the car. Usually Alta jumps all over a posting like this with fawning declarations that they just can't wait to make things right. Where are they? The bottom line is that they are quite willing to sell their products, but if you create a warranty problem with your new MINI, don't look to them. It's your fault.
 
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Old 08-09-2008, 06:11 PM
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Damn, Alta just got thrown under the bus. Maybe it's justified? I don't know, but I know for sure I'll be leaving my R56 stock after reading this post. I learned my lesson with my VW GTI, I had GIAC programming installed and all the engine did was PING constantly. Save us modders alot of headaches and tune it at the factory from the get go.
 
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Old 08-09-2008, 10:31 PM
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Excellent Post

I have experience dealing with the normal trial and error process that is often associated with after market HP Mods. I also have had the same experience although more limited with Alta. It was nice to read an articulate post that makes it difficult for Alta and there followers to dispute.

I have just one question. Did you notice any difference in power from installing the Alta Cat Back Exhaust?
 
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Old 08-10-2008, 05:07 AM
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Originally Posted by Derosi
I have just one question. Did you notice any difference in power from installing the Alta Cat Back Exhaust?
Very slight, it definitely made a nice sound improvement. I went with the 3" cat back in anticipation of future mods, I am still looking for a good down pipe solution. The one thing to always keep in mind is that it is the all of the mods together that make a difference. Once you start increasing boost, you really need an open exhaust to get rid of the flow.
 

Last edited by JAceMin; 08-10-2008 at 08:02 AM. Reason: sp check
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Old 08-10-2008, 07:58 AM
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The only aftermarket part that did not work reliably on my car was the Unichip pnp, which I returned after trying three generations of harnesses. Parts from Mini-Madness, M7, Alta, and other companies have all helped in terms of performance and handling. I like the handling modification benefits the most if I had to choose mods on a budget. Lighter rims, tires, larger rear sway bar, coilovers, and PSRS make the car feel nimble, stable, and precise. The exhaust V-clamps do leak slightly but the stock exhaust also had about 7 small leaks at the welds, which I told the Mini dealer about before I changed the exhaust.

That said, it is true I will likely not get any of this money back at resale unless I de-part. I did all this modifying on my last car, a 2002 WRX, because I did not wait for the STI to arrive. I modded again (at 15k less expense) on the MCS. The Mini is a far more liveable car. My wife hated the ride, noise, and image of the WRX but likes the Mini, other than the exhaust at WOT.
 
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Old 08-10-2008, 03:03 PM
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so where is the response?

CONGRATS! Glad you like it and you won't regret the decision I PROMISE!
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Old 08-10-2008, 05:09 PM
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Great write up. I hope someone cracks the ECU soon. I would pay a $1000. for a real tune, that did for my S4, on my R56.
 
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Old 08-10-2008, 09:47 PM
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Originally Posted by seebobgo
I would pay a $1000. for a real tune, that did for my S4, on my R56.
You and me both man!

Patiently waiting.
 
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Old 08-10-2008, 10:41 PM
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In Total Agreement with JAceMin

Like you, I've had problems with Alta; being sent the wrong parts on several occasions, not being notified of backorders or a target shipping date, and having a very condescending inter-office email cc'ed to me from "The Head Honcho" Adam when I spent $500+ for boost & turbo inlet tubes. Amazing how fast monies are taken from a customer's credit card and how slowly, if at all, the monies are credited.

Yes, I know we all make mistakes. But, having cancelled a back ordered item, don't have an employee call to ask why and then send the back ordered item anyway when the employee was directed to issue a refund. That smacks of deceptive business practice (my opinion).

As for the UniChip PNP; I ordered one through Alta when they were on sale. I've had it installed for about 2 months. Initially, power gains were noticable and impressive. Todays CEL makes 11 since installation. I'm not sure what the causation is but it's certainly a problem that should have been worked out before Alta started marketing them. In addition, I noticed the plastic on the PNP has started cracking where the ears attach to the stock plugs. So much for ensuring the design would last more than 2 months.

But, as his response above indicated, Adam has little true regard for the consumer so long as he/she is willing to spend money buying Alta products.

I, for one, won't be dealing with Alta again. If I'd have known beforehand the character of the company, I certainly wouldn't have dealt with them in the first place.

I certainly hope your results are different if you choose to purchase there!
 

Last edited by Mini Bo Bini; 08-10-2008 at 10:49 PM.
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Old 08-11-2008, 10:46 AM
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Thanks, all. I am open to any suggestions on the MAF issue.
 
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Old 08-11-2008, 05:16 PM
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jace great write up. everything you wrote makes perfect sense. i was very close to purchasing the unichip recently but now ive made up my mind to hold off a bit. just out of curiosity can anyone explain why the units that are hard wired have no problems? i guess this is just me holding on to any hope that the unichip can still work...lol
 
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Old 08-12-2008, 06:34 AM
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Well here I am!

As is not only norm, but real practice I am (as is my staff) MORE than willing to help any and all clients with any questions, concerns, built paths, etc. etc. etc.

While I appreciate the forethought into what the concerns are and potential MAF issues, ALTA2 (Jeff Perrin) will do MUCH better and technical job on why that isn't the case in this application.

Instead of making a long winded rebuttal to the other concerns only to get flamed in some degree I would instead say this:

My personal apologies if you felt we wronged you on the intake. Again my apologies for the gauges. We did have a much longer time securing the proper supply from ProSport than intended. We should have kept in better contact. UniChip stands by their product and THEY asked to take care of concerns directly when their best harness had issues. Again Hard-Wired have ZERO issues with MAF, mapping etc. (Jeff can better explain.)

Finally, if there is ANYTHING I can do to help with this situation or future situations, PLEASE let me know. This is the first I have heard of these concerns, and I can't make contacting me any easier than the info contained in my signature. Many members of this board have contacted me on the weekend, evenings and holidays ALL to be met with a polite and courteous reply. If you haven't used that resource I highly encourage you to do so. (samroberto above should be poster child for that comment. He had a problem with a missing item from a shipment along with problems from ANOTHER mfr's gauges and I must have chatted with him via text and phone each day this weekend trying to solve the issues, as well as getting him the info he needed to rectify the concerns. ) How much more accessible do you want me and my staff to be?

Again, thank you and the NAM community for the opportunity!
 
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Old 08-12-2008, 06:35 AM
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Originally Posted by CaMiniMe
jace great write up. everything you wrote makes perfect sense. i was very close to purchasing the unichip recently but now ive made up my mind to hold off a bit. just out of curiosity can anyone explain why the units that are hard wired have no problems? i guess this is just me holding on to any hope that the unichip can still work...lol
ALTA2 will explain in greater detail, but you have hit the nail on the head 100%
 
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Old 08-12-2008, 08:03 AM
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Originally Posted by ADAMSALTAMINI
Well here I am!

As is not only norm, but real practice I am (as is my staff) MORE than willing to help any and all clients with any questions, concerns, built paths, etc. etc. etc.

While I appreciate the forethought into what the concerns are and potential MAF issues, ALTA2 (Jeff Perrin) will do MUCH better and technical job on why that isn't the case in this application.

Instead of making a long winded rebuttal to the other concerns only to get flamed in some degree I would instead say this:

My personal apologies if you felt we wronged you on the intake. Again my apologies for the gauges. We did have a much longer time securing the proper supply from ProSport than intended. We should have kept in better contact. UniChip stands by their product and THEY asked to take care of concerns directly when their best harness had issues. Again Hard-Wired have ZERO issues with MAF, mapping etc. (Jeff can better explain.)

Finally, if there is ANYTHING I can do to help with this situation or future situations, PLEASE let me know. This is the first I have heard of these concerns, and I can't make contacting me any easier than the info contained in my signature. Many members of this board have contacted me on the weekend, evenings and holidays ALL to be met with a polite and courteous reply. If you haven't used that resource I highly encourage you to do so. (samroberto above should be poster child for that comment. He had a problem with a missing item from a shipment along with problems from ANOTHER mfr's gauges and I must have chatted with him via text and phone each day this weekend trying to solve the issues, as well as getting him the info he needed to rectify the concerns. ) How much more accessible do you want me and my staff to be?

Again, thank you and the NAM community for the opportunity!
First off, I am more than open to any technical assistance with the issues I see. That is the intent of posting. I would love to hear an explanation as to how my issues are not airflow related. I draw that conclusion for the following reasons.

A. When I went to a paper element, ie: more restrictive, my issues went away.
B. I only get CEL's when I use the Foam, and am driving hard, or at high boost pressures.


Secondly, sadly I am not going to engage in conversation about how many times I need to have dialogs regarding product issues. I have no interest in continuing along that vein. Obviously you completely missed my point in the roughly 2 paragraphs of text surrounding my issues with calling in. You had many opportunities to make things right.

Just to give you a hint, the problem is the quality of the components with the Alta logo on them. But heck you have my money, I have your crap. Not quite a fair trade, but I should know better, and that will not repeat itself.
 
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Old 08-12-2008, 03:29 PM
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Originally Posted by JAceMin
I started with an Alta cold air intake, Alta Cat back. The exhaust was pretty nice, good quality, nicely designed, and childs play to install. The intake, well the mounting bolts didn't line up right, they were slightly narrower than the mount points on my intake manifold. Mind you I say slightly, so I could make it work. I called Alta, my first experience with them... not very satisfying, they wanted pictures or dcoumentation, implying that I was in error. I figured whatever, I have better things to do than humor that.
The first call to us (with the intake system concerns) seems pretty normal. We install these all the time and don't see this. Which is what i am sure we told you. Then us asking for pictures to help us figure out if its a car issue or install issue seems pretty logical. I 100% guarantee that we didn't treat you like you say. You most likely talked to me, and there is NO WAY i would have implied you were wrong and we were right. I have been dealing with customers and customer service things my whole life and making the customer feel as thought they are an idiot and in the wrong is not how you win customers back.

Originally Posted by JAceMin
Then I did a forge blow off valve adapter. I am firmly planted on the side of the fence that believes the pressure needs to leave the intake in order to prevent compressor stall and keep the blades spinning.

One last thing, remeber the forge, well turns out this little engine does not like to have it's boost dumped into the atmosphere upstream of the turbo. It seems to wreck have and cause surge when you slowly apply throttle. I haven't figured that out yet, but for now the forge blow off is off. I will probably try installing a blow off down stream and see, however I need to understand how this ECU thinks first.
Your first paragraph makes it seem as though there is NO Blow off valve on the car. There is it just doesn't vent to atmosphere like the Forge one. The OEM one is electronic (which is very good) and it vents the boost back to inlet of the turbo to keep it spooling. Not to mention keep the MAF happy! I am only explaining this as there are people reading this thinking they NEED to go buy a BOV, but they don't unless they want some cool sounds added to their car.

As you have found using ONLY a VTA Blow off valve on a MAF base car is not always a good thing. It can work, but it can also cause some drivabiltiy issues it if vents under some part throttle. We actually have better luck using a VTA BOV in place of the sound generator along with the stock BOV in place.

Originally Posted by JAceMin
I install my gauges, more calls for tech help, the instructions are horrid, they do not even match, I end source pig tails and parts any way. Oddly I remember buying the kit so I wouldn't have to source parts. Then to add to the insult during my calls for tech support I hear comments like, the instructions are fine the issue is with you, yep it is me again! No-one else had trouble ike I did... yup it's me again. I really am starting to get a complex... I am sooo stupid! Yes, I should go back to bodyguarding strippers. Anyhow I diverge.
I too am sorry about all your experiences with us. There are some issues there that are not excusable. But i do believe you talked to me about the harness being a little short. I explained how we hadn't see that issue but we could get a harness that might be a little longer. You said you just spliced the wires to make it work because of time. I (while we were on the phone 7/17) sent an email to Prosport explaining how your harness was short. He told me he was looking into it with the factory and would get that taken care of.


So a couple weeks later Jace is running like a bag of crap, CEL's all the time, 1/2 power, no starts, damn.

Originally Posted by JAceMin
I watch, I see, low vacuum, low boost. I leak check, the Alta adapter is a vacuum/boost leak. Nice! turns out the stub that penetrates the intake is undersized. A little tolerance issue there, as well as the O-ring being a little too small to seal. Very nice, I wonder from my past experience if I should call that in? Nope by now I am sick and tired of Alta's crap. I toss the part and source another. Yep I bought this kit to avoid sourcing all the aprts myself. That worked out well. ( ok so I am little sarcastic ) So now the egine doesn't stall, and starts up. Excellent, one down!
Regarding the boost port. I am not understanding this at all. I have used lots of these and everything works just fine. The stub is smaller than the hole as the oring is the seal here. There is no way that it leaked so bad bad your gauge didn't show any vacuum or boost while driving. This would have to be a huge leak and or the fitting wasn't tightened down. But if we got the wrong o-ring installed on the part this would have done it! I would love to know if the o-ring solved the problem as there might be others out there with similar problems. If you called, we might have asked you for an invoice number, when you got it, and who from. While this sounds offensive and not believing you have a problem, it actually is helping us track down other potential errors. Giving up on talking to us seems a little childish. Why on earth would we not help you! Especially if you have had a couple other issues (not necessarily relating to us).

Originally Posted by JAceMin
However I still have this 1/2 power CEL crap. So follow me here, the Unichip increases boost, meaning we increase flow in the intake. I know that from my past 20 years of building and tuning one needs to pay attention to the MAF sensors ability to keep up as you exceed the limits. Quick lesson here, a MAF sensor is essentially a heated wire, the resistance changes as air rushes past cooling the wire. Since the engine knows the air temp, has an established calibration it can calculate the airflow. This is a critical sentence, it can work within a designed spec range, outside of that it get's confused. This being the case I have in the past changed the MAF to compensate. Here on the Mini, I can't. So how do we get around that, simple restrict the air flow. Well remember that high flow CAI? That's no good anymore. I change over to a paper element, more restrictive. Vola... I see no more 1/2 power CEL's. Pretty cool! I also am a little upset now, remember I wanted a bigger turbo, port and polish... well without a different MAF it ain't gonna happen. So I neeed to source a better MAF before I go further.
JAceMin,
Regarding the MAF, think i can shed some light on your thoughts. I can tell you used to have a GM or Ford product by those comments (replacing the MAF because we are making more power). This is very common to change the MAF sensor when modding a car, and while this is super common on these, the better way to correct or change the Air Fuel ratio on the car is with changing the parameters in the ECU or with a piggyback ECU.

On the Mini, the MAF is not being maxed out with bolt on parts. What can happen when you turn the boost up, or make more HP (more air flow through the MAF) is the ECU hits its MAF limit. In the ECU, there is a table of how much MAF it should see at certain load points. If you hit these points it can throw a CEL's or the half engine code. WIth the Unichip we remove MAF signal to trick the ECU into not hitting these points. On most cars, when you remove MAF voltage/hertz, it removes fuel and makes the car run lean. BUT on the Mini this isn't the case! The Mini (along with a few other cars) uses a wide band 02 sensor. This allows for a more accurate reading of the Air and Fuel mixture. Normal cars use these to adjust for fueling changes under low load, low RPM, but not full throttle. But what makes it different on the Mini is that is DOES adjust fuel under full throttle! The ECU has an AFR table in it that it is constantly tuning its self to.

What this means is the AFR curve on our stock Mini and tuned Mini is the same and there is nothing we can do about it. Which is good as it is very safe! We change the MAF readings ONLY to eliminate the ECU from throwing a CEL. In our initial findings we thought we could change the MAF, but every time we change it, almost instantly the ECU corrects the AFR and brings it back down to the stock readings (this under full throttle).

And of course with the Unichip, we are only changing things at high load and full throttle, not cruise or idle. Which is why (when the harness is working) the car drives just like it did, but with more power.

So that whole long winded explanation hopefully explains how and why changing the MAF isn't needed. The stock MAF sensor even at 280WHP isn't maxed out at all. Using what little we know about Exactly how the ECU works i can say for 100% that there is no need to change the MAF sensor at this point.


Originally Posted by CaMiniMe
jace great write up. everything you wrote makes perfect sense. i was very close to purchasing the unichip recently but now ive made up my mind to hold off a bit. just out of curiosity can anyone explain why the units that are hard wired have no problems? i guess this is just me holding on to any hope that the unichip can still work...lol
Originally Posted by JAceMin
The two sad thoughts are:
1. I need to do alot of peripheral work before I go further, ie: MAF, blow off, ECU mod vendor or way to use the Unichip.
Unichip has told us that the V4 harness is almost done. They have explained how they have eliminated the connection issues so no weird codes or TPS issues, no nothing hopefully. We too are frustrated like our customers are with this. We spent hours and hours and hours making maps and and proving it works on tons of car, not to mention sales calls, now warranty calls and upset customers. But we are powering through it and hope to get some of these things resolved shortly! UNICHIP and ALTA fully stand behind this product and when it works, it works great!!

JAceMin, i understand you are not happy with us on some of the items you recieved and some of the serivce you got, but you are treating this as though we are untouchable and not reachable. If you have a problem with someone here, call and talk to Adam, or another manager. Do you think complaining to the forums are going to get your problem solved? The best way is calling and talking to some here. I don't go on the forums and post about how my FIOS is down because the tech cut our Fiber Optic line. I call Verizon and get it taken care of.
 
  #22  
Old 08-12-2008, 04:16 PM
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Originally Posted by JAceMin
First off, I am more than open to any technical assistance with the issues I see. That is the intent of posting. I would love to hear an explanation as to how my issues are not airflow related. I draw that conclusion for the following reasons.

A. When I went to a paper element, ie: more restrictive, my issues went away.
B. I only get CEL's when I use the Foam, and am driving hard, or at high boost pressures.
The Unichip mapping we developed for our specific products worked great on the dyno, worked great on lots of cars when hardwired. The half power issue or CEL can be from the MAF reading too high, but we built into them a little fudge room. MEaning that sensitivity of the MAF shouldn't cause your issue. Most likely your harness is not working perfect and is causing this. We have seen the same exact map on one car work perfect and the next car it throws the MAF overflow code. The only difference was the harness. We have also seen perfect working cars (months of use) then these things come up. It comes down to the harness and its connectivity. I can go on and on about the potential problems.

The other variable is the mapping. We include both the Unichip map on one switch and the ALTA on the other. We used to put ALTA on 0 and Unichip on 1. But with the recent problems, we switch this on their behalf (for pulling and checking maps). So i would also try the other switch. And see if its the same or worse. Our maping is more agressive in the timing it uses and with slighty more MAF pulled to ensure it doesn't go over the internal map for MAF limit.

Yes, you had 2 ALTA parts that may have been bad, but the Unichips faults are most likely not ours. The third call never came to me regarding the Unichip. I know you would think we wouldn't help you first, but i would love to prove you wrong. I have made adjustments for those with strange issues like yours where our map "Should" work but it doesn't. If you have the time, send it in, lets make sure the mapping is good, and if it is, lets make an adjustment! I just need to know what boost and RPM and i get make a mod!
 
  #23  
Old 08-12-2008, 04:32 PM
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Hello,

Thanks for the point by point and rational discussion regarding my issues.


Originally Posted by ALTA2
The first call to us (with the intake system concerns) seems pretty normal. We install these all the time and don't see this. Which is what i am sure we told you. Then us asking for pictures to help us figure out if its a car issue or install issue seems pretty logical. I 100% guarantee that we didn't treat you like you say. You most likely talked to me, and there is NO WAY i would have implied you were wrong and we were right.
Nope, sorry to say I did not speak with you, unless your personality is different on the phone, I have spoken primarily with Adam.

Originally Posted by ALTA2
Your first paragraph makes it seem as though there is NO Blow off valve on the car. There is it just doesn't vent to atmosphere like the Forge one. The OEM one is electronic (which is very good) and it vents the boost back to inlet of the turbo to keep it spooling. Not to mention keep the MAF happy! I am only explaining this as there are people reading this thinking they NEED to go buy a BOV, but they don't unless they want some cool sounds added to their car.
Yes, excellent clarification, this seems to be a point of very much confusion on the Mini. Somehow this should be repeated. I look to not for sound but to dump the pressure faster. Still playing with that thought process, and as you point point just venting to atmosphere is not a good thing on these engines.

Originally Posted by ALTA2
I too am sorry about all your experiences with us. There are some issues there that are not excusable. But i do believe you talked to me about the harness being a little short. I explained how we hadn't see that issue but we could get a harness that might be a little longer. You said you just spliced the wires to make it work because of time. I (while we were on the phone 7/17) sent an email to Prosport explaining how your harness was short. He told me he was looking into it with the factory and would get that taken care of.
Entirely possible that was you I spoke to, and as I mentioned at the time I sourced the connectors from Newark Electronics and fabricated my own harness. Searching for the right art with out a number was painful, but splicing two harnesses together in an area with pinch-points does not work for me.

Originally Posted by ALTA2
Regarding the boost port. I am not understanding this at all. I have used lots of these and everything works just fine. The stub is smaller than the hole as the oring is the seal here. There is no way that it leaked so bad bad your gauge didn't show any vacuum or boost while driving. This would have to be a huge leak and or the fitting wasn't tightened down. But if we got the wrong o-ring installed on the part this would have done it! I would love to know if the o-ring solved the problem as there might be others out there with similar problems. If you called, we might have asked you for an invoice number, when you got it, and who from. While this sounds offensive and not believing you have a problem, it actually is helping us track down other potential errors. Giving up on talking to us seems a little childish. Why on earth would we not help you! Especially if you have had a couple other issues (not necessarily relating to us).
I see I wasn't quite clear, the gauges worked, I saw boost, I saw vacuum, just never saw more than 14 psi, and rarely saw better 10 inHg. Two other points missing here. Professionally I travel, a lot, I am rarely home. The other is that JAce is my toy. 90% of the time she sits in the garage. I have owned it ~ 1 year, and put roughly 1800 miles on her. So I installed the gauges drove it about 40 miles, round trip to work. a week later I drove it again. So the issues started roughly 50 to 60 miles after installing the gauges. Yes I understand the post needs to be undersized to fit, I also understand the o-ring groove needs to be undersized to work, there is actually design table for o-ring compression to generate a leak tight seal. I actually design and build process equipment for materials engineering. So when I say the part is out of tolerance, I mean it will never seal as designed. I also understand what a 95% pass ratio means for manufacturing. This means that some parts will be a little too small, some parts will be a little too big, and 95% will be perfect. Well mine is on the outer edge of the design space, it should of failed QC. So I failed it, I replaced it with one from your competitor. Unfortunately when my car runs like crap due to something I just installed I have zero tolerance, I will reiterate this: The thought process goes, call Alta and discuss while the problem still gnaws at me, or call another vendor get a working replaced fedexed in... A or B, I took B. I now see 20 to 22 psi regularly, and the car idles at 20 inHg, problem solved. So call me childish, call me an A-Hole, call me whatever you want, your part failed, your competitors did not, my solution was rational.

Originally Posted by ALTA2
JAceMin,
Regarding the MAF, think i can shed some light on your thoughts. I can tell you used to have a GM or Ford product by those comments (replacing the MAF because we are making more power). This is very common to change the MAF sensor when modding a car, and while this is super common on these, the better way to correct or change the Air Fuel ratio on the car is with changing the parameters in the ECU or with a piggyback ECU.
a few Alfas, a number of VWs. Never American.

Originally Posted by ALTA2

And of course with the Unichip, we are only changing things at high load and full throttle, not cruise or idle. Which is why (when the harness is working) the car drives just like it did, but with more power.

So that whole long winded explanation hopefully explains how and why changing the MAF isn't needed. The stock MAF sensor even at 280WHP isn't maxed out at all. Using what little we know about Exactly how the ECU works i can say for 100% that there is no need to change the MAF sensor at this point.


Unichip has told us that the V4 harness is almost done. They have explained how they have eliminated the connection issues so no weird codes or TPS issues, no nothing hopefully. We too are frustrated like our customers are with this. We spent hours and hours and hours making maps and and proving it works on tons of car, not to mention sales calls, now warranty calls and upset customers. But we are powering through it and hope to get some of these things resolved shortly! UNICHIP and ALTA fully stand behind this product and when it works, it works great!!
So is your stance that my issues are entirely harness related? Because I have asked this a few places here and have not gotten a clear answer. If this is the case, when is the harness replacement due, what is the replacement strategy? Do you plan on notify us users that a replacement harness is available?

Originally Posted by ALTA2
JAceMin, i understand you are not happy with us on some of the items you recieved and some of the serivce you got, but you are treating this as though we are untouchable and not reachable.
Think for a minute about how this dialog unfolded.

Originally Posted by ALTA2
If you have a problem with someone here, call and talk to Adam, or another manager.
I will not repeat this again, I am not going to talk to Adam ever again, if I wanted a fluffer I would work on a **** set.

Originally Posted by ALTA2
Do you think complaining to the forums are going to get your problem solved? The best way is calling and talking to some here. I don't go on the forums and post about how my FIOS is down because the tech cut our Fiber Optic line. I call Verizon and get it taken care of.
Yes, and the second time I called Verizon and they dealt with me the way your colleagues did I reminded them that it is a highly competitive market place, my money works just as well elsewhere, they could either work with me, or watch their competitor receive my business. Do not expect me to keep calling and be treated like I have.

So an action item for you: clear up this whole harness thing... what is the corrective action for the defective units?

I am open to any suggestion. Albeit this repeated request to call in or provide contact info. If you do not want to continue this in a public forum, PM.
 
  #24  
Old 08-12-2008, 09:36 PM
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Originally Posted by Mini Bo Bini
In Total Agreement with JAceMin...........

I certainly hope your results are different if you choose to purchase there!
Sorry for not reading this further at the outset. UniChip is the mfr of the product and we market it for them. TOTALLY agreed anything less than 100% is failure so I agree. But we had done extensive due dilligence prior to ordering in the hardwired and early pnp. Both worked GREAT! When production ramped up then we had more issues. ALL OF WHICH are covered by the UNICHIP warranty.

If you have ANY CEL's (let alone 11!) LET US KNOW so we can either get you in touch with UniChip Directly or we will take care of it in house. (Please note UniChip WANTS to deal directly with clients. ALTA hasn't pushed ANYONE away!)

PLEASE e-mail or PM me directly on how I can help your situation! Please do not feel we are leaving you (or anyone else in the lurch!)
 
  #25  
Old 08-12-2008, 09:45 PM
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Originally Posted by JAceMin

I will not repeat this again, I am not going to talk to Adam ever again, if I wanted a fluffer I would work on a **** set.
SUPER nice and SUPER Professional! Does an excellent job showing where you come from in terms of perspective!

Originally Posted by JAceMin
So an action item for you: clear up this whole harness thing... what is the corrective action for the defective units?
Been mentioned MULTIPLE TIMES. Ring us, or ring UniChip. Either way you can get a NEW harness, no charge, no muss and no fuss!
Originally Posted by JAceMin
I am open to any suggestion. Albeit this repeated request to call in or provide contact info. If you do not want to continue this in a public forum, PM.
Here is then my suggestion. If you don't want to speak to the "fluffer" even though I am the OWNER and can swing my weight around for the right client, e-mail jack@unichip.us directly. Tell him I am a "fluffer" too and I am sure he will bend over backwards like your local **** set to help you out! But seriously, if you don't want to work with us to help you resolve this or any other issues, he is your BEST bet for a prompt resolution to any concerns with the UniChip.

If you decide to stop acting like a spoiled 5 year old and want to enter into an adult conversation via phone, PLEASE let me know!

I await the flames! My apologies to anyone who feels I have been the least be unprofessional!
 


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