Jim

Thank you for taking your time answering our question. I feel more at ease knowing how your product works. I just purchased 2 sharks from Ken at MiniMania for my and my brothers MCSs. We had them installed last week and I have to say it is a different car. It car runs crisper and more positive then before.

I’m not a mechanic so I can’t post any dyno charts or give you any technical lingo about what the Shark did to my car. I know this, my car drives much better, it has no hesitation when starting on 1st gear, it increased my hp and it has made my Mini driving experience more enjoyable. Thank you for a reasonably priced, easily installable great product.

Oh BTW my original post about doing it yourself. Picked up a charger at Sears had a beer “to take the fear away” and did the upgrade. Install went smoothly since I had memorized the instruction line by line.

Jim, is there an area where new Shark version updates are posted so we can check from time to time??

Jack

 

Louay

I had the same problem when I tried to upgrade the my ECU. I was getting a 1-2-3 flash. 1-2-3 from what I understand means that the upgrade has NOT started and no changes were made to your ECU because you don't have enough or consistent current going into your car battery. I used an old 10 amp charger and I got the same 1-2-3. This charger was very old…So I purchased a 20 amp charger from Sears. That worked! I flashed 2 cars, took me 15 minutes per.

Good luck, hope this helps.

 

If there are any updates to the software (nothing anticipated at the moment) we will post them on our site. Plenty of units in stock for immediate shipment! -Pete, Stratmosphere

Stratmosphere Mini Products

 

123 has nothing to do with "at a later time" and everything to do with BATTERY
VOLTAGE. The Shark Injector doesn't guess.. in fact, if your DVOM or Battery
Charger tells you that the battery is "charged" but the Injector says "123", feel
free to throw out your DVOM and Charger.

EACH Injector is calibrated to a NIST-traceable standard to an accuracy of
well within 1%. In other words, it isn't wrong

You should reinject the car. It will know that you are stock, and reinject you.

That's why there is only ONE button.. it KNOWS what to do.. whatever "STATE" you
are in, it changes it to the other state. STOCK becomes PERFORMANCE, and
PERFORMANCE becomes STOCK.

Nope.. no need to do that, nor is it suggested to go back and forth many times.

Program it.. and forget it.. Store the SI in a reasonably cool dry place. It's sort
of like a passport.. you only need it when you travel.

It would depend on WHAT wire was cut.. and why.. and what else you did

But remember.. you HAVE TO HAVE a GOOD battery charger.. and the SI doesn't
lie when it comes to voltage.

PS: For the curious, the "standard' is a NIST-traceable calibrated Fluke 189 whose
current calibration certificate is +/- 0.0355% at 45v and 0.0466% at 4.5v to
give you some idea of the accuracy of the calibration standard.

 

No, versions are distributed to the dealer as new software versions come out.

There generally aren't "updates" to existing products.. as we try to get it right the
first time we are just making the SAME product work for a new software version.

Jim

 

Another big "thank you" to Jim for fielding all these questions. I have a few more. :smile:

Are the instructions available online? I'd like to read more about this whole battery-charger thing.

Why is the battery voltage so crucial? And if it is so crucial, why don't other re-flashers (including MINI dealers) worry about it? Could some of the other problems people have (or don't have) with the stock ECU be attributed to this "voltage thing"? (Whatever it is.)

My MCS has the "yo yo" (a 3-5 Hz surging behavior under moderate throttle), but not the dreaded "stumble" (an abrupt loss of power as the clutch is engaged). I tried the Evotech programming on my pulleyed and intake'd car, but it did not work well at all. (Terrible power and even richer mixtures than normal.) I was wondering if Jim was able to make any sort of diagnosis of the "yo yo", and whether he would care to hazard a guess about whether the Shark might clear it up.

I'm hoping that the upcoming stumble-fixing software from MINI will fix my yo yo as well, but I'm planning for the worst and hoping that one of the aftermarket solutions might do the trick. (And get me some more horsepower.)

Jim. if you're interested in examining a yo yo afflicted car, I might be convinced to drive it to Utah. I'm sure it would be an interesting and educational trip. (Long though!) If your injector does cure this problem, I bet you could sell a ton of them for that purpose alone.

-Dave

 

I can tell you this much...the Shark fixed my yo-yo problem I was having in 2nd and 3rd gear. It also fixed the lack of power of the line. I hated the car's power when I had the AC turned on and in stop and go traffic. Now this car responds much better and I don't have to worry about reving the RPMs up starting from a full stop.

Get it you'll love it!!!

 

I can tell you this much...the Shark fixed my yo-yo problem I was having in 2nd and 3rd gear. It also fixed the lack of power of the line. I hated the car's power when I had the AC turned on and in stop and go traffic. Now this car responds much better and I don't have to worry about reving the RPMs up starting from a full stop.

Get it you'll love it!!!

 

My "yo yo" problem also disappeared after I sharked it. It seems as if a trend is forming.

 

DaveNagy asks:

>>Why is the battery voltage so crucial? And if it is so crucial, why don't other re-flashers (including MINI dealers) worry about it? Could some of the other problems people have (or don't have) with the stock ECU be attributed to this "voltage thing"? (Whatever it is.)

I just installed the Powerchip upgrade on my Cooper Monday. Their software wanted more voltage and instructed me to put the battery on a charger. I did, and the download/upload went without a hitch.

 

I believe the battery voltage requirement is a limitation in the way the Siemens DME accepts new instructions. I know the VW/Audi Immobilizer systems are very sensitive to battery voltage, such that key matching / ECU swapping / cluster swapping often fails if battery voltage drops below 12.5 volts.

I'm curious to compare the performance of the Conforti mapping to others that I have tried. I'll have to pick one up to do some testing and logging. FWIW, my MCS (10/02 build date) never had a problem with "yo-yo" with the stock software, but I don't think my rev. 33 software is any different from that of MCS that have the reported "yo-yo". It definitely seems to be an interaction of hardware and software, much like the N75 wastegate control solenoid in VW 1.8T's. Some cars have oscillation while others don't, even with exactly the same software and hardware.

Conforti's patent application explains some of what the Shark is doing, but of course goes into only enough detail to defend the patent if/when it gets approved.

 

I have to admit I'm not seeing my yo-yo problem either after Sharking, but I need to do more driving to be sure. -Pete, Stratmosphere

Stratmosphere Mini Products including the SHARK

 

What is the average hp from all ECU'S (stock MCS'S)?

(I hope this question was not already answered)

Shark=
Evo=
Powerchip=



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I am the Question Man!

 

No it really hasn't been answered. We have no numbers for the shark alone. In other words, no one had just a pulley and dynoed it and then added the shark and dynoed it again.

I believe the Evo and powerchip give between 10-15 HP. The EVO, from what I understand just really changes WOT and increases max power while the powerchips changes throttle response also and I believe gives better torque.

 

I have the Shark...My opinion about the numbers, even if the Shark is less in the Horse Power chart I would still buy it because of the easy of install. I'm not saying the Shark produces less HP but if it did, I wouldn’t mind sacrificing 5 HP.

 

There is certainly a lot to be said about the ease of use and convenience factor.

 

I receive the Shark on Friday from Pete.
And install it easly in about 45mn.
Since the car run really smooth, and i can feel than there is more power all the way to the high RPM.

I've been waiting to do the upgrade ECU for a while and i'm happy about my choice.

I have in my MCS, Alta pulley, BMP air box, Denso ik22 plugs, and now Shark. Next the exhaust...

 

formini- GLAD you like it. I've been tearing it up around Rochester, NY this weekend myself. What a rocket with the pulley, airbox and Shark! -Pete, Stratmosphere

 

Can you get me a shark by friday? I want to test it out on the track.

Thanks
Dan
Pilo Racing

 

Dan,

Give me a call.

Randy

 

*DUMB QUESTION ALERT* please bear with me, ok? I have a completely stock '02 MCS. Does one have to have other mods to get the boost the Shark seems to give? I haven't wanted to do any mods 'til my husband read about the Shark...it seems almost too good to be true....Does anyone here have just the Shark and have you noticed any difference in performance?
Thanks in advance for any info..

 

kgdblu wrote:

I don't think that's a dumb question at all, but it is one that hasn't been answered by Conforti. I haven't seen any dyno plots showing the difference made ONLY by the Shark, either on a stock or pulleyed car. Stratmosphere has posted some numbers, but I have no idea what their plot looks like, or if it is even comparable to real-world dyno testing results.

 

>>kgdblu wrote:
>>
>>>>
>>I don't think that's a dumb question at all, but it is one that hasn't been answered by Conforti. I haven't seen any dyno plots showing the difference made ONLY by the Shark, either on a stock or pulleyed car. Stratmosphere has posted some numbers, but I have no idea what their plot looks like, or if it is even comparable to real-world dyno testing results.


Andy,

I don't know if you have seen this yet or not but check out the dyno posted by Turner here:

http://www.turnermotorsport.com/imag...ulley_dyno.jpg

It doesn't show just the improvement of the injector alone but it does show a 24hp rear wheel improvement with the pulley and the Shark on a stock car and then also shows the improvement with an intake added.

 

>>Andy,
>>
>>I don't know if you have seen this yet or not but check out the dyno posted by Turner here:
>>
>>http://www.turnermotorsport.com/imag...ulley_dyno.jpg
>>
>>It doesn't show just the improvement of the injector alone but it does show a 24hp rear wheel improvement with the pulley and the Shark on a stock car and then also shows the improvement with an intake added.
>>
>>
>>
Rear wheel HP on a front wheel drive car That must be some mod.

X2

 

I have seen that, but that doesn't address the question of how much of the gain the Shark is actually responsible for. In fact, that chart doesn't indicate which runs (if any) had the Shark installed.

Added to that, I am EXTREMELY skeptical of any dyno charts showing signifcant low-end torque gains from intakes. Here's what my boost curves look like with the stock airbox compared to the Alta intake:



Note how the curves are almost identical to 4500 rpm.

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