How and the adjustments to the VVT coming along Jan?

 

Obviously Jan responded before I got a chance but (and I'm sure Jan will correct me if I'm wrong) if I remember correctly, most of Jan's tunes are in the 16-17lb boost range.

On a side note, Jan, are you planning on working your way back to NC any time soon? I think you were at Thomasville last time and I'd sure like to sneak in a day early and let you play with my car some more.

Lemme know.

Mark

 

Jan, when is this going to be released in the UK as people are waiting on a self removable tune and are starting to get testy to say the least .

 

i personally am in the boat with kitty... i'm with her out here in PA... tune day out here would be a glorious day *get the tingles just thinking about it :D*

 

We gotta keep on Eric to have his dyno moved to the new shop JP!!!!!!

 

People who run the UniChip see 20+ psi and other than the fact that the UniChip's themselves suck, no one has ever mentioned of any catastrophic motor related problems. Not to mention most of the UniChip tunes are pretty lean for the boost levels that they see.

As Jan said, he touches a lot more than just the boost. Turning it up to above 18 and not touching other things to compensate is one thing...but that is not what he does.

It is important to keep in mind, that running higher boost levels on any turbo will lead to premature wear. Nothing too dramatic though. Manufacturers set boost levels at a certain range for a reason...go mess with them and crank the boost up...you're going to wear the them out faster than normal, pretty self-explanatory.

My car see's anywhere from 17-19.5 psi depending on if overboost engages, ambient conditions, etc. I think it might be a little high for Arizona summer temps (it was 115F+ for most of July...)...its not too happy running in those conditions...hell no car is. But with the addition of my Helix IC it does fine. When it was really hot, I was running a 100 octane mixed with the 91 crap gas we have here, just to be safe...and wow that does wonders. My car is addicted to it! A tuned, turbo, high compression motor....lovvvvvves as much octane as it can get.

 

Noted. But over a loing period of time running too far over 17-18Psi you will get a broken turbo and if your really unlucky your bottom end will go aswell. Its just a word of warning thats all. We have seen it a few times now so i know what im talking about. The Engines may aswell be made by Fisher Price as the French are obviously no better.

 

I dunno, it seems there's a lot of engines with 250+ HP that remain loyal to their owners and for a 1.6 litre, I don't care if Kentucky Fried Chicken made the engine, there are less engines coming apart than any of my blown small/big blocks.

Mark

 

Thats probably tru because Small/Big Blocks are made of chocolate. But the R56 engines takes no more that 17-18Psi. Thats obviously why Jan hasn't done so, so there been no harm done. End of story.

 

that's why the car should love the methanol
testing it next week

 

We will see what the tune does to our high altitude cars, Jan starts a session today in Denver/Parker.

We are excited.

Don

 

Send it my way for some hot weather testing ;-)

 

Have you actually SEEN it???

There's been a few rumours on UK Mini forums but no confirmed info. One mapped JCW seems to have blown a turbo but that was suspected to have had something sucked into the turbo somehow. This is the most detail I've seen posted online and even that was from a third party, not the owner.

No owners have posted themselves to my knowledge and most is he said/she said. Rumours can spread quickly!

 

Picking up undue Law Enforcement attention is my fear. When I run through corners after 2500rpm in 2nd....it rockets. I have so much fun I think it is a matter of time before I get a ticket also...lol. What is real cool is the hills in downtown Seattle, man I can fly up those babies.

 

Yes, being noticed by a leo with a radar/lidar is not my great desire.

Tuned today: TQ is king or if you prefer Queen.

Baseline: 190.50HP / 229.71TQ
Final: 193HP / 264TQ

A very nice curve from about 2500 to about 5000. I will have to see what I can do on HPR's Highway Straight.

Dyno conditions were 89.5 degrees with 5 % humidity at one mile high. Parker, Colorado.

 

This engine was completely blown up due to exccesive wear to the Bottom end. Cylinder Head and Turbo. The turbo compressor sheared in half and got sent in to the engine which completely finished it off. Check out the piston on the floor that looks like a crushed coke can!

 

Prim, looks less than perfect. Do you know the owner and did they write up a commentary somewhere?

A few facts would help, what was the owner doing at the time of blow up, miles on engine, what software was used in the tune, etc.. etc ..

I am curious about the facts and on the other incidents. As noted on NAM, a few MINI engines have been letting go due to other types of failures, not associated with tunes or turbos.

Thanks,
Don

 

Don,

That's pretty freakin' impressive. At one mile high elevation, do the numbers go up or down when converted to sea level? I should rephrase that.... if you're numbers are 264 tq, if you drove your car to sea level and redid the same dyno tune, wouldn't you produce even higher numbers???

I don't think I've seen anyone with over 260 tq, your baseline is the highest I've ever seen.

Congrats. Did you post the graph anywhere?


Mark

 

Engine was at 30,00 Miles. Normal every day driving, town and motorway. The car was looked after. Warmed up and cooled down evry run, it was driven by a freind of mine. I had to tell her off every time she drove it for driving to slowly so abuse was not the case. When it was taken to BMW on a tow truck, they informed her it had blown up due to a misfire caused by the Remap she had installed as the parameters in the engine were put there for a reason. They replaced the engine under warranty still as they are a good dealership but did still blame to Remap as due to the overboost fuction of the car maps have to be perfect not to over fuel, run lean etc. I cant tell you who remapped it as its not my place to say but i will see if she will speak up.

 

I will try to capture the graph, I have a hard copy and the file I need to display and capture with the Dynojet software.

Numbers would go up probably over 200HP at sea level. Possibly, over 270 on TQ, but that is speculation. I did find out that they did the pulls in DS M4 on my MCSa.

I plan on a set of baselines with the pulls done in DS M3 like I did last February, just to see the diff. And see if the numbers go up or if the current numbers were affected by the heat (89+) in the dyno bay.

I do need an intercooler, heat soak sucks.

Numbers are good, MINI is smooth (loafing along) and it is a beast when you hit the peddle hard cruising along at 75 on the toll-way.

 

Prim, so the culprit was a misfire due to lean conditions in over-boost. Did I understand that correctly?

 

So in my Saturday night drunken state...I was thinking to myself about this...

The MCS uses a KO3 turbo. The KO3 is a tried and true turbo that has been used over and over again, and has been very very successfully tuned for YEARS now. All of the VAG cars that are big in the tuning scene use the KO3...(all the 1.8t motors, as well as the audi 2.7tt). Those cars have been tuned over and over again for years, and while turbos might fail prematurely in high mileage cars, they don't see catastrophic failure like u describe.

It's one thing if our motor is weak and can't take the added stress of increased boost, but as you mention here...it was the TURBO that failed and the compressor wheel sheered off and gave the motor its death sentence. To me that seems like it was a defect in the turbo that caused this....

Also, if the car was not tuned properly (ie. to lean, timing too advanced), then thats a strong reason why the motor blew. But you seem to think it's a certain boost level that causes the motor to blow.

Our motor is designed with the fact that it is boosted. The few extra pounds of boost we throw at it when tuned shouldn't make a difference one way or another. In my opinion, the only way that the motor will be stressed enough to catastrophically fail would be if we had a big turbo on it and were running a high boost tune. Or if you had the stock turbo and just had a horrible tune on it (a lean, high boost tune)...with our 10.5:1 compression, you can kiss it goodbye real real fast. "But its ok to run lean, its Direct Injection" <---

 

Im not too sure on specifics but i dont think thats the case. The K03 we use is modified from the one you will se in the 1.8T range. Ours is Twin Vained which makes it weaker and its also twinscroll which i believe the 1.8T's are not. When the engine was pulled apart the engine was already worn within an inch of its life, it was more or les unsavable, but the thing that topped it off was the Compressor fin. It sort of like finding a rabbit on the side of the road thats been hit by a car. Normally people would try to put it out of its missery, but even giving it the final blow doesn't mean you were the main cause of death?

The turbo should only push 17-18Psi tops with a tune. The reason being is the ammount of built up pressure and heat in the manifold. It causes heat soak on the turbo and engine and causes problems, like seals blowing and head gaskets going. Also you run the risk of running your engine dry of water if it gets excessive and you are on a long drive.

 

I'm still flabergasted that you didn't pull 200HP but managed to get over 260tq. (I'm not dissin' the HP numbers, it's just the TQ numbers are soooo far past the HP numbers)

And besides, TQ is what pulls you back in the seat, that car has got to pin you back. I still can't believe you pulled those numbers. FREAK!

Mark

 

it's an automatic and it's stock, it isn't flowing up top

but it was still interesting non the less