You still have a couple options open here.
1. buy the flash tool. Jan will load a map or two for you to use until you can get to a dyno. Then work out time to get the dyno shop and Jan together. The shop dyno's the car and sends Jan the info. He makes the needed changes and sends a new map to the shop that they download to the tool then the ecu. this is repeated a few times until the car is running properly.
2. Organize a tune party in your area. Once you get enough interested folks you can set some dates for Jan to come out and tune the cars in person. He usually comes out for 2-3 days and tunes about 6-8 cars a day.

one thing you will need before a tune is larger injectors. with your current mods the jcw 380cc injectors will be fine. if you think you might add a cam or head down the road get the 450's and he can scale them back for now. The 380's you can put in and run before the tune no problem but the 450's will have to be done just before the tune at the shop. about a 30-45 min job done by yourself.

My mods are pretty similar to yours and with the tune I picked up another 15hp and I think 10-15 tq. the biggest change though is just how the car drives and responds to throttle changes.

 

4wheels, come tune my car! I have been trying to get a tune for years. I have managed to catch the illusive Jan a couple times in the past but have no patience anymore to keep bugging him.

 

@Clint - maybe eventually I'll help others tune their cars. Right now this is strictly a side project for me and a maybe a couple friends nearby who have Mini's that don't run properly after mods/tunes were done.

 

4wheels,
My car runs fine on a giant cam on a Vipec
Would be interested in driving your car again though
i always did like it.

 

Been running an RMW tune tune for over 65,000 miles including more than a few track days with zero problems. The RMW tune is simple the best there is and they have the results, track records, podium finishes, race wins and National Championships to back it up! It's not just some peak Hp number but the drivabilty that gets ya to the front.

Call Jan if you want the best.

PS: I'm in W-S if you want to take a ride in an RMW tuned Mini!

 

I may do that! Where/How did you get yours done? Remotely by buying the programmer or were you able to catch him around here locally or did you have to travel a little ways to an area he happened to be visiting for tuning? Were you one of the lucky ones that was able to get up with him while he was in Thomasville a few years back from what I understand (from N2MINI's reply)?

 

Actually I did get my car tuned by Jan at the first Thomasville RMW tune day! Then I organized the second one and got a RMW cam and Jan retuned it at that one. Unfortunately, Speedworks who had the dyno that Jan likes to use, is now out of business, my searches for another location here in NC with this type of dyno has been fruitless. I have added an RMW header and 450 injectors and have been running a remote map from Jan. Car runs great as is but do hope to get it on a dyno and have Jan do a remote tune on it.

Hard to beat tuning on the dyno but Jan has so much time with the Minis on the dyno and so many maps, that he can get you very close,making your car safely run a ton better. Wish we had met at the Dragon, I was there as well!!!

PS: Give Jan a call and tell him I sent ya. He's back from the New Jersey Grand Am race where he was tuning Porsches now, so you should be able to get in touch with him. 949 456-9590

 

Do you know what dyno Sneed's Speed Shop is using? Pretty sure they wouldn't want to let Jan use it no matter what it is, seeing how they're the ones offering the Mynes/Bytetronik tune for a considerable cost difference. And, like I said before, I'm in no way dissin' Sneed's or their tune. They provided and installed my Stage 1 power pack and I'm happy with their work and service. Good peeps. But without a whopping gain in hp/tq. or drivability, it's just hard for me to justify the cost difference.

Here's an off topic-ish question, what's the difference in the dynos that makes one more popular for a tuner than another? Shouldn't they all be about the same? Seems like they should all be like a speedometer or something. Once calibrated, they should all be reading the same. Or is it the actual "system" that's tied to it to take the readings that make the difference?

And yes, shame we didn't meet at MOTD this year..... but, we've already got our garden room reserved for next year so...... we need to meet up!

 

Sneed's is a roller dyno and the one Jan prefers actually hooks to the hubs eliminating the wheels and tires along with the big roller from the equation. Jan likes it best and if thats what he wants to use , that's good enough for me. Sneed's is good folks and I'm sure Chris wouldn't mind, but Jan doesn't like using that type for Minis.

 

Man I hope it can be tuned to run well on an aftermarket ECU. It should! Only problem I had when I was talking to you guys about trying the Vipec was that you didn't have the OBD2 simulator working, which made it useless for me to pass smog.

The factory ECU has been a nightmare for all the tuners I've seen as nobody has really figured out all the right maps to tune, nor do they understand how it really calculates fueling & timing, as this Siemens monstrosity works in strange ways... I can't really blame them, most are not computer programmers.

At least with all the new maps & reverse engineering I've done, I now have my Mini running (& idling) extremely well, and LTFT's remain within +/- 0.8%. With the previous tuner's work, the LTFT's would drift off to around 18-20% after driving for a few weeks and it would frequently set CAT efficiency error codes, engine roughness codes & misfire codes. Eventually the ECU intermittently started shutting off 2 cylinders to protect the CAT. It's not that my tune can pull a bunch more max HP & Torque on the dyno at full throttle, but idle & part throttle are worlds better now.

I've eliminated ALL the error codes now and not by shutting them off. I have reprogrammed my ECU to work with the aftermarket CAT (which isn't as clean), and to idle properly, with correct fuel maps for idle/low/mid/full load operation, and now it doesn't fight the trims. I've also reprogrammed how the factory ECU calculates Lambda, so at idle I can have it run slightly richer than 14.7 which helps the big cam idle a lot better. I also changed how the ECU swings rich/lean during closed loop O2 trim. Previously it idled poorly at 1050 RPM, with a huge 3k flat spot. Now I have it idling at 900 RPM and much smoother. Also has much smoother throttle response now & more torque off idle so it doesn't die if the clutch grabs (but that OS clutch still sucks).

The ECU needs to know how "big" the cylinders are (it uses this in a volume displacement calc for proper airflow) to calculate proper fueling. This is another area I haven't seen tuners adjust.

 

As far as who you use, that will just have to be your descision.

But as far as dyno's go, no there not all the same, you won't even get the same results from the same mfg., there are too many variables in settings, atmospheric conditions and even in basic maintenance & upkeep.

Of the 3 different types, Mustang, Dynojet and Dynapack, the main difference is that the Mustang & Dynojet are "roller" type and the Dynapack bolts directly to your hubs.

As far as "end results" and "final" total hp & tq #'s it used to be that if you used the same car on all three, historicly the Mustang would give you the lowest "final" #'s, then the Dynojets #'s would be higher, but word is that a while back Dynojet did a firmware update and they now should read similar as long as they're set-up and calibrated properly.

As far as the Dynapack is concerned, "final" #'s are completely determined by the operator and it's settings, (unlike the Mustang & Dynojet) any change in settings will give you a different result. Here's an example of how many different settings there are to change on a Dynapack:
http://www.dynapackusa.com/vehicle.htm
(I've been trying to find a Dynapack locally so I could get some comparison #'s to measure my gains from the last time I was on a Dynapack and when I finally found one it ended up it really didn't matter, without knowing the "exact" setup of the last one it would be impossible to make an acurate comparison, and even if I had that info it still wouldn't be perfect simply because I would be using two different machines.)

Something people tend to forget when they get all caught up in having a hp/tq "schwinging" contest is that a chasis dyno is a TUNING TOOL made more for measuring gains & losses using your final output #'s, than the accuracy of those #'s, which will most likely never be correct.

The best you can do is once you've decided on a tuner, pick a dyno & operator that you like and that is close enough to you that should you make changes and want to check your results, you can go back and use that same dyno again. (unless of course you just want a piece of paper for "schwinging" purposes, then just find someone who will set-up the dyno for you to do so.)

The only ways to compare performance #'s with others on a dyno is by everyone using the same dyno, with the same settings, on that same day.....or on a track (road or drag) of course.