I have a 2004 Mini cooper S with a k&n short ram air intake and an Invidia N1 cat back exhaust, looking for a tuner now. Anybody have any suggestions? Whats the best route to go? Should I get a performance chip first, install headers, etc..??

 

Get a supercharger pulley first, that will be the biggest bang for the buck.

 

This. (Assuming my WMW pulley pack will be as amazing as I've imagined it.)

 

How much more power would I gain by adding a pulley? And if I did want to get a tuner down the line, know a good place where I can get one?

Thanks for the replies!

 

As for tuners, I'm a n00b, so I can't help. I've seen claims of 20 whp with a 15% pulley. I've also seen dyno sheets of a 15% pulley, JCW injectors, a tune, a CAI and a one ball making 220+ whp...sounds like a good deal to me.

 

Yea, I just looked it up and I got the same result, Definitely seems like the best route to go right now. But I definitely want to get a tuner at some point.

 

Same with me, but I have yet to install my pulley and colder plugs. I'm waiting on my VT mount to show up so I can install everything in one fell swoop...then I'll start worrying about a tune.

 

I have wmw 17% pulley, indivia exhaust, and jcw plugs. Huge difference in power. Gonna get cold air soon. Pulley is definatly worth the money.

 

A pulley is 15-20 hp, def the best bang for the buck. Then later we do ECU tunes.

 

running the 17% WMW pulley WAY installed for over a year now. It's awesome!!

 

Which part of the world are you in? You can get a Remote Mapping Kit from us or get the FA53 version and take it to your local tuner

Here is the Remote Mapping version:
https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...uners-new.html

 

If I did get a pulley, would I need to upgrade anything for it? Injectors, etc.. What about fuel? I'm not to familiar with anything, still learning!

 

Get a WMW pulley package. Has everything in it you are going to need to upgrade when putting a pulley on. Plus its cheaper buying all at once. While you are doing the pulley I would recommend changing the upper motor mount depending on your miles. I put a pulley on at 90,000 and mount went out at 93,000. Also do some powerflex bushing inserts. They stiffen the factory motor mount bushings.

 

Alright, thanks for the help man, I appreciate it!

 

No problem. I do recommend doing the upper mount if you do decide to do the pulley. You have to take it apart to do the pulley so why not do it while in there instead of later. The work to get to the pulley is the same as if replacing the mount. Just letting you know from experience. Wish I would have done it at the same time

 

It's always good to have more fuel when you increase the boost by going with a smaller pulley. How do you drive your car? at what RPM do you shift your car?

 

From everything I've read online, if you go with a 15% pulley, the ECU can compensate by adding more fuel. I've seen that you do, however, need colder range spark plugs and should get a new belt while you're at it. I've also read that IF you do get larger injectors, you NEED to get a tune, otherwise the car will not run correctly. I don't have any personal experience with this, because my 15% pulley is still sitting in its box...awaiting the arrival of my VT upper mount since my OEM one is shot.

 

If you buy the Pulley Kit from Way it will include the pulley, belt and the needed spark plugs as well as a tensioner stop. It's a great deal.

If you install JCW380cc injectors, you still don't NEED a tune, the factory ECU can compensate, but you really should get a tune. Essentially, do the pulley, intake, exhaust. Buy some JCW380s (if you're going to install yourself) and install them right before you get the tune. If your tuner is going to install the injectors, you can look at some RMW400's or something of that nature for a little extra fuel for tuning.

 

I agree with the pulley recommendations. Be sure you go with colder plugs too. If you're in Southern Cal I can help steer you in the right direction on the tune.

 

Yeah I was just simplifying I bought the pulley pack from Way, but I forgot to get a pulley puller so I need to deal with that now before I can install it...

 

Actually, I didn't know you could get buy without a tune if you replaced injectors...I always heard that a tune was necessary...but all this is hearsay coming from me. I've only had my MINI for a month and have only managed to install a boost gauge so far.

 

FA53 has come a long ways over the past 2 years and many maps and features have been perfected and tested. In the hands of a good MINI Tuner, a MINI with 550cc and other upgrades can pass SMOG with flying colors.

FA-Lite Mapping for the Sprintex Supercharger (69mm pulley) has just passed CARB certification - which means a lot for those living in Cali (b/c the process is arduous and expensive). From talking to the AAA Testing Lab guys (which works closely with SEMA), very few aftermarket tuning tools can achieved what FA-Lite has demonstrated with our level of mapping and control.

Here is more on the CARB Certification program if anyone cares to read up on it.
http://www.arb.ca.gov/msprog/onroad/cert/cert.php#1

 

Great if you're getting CARB. However from the screen shots of your recent releases of FA it appears you are still are missing most of the VE adjustments that I've had for some time, along with many other settings to adjust how the ecu adjusts lambda on the fly.

I didn't like the way FA locks your ecu either...

 

With the latest FA53, we have added many many more maps. The nomenclature of the MINI ECU mappings are different than Evo/STi (or from other tuning software); so if someone were to compare the map list of the FA53 to other turbo vehicles, of course they are not going to 'match up' 100% ...

If our mapping wasn't LOCKED, it wouldn't have pass CARB for the FA-Lite/Sprintex combo.

Every car manufacture LOCKS their ECU so they can protect their IP (Interllectual Property). So Bytetronik has found a way to unlock the ECU, thereby add our customized code for fast data-logging, and then we RELCOK the ECU to protect our IP. It sounds like good business sense to me.

Question: When we buy our MINIs from the dealership, we don't get a Owner's Manual on how to adjust our ECUs, right?

 

I'm not expecting the maps of the Mini's ECU to match up to other cars, that's not what I stated. What I said was that after looking at your screen shots of the updated FA you still haven't figured out the majority of maps in the Mini's ECU.

Last year when we met, if you guys could have properly answered any of my technical questions when I was looking at purchasing Bytetronik FA I would have bought it and been done. Instead I had to reverse engineer my Mini's ECU to properly tune it myself. When you guys couldn't answer the majority of my questions, the limited progress on the ECU was made obvious. Also instead of being helpful you guys chose to get irate & make arrogant comments as to how nobody else could figure this out, which is obviously hilarious. However, now that I have figured this out, I see where all the Mini tuners (& tuning software kits for sale) have gone wrong by misinterpreting maps & not having the majority of necessary maps figured out & also misunderstanding how the Siemens ECU operates. Some of the descriptions I've seen even in the updated Bytetronik FA screen shots don't properly describe various Mini map functionality, and other maps that are necessary to properly adjust the VE table on highly modified cars are simply not there from the screen shots I've seen you publish.

The majority of tuners don't lock their ECU. With most other car brands I'm used to tuning & racing this is typically a practice done by tuners who value hiding what they can't fix/tune properly.