Just went to a local shop and asked if they did ECU tuning, as I have a reduced pulley. They told me that it is extremely dangerous, and could blow the engine if I don't adjust the ECU ASAP... problem is, I've had the pulley for about 8 months...
Any thoughts, comments, experiences? Anyone else running a reduced pulley without tuning the CU?

-Thanks

 

There are many MCS with 15% pulley running around out there without ECU upgrade. I don't know if this is a scare tactic employed by the shop to earn your business. As you mentioned, you've had your pulley for 8 months without problems. A remapped ECU will, however, smooth out the performance while providing additional hp/torque gain. :smile:

_________________

 

My thoughts as well, especially since they tried to tell me that plug and play ECU tuning software was not available, that they would have to put it on the dyno, yada yada yada, $1500 later... my car would be "safe"?

 

$1500

 

Oh NO!! That means my 19% pulley is going to blow up! It'll be worse than a corbomite device, rendering an area over a parsec wide devoid of MINI life!



Have to love a good bluf with no substance...

 

There are hundreds of pullied cars with no ECU upgrade. The fact is, even with a pulley, the car runs pig rich. Turner Motorsport is one company that refused to do a pulley without ECU.

 

Certainly to get the very best results one should think about a pulley upgrade with an ECU upgrade that is tuned for that size of pulley. Dangerous to run a MINI with pulley alone? No, there is no evidence that supports this as far as we know from the work done by Webbmotorsports or at Helix13 which are shops that have about the most experience with pulley installs.

So the quick answer is if you have the 15% pulley and no ECU, don't worry about it. Just drive normal. If you wish to add an ECU upgrade at some point then great. If you have the 17% or 19% pulley then get an ECU that takes that into account.

Time to switch shops if they are telling you to add an ECU due to safety. :evil:

 

JCW has a reduced pulley too right?
Do they remap the ECU is you put a JCW on?
I Have not hear that yet.

 

LOL! Which shop was this?

 

>>JCW has a reduced pulley too right?
>>Do they remap the ECU is you put a JCW on?
>>I Have not hear that yet.

The standard ECU can be flashed with the JCW version.

 

Appreciate all the feedback.

A shop in Norwalk, CT. First visit was today... doubt I'll be heading back.

 

Back in the day when I was modding small block Chevys with 6-71 blowers and B&M and Magnuson blowers we would always run lean on startup. We'd then have to recalibrate the carb settings to richen the mix. What happens is when you run your newly sc'd car on stock fuel settings, they will lean out considerably because of the additional air in the fuel/air ratio. We ran so lean the first time, we had headers that were GLOWING red!

You have a similar setting when overdriving the sc where your fuel/air ratio is changed due to increased amounts of air being introduced into the motor. In talking to Erik Savage when he came to a pulley party in Hawaii, he said the car should run fine as the factory settings run rich.

 

>>The standard ECU can be flashed with the JCW version.

Where can that be done? Will the dealer do it?

_________________
IM!patiently waiting on my 04 CR/W MCS.

Maybe next week...(sigh)

 

>>Where can that be done? Will the dealer do it?

The JCW ECU is part of the JCW kit, which is programmed to optimized other JCW performance parts: the head, new supercharger with smaller pulley (not quite 15% reduction), and the exhaust. Dealer's willingness to flash it onto a non-JCW car may depend on each individual dealer. :smile:

Storer, is the shop in Norwalk Speedtechnik?
_________________

 

No-one has reported any problems yet, but my findings with the 19% pulley and the standard head were that the injectors run out of poop above 6000. What this would mean is that the car would run lean in that range regardless of ECU tuning. So if you are out there, ***** to the wall, 18-19psi boost, above 6k, running prolonged laps, be forewarned.

_________________
""the onus of proof is on he who asserts the positive."

 

>>No-one has reported any problems yet, but my findings with the 19% pulley and the standard head were that the injectors run out of poop above 6000. What this would mean is that the car would run lean in that range regardless of ECU tuning. So if you are out there, ***** to the wall, 18-19psi boost, above 6k, running prolonged laps, be forewarned.
>>
Hmmmm. I was just having a discussion with a friend about two hours ago, and he brought up the same thought/concern. As I just put the 19% on last night, after ditching the 15%, I was thinking larger injectors might be in order...especially with nitrous.

jlm, andy said you were running a high flow cat (3&quot, what exhaust do you run? Any CEL's with that cat?

 

the cat is an ATC; it never triggered the CEL. the rest of the exhaust is 2.5" with twin supersprint mufflers

 

>>>>Where can that be done? Will the dealer do it?
>>
>>The JCW ECU is part of the JCW kit, which is programmed to optimized other JCW performance parts: the head, new supercharger with smaller pulley (not quite 15% reduction), and the exhaust. Dealer's willingness to flash it onto a non-JCW car may depend on each individual dealer. :smile:
>>

If the JCW tuning does anything I'll be amazed. I had my JCW dynoed with wideband A/F shortly after having got it as part of Tuner Transformation and the thing was still pig rich. Check out my dyno below. With A/F like that I'd be tempted to say the JCW ECU was a detune. Check out how my power levels off and gets very "jagged" sub 12:1 and starts to get better again once the A/F starts going back up. By my estimation my A/F got to around 9:1 maybe 9.5:1. So I can't see the JCW tuning doing much but hinder performance, that's why I'm going Unichip.

Cheers,

Paul

 

---> Storer; the ECU will adapt to whatever pulley is on the car via the MAP sensor, within the limits of the injectors as jlm stated.

That shop trying to scare/scam you is sad.

 

Yup

 

Yup, pretty shitty IMO. Just glad that I have a great group of MINI gearheads to provide me with some objective info, otherwise, I might get screwed, though I'm always one for a second opinion.

 

Had a pulley, intake, throttle body, plugs, wires, and coil pack done in Vegas by Randy Webb. The ECUs did not come in and I have been driving the heck out of it and got better MPGs coming back HARD (average over 63 MPHs) than going (average under 50 MPHs).

Got the UNICHIP in UPS deliver Friday NOW just gotta get it done.

Have had no problems and just waiting to see what the UNICHIP does for me. The rest really feel good and the dyno showed good improvement.

Earl

 

I believe that there is potential to correct the slight 19% lean issue with a few more pounds of fuel pressure. I have not seen anyone address this issue from that point of view except Hubie who chose to go the larger injector route as the Mini has only a single line fuel system and most pressure regulation systems require a two line system. Unfortunately, it comes with its own set of issues.

Anyone out there ever boosted fuel pressure on a single line system?

Has anyone measured fuel pressure over the rpm band?

 

Is anyone using the 400cc injectors offered by M7? If so, how is idle? Do you think this would resolve the potential high rpm lean?

 

The issue would be if the ECU can compensate sufficiently for midrange running with larger fuel/pulse injectors and whether the fuel map for WOT running would match the feul needs over the required rpm band.

Hence the A'pexi.

M7: how do you handle it?