Well I'll chime (back) in on this thread. I am finally scheduled for the dyno Thursday the 11th.

Here are the power mods for my 2007 MCS:

- pulled the ~87k mile MINI Cooper S turbo and replaced with direct swap, slightly larger JCW turbo brand new from Borg Warner.
- installed JCW Exhaust manifold.
- installed the CNT Racing catless, resonated downpipe.
- installed CNT Racing 2.5in exhaust (catless, now no CATs in the system, just resonators and a muffler, there were originally 2).
- installed Wagner Competition intercooler
- installed NM Engineering charge/discharge intercooler piping
- installed Detroit Motoring Turbo Oil line Kit (replaced oil feed line and oil return line of turbo. Good practice I am told when messing w/ the turbo)
- installed JCW Intake and Amsoil conical air filter.
- Stock 16in wheels w/ snow tires (yes this build has taken that long, haha And yes it will lower my numbers slightly with the weight)

I originally received a leaky turbo, so I returned that and got another new one that has worked well. Then there was suspected boost leaks so I addressed them.

With my Torque app I have seen the following over the course of time with the non-linear tune...two separate logging days (or nights if you will):

- 14.6 lbs on stock tune w/ mods, and similar PSI with Battle tune

- Stock tune, We saw 13-14 PSI on the ScanGuage w/ ~85F temps (hotter than the 70s I tested in a few weeks ago.), Battle tune same night, w/ ScanGauge showed a high of 15.5 PSI.

I have dyno time scheduled tomorrow to check my HP/TQ and more importantly my AFRs for further tweaking from Battle. It'd be great if others with Dyno charts/numbers also posted AFRs. This would tell is if the tunes are relatively safe or just being pushed for all out numbers.

Also to note, PSI is not the end all be all... with a slightly larger turbo, at the same measured PSI it is flowing more CFM. And the more CFM you can cram into the intake manifold (and corresponding fuel), the more power you get, not necessarily just PSI when comparing different turbos. So hopefully the Dyno numbers (and AFR) show some nice gains and safe AFRs.

I've been running the non-linear Stage 3 tune for a tank of gas now with plenty of flying up the rev range on the highway to make sure the ECU has fully adapted. John from Battle Tuning has been responsive over email from the start. I look forward to posting some #s then see where I'm at for some fine tuning. Thanks.

 

You forgot a little info, what year is your MCS?

 

Corrected, thought it was in my sig, thanks for the catch.

 

Of course my shop called and the Dyno is down, haha. They hope to get me in next week. *sigh*

 

I just had this happen to me as well! The load circuit keeps blowing so they wouldn't be able to put a load when you make a run. I wasn't sure if the MINI needed a load at the time so I told them to call me when its fixed. I'm sure our cars need a load to get a proper reading. Unless someone else knows the contrary?

 

Here is my pull from the dyno today. They put 2006 but it is a 2007 in the description.

Stage 3 Tune

218WHP
233WTQ

76f humidity 74% 1033ft

As for boost my Vacuum gauge showed 18-19psi max.

 

Nice for a 07 MCS, nice to know what I can expect when I tune my MCS. Have you ever performed a compression test before on your engine?

 

No i haven't. I have one some where in the garage from my mustang and DSM days.

 

When does your MCS cut boost, 4500 rpms? My 07 MCS loses most of it's boost at 4500 rpms and was just wondering if yours does lose boost at 4500 rpms. We have the same engine and same turbo.

 

at the moment mine is losing boost at ~4500. I'm working on graphing and make sense of the things I've been logging with the torque android app.

Which turbo are you guys running?

 

I'm surprised that your loosing boost at 4500 rpms with a 2009 JCW MCS, you have a 40mm compressor and a larger inlet where the charge pipe connects. I have a 37mm compressor with a smaller turbo inlet, smaller than the outlet to intercooler. I believe from all I have researched the N18 JCW's can take their boost all the way to 5750 rpms, that's what my booklet says without Sport Mode though. Sport Mode gives you more torque sooner which is why you lose a little at the top.

 

sadly I never got to run a tune on the jcw turbo, it died so I moved up to a k04 from JMTC with a stage 4 tune from battle. All of which I'm still getting used to. Lots of boost (21-22psi) very quickly, but once I hit ~4500 rpms the boost tappers down to ~10psi from 5k to red line. I wasn't going to post about it because I didn't fully understand what's going on and im still collecting logs and such. so it might be unrelated but I saw your numbers and thought they looked familiar and figured I'd mention it.

This I believe, and lines up with someting else I'd heard, that the wastegate actuator on the n18 is a bit different internally than the one on the n14 allowing it to hold the waste gate closed at elivated boost pressures for a bit longer. But I don't have any numbers to back this up, so for now it's rumors and hearsay (and probably has nothing to do with this thread)

 

My boost stays around 16-18 until 6,100. i will try to take a video and im waiting on my obd2 Bluetooth so i can do some logs. And what im reading my boost from is a vacuum boost gauge i installed. My scangauge seems to read much lower but im going to look into making sure i have it setup correctly.

 

If you're right about the boost being 16-18 psi until 6100 rpms it seems the tune might be responsible for you maintaining boost till just under redline. My Mini is in the body shop right now, bummer because I just corrected the altitude for my Torque App, oh **** I left my MX Bluetooth hooked up when I dropped off my Mini! I'm going over there now to grab it, while I trust them to do an excellent job you can't trust the entire shop personal, I want to see how there doing anyhow.

 

Is your scangauge have the specific programming for MINIs?

 

Check your BOV (DV). The stock one is made of paper thin plastic (or rubber) and really wears over time. A leaky DV can cause you to lose significant PSI, especially in that range. My stock one on a stock JCW tune had issues holding boost past 5-5500 and when I installed my GFB DV+ I noticed it was starting to tear apart. The replacement was around $135 and not only holds boost better, but its faster release makes for better throttle response (less lagg).

 

Dumb question, but were you doing your pulls in 4th gear? When I first Dynoed my JCW, I was getting 215/228 (90* 100% humidity) but that was in 3rd gear. Turns out our mini is very closely geared and 4th is closer to 1:1. I have yet to dyno it again (waiting to decoke and install my colder spark plugs), but I am very confident 220+ is what I am at. I have an OBD2 reader and I see 20-22psi and holding from the BT stage 3 with similar mods. As mentioned before, you may want to check your DV.

 

The 2007-2008 MCS turbos are smaller than the 2009+ MCS, therefore you would expect a small turbo to run out of breath at some point near the redline. We aren't troubleshooting our turbos were finding out that a tune will give you a little more max boost closer to redline. The 07-08 MCS turbo was 37mm for the compressor and the 09 MCS were 40mm compressor also with a larger inlet.

 

Forgive my confusion, but what is your source for the change in turbo size between 08 and 09? Because RealOEM is showing the exact same part number for my 4/08 car and that of a 10/09 car and a 7/10 car.

 

The JCW came with a larger turbo, 2009 JCW MCS.

 

I know that, the issue the guy is having isn't a turbo specific problem as I was saying, I had issues with my turbo holding boost to redline. That is why I suggested on changing the DV as the stock on is of poor quality

 

Yes I got the one programmed for the mini and the weird thing is with the car off and ign on BST shows 0 on the scangauge.

But the scangauge and my vacuum gauge are off around 4-5psi. (Scangauge lower)

 

Yes the pulls were done in 4th. All of my other 6spd cars (non mini) have been 4th gear as well. I pulled the dv and checked and nothing looked bad and since the vacuum gauge shows what I think is correct I'm thinking it's a scangauge issue\configuration. I am going to try another vacuum gauge to confirm.

 

Do you have the ability to monitor boost with an app like Dashcommand (iPhone) or Torque (Android)? This would be one way to determine which gauge is correct.

 

Are you sure you aren't comparing a MCS to a fJCW?