10K miles on my recently purchased 2013 JCW Clubman and i'm very interested in tuning it for more power.

I'm curious however how tuning would affect reliability.

Of course, if I bounce off the rev limiter all day, things will break but if I drive like a responsible adult () I assume that some mods will actually increase reliability?

Larger I/C would drop intake temps, Stage 2 lowers water temps I hear, etc.

I plan on occasionally tracking this thing but it will be a daily driver (20K per year) so I dont need self inflicted down time, if avoidable.

MarioKart tune, downpipe, Forge I/C, etc?

Thinking out loud as I come up with my plan but would love some info from people who've got experience.

 

I’ve put about 30k milestone on my Manic stage 2 Clubman so far, and I’ve had no problems yet. I have a WMW catless downpipe, Wagner intercooler, AEM intake, and some other smaller bolt ons. JCW engine is supposed to be better built, so you have that going for you. Try to be proactive with engine maintenance, and you should be good. I would suggest getting a Blackstone labs oil analysis performed to get a baseline for engine health before tuning, too.

 

 

N14 JCW here. 25k miles Stage 2 meth, 263 hp, 15k miles Stage 3 meth, 291 hp and its my daily. Buy Tier one gas, drive responsibly, take of it and you should be fine. For extra insurance add an OCC.

 

So your plan is to spend thousands to make ~60hp more only to short shift and never put more than stock power to the wheels? Assuming a flat-ish torque curve, a car that makes 260hp @ 6,000rpm will only make 217hp at 5,000. That's a *****-ton of effort for extremely little gain.

Put differently, if you normally do not redline it or completely floor the throttle, simply changing behavior will give you gobs more power than a tune will.

As you can tell, I am very opposed to the whole "driving like an adult" thing, haha. You should be able to beat the snot out of the motor, maintain it correctly, and not see any problems during your ownership directly resulting from beating on it.

 

make sure whoever tunes it knows it will get tracked. These "stage" tunes are going to heat soak on the track and cause problems, ask anyone that's tracked a newer bmw.

 

@ cyow5 ... turbo spools at ~2500rpm.. and majority of peak power is made much before 6k. Look at some dyno curves.. they are steep and torque stays flat for a long time with a decent setup & flash tune.



260 @ 6k .. and 217 @ 5k.. are you a rocket scientist (?) because this isnt easy math to ballpark and I find your assumptions way off base. There is plenty of good sense in making more power reliably.

 

I am an automotive engineer with a master's degree and I specialize in modeling and simulation. A rocket scientist would be less applicable!

power = tq * rpm / 5252 when using pound-feet and horsepower. If an engine makes 260hp at 6k, then that means that it makes 228lb*ft at that same moment. Assuming the torque curve is flat from 5k to 6k (pretty reasonable) then that same 228 lb*ft results in 216.7 hp. Your reaction justifies my point - the amount of power gained by 1,000 rpm is huge, and short shifting just means that you miss out on it.

EDIT: it seems like the aftermarket is spinning the turbos on these motors to death, and many of the 250hp+ tunes really, really should have a bigger turbo. On the stock turbo, torque is so far from flat that it has started to fall off a cliff by 5k. With a decreasing curve like that, horsepower is flat, and short-shifting does not decrease power. It does mean though that everything is stressed like crazy though for little gain - my point is that flogging a stock motor is safe these days, and, without a massive build, you'll end up afraid to use your new, expensive power.

 

Just to follow up on this, I've been talking with the OP, and there was a major disconnect. When I hear the word "tuning", I think predominantly software and trying to wrangle ever last bit out of a motor. That's especially evident in the torque curves I looked up where you can tell the turbo is being severely over-spun. However, he was thinking more of a hardware emphasis like IC, CAI, catless; things that can improve performance incidentally by reducing the stress on the engine and turbo. Given that, there is definitely room to improve when willing to compromise noise or emissions that the OEM was handcuffed with.