Well, I've had my G-tech Pro RR for about two weeks now. Works great, except that it evidently will *not* reliably pick up the engine's RPM through the cigarette lighter socket. The MINI appears to be one of the few cars with this issue. I guess the power to the lighter socket is filtered/smoothed with some kind of choke coil that removes the AC part of the voltage that the G-Tech uses to sense engine RPM.

To bypass any filtering circuits, I decided to hardwire the power cable to the remote battery terminal under the hood of my 2006 MCSC. Not wanting to cut up the cigarette lighter adaptor that came with the unit, I went down to Radio Shack and picked up a spare power plug that fit into the back of the G-Tech unit, and a rocker switch to turn the unit on and off.

I mounted the G-Tech to the left side of the dashpad near the driver's A-pillar, and ran a fused power wire under the dash, through the firewall, and to the remote "+" terminal under the bonnet. I used a metal bracket screw under the dash for the ground connection. I mounted the rocker switch in the plastic panel between the left end of the dash and the driver's door panel. This means I can only access the switch with the driver's door open, but I only use the G-Tech at the track, and I'm not turning it on and off all the time anyway. Most days, it's not even in the car. Plus, I didn't want to drill a 3/4" hole for the switch in any panel that was going to be difficult/expensive to replace.

After hardwiring the unit, it picks up the engine RPM flawlessly. When I calibrated the RPM, the unit asked me to press a button while I held the engine at 4000 RPM, and then again with the engine at 2000 RPM. After that, it began displaying the RPM, which matched up both to the tach in the dash and to my inductive timing light.

Just wanted to post this in case anyone else was driving themselves crazy trying unsuccessfully to calibrate the RPMs through the cigarette lighter socket.

Scott

 

So your happy with the G-Tech, is that the lower or higher end model, Im looking to buy one of these for my car, that wiring seems alittle weird but it doesnt sound to intense. I was looking at one since the only dyno I have access to is the old butt dyno.

 

I have used the RR for two years, running ASP and STX, and think it is worth the trouble. My thanks to riquiscott for telling me how to get the RPM right.

With the PC based client, I always sit down and overlay the runs on any course, comparing the timing and size of the G forces at varying points to see what I did differently - and how that played out in terms of time on course. It has allowed me to quantitatively measure my braking and turn in habits, and also to measure the differences between tyres.

For example, I have traces from 2005 that illustrate a consistant 1.2 g lateral through a five gate slalom - that was the ASP year and I was running warm Hoosier AS304s.

This year max lateral accel was more like .95, with warm Falken Azeni 615s.

I am going to update the unit over the winter, and continue to rely on it next year in DSP.

But DON'T look at it while driving!

 

the RR is the higher end model the SS is the lower end.

Btw i use the G-Tech Competition model which pre-dates either of those.

 

I like the idea of loading the info onto a comp, does anyone know if it works on a Mac?

 

sorry, the application it comes with is for Windoze only.

And every Mini owner has had to deal with this. I ran a hot lead from the remote batt termanal to a relay board that's triggered when the ignition is on.

The G-Tech is a nice unit. If you're just testing parts and acceleration, the SS is fine. For AutoX and road racing, the RR is usefull, but to tell the truth, I've never used it for that, I just use it for power runs.

If you're careful in setting up the unit, it will get your 0-60 and 1/4 mile times within a few tenths of what you'd measure at the strip...

Matt

 

Scott, just a quick question... how did you hook up your timing light to the MINI? I was trying to diagnose some timing issues on another car and decided to hook the it up to the MINI just to make sure the light is ok. I used the remote start terminal for + and clamped onto the metal ground in front of the airbox for ground. The light would not flash at all (yes the inductive lead was attached to a plug wire). It seemed like I wasn't getting power. Was this how you attached your light?

 

I used the remote terminal for the positive, and there's a metal bracket with a "-" stamped on it near the driver's side motor mount that I used for the negative. I just clipped the inductive pickup to one of the plug wires at random, since I was only looking for RPM and not actual timing information.

I can't think of anything you could have done wrong, unless you had the inductive pickup facing the wrong way. (Or perhaps there *is* something wrong with your light.)

One thing to note - the tach readout on my timing light reads exactly double the actual engine RPM, so I take that into account when I'm reading it. I figure that the ignition in the MINI is firing the spark plugs both on the compression and the exhaust stroke, and that doubles the RPM readout.

My timing light is a Stinger OTC #3368, if that helps you any.

Scott

 

Thanks, it probably is the light. The problem on the other car was that it was flashing intermittently. I had it hooked up to the MINI in the exact same way as you did.

Oh, and your deduction is right on for the MINI's ignition...it does fire two cylinders at the same time. One on compression and another on exhaust.

 

a wasted spark ignition. That's why the coil pack looks like it does.

Matt

 

- I have enjoyed my GTECH - here is my install thread

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...ighlight=gtech

 

Nice clean install! That was the look I was going for, but I couldn't get the dashpad off (mine's an '06, and they're a bear to remove). So, I mounted mine a little to the left of where yours is, and there's one power wire visible. I may be able to clean that wire up with the dashpad in place, but for now, I'm just happy it's mounted, secure, and working perfectly.

Scott

 

Gotta love those shift lights .