If you have a 09+ factory JCW and have had your car tuned by Jan of RMW, Mynes, Clint of DoS or Way from Way Motor Works please chime in with your thought and impressions. That is all I am looking for. I am not trying to start a new war here.

I was part of the group of people that had their cars tuned by Jan at Helix in Philly in April. Initially I was pretty happy with the results. The dyno numbers were low but I was not looking for high dyno numbers to brag about. I was looking for increased and improved performance..

I knew I was not going to get huge numbers like many of the Cooper S owners were seeing. Our cars are already "tuned" beyond an S. So I wrote to Jan asking what I could expect. This was his response:

"What you will notice immediately is the speed at which the turbo spools, the power delivery etc. Most JCWs will make in the 10hp + range. Traction control improved, rev limit increase, quicker back on boost after a shift."

OK. That sounds good and I did experience those things. Some things that stood out:

- Water temp was always around 220. After tune at 175.
- The blow off valve sound went from a pshhh to the well talked about flutter. If you have been following my posts, you know what I am talking about.
- When I started my car up in the morning it had a rough idle.

Jan has worked with me via email and since I bought the Dimsport flash tool I have been able to upload new modified tune files that he has sent me. To date that has been 2 new files.

The latest one put the water temp back to 220 and got rid of the flutter. The car does not have a rough idle first thing in the morning anymore.

I will be speaking with Jan about these things on Monday 5-10. So hopefully he will explain what has been changed and why.

Please post your experience and feedback.

-Steve

 

i have an 09 factory JCW as well and am very interested in purchasing the remote tune...however, im even more interested in personal experience from others who have gone this route or any other tuning route. thanks for starting up this threat onefish2

 

I spoke with Jan this evening. He answered all of my questions. I am back to running with the original mod file from when he tuned my car in Philly last month. He has since sent me 2 modified files. I fell the car runs the best overall with the original tune file.

BOV flutter is there for a reason. I have actually grown to like it.
Water temp at 177. He put that there for longer engine life etc.
Challenge cars run lean at startup. I can deal with that map. When I drive the car off, It runs just fine.

Best bet is to give Jan a call and have him answer your questions over the phone.

I wish others with a JCW would post their observations here. Please chime in and make this post more useful.

-Steve

 

With so few JCWs out there, I imagine that you are one of the very very few people that might have a JCW tune.

I am buying the Helix IC and I'm still on the fence as to the best CAI to install; but I plan to get them on the car this summer and then a tune.

I would like to see higher tq/hp numbers though. Is it unreasonable to get 235 out of a JCW without major engine upgrades and just a tune? What other JCW tunes are available? Any results above 10hp?

So what are the choices?

ALTA
Alta had promised a tune chip, but it seems unlikely that their product will ever come to market. It has been over a year since they said they would have it. I have emailed them several times (using the link on their website) and they haven't responded to any of my emails. hmmm... lots of hype, no product and no response to inquiries.

RMW
It seems like Jan is the only one in the country tuning the JCWs. RMW has had good reviews and successful tunes. You can see their success posted all over NAM. So I think that RMW is the proven way to go. But I am hearing that I shouldn't expect to see much from a tune because the JCW is already tuned from the factory. I have my own dyno, it's called "the seat of my pants"... and if I spent a bunch of money on a tune I would want to be able to feel the difference. 7-10hp just doesn't seem to peak my interest that much, but 25 would.

Jan's shop is too far away for me to plan for a tune. I wonder... would their dimsport tuning interface box work to program the car by just using a different map? Can you just remap the car with the dimsport the same way a power commander can remap a motorcycle?

 

No, the programmer is just a read/write tool. Jan does all the modding of the maps. you just load what he sends you.

 

I will have an RMW tune on my JCW in about a year's time, and I promise you, I will chime in when I have it done. This thread is a great idea, keep it up. I'm sure the user orangecrush will chime in when he sees it (he hasn't posted for a while actually), he's had the most experience with RMW's tuning of his JCW.

 

I do not have a tune on my JCW, but I did talk some with Mike Mynes when he passed through town recently on the MINI-USA driving event. He told me he can get an average 20 hp gain on a MCS, from around 150 at the wheels to 170ish. JCW's as mentioned are already in a higher state of tune so the gain is smaller, from around 190 to 202ish. I believe those are the numbers he gave me for otherwise stock cars. They had a tuned JCW as part of the travelling show, and honestly, the 60 second autocross course wasn't enough for me to give any opinions as to the tune's worth.

 

I'm really close to pulling the trigger on this to get some torque back that I lost when I removed the ED downpipe.

Couple things......

I have a setup similar to Mark's (minus the ED downpipe)......would Mark's tune work on mine? I know that I need a dyno done but that's kinda hard to come across in my little ho dunk town.....it'll happen eventually....

I'm curious....how the hell does one drop almost 50 degrees off the operating temp? I mean, the engine is running close to the same RPM's with the tune......water pump is at the same speed...is the fan on all the time??...how is that being done???? Even if I drive like granny, my temps run 215-220 all the time......Not doubting it, just curious......I would love to see temps under 200.....

 

car has an electronic thermostat........

 

That makes too much sense......

So in theory, would Mark's tune work for me?

BTW, Thanks for the quick reply Jan. You and Clint are waaaaaaaaaaaaay on the ball.

 

Yes

 

cool.....

 

I have an '09 JCW and RMW tune and am quite happy with it. To me the power delivery seems smoother and is stronger 4000 rpm up.

 

I was hoping to have a tune by Jan here in Rochester. But he canceled his trip for some reason. I am still interested and hoping to get some more information on this.

Thanks!
Erich

 

OK Mark, I did it.....I ordered the tool......this is the last mod...really.......at least for a while.......

 

Let me save you some time of digging through almost 60 pages of posts to find this. This is the link to the Genius update that needs to be done before you do anything. Jan told me last night this is the fist thing I need to do when I get it. The post date by Jan was 4/7/2010 for this. If there is a new/differenet link for this someone please post it? Anyway we can sticky this?

http://www.dimsport.com/transfer/MyGeniusClient.zip

 

Yeaaah, I said the same thing when I saw you.

Since then, I ordered my JCW Recaro seats. I received my rollbar and will cage out the back of the car.

And this week, I'll order a set of coilovers and a set of track slicks.

Other than that... I'm done.




Mark

 

Which coilovers are you going with??

 

at this point, probably BC's....


Mark

 

fight the urge

 

Jan

JRZ would be nice but even us big spenders have a rough time with a upgrade that is 20%+ of the cost of our cars.

IMHO for a street ,autocross and trackday coilover the BC'S are a huge bang for the buck.

 

don't know where you are getting your pricing for JRZs but friends don't let friends ride BC

 

cut me a deal and i will upgrade after sema .

 

I'd rather stick with stock than put a BC product on my car, especially a car that I planned to track.

 

handles and rides way better than stock