i just emailed him and now just waiting for a reply. i'll continue to watch for one on ebay in the meantime. keep you guys posted on my findings.

 

Helix sells both the JCW and Bosch equivalent for very competitive prices. With just an exhaust, I can't imagine why you want the injectors, it's just a waste of money unless you go further down the mod path.

I should also mention that after reading most of your thread it seems like your goal is to preserve your warranty and increase power. If you install ANY part on your car, you've endangered your warranty, regardless of whether it was JCW or some aftermarket brand. The ONLY way to keep your warranty intact is to have the ENTIRE JCW kit installed at an Authorized MINI Dealer. Anything less and you're in the exact same spot that someone with aftermarket parts and a failed engine would be in.

Just because you have a JCW pulley on your car doesn't mean you're protected from warranty troubles. Something to think about.

If you're serious about adding power to your car, talk to Jan from Revolution MINI. He's a no BS guy, and he'll tell you the truth about whether what you're trying to do is worth it or not. Adding a coil pack isn't going to do anything other than cost you money.

 

i am planning on going alittle further than just exhaust and injectors. i am in the process of ordering the alta 15% pulley and the jcw injectors. i am keeping my eyes peeled for a gp intercooler. once those are done, then will come the jcw exhaust. after that, i am unsure. we will just see where and how far the modding takes me.

 

Keep in mind that in order to fully realize the added flow of the JCW injectors, you will need an ecu tune of some sort. Without it, your stock ecu will trim the new injectors to flow the same as your stock ones.
I'm not sure is this has been mentioned yet, but skip the wires (get the plugs). The stock wires and coil are more than enough for what you have planned.

 

Injectors would be a complete waste of money until you significantly improve the airflow all the way thru the engine. The additional injector capacity simply won't be used by the ECU. Period.

Start with pulley & plugs, CAI (JCW with a gauze filter is good), an ECU upgrade, and a cat-back. That will make maybe 185-190 est. HP. for around $1500 if you buy new parts. Or do it without the cat-back for maybe 3 HP less and half the cost. It's a Big difference either way.

If you have a another $2K to spend just on the engine, then consider injectors, head-work, and a re-tune, but you should be investing in suspension and brakes long before that. (rear sway-bar, lightweight wheels, braces, shocks, front brakes)

BTW, coil and wires are nothing but pretty bling, unless yours have somehow become "worn-out" (highly unlikely).

 

i guess one thing that i havent asked is about the ecu upgrade. can i go to any mini dealer and just ask for the ecu upgrade? if im doing the upgrade, why not do the jcw injectors then?

 

Please repeat after me: "Injectors would be a complete waste of money until you significantly improve the airflow all the way thru the engine."

An ECU upgrade cannot use additional fuel injector capacity unless there is more air to burn the gas. The stock injectors are perfectly capable of taking you to 195HP or so, and if the ECU actually did squirt more gas without more air-flow, you would simply be running too rich and lose power.

There are a lot of options for an ECU upgrade. The JCW is probably one of the least effective, as it is dialed in for the JCW parts, including the head you don't have. Most dealers will rip you off for serious money for the 5 minutes it takes to load.

You need not fear warranty issues, as the changes made to the ECU maps are not visible to your local dealer unless they dig really deep.

One of the less costly options, which lets you upgrade the tune as you upgrade over time, is from MTH. I have it on my car, and it's very good. You tell them what combination of add-ons you are using, and they send you new code that you can then upload into the car from a PC. YOu can also back-out the changes entirely, if you get nervous about the dealer noticing. See their NAM vendor forum for more.

Some other approaches add hardware that "fools" the ECU by changing the sensor readings (reduces reliability and adds complexity), or replace the ECU entirely, at the high-end (very costly). There are also plug-in generic upgraders, like the "Shark", but they are pretty worthless.

Many MINI tuner shops can do the ECU air/fuel and spark timing maps for you. There are several choices. Expect to pay on the order of $400 or so for such "canned" tuning without dyno time. Expect to get 10-12 HP from these tunes, if you have a 15% pulley.

All of the "canned" tuning approaches are somewhat generic, and will get you maybe 80% of the maximum performance increase possible with your engine. If the tuner actually measures performance on a dyno and tweaks the parameters to your specific car, you can get the most performance possible, but you will then be treading on thin ice - a single tank of bad gas could pop your engine if it was tuned to the utmost possible level. The cost of such a tune is usually measured in $/hour for the time it takes.

Whichever you select, I'd suggest you make sure that you don't have to pay again for an additional tuning upgrade for a year of so after purchase, as you would if you went the all-out dyno-based tune route.

 

Each dealer will probably be different. Mine won't install the JCW tune without the entire JCW package. Your experience may vary, but I'm sure most will agree there are far better options than JCW.

 

If the JCW software is what you meant, some of the dealer will be able to do it for you. Price varies from 1/2 hr. or an hour labor.

 

i guess i wasnt specific. i was looking for the jcw software info. from my readings though, it sounds pretty worthless. if i do get it done the mini dealer will only charge 1/2 to an 1hr worth of labor and nothing more, right? i would think the jcw software would be the best for me since i am trying to stick with the jcw "theme" if you will.

 

You can have more performance than the JCW, at a higher cost. Your choice.

All of your life is a series of engineering trade-offs...

 

Rob - just like larger injectors, the JCW ECU flash will do absolutely zero to improve performance without the hardware necessary to move more air into and out of the engine, i.e. pulley&plugs, intake, and exhaust, at the least.

Thus, for your $100 or so, you get no results and an invisible ECU change, and it IS the JCW version of No Improvement, but you don't even get a badge to show you got it.

 

This is not right, I have the JCW upgrade kit installed at the dealer. I faced warranty issues and they were solved. BMW does not look at which part you installed, they look at where you bought it, and where you installed it.

This is it, go for any JCW stuff.

 

I agree on this. Talk to Jan, I like the guy so much.

 

Man, take it from me. You DO NOT NEED THE INTERCOOLER AT THIS STAGE. Save your money, get other stuff. Also, when getting the pulley, make sure that the stock belt is matching. Few guys faced slipping problems. Search here on NAM for the best pulley/belt match.

 

JCW injectors come with an ECU remap. This will tell the ECU how to deal with the added amount of fuel. Because if not done, this would light on the EML yello light on the dashboard. This ECU remap comes free with the installation instructions.

 

Not necessarily true. My local dealer will sell me JCW injectors all day long, but not the software (). It's ok though. I have tried different ecu solutions (Hydra stand alone, Apexi, etc) and now realize now there are far better options (Dimsport) out there. If JCW works for you, then that's great. My feeling is JCW components and kit are an incredibly overpriced option for a "decent" power gain and warranty coverage.
Oh what I could do with that $6K on my car....

 

Borla Street > JCW Exhaust

This from a JCW exhaust owner. Check out the exhaust thread before you drop the coin on the JCW exhaust.

 

Just curious - how much hp can an auto MINI take, vs the 6 speed?

 

#1 CAI, Breath in.
#2 Cat Back, Breath out.
#3 15% pulley, Bigger lungs, breath faster.
#4 & 5 Larger injectors for more fuel to go with increased air.
JCW flash or better custom dyno tune (Jan) so the ECU knows they are there and to get all the mods singing in the same key, TUNED!
JCW Injectors at Minspeed.net $275.00.

 

Sounds like a good plan.

 

im getting alittle confused. some are saying dont do the injectors and some are saying do the injectors. i just dont know anymore . how about this:
a) i have the jcw cai
b) i ordered the alta 15% pulley
c) ?
someone help me fill in c.

 

You don't need the injectors where you're at. I've been down that road...They are being utilized now that I have a custom tune though. As for c) you know what I think!

Seriously, where you're at now, skip any more power mods and get a bigger rear sway bar.

 

C = Better flowing exhaust. Really could have been B and pulley C. Just my 2 cents.

 

Free flowing head on our cars will do more that either of these 2 combined. $1100 for these 2 items or twice that for real power.


The JCW tune, even with the injectors does next to nothing for power. It's more of a factory safety tune to keep the car pig rich when running more boost. The only tune right now that truly optimizes injectors is a custom solution.