Jan I hope you read this and respond. I have heard so much about the RMW tune. Does it make sense to do this on the JCW ('08 JCW convertible 3k miles) since the ECU is different than stock?

Will it provide a noticible HP bump? Will it affect other components on the car longevity wise? Any possibilities of "side effects" that will result in warranty failure?

The only thing I've done (besides suspension work) is the Mini Mania JCW air filter replacement.

I heard it's about $300 and some say it will provide a 10HP bump and increased torque. That sounds great but I plan to keep my car a long time and fear any residual issues.

Anybody?

 

I would change the pulley on your car and have him tune the ECU.

 

Mowse, I had Jan do a tune on my GP, WOW what a diffenence not only did I get more HP and Tq, but the drivability of the car has improved. Also a side benefit is I have about 1-2 more mpg. Best money I ever spent on performance mods and in no way will it effect the longevity of your car.

 

Definitely get Jan's tune! You will not regret it. I agree with everything Gmann2369 said.

 

.....it sure as hell can't hurt! ...do it ...do it.....the dealer won't know it's there anyhoo!

 

Where is Jan located? How do it get the tune?

 

He is located in So Cal but travels all over the country to do tunes, contact him at RMW(check Vendor Directory)

 

Don't think Jan (RMW) has the latest updated software from Dimsport that will work on the new turbo (07+) Minis. Don't think it has been created yet.

 

The OP has an 08' convertible, so it is the 1st gen model. Dimsport should work fine.

 

I have a 2006 bone stock JCW that Jan tuned at the Lake Vila tune recently. Ended up with 13 more HP and 7 ft/lbs torque. Its not a huge difference around town--a noticeable improvement, but not earth shattering. Where it really makes the difference is on the track, and for that it was well worth it.

As for residual issues, I highly doubt there will be any; in fact the car runs a tad smoother. The torque curve looks better too pre/post; I can't imagine this being harmful to the engine, if anything its probably beneficial.

Would I do it over again? Absolutely. If you don't track your car, then its probably of less benefit, but if you're doing autocross/track, IMHO for the money its a no brainer.

Like was mentioned above, the dealer won't know, but you're going to have to tell them not to flash the ECU, or you'll be back to where you started from....My dealer is already well aware that my car is on the track, so its really not an issue for me, but its something to keep in mind.

 

+1 for Jan's work.

Each car really is different in it's initial output from the factory. MCS, JCW, S etc. The fluctuation can be as much as 15 to 20 peak BHP within a model range.

Where the real difference is felt in his tune work, is throughout the car's powerband. Yes, he will get out of it, whatever the car safely gives at peak, but... He'll be the first to tell you that he won't tune a car to anything other than a reliable level.

 

Tune is definitely worth it. I have a JCW as well.
I had a slight improvement in HP & TQ but throttle response is so much
better now.

 

I had Jan tune mine before I had his cam installed. At that time I only had an OBX header and Borla Street exhaust. The car put out 200hp, 190 lbs of torque after the tune. I am getting it retuned when he comes back to Helix to see what improvments the cam made. As others have said, the tune transforms the car in the ay it drives and performs throughout the powerband.
Do it!!!!

 

How many HP did you gain? after installing the cam

 

I had the car tuned in January before putting the cam in. Helix installed the cam in June, the car runs stronger. Jan will be back at Helix this fall and told me to bring the car back for another tune, now that the cam has been installed.

 

Got our '06 JCW Tuned by Jan (RMW) in two phases. We finally fell out of warranty at 60K and needed an oil change. Went into Johnny's Auto Clinic in San Pedro, got the car properly fixed up (dealer had apparently neglected a leaky engine dampener/mount, leaky valve cover gasket, wrong length serpentine belt, loose rear struts, and a few other things while we were under warranty).

Then went to Jan to get a Dyno Tune of the JCW maps but essentially running stock factory JCW hardware except for a set of new Brisk plugs on 7/20. Nice gains with the Tune alone and the car was faster, pulled stronger and was much more fun to drive, exhaust note under heavy acceleration was much more aggressive...however, we were now hooked...

We still needed a new clutch (which had been getting stiffer and had been having a creaky clutch pedal feel and sound when being depressed), which unsurprisingly the dealer also punted on doing under warranty...go figure :(

No worries, we went for UPGRADES. Jan and Danny at MiniCorsa worked out a package deal for a RMW Cam, RMW Shorty Header to be installed while Danny was doing our stage 4 Clutch with lightened aluminum flywheel (a good time to do the engine work as the engine had to be all taken out to access the clutch anyways) as well as some other work. Like I said, we were hooked.

Finally got into Jan for a final re-tune yesterday and here are the Dyna-Jet dyno graphs, all were done on Church's Dyno in Wilmington CA (essentially at sea level, ~32 mmHg?).

Some notes:

Dates for both graphs show the date for initial tune on 7/20, newer plots were done yesterday but superimposed on the 7/20 graph.

The lowest curve in both graphs is the baseline, 186.1 WHP is just about where you expect a factory JCW (rated at 208 at the crank by MINI). Not bad for a car with 60K miles on it.

The Torque and Air Fuel Ratio graph (black and white) shows the palpable gains from the software tune alone (97.4F ambient) in the middle plot, and the upper plot shows the larger gains in the mid range torque after RMW Cam/Header/Tune combination (92F ambient).

The second graph TQ/HP graph (with funny colors, they were running out of color ink on their inkjet printer, which is why we switched to B+W for the AFR graph) shows the baseline as before. The middle fuscia colored plot is one of the less optimized early Tune only runs (not the final Tune only run, oops don't know how that got in there) and the two higher plots are for after the RMW Cam/Header/Tune combo. The Green one is a earlier run before AFR's were fully optimized but the engine wasn't too hot yet, the Blue is the final pull with the AFR's better optimized up high, but the engine/IC are now heat soaked and the engine is pulling timing down low. It was 92F with IAT's running in the high 50C's by that time.

What a difference 15 ft/lb and 30 WHP makes!! Driving around last night in cooler ~70F temps the engine felt even stronger, Jan said to expect to find another 5-10 HP in cooler conditions due to the IC Heat Soak issues.

Special thanks to Johnny for thoroughly checking out our MINI and finding and fixing all the crap our dealer's shop ignored for so long, Danny for the huge amount of excellent quality work that he did in such a short amount of time and to Jan for setting this all up and spending so much time doing a detailed/thorough tune (I'm talking like > 10 pulls per session, 1 1/2 hrs +).

No regrets on doing this, the MINI is like a whole new car with some serious grunt now. Just got to be careful not to get any tickets...

Dave

 

With a 15-17% pulley and RMW tune you'll get a good bump.
https://www.northamericanmotoring.com/forums/drivetrain-cooper-s/171472-223-whp-thanks-rmw.html

I think he's had it for a while, but got it to optimal tune results around April.
https://www.northamericanmotoring.com/forums/drivetrain-cooper-s/167553-r56-custom-tuning-by-rmw.html

 

Absolutely worth it! The tune is unreadable by Mini, so it shouldn't affect warranty work. In addition to more power and tq, you'll get better gas mileage. On my last tank of gas, I wanted to see what kind of MPG I could achieve if I drove the car mostly like an economy car. My typical driving is 70% city, 30% hwy. According to the car's computer, I achieved 32.3 MPG!!! (and that's with the cam!)Normally, I get around 28 MPG. Before the tune I averaged 26 MPG. Anyway, you won't get the tune for the MPG, but it's nice to know it's there when you aren't honking on it

 

Do be aware that if you take your car in to the dealer and they update or reflash your ECU, the tune can be lost.

Is a Jan tune worth it?

HECK YEA!!!

 

Of course Jan keeps a copy of the file and you can have it re-installed.

 

Any info on tunes to 09 JCWs?

 

I also had it done to my GP >>Awesome Job