Well here's the deal. It's Dec 1st. Snow is around the corner & I'm getting ready to put the snow tires on. Before I even think of the dyno I need to to make some data logs and probably do more tuning. It's unlikely that I'll get to a dyno before spring. I'm not in a hurry because I have a LOT into this thing. I'll update as I have more info.

So far the first week of driving I'm chasing an oil leak. Yesterday I found I forgot sealer at the corners of the valve cover gasket. Today the vacuum pump gasket is leaking. New o-ring is on order. I sealed it temporarily with rtv and it has slowed 95%. I emptied the oil catch can. It was half full of water. Pretty much no oil. Got fresh gas yesterday and vented the catch can to the atmosphere instead of the intake tube. 99% of the hesitation is gone now. Tonight I hit 15 psi a couple times and 20 psi once. It pulls really strong. The OS differential works really good. No wheel spin at all. The OS STR clutch pretty much feels like stock. It's does engage quicker. There's a slight scraping noise when the clutch pedal is pressed in but it's hardly noticeable. The clutch DOES feel much better then stock. Overall the car does seem quicker then before but I'll let the dyno tell me that. I'll update as I have more or people ask questions. I might be slow to respond. I'm usually working 12 hour days and we are very busy. You might like the attached picture.....

 

So I guess thius may poke a hole in someones theory that the turbo engines are BS for power. In fact I remember said person said "These are fuel savers only" I can only imagine that it won't take long for those to figure out what tool said that.

Great job man! How much do you have invested in this?

 

Well for the rebuild let's see...
Forged pistons, forged rods, OS locking diff $3600, machine shop charges including port & polishing, valve job, block honing, piston & rod install, crank polishing-$1800, OS STR clutch-$1790, oil pump, timing chains, seals, gaskets, bolts, fluids, etc-$950, water/meth injection-$800, I think I paid my guy who helped
$1000. So that's $10k. All this doesn't include the access port, FMIC, alta exhaust, boost tubes, cold air intakes, new Turbo that Alta upgraded, boost gauge.

The only thing I wish I would have done sooner was the water/meth kit. I probably wouldn't have broke a piston if I had that installed.

 

They are "BS for power" in the sense that unless you toss big money into them, they will either be close to stock or will blow up.

The VAG 1.8T days are long gone, where that motor was a tuners dream. No one wants to do anything with the N14 due to the shear cost of everything to do it right. Tuner's won't invest the money to R&D because they will never recoup the costs because consumers won't pay the high cost of admission. I'm interested to see mrrjm's results, but for $10k I can almost assure you it's not going to be what you'd expect. Toss $10k into a VAG 1.8T, 2.7TT, or hell even the new 2.0T, and you'll see HUGE results. It is great to see the project completed though!

Congratz sir and good luck! Keep us posted on results.

 

You may already know this but, ViPEC is coming out with a full plug and play standalone ECU for the R53 series. Depending on how well the market does for that, they might invest the time and effort into developing one for the R56 platform.

This could be good news for you, and anyone else looking to make their high HP goals a reality.

One of the biggest isues with MINI's in general is the OEM ECU, it's a tuning nightmare! The R56's suffer more from the electronic gaurdian angles, and adaptation/over compensation problems than the 53's did, so getting rid of the problem makes sence.

No I'm not saying everyone shuld have one, or trying to push the product to people who dont need it. If you have some SERIOUS mod's (Fully built engine, higher compression, raised boost, bigger turbo's, etc.) it may be the answer for that 1% of people who demand the most out of their engine.

Problem is ViPEC needs to know the market is there, and that it will be proffitable for them to develop a R56 P&P unit.
If you are reading this, and are at all interested please do your MINI comunity a favor and send them an email to let them know we are here.

Here is a link to their website/contact page> ViPEC

More info on the R53 system can be found here on NAM> THREAD(Don't let the title scare you off.)

 

Well it's been a few weeks and the car is running great. Got the oil leak taken care of. There's a little stumble at times in 3rd gear over 25psi & 4000+ rpm. I turned the gain all the way down on the aquamist and it's still there. I haven't hit those rpm's in 4th-6th because of traffic. I did manage to keep the traction control active to 85mph the other day. Today I got Alta's new BOV. It's completely mechanical and works great. I made a data log and sent it off to Jeff. At 25-27 psi & high rpm the knock sensor voltages are right around 2volts. This means there's more room for tuning. . I have a GT28 turbo kit waiting to be installed. Thinking about it in the next month or so. I REALLY like this Alta turbo because I get 27 psi at 3000 rpm. The GT28 probably won't do that till 4000. Anyways I told Alta I want a 30 psi map. I'll let everyone know what happens.

 

Are you sure that having your KNOCK VOLTAGE that HIGH is a good thing? From what I know tuning my R53, the KV shuld be lower than that or it might be considered bad. I got my KNOCK NOISE levels where I wanted them 40~60 throughout the RPM range, and that equals out to 1.7 V for KV. Anything over 100 on the KNOCK NOISE is getting on the bad side, I wouldnt run it at a constant 100, hell I try to target under 80.

Good luck with the 30psi.

 

Ray are you planning on throwing the car on the dyno before the new turbo goes on? It would be interesting to see what it's putting out with the Alta turbo at the PSI goals your after.

I'm not a huge fan of the Garrett and am a little skeptical on it's performance with your set up. As you mentioned it's prone to lag and I my self found them a bit annoying when installed on the R53.

I'm still looking into other alternatives for turbo's, but would like to stick to the OE housing if possible for the ease of installation and to reduce some of the headaches.

 

Well said.

A good way to set the gain up is to run to redline in fourth, and tune the gain until you see the 95% IDC red light comes on at redline, then back it off until the light never comes on. You can tweak from there on, but that's a good baseline.

 

I figured around 2volts was better. Depending on RPM, load etc. It could be close to 5volts. This data is coming from the access port. I'm not sure what the pcm is reading.

Next question...I think I'm way beyond this recording data and sending it to someone. How or where do I get the software that generates the maps? Is that cobb tuning? And if I buy the software does the seller have a training course on how to use it?

Thanks in advance

Ray

 

maybe i missed this.. but what kind of map sensor are you using to see 27psi without the ecu freaking out.

 

He has a JCW

 

I know...I wish he wouldn't use the GT28. Would love to see what something else would do...there's a whole wide world of fantastic turbos out there, yet everyone is still so fixated on the GT28.

Still interested to see how it pans out though

 

I am sorry, but I come from a world where you pay to play and there are people out there who will spend the money to make power for these. My turbo Eclipse wound up costing me over $15K including parts and engine build. What did I get? A near 400hp machine that handled like ton of bricks sitting in a radio flyer. Sure, I could run down Corvettes at the track but who really cared when I had to slow to a crawl at turns?

Perhaps I am skewed but when I hear the word "tuner" I think of 18 year old kids with their Honda civics they poured money into and in the end still have a Honda civic that looks like something out of a comic book and rides like crap.


due to the shear cost of everything to do it right.

Right...instead of throwing crap at a car that made its reliability spotty (and that is being nice) and not able to pass emissions. Look at the Porsche and Ferrari guys who spend major bucks tuning a car that is basically a nightmare to mod. Are they deterred by the cost? Nope! Some of us will pay to play and have a great car that is tuned properly and not something that you threw an APexi AFC on and spent the last 2 months of your free time (and spare money) on a Dyno trying to figure out why it is running like crap.

So I am sorry your $10K figure isn't new to the tuner world my friend. You can mod the hell out of "tuner friendly" car but lets face one fact here...the manufacturer did NOT build the car to handle the extra performance you put onto the engine so it will eventually fail if you push it hard enough. Sure, lots of Supra owners brag they can put 700hp on their stock internals...it is not the fact that is CAN support but HOW LONG can it support that abuse on internals that were not factory tested for those conditions.

I don't take my race bikes and mod them and then take them to track saying to myself "Stock block will hold it" because I know it is a matter of time I push the machine to it's limits on stock internals and it will need the eventual engine rebuild. The costs of parts and machining alone is usually more money than what I paid for the bike.

This is a matter of opinion on this and you have yours and I will have mine...plain and simple. It is newer technology that needs time to mature and needs to have a growing market for more demand. Once there is more demand and more knowledge poured into modifications for these cars the cheaper the parts get (Because there will be more competition), especially when your now 22 year old 1st gen DSM's/VW's/whatevers are all going to junk yards because most in my generation are figuring out that pulling up to a customers site in something they HEARD 5 miles away isn't the most professional thing to be doing.

Then again, much like the moron that talked a lot of smack about his 500hp Z06 and couldn't hold a race line at the track...you can have all the HP you want but if it not usable horsepower it is just merely a extension of something else you lack.

 

How high can a JCW map sensor see?! I have been looking at getting them and being reflashed to work with my upcoming turbo upgrade.

 

According to my accessport it only records to 23psi. Everything over that still reads 23. I haven't checked with a scanner yet though. When I blew the piston I was just over 29 psi. Once the boost is over 25psi make sure you regap the spark plug or you may get misfires. I went with .018"-.019
"

I hope you upgraded the internals or at least running water/meth???


Ray

 

Yeah I'm not overly thrilled with the GT28 either. Any suggestions??

 

It has the same pressure limit of the S sensor

Don't bother swapping them, because your problem is in the ECU, not the sensors themselves. The JCW sensors will not work with the S ECU. As of the time I ditched my R56, no one had the mapping to get around the ~22psi limit on the Cooper S. Ideally you can try getting a dealer to reflash the entire ECU as a JCW and then go from there....but that will take some smoozing.

Raymazing was going to try to get it done...have not heard if he succeeded yet.

You're on the Alta turbo right? Start with that and see where you are. It's still a K03 housed turbo, so my guess is you are running it way past its efficiency range if you are going to run 30psi. Still see what your numbers are...

What are you revving the motor to? How much power are you looking to have? What sort of driveability do you want? Start with those questions, then start looking around. Ideally you want something smaller than the GT28...the 1.6L does not flow enough air to make it the ideal choice.

Like Mike @ TD said...he's trying to stay with the K03 housing if possible. I'm in that camp as well...jam the biggest wheels in there that you can and you should still have a turbo with a quick response time, still twin scroll, and should flow a decent amount of air through it. Not sure how big the alta billet wheels are or how much more room you have to work with, but a smaller sized turbo on a highish compression motor...makes for one fun car and darn quick too...not to mention a broad torque curve. Your peak numbers might not be what you can get out of a bigger turbo, but the broad torque and boost curve will make the power more useable and the car will be quicker (depending on its use...).

 

My opinion on the turbo you should use, if you want to achieve 9000rpm, is to make careful thermodynamic calculations of the exhaust gases that your engine is going to produce and then have careful look at the flow charts of several turbos and choose which one is the appropriate. Then work the head to match your turbo (maybe oversize your valves as well) and pick the adequate camshafts. You will definitely need a billet crankshaft to rev that amount of rpm and also lubrication/fuel system (dry sump/200bar HPFP, larger injectors,larger in tank fuel pump etc.).
If you end up spending a gazillion thousand dollars, then you might also rethink your initial plans and leave it there.

Or alternatively you can contact a professional who has been there/done that and rely on him. I know of one guy that is the man up to that job...

Don't get me wrong...I'm with you all the way. It's just that there are so many things to improve. It's just don't worth the try to get THAT mad.

 

I totally understand. Right now Max RPM will be 7000ish. I have someone working on valvesprings and retainers that might allow higher rpm. I don't see this thing ever turning that high. The head looks to be very light duty. The way I see it this engine is designed to be reliable for around 30-40K. The timing chain and oil drive chain were both stretched at 39K. And I rarely took it over 6500. So what I'm hoping to do is run a slighly larger turbo to 25-30psi. Hoping to see 300whp. I don't plan any serious track time. I'm just up for a challenge and it will be a great a great street sleeper.

 

A reworked K04 would be my first choice for simplicity reasons. Keepign everything in the stock format will save a lot of headaches and lowers the over all cost.

The other option I am looking at is the Borg Warner EFR series turbo. They seem to be doing very well on other platforms. The 6255 can be set up for twin scroll and is rated for 250-350 HP. It also uses a DV that looks to be an identical format to the K03 so the stock DV has a good chance of working since they are both BW turbos. The bad part is the flange is rotated 90 degrees off the stock manifold so an adapter won't work. The turbo is also kinda big the space available in the MINI. A new manifold, oil lines and some part relocation is a must, not to mention a new DP will need to be fabed along with new intake and hot side charge piping. Over all I would think it could hit some decent numbers and spool relatively quick for it's size and power output.

 

So I got an email the other day......

"I can get you valve springs for $12 each! They are finally available! They are rated to 9000RPM and 25psi.
These should rock! LEt me know if you are wanting a set!"

So it looks like the GT28 and 9000 rpm project is back on!!

 

I've been watching this thread pretty close. I know there are only a few out there running after market turbo's and was curious about a few things. If I'm not mistaken you haven't changed cams, correct? if so why woulnd't that be the next thing on the list. Running a set a cams would greatly alivate the amount of boost you would have to run. 30 psi is a massive number. you shouldn't need that at all to hit the power goals your looking to hit. a set of big cams would drop that number greatly.

Thanks for the input

 

So I thought I would give an update. Now that winter is over it's running much better and I've been able to do more off dyno tuning. The 100% meth injection doesn't work well under 50 degrees. AF and timing was all over the place. I think any moisture in the charge air was freezing causing problems. Once I started making recordings in the 60-70 degree range AF and timing fell into place. So I was able to add more boost and timing. Right now in the midrange I'm at 30 psi +/-. And at redline 6k-6500 rpm 22-23 sometimes a little higher. I'm still using the alta turbo and a prototype vacuum (non electronic) BOV. The BOV installs in place of the stock BOV. Along with a resistor installed in the factory harness. I'm hoping to get it on the dyno soon. Because...I have another turbo coming. G-Pop modified my factory JCW turbo. Supposedly it will flow quite a bit more air then the billet. The alta billet is rated to be 28 lbs/min. The new turbo should be 33-35lbs/min. On the exhaust side the housing was enlarged the accommodate a turbine wheel that is 2mm larger then the alta billet. This was done in an effort to reduce back pressure. However I'm told this comes at the expense of reliability.

To respond to some questions above. I haven't done anything with the cams. Maybe later. As far as the boost sensor. We took some measurements. The PCM does read data all the way to 30 psi. Beyond that I don't know. That's as far as my gauge reads so we didn't pressurize the sensor beyond 30.

Oh yeah for anyone interested. Fuel trims in the midrange are minus 10-15% and around minus 10% at higher rpm. I may increases the meth injection injector size to try to get to the ideal minus 20%. Basically this means the meth injection is adding quite a bit for fuel which is a good thing. When I get the dyno pull I'll post the results. I think I've tweaked this alta turbo as far as I can go.

Ray

 

Nice man. I was actually just thinking about your car today and was wondering if things warmed up enough out there to start work again.