Hello,
I am planning on tuning my 06 JCW. I live in Toronto, Canada so my only real options are remote tunes and/or do-it-myself with Bytetronik. I'd like to have the option of having 4 maps that I can switch between on a wim (Fuel Saver, Aggressive Street, Race Pump Gas, Race E85). I plan on adding performance upgrades over time so the benefit of being able to tweak maps as I proceed with upgrades would be nice.

I'm interested highly in ByteTronik because they would give the option of at-will map changes and also it would teach me a lot about tuning, of which I am a beginner. I am hesitant on the ByteTronik option because being a beginner, I am not sure how easy it will be for me to learn to tune efficiently.

I am also interested in RMW just because I think Jan would make the best possible map but as I understand it would be ~300 for every different map and it wouldn't be as easy to have the 4 different maps to load.

I am interested in opinions and experience people (especially beginners) have had with ByteTronik and if anyone has any advice, I'd love to hear it.
Thanks

 

I would say you really need to get on the phone with each vendor and ask your questions. If you know nothing at all about tuning I would say you should lean more towards a RMW remote tune. I am not saying the ByteTronik would not be good for you but I know you are going to have a learning curve on it , some pick it up quicker than others from what I understand.

 

It all depends on your ultimate goal. If your end goal is to be able to tune your own car, then the BT (Bytetronik) FA53 is your solution. If you want to teach yourself how to tune, then you can start by comparing the differences between the JCW Maps (posted on the Tech Forum for free download) vs the Stock S maps, and you can make changes (copy and paste) and log your results.

If you want to subscribe to our Custom Remote Mapping, then you can get either the FA53 or the FA-Lite. Procedures for Custom Remote Mapping (CRM) is located here:

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...rocedures.html

In order to do the CRM, you must have AFR reading from the Innovate Wideband; otherwise, we can not provide this service. The Remote Mapping is custom to your car based on your data logs and the AFR readings from your MINI.

With the FA53, you can make changes to your maps, but with the FA Lite, you can only upload maps (similar to other map loading devices on the market) while still have the ability to clear DTCs, clear Adaptation values and Data-log via the OBD2 port.

 

I already know everything about your product, I wouldn't have posted on here if I didn't research everything available to me online. Rather than compare the S map to the JCW map, I would like to compare the JCW map to a map that has been professionally tuned for (let's say) a 15% pulley and compare those two maps to one that has been tuned for a high performance cam...and so on...but as I have read, the maps that people are running on the street are not readily available anywhere. If they were (like access port/cobb) I would buy ByteTronik in a second because I would have more confidence in being able to learn the safe and efficient parameters.
The ultimate goal is have a cost effective way to use my ECU to get the full potential of the car for each step(~5) along my hardware upgrading process.
A bonus would be to understand tuning but that is not part of the goal.

 

There are some good books on Amazon on EFI Tuning:

On our Tech Forum, there are various tunes posted for customers to reference and learn from (available to FA Customers ONLY):
- Gintani tune on a 2003 S
- GIAC tune on a 2005 S
- Rxx Tune on a 2005 S
- Rxx 2.0L Stroker tune
- Rxx Tune on 2006 on 440cc
- Mynes tune on a 2006 with BVH and CAM + 550s

These maps are posted and FA Customers can look thru them and mirror the settings and experiment with them.

With FA53, we give you the access to the mapping for you to make changes (which the AP does not unless you have the $2500 ProTuner version). If you're looking for a 'canned tune' festival where there are various combo "X" injectors + "Y" cam shaft + "Z" header etc, then FA is not the tool that you're looking for.

With the R53s, there are so many different variation of parts plus wear and tear on the motor, anything less than a custom tune is not recommended IMHO. Remember, the newest R53 is at least 6 years old, and the 2002 are 10 years old... and some have fresh motors and other have 160,000mile motor - and a canned tune for either one is not going to be optimal...

 

ok that part sounds good...the last concern I have with Bytetronik is that I've heard more than a few horror stories about blown up motors...have you guys have many blown up motors? Also how come I can't find any ByteTronik users ranting and raving about ByteTronik but there is a whole list of threads about people raving about RMW. Also, I'd like to read some threads on your forum, is there any way I can do that without buying your product?

 

People blow up their motors all the time - and a lot of times they can do that on OEM tune with OEM parts. When you modify a car or tune the ecu, you are pushing parts to their near-maximum capabilities... and if certain mechanical part(s) fail and you don't catch it in time, then things will explode.

Most commonly failed part that can cause motor to fail: the vacuum line that goes from the FPR to the inlet horn. If that line comes off and you don't catch it in time, motor will run lean and eventually give. We've had shops who inadvertantly forgot to connect this line and blame the tune for their motor failures.

You can sign up on the forum and read up on things, that doesn't cost you anything. We don't force our customers to give us good feedbacks on the forums, and they don't get any special treatment for doing so... they can do it if they want to... but more and more these days, they are just happy that their Minis are running great and go on with their lives... 95% of them don't want to post things up and have to deal with the 'politiks' of the forum.

 

When I try to sign up for your forum I see that field. Since I don't have a MiniPort ODB 2 device, I can't join.