I've tried doing some research and I can't seem to find many threads regarding ECU Swaps. That in itself may be the answer I was looking for. But anyway, my wife's car is a 03' S and has the 16% pulley, CAI, Borla Exhaust, and BPV. She was asking about a spring booster and I suggested looking into a canned tune before we did a sprint booster. Anyone have similar mods and do the ECU swap with WMW? Also I see they have a JCW canned tune and a basic tune. What do you guys recommend? Thanks for the input.

 

Not sure you can actually swap the ECU and have it work right. You would probably need to reprogram all the Body Control Units and all the other computer controls in the car. Tail lights don't work without the BCU1 working properly.

 

Ok I guess I miss read. So you mail them the ecu. They change the tune and ship it back. Either way is it worth it and has anyone had any experience with this tune from WMW?

 

That's correct it is NOT an ECU swap. We just flash your ECU and ship it back.

The basic tune is a better option as we change more with it. The JCW is more for the customer wanting the exact JCW flash.

 

Here's how the tunes for Mini's work.
There are 3 basic options:

Factory (Stock and JCW)
Canned
Custom

Since tuning is about optimising how your specific parts work together with each other, and since all parts will work different when combined with other parts, even if they're exactly the same. (This is why 2 exact cars can come off the assembly line, and each will perform slightly different) This has to be taken into consideration.

The stock tune is designed to work with all the stock parts, and basically be a general "one size fits all". Where the JCW tune has been adjusted for the exact combination of "all" the JCW parts. This is why a JCW tune isn't a good idea unless you've changed to all the JCW spec'd parts. (Not just injectors, or just the Head, but everything together, even exhaust)

Canned tunes are basically custom tunes that have been created with a combination of specific parts and then archived by the tuner. This gives them the opportunity to reuse a specific tune on a car with similar mods, without having to go through the trouble of re-adjusting that tune for the minor differences created by the "all parts work slightly different" effect.

Custom tunes are just that, tunes that are created specifically by reading data from one specific vehicle, with those specific parts working together with each other. This gives you a more precise tune and "normally" better results, even with no modifications at all.

Under most circumstances, if you've made any modifications at all, a canned tune is certainly better than no tune.

* The reason that the terms "normally" and "under most circumstances" are used, is that the "all parts work slightly different" effect, there is that slim chance that the tune you have, just happens to be prefect for the way your parts are interacting with each other. But this is really only something that happens with custom tuning an un-modified car.

As far as the Sprint Booster, one of the changes normally made in any tune besides stock, is the same basic adjustment that the Sprint Booster makes.

 

Sprint Booster will affect the throttle lag problem inherent with MINIs and won't affect an ECU tune, though the two together are great as our customers attest to!

http://new.minimania.com/Sprint-Booster-Benefits

http://new.minimania.com/part/NME410...2-R53-Cooper-S

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