I'm interested in installing a UNIChip and obtaining a custom tune. Has anyone used a UNIChip custom tuner in the SF Bay Area and can recommend that shop? I'd like to obtain a quick overview of your experiences with those shops, including:

1. Price (how much you paid)
2. Level of expertise (has the shop done other MINIs before?)
3. Results (how well the tuning was done)


I called Bauer Porsche in Oakland, and they state:

1. Approximately $360 (2 hours of work, $80/hr for dyno and $100/hr for UNIChip custom tuning), with 5 days lead-time for appointments.
2. They've done other MINIs before, with most having the pulley reductions/catbacks/CAI, but one with extensive mods (ie., reworked head, etc.) that put down 260whp.
3. ?? Hopefully someone in the forum here was one of their customers and can share the results and overall experience?

Also wondering if I should just go ahead and get an O2 sensor bung welded in pre-cat for increased accuracy - how much more accurate will it be than a sniffer in the exhaust pipe? I figure it'll come in handy many times in the future. If you've done this, how much did you pay (assuming you didn't do it yourself)?

Thanks!

 

Hearsay is acceptable, too! Did you hear through the grapevine that some shop did a less-than-stellar job tuning your father's aunt's mailman's MINI? If only Kevin Bacon had a MINI...

Please PM me if you know anyone who has done a custom UNIChip tune in the Bay Area so I can get in touch with that person. Thanks!

 

I have a UNIChip, but never pulled the trigger on a custom tune simply because I always tend to be adding mods, and keep postphoning it...

Besides Bauer, there is a shop in San Jose (or Santa Clara) on Lafeyette Road. The name currently escapes me though! I heard of them from JCampos here on NAM...

Also, the UNIChip dynos, from what I've heard, read very high, thus the 260 whp. The important thing is the delta though...

I will share if I can think of the name of that shop. Otherwise, ping Jason (JCampos), as he would know...

 

I sent you a PM, but I will comment here as well. I cannot remember for the life of me the name of the place in Santa Clara right now but I know exactly where it is. They have changed ownership since I had my car there (or maybe just changed the business name) but I am sure they still do quality work. It cost me roughly $300-$400 to have it tuned, but he was very very thorough (I think his name was Scott... maybe the place was called Scott Performance?!). Unlike Bauer, he actually took my car onto the street to work out any flat spots as well as get as much power out of it as safely possible. I got something like 8-12whp out of just the tune as verified by the dyno at Edge Motorworks. He told me that I was the first MINI he had done, but I would definitely recommend him to anyone in the south bay looking to have a tune.

 

Yes, Scott Performance! They are Z experts, but open to the MINI though...

 

Yea, definitely Z experts. They aren't called Scott Performance anymore though.

 

Thank you, gentlemen, for the leads!

I'm going to have MTH generate a map for me that will consist solely of raising the rev limiter and delaying the DSC from kicking in, then get a UNIChip custom tune. Hopefully this will alleviate the pinging I've been experiencing (which occurs around 10psi boost).

I was also thinking about adding a water injection system, but that's not a big priority if the UNIChip tune takes care of the pinging for the time being. But I figure if/when the water injection comes into play, I can just flip the switch on the UNIChip to Map B and reap the instant benefit of more aggressive timing.

 

Have to ask... but did Alexis every get the UNIChip tune? If so, please share your experiences... Thanks.

 

Sorry for the lack of updates! Tony, I stumbled back on this thread when I was doing a search for water injection discussions. I appreciate the reminder.

I ended up going to Modacar in Livermore, where their in-house tuner, Casey, has significant experience with Unichip dynotuning. He also seems to have a hotline to Josh at Unichip - when we ran into a problem where my Unichip software seems to be unresponsive, he received a response from Josh within ten minutes. It took a few hours of fiddling, but Casey was able to squeeze out a delta of 11whp by leaning out the AF. All considered, the dyno numbers aren't too bad for a MINI with only bolt-on mods. Initially, the fuel trim ran approximately -2 at idle, though it normalized to within-spec after driving for a few hundred miles afterwards.

I still have some pinging on pump gas, but a 1/2 bottle of Lucas Octane Booster reduces the pinging significantly. We discussed some water injection options - unlike most of the MINI tuners in the SF Bay, Casey has quite a bit of experience with WI. A WI system and tune will have to tide me over for the next year or so until I'm financially ready to make the jump to a "revolutionary" head, cam, and ECU flash.

Modacar charged two hours of dyno time at $150/hr, which was quite reasonable.

 

Heck, no apology necessary! Thanks for the thoughtful reply.

Oddly enough, I emailed Modacar last night, and got a reply this morning! Glad to hear that you got some good results. A few questions, if you don't mind:

- Was tuning exclusively on the dyno (at WOT), or was there also partial throttle tuning, like while driving around, laptop in car...?

- Was the dyno the type that mates-up to the hub?

- Did they have or use, in your estimation, a sufficient number of fans during your runs?

I appreciate your input, thank you.

 

No problem! I'll do my best to respond, but to be honest, I'm still not enough of a gearhead to know whether or not Modacar can be considered an excellent dyno-tuner, so please take everything I say with a grain of salt.

Multiple pulls were done - so many that I couldn't count them, but I would gather between 30-50. Some of the dyno pulls were done at partial throttle. After the dyno, Casey took the car out for about fifteen minutes with his datalogging laptop - I'm not sure if he made any adjustments at that time. My torque curve feels about the same as before (it's still not flat like a R56, but peaks around 4K RPM), albeit slightly higher across the entire RPM range, so it's still very streetable.

Unfortunately, this was a roller dyno. I made a mental note of the dyno manufacturer, but I've forgotten it. I think it may have been a DynoJet?

Excellent question! It's a general consensus that our ICs don't fare well on the dyno, and Casey conceded that as well. They used two fans - one large industrial fan (3ft diameter?) behind the car, and one "stacked" (two fans, one on top of the other) fan in the front. My DFIC was definitely getting heat-soaked between runs, and spraying down the IC and airhorns with water helped tremendously. Without doing the dyno in a windtunnel, I don't suppose there's an ideal way of simulating the airflow the MINI would see at speed?

It was precisely that experience that's convinced me to be open to exploring methods of reducing heat in any way in the engine bay. I should probably have gotten my OBX ceramically coated, in retrospect. Kudos to those of you with the foresight to do that. I'm also going to obtain the M7 Aerogel products and a IC sprayer, and investigate some WI options.

If you are considering a Unichip dynotune, Modacar is a respectable option, short of a long drive to see Jan in Irvine for his head and ECU flash (I suppose it's evident by now that I've bought into the hype ). If you decide to go with them, let me know your appointment time with Modacar, and I'll drop by for a bit.

 

Very helpful info, thank you! There is Bauer Porsche in Oakland as well, so I'm not sure where I will go at this time. I too want a re-worked head, and will get what should be a final tune after that...

I'm going to let all of head talk settle-out over the next several weeks, and then start doing some research once there is more info to digest. If I do indeed decide upon Modacar, I'll let you know! Again, thanks for your input.

 

My pleasure! I hope you'll let the rest of us know which head you end up with and why.

 

I was back at Modacar to get my WI nozzle tapped into the IC exit horn, and definitively confirmed that their dyno is a DynoJet.

 

Hey David got your PM over the weekend. I ended up staying in and watching the game. Just saw this thread and wanted to follow up on the status of your car and if you considered A&E Performance in Campbell? They work on Minis as I told you one of which was an owner that his car that was listed in the Magazine, I belive we talked about it.

Anyhow, hope everything works out great for you and we get together soon to drive our cars around. Perhaps this weekend?

I want to talk to you about the WI system and how is that working out for you since I'm thinking of installing one as well. I know of few people here on NAM that have done a simple home made one. Not sure how yours is but would like to experiment.