So far I have gotten some great advice from this site. I appreciate everyone who has posted.

I recently installed the 15% pulley and later today I am going to install the Alta CAI and reset the ECU. I was told by a local performance shop that I should tune the computer for max performance, but I was under the impression the stock computer is capable of adjusting appropriately to the new mods once reset. Does anyone have any insight/experience they can share? Can better performance and MPGs be derived from tuning the computer? If yes, who is the best in class?

 

This one has been beat to death on the forums.

IMHO, there is no evidence that "resetting" the ECU does anything to it. In fact, some that have hooked computers up to the ECU and performed this "reset" have seen nothing changed.

The MINI ECU can adapt to the new pulley but think of the ECU as having a window and your stock pulley right in the middle. When you change to a smaller pulley it moves the window to the left. An ECU tune with the new pulley will put it right back in the middle giving you more power. Also, every engine is different. Mine had a distinct fuel smell with a 15% and no tune. After the tune I had noticeably more power and the smell was gone.

So, should you get a tune? If you want the most out of that pulley and your engine, yes. If you are happy with the power you have no... Resetting the ECU? IMHO a waste of time.

 

Thanks. I appreciate the info.

 

If the ECU's in cars are anything like that on modern motorcycles, the ECU will use the O2 sensor to monitor and make adjustments on the fuel/air mixtures up to a certain RPM. After that point, it will always revert back to the preloaded map. Again, I can't say whether or not that is the case here, but I'm pretty sure they work the same.