you and the truth don't match well

 

as was the boost which was drastically in your favor.......a pound of boost typically equates to about 8hp . You can continue to spin this 7 ways to Sunday, it doesn't change the facts. The heads will NEVER be the same, we have 2 different philosophies on design of head and camshaft. It's apparent by every single dyno we have done with the parts of both parties

 

I have a Thumper TPR-2R head.
In the end, I did NOT choose RMW when it came time to tune...
1st, I did my homework thoroughly and considered all options. Since I am in PHX, there are local tuners here in the city "all" offering a so-called Canned tune.
The reason I did not choose RMW was his equated to the same garbage.

Note: when I asked about tuners a whole bunch of you folks said: "go RMW, he knows his stuff".
Well, I don't dispute (nor care) what he knows, or what his reputation is...but, it all comes down to what am "I" getting for every dollar I spend from "him", or any other so called canned tune provider.

First, buying a tune is not like buying "a one size fits all product"...nor should it be, and frankly, it isn't.
In the end:
I stayed away from an RMW tune, but at the same time I also stayed away from the 2 local shops who were all pushing their "trust me what works for the goose is good for the gander"..."we do not dyno but "trust us" we create "bumper burners", " a different tune emphasizes a "burble/popcorn sound" option, and "this other one does "track".
These are all CANNED tune nonsense.
Nobody of these recipe "cooks" could offer dyno verification other than to tell me: "trust our reputation, our tunes are proven based upon experience tuning other cars - just like yours".

A canned tune???
In a PERFECT world yes!
However, it NEVER happens that IDEAL conditions occur with the foundation (your engine).
In the end:
I went with my gut feel; I did not want a canned product for my car. I ran from the local shops, who claimed having dyno's ("just we won't dyno your car...well, you are not needing it"..."we are experts take our word" and I stayed away from RMW too because his product was for all intents and purposes...the same).

I went with Bytetronik.
The short of that experience is we spent a couple weeks in collaborative work ironing out the non ideal matters; "issues" they found with my engine. - No canned tune could do that nor is it offered.
-Issues were identifed by the Bytetronik team via the data logging pricess"beforehand" that were prior the base tune.
After that a base tune and 550cc injectors.
Next, 3 progressive tunes and finally it will see their dyno for the numbers; the latter were via logs and finally to dyno is my choice.
Peace of mind, especially when you pay for a canned tune and you only get some assumptions that (both you and the tuner expect "all is well").
Folks, this is not about mods alone but is your engine truly performing the way it should be?
Had I gone with RMW's and anyone else's Koolaid tune. I would never know I had boost issues, fuel pump problems, etc. before I slapped on even the first tune.

 

There is a lot of good information in this thread, unfortunately, it has degraded into Jan(RMW) bashing. I know nothing about how to tune an engine, I don't have a dyno at my disposal, and I want my car to run right and reliably. I have a Jan tune and with that tune comes Jan's experience. I got my tune 3 years ago and since then, Jan's advice has been invaluable in planning my mods for my engine. I really don't understand why Jan keeps replying to all the insults he receives. It would be nice if personalities were kept out of the discussion.

 

This has been what the normal has been for ever. If anyone talked 'different' than RMW they were trolled and destroyed. There is NO reason to do this to the MINI crowd. I dont think this is a Jan bash, he seems to do it to himself and people just add in their experiences. There are a lot of good Tuners out there now, the parameters Jan has used over the past 10 years is quickly falling apart. Now that people are asking 'what is in my tune' it has become interesting. I agree, you have to have data, it is also better with a Dyno. To have a Tuner ask what your mods are and then go thru old files and find something 'close' (canned) and then SELL it to you is wrong, oh so wrong. The stalling and cold run that Thumpr52 has, is just one of many, we just thought this must be the way it will be because Jan did the tune. It always had been . These posts HAVE been informative and great for the MINIs on NAM.

 

I'll talk to the 2 Mini techs who have both heads and dyno'd. The thumper one was tuned by bytronik
I'm 100% confident you don't want to show the power you can make with those parts, I've asked for you to get an engine build contest going......why are you so scared?
I'm 100% confident the heads are not the same, it's why we have won every single championship and your vendor doesn't even have a podium

As I told you originally, we offer tunes, both canned and custom....... did you forget or are purposely omitting the fact that you only wanted a canned tune? For those out there reading, I have always offered a canned tune and custom tune for the same price of $350. No one out there does this, they charge extra. I have over the years given canned tunes and custom tuned them for free at dyno days when we travel across the country. Again, no one else does this. I also offer free upgraded tunes for those purchasing our parts.......again, no one else does this either.

Anyone reading them will learn something. You still haven't answered the questions about the cam gear that I asked. It's amazing you still don't understand how it works on a single cam engine.


I explained what a custom tune is: You didn't take it to a dyno so you got the canned tune for those mods. I'm not sure how you keep trying to post like I somehow cheated you. You only wanted to rent the tool because you were happy with that.

When making comparisons all factors are entered into the equation, something you forget to do. But it's ok for you to show the 1320 post without all of the accompanying facts. You are very emotional and the fact you won't discuss the facts shows it. If you have the logs, why not post them? I have posted logs and head flow charts of EVERY SINGLE HEAD I HAVE DONE on the net, I have yet to see you post anything showing real data besides a dyno without the data logs. Where's your head flow chart of the thumper head? Find one anywhere........roflmao. Only one out there is the data I got from the Uk who flowed it after it didn't make power. You sure are willing to give Thumper a pass on stuff that I've actually posted. I even posted up the data from the Caddy heads I did for another company. I've done Porsche heads too. Why aren't these pro teams coming to your guys for help?

I'm baffled by your smoke and mirrors........who is running from the engine contest? Sure isn't me. You have continually spouted theory without proof of anything to back it up. Here is your chance to put your theories that you so emotionally believe into black and white . No difference of superchargers, turbos or the like. Straight up normally aspirated , same day and same dyno. You are trying to silence me with your attacks, I'll I'm offering is to show the world who really is right..........Your theories or mine......... I think it's a great idea for the community to put all of the nonsense posting behind both of us.

Since you have the dyno run and the log...........POST THEM............with TIME STAMPS............It's on the dyno run and on your log.........Or you just going to keep posting without the data?

 

thanks for the kind words in a sea of posts of people who don't want to see the truth in a real head to head battle. It's just smear tactics, If they truly believed what they wrote they would take the challenge. Probably have a better chance of winning the lotto than that happening. All I'm asking is them to prove what they claim while they smear me over and over again. Build the engine, let's get it on.

 

My first tune pre-dated RMW. That GIAC brand "canned tune" was a huge disappointment. Since then, Jan's done three tunes on my car over the last decade as I added equipment, each at no additional charge for tune or his time. Today, my R53 daily-driver produces more than 100 horsepower over stock, with a street cam. HP is 285@7500RPM, with a big fat torque curve (230 foot-pounds @ 4400RPM). A longer duration cam would get me over 300HP, but it would be peaky, and I prefer "street-friendly" when stuck in gridlocked traffic. I'm quite pleased with Jan's work, and I've modded lots of car brands over 50 years. Yes, Jan makes competitive race parts; he also produces outstanding street performance parts, like the cylinder head on mine!

RMW heads are an essential component on many hundreds of street R53's, from 220HP to north of 300HP.

In 2007 Jan/RMW began flying to "tune parties", with 12 or 20 cars being custom-tuned over a couple days at dyno facilities around the country, usually arranged by some local guy who desperately wanted a custom tune. Jan's been adamant since day-one that a custom-tune is the ONLY way to go, and he continues to say that. The after-reviews were extremely positive, with Matt Richter (posting as "Dr Obnxs") describing his RMW tune as one of the best performance improvements you can make to your Mini. I first "observed" local tune-party results in 2008 (when the 16% pulley I'd ordered didn't arrive in time). Inspired, I drove 400 miles to meet Jan at a dyno facility near his shop.) Now that Jan has remote-tuning capabilities he will also sell you a baseline/canned tune for the same price as a custom tune. Why would he do that if he believes so strongly in custom tunes? Because after you install injectors larger than 385cc, a safe baseline tune is the only way to drive your car to the dyno facility to get a remote custom tune. ThumpR52 chose not to spring for the cost of a dyno near him to finish the job, and he has been "grumping" ever since.

 

Still no posted logs or the dyno from the guy who calls people a liar.........but here he is....going on and on and still doesn't know how his cam gear works

here is a post from his bytronik guys saying he didn't have the logger yet.........who is lying? Truly sad how you have gone from one end of the spectrum to outright character assassination
quite shameful accusing someone of lying because he doesn't post here every day. SO you think posting makes you credible? You might need some therapy

The ECU with the Miniport should be delivered today, we'll save your current 450cc tune and convert it to FA-compatible format so you can use it for future reference. Then we'll wipe the ECU and reset it to OEM, then load FA53 onto it and set the scaling to the Bosch 550cc injectors. Kinda wish you had done all this prior to doing all of these testing b/c the data-logging would have been available to you already. Just saying...

 

We learned long ago not to argue with fools.. we just post the facts and let people decide for themselves. This was the email that was sent by OP containing the tracking number.



Below is the tracking number with delivery details. We were at MITHOT (MINIs in the Heart of Texas at Waco, TX), thus missed the Sat delivery.


OP had the MINIPort but FA53 was never loaded onto the ECU for two reasons:

1) If he had loaded FA onto of his current 450cc tune, this tune would, in essence become his "Stock tune". As a tuner, we never want to use another tuner's tune as a base b/c you automatically inherit all of their 'problems' as well. Beside, there's nothing special about that 450cc tune... anybody who's interested can go to our Bytetronik site and download the FA53 Software Suite and Open up the demo tunes without having a MINIPort. We also post up tunes from various companies for your reference.

2) OP has a 2007 Siemens DME R52 - we have to perform some bench flashing in order to get the ECU to properly communicate with FA. The 2007/2008 R52 DMEs are 'special child' and require additional attention.

 

stop deleting posts.......it's relevant to this nonsense.....the poster isn't capable of following the timeline.....it's obvious he couldn't have logged the data with bytronik because it wasn't installed so the poster is lying about the logs.........plain and simple. It's sad that this has to be pointed out to a biased moderator.

I thought you were done? Guess not
so when is the engine challenge going to happen so you can see first hand what the real results are? The look on your face when you realize how bad you have been misled will be priceless.
You have your team now.... surely they can scratch up enough money to embarrass me......right?

 

ThumpR52, I haven't seen anyone bash you for buying a Thumper head in this thread. And I don't think anyone would "bash" you or anyone else for buying any other head. Currently I believe heads are also available in the U.S. from Endyn, Cosworth (discontinued, but Custom Mini Shop still claims one available) and Sneed4Speed, as well as RMW and Thumper. If you want to cast a net further, there are four more performance head companies in the UK, but the shipping will make any of the above look inexpensive when delivered in the 48 States. Anyone can buy the head of their choice, and go have fun improving their car!

What people have challenged is your repeated claim here and in another thread that a hand-ported head is inherently superior to CNC manufactured for street performance applications. If the same claim were made on a Chevy or Ford V8 performance forum, it would inspire laughter, lots of it!

Making the claim is also poor guidance to those trying to learn, because there is no evidence that it's been true for many years. Here is why that trend away from hand-porting will continue: Labor Time=Money, and hand porting is labor-intensive. Hand porters doing production work have to compete with market price, and that means continuing to reduce the time they can spend per head to a performance valve job and a bit more. At the same time RMW, Lohen, CCN Head Manufacturer, and Sneed with their CNC produced heads will define market pricing. Hand-porting will continue to be valuable for prototyping, because it is worth investing hundreds of hours on a single port if it yields a better port design that can then be digitized, further computer optimized for cross section and flow, then identically CNC machined multiple times per head with a 5-axis milling station.

The Important bit: Mini Coopers are a niche market with few suppliers, and those suppliers have declined. If we want to see continued support for our (addictive) cars, we need to welcome those who are developing and producing innovative products. Look at what is happening: M7 is pretty much gone. Alta's innovation is a "shell" of what they were a few years ago. TSW was acquired by Way, and while the name continues, no innovation since acquisition. Those aren't the only ones. RMW is one of the major innovators we have left. Just as important, RMW is also a sponsor of NAM; in other words they help make this forum possible.

I have certainly not intentionally lied, and calling people "liars" and "trolls" (as ThumpR52 has done here and elsewhere) is not a productive way to encourage intelligent participation. ThumpR52 did say that he bought a RMW tune for remote install, but he never completed the remote tuning process with Jan on a dyno. (Jan's time to do so would have been no-charge, as always.) Jan tells everybody that his tune should be dialed-in on a dyno, and that's no lie.

As far as the number of my posts, I didn't know that number of posts had any relationship to quality of content!
Who knew?!

My background?: I grew up in a family auto parts and speed/machine shop. By the time I was 13, I was rebuilding heads for paying customers. I paid my way through an engineering degree doing more of same, plus more performance valve work, pocket-porting and port matching, and advising customers. For more than 50 years since, I have had a serious car hobby, and thanks to family connections I can get into professional trade shows like SEMA to talk and learn from some of the best & brightest. The fun stuff (cars) always had to fit between running a mid-sized manufacturing company, and then consulting for manufacturers of technology.
That family auto parts business I mentioned... turns 70 this year, and I still get calls for advice.
.

 

WOW, 14,835 views. Seems these head threads show quite an interest. Good closing thoughts ThumpR52 .

 

So says the man that demands his customers "call" him yet his Voice mail box is full. I know a handful of people trying to reach you for a couple weeks including myself because they ran into RMW issues. You always back peddle to the fact that you are a "one man show and soooo busy" but yet when asked about my head you respond "I don't know I didn't see it". Make up your mind Jan do you do the work or do you outsource everything? I'll keep calling you as the part on my car failed with less than 500 miles and you refuse to answer calls, voice mails, text and emails. All I have asked is help getting my car running from the failed part YOU sold me and upon return has had other suspicious issues. You also have been paid for a custom tune almost a year ago that I either need refunded for or AFTER my car is running and seeing the 250whp you sold me on I have the custom tune.

Jan your immediate attention to this resolution is greatly appreciated. I am not back charging for the ARP washers, Gaskets or the labor involved but I am expecting a properly running car with the power I was promised prior to you cashing the check.

thanks (you know my number)
JP

 

I read your thread on R53 Addicts. You installed the cam and either didn't torque the cam bolt to spec, or made some other mistake which resulted in insufficient clamp load or joint friction (greased surface, yielded bolt, miscalibrated torque wrench, etc.), then try to blame Jan for shipping you a cam with a "broken cam tab" that resulted in a bent valve. The tiny cam pin is only there for locating the sprocket to cam during assembly, not to hold the sprocket when running. You have to hold the sprocket in place when torquing it with a proper tool, or you can shear the pin off at that point as well, so that's another way you might have messed it up. It is the friction resulting from the clamp load of the bolt that holds the sprocket in time. Your engine got out of time because you screwed up the installation, which bent the valve. That's 100% on you.

 

Alex (Unbreakable Lump), it is always good to hear the real facts from someone who participated in the development of the early Tritec engines (used in our cars) with Chrysler/Dodge, the Neon SRT-4 racing program, and early work with what was then Rover MINI.

Any one interested in that development history, most of that is here:
https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...-the-team.html

(I'm still hoping for a part-3 one of these days.)
.

 

While I appreciate your feedback I can tell you that I tq'd it and checked it twice. I wouldn't have to have done this if the head wouldn't of failed the first time though within 500 miles. As for the broken cam tab...it actually came out of the cam in full...it's very suspicious on how it would do that.

I have since taken the head to a local machine shop had the two valve's replaced and purchased another cam, reinstalled it along with a new timing chain, cam sprocket, ARP Cam bolt, PRW pulley, cam position sensor and just for fun new 550 injectors with new pig tails and still do not have a running car. And just for The record I hired a BMW/MINI mechanic to do the timing chain and head this time so there was no excuses. The machine shop said the head had a pretty bad flaw in the milling also. Jan has yet to answer the phone as he demands from his customers.

 

Still waiting for Jan to reply as I paid him almost a year ago for a custom tune that he hasn't provided. I will have my car on a dyno on June 7th and hope that he will correspond to me or at least my shop. I have also purchased a innovate wide band from the good guy Chad at Detroit Tuned. Look, im not asking for anything except what I have paid for already. If he doesnt provide the custom tune I already paid for the potential future customers will see this.

 

I thought it was just me. I’m in the same situation with a tune. Is he even in town? No answers from a few attempted contacts for me as well.....

 

For what it may be worth, "friction" is a VERY POOR way to locate parts.
I've been an Aerospace, Sr. Test Engineer for over 20 years. I've seen NO friction joints hold much load what so ever. And when they do decide to slip, it's normally disastrous for the parts around and connected to, said friction joint.
Maybe some redesign is in order..!?

Mike

 

No he is all over FB and I have texted, called, im'd, emailed, and done everything short of sending a search party and so has many others. I guess ill have to knock on his door to make sure he is alive and safe. Fortunately i know his address...

Such a joke of a businessman.

@booklas

 

Actually, he has been very quiet on his RMWPOWER facebook page for months!
My experience is that he has been a very forthright & trustworthy business owner over more than a decade, but I haven't tried to reach him in the last few months.

 

He is on FB spewing his opinons on everything from MINI to politics. He cant return a number of peoples calls that are trying to reach him. I have 3 tuned vehicles and he is the only one i would never do business with again.

 

Is everyone implying that he is the only Mini tuner in SoCal on factory ECU’s? I heard good things and that’s why I own his products. I just need a fine tune without having to get a Link ECU.

 

Yeah, i paid for a lot of his parts including a custom tune. He provided a canned tune to get me to the dyno and has not provided the custom tune since. He is absent after the sale but is more than willing to cash the check.