Cruising around ebay and found a company that claims to reflash a mini ecu and get 50+hp out of it with a pulley and exhaust.

http://m.ebay.com/itm/122106762095

I know alot of vws and audis which respond well to this type of thing but I can't find anything about this company, I also can't find any name brand company's that sell reflashes for the r53 only the r56 turbos. The price deffinately beats any other tuner/email tune deal I've seen.

 

Looks like a canned tune if you already have a pulley and exhaust which doesn't seem that cheap to me. Also, I would be hesitant to send my ECU out to an unknown company. Way Motor Works and Jan at RMW have canned tunes for close to the same price and they are two of the best known MINI specialists in the country.

What mods do you currently have and where are you located?

 

I have a 15% pulley custom made flowmaster 44 exhaust 2.5" catback. 185deg. Thermostat. Silicon rad hoses. Intercooler horns are polished on the inside. And solid mounts.

I'm located albany NY. an hour and 40 mins north of nyc

 

Helix in Philadelphia is also a MINI specialist who probably can tune your car. Otherwise WMW is in Atlanta and RMW in SoCal.

 

Honestly, stay away from anything like that.
Only get a canned tune from one of the more excepted Mini shops such as the ones mentioned above if you don't want to spend the money for a custom.
Not only are those claims usually false, you are trusting the life of your engine to an unknown entity.

 

Why would you get a cooler thermostat? That's just going to make performance worse if anything.

 

The oem is 195 I got a 185 because I was traveling to Florida and my Temps would get to 230 some times, with a 185 I rarely see 205

 

I would steer clear of anything like this on ebay. Years ago I won a ebay auction to have my duramax injectors rebuilt with 100hp nozzles put on them. I pay'ed the seller then sent my injectors off to NC. I didn't see them for 4 months. In that time ebay gave me my money back and I bought reman injectors from a reputable Chevy dealer. Long story short go with a reputable company for goods and services that cost a lot of money.

 

I've seen that company with the 50hp claim before and always wonder where they came up with that besides for marketing as there is no way. Turbo cars make more with tuning but that is because the ECU controls the boost.
I'd work on other mods before tuning as tuning is kinda the later thing to bring it all together and adjust for mods.

 

Well I have pretty much reached my pocket limit for power mods for a while, so I was looking to get the tune as a last ditch effort to squeeze that extra little bit out of it before starting a new budget for next year

 

Dude if i held my breath for Helix i would be dead. They keep telling me BS about when they are going to have a tuning event. RMW is the actual people that tune for them. First they told me in some months then they told me in some more months then they told me there dyno room was going thru renovation and still to this date nothing. since March or April.

 

Sounds like you have a cooling system issue, not a thermostat issue. I've been idling in traffic for 30+min with temps well over 100 and never had my temperature rise on the gauge at all.

If you have a 185 thermostat and you are getting up to 205...that should tell you that something is wrong.

 

Never, ever replace a thermostat with a non-OEM opening temperature. You're just skirting your problems.

 

You definitely get what you pay for with everything, even though it's a good price the quality of product probably suffers because of it. WMW on the other hand has some of the best stuff I've seen around, a bunch of stuff I can't find anywhere else and for reasonable prices. If you want something that will certainly work ode start with talking to Way.

Also where in Albany are you? I live in nisky and just got into rebuilding my 06 R50.