Hey Everyone,

I recently purchased a 2005 MCS from a local autoshop. The previous owner did a bunch of mods, tuned it, and then blew the engine and couldn't afford the repairs. So it sat for 3 years until the mechanics lien was processed and the shop was able to sell it. I have torn it down and the block, head, and crank are at a machine shop for inspection and repair if required. I asked around and it looks like the car was tuned by Jan at RMW, I have reached out to him via email and phone but cant get ahold of him. From what I gather this seems to be par for the course.

I checked the Dimsport tuner logs and the last thing it registered was flashing a 450cc injector tune, the injectors are the same ones Jan sells on his website. Since the ECU has a tune on it that may have contributed to the failure I would really want to have a stock tune on it when I try to fire it back up for the first time in 3 years. So I have a couple questions:

1) Is there a way to "recover" the stock tune? Or is there a way to download a stock tune based on my vin?
2) The cam that was in the car at the time of the failure has different markings than what I think a stock camshaft should have, any good resource to identify what it is?

Thanks in advance.

 

I can help you to "recover" with a stock file.You need to buy a cheap flashing tool MPPS V21 and need also a Microsoft Laptop.I can do the job by remote, in 30 minutes.
This is the tool.

 

Thanks @adriancl ! I actually think I was able to "find" the stock tune. I ended up hooking up the ECU to the car after taping off all the hot leads and the Dimsport tuner showed an option to flash the "Original Tune". I should have the engine back in by the end of this week and, fingers crossed, will get her running. I really appreciate the offer, incredibly gracious of you!

I'm still a bit puzzled at the cam that is in the car. I will get pictures uploaded later this week of the two cams I have.

 

Are you going to be able to use a stock tune with 450 injectors and unknown cam?

 

Nope.

Get in touch with Adrian.......have him make you a new tune. Problem solved.

 

+1... those larger injectors and a hot cam will not run properly with the stock tune. Besides, I doubt that the tune was the problem. It's more likely that the PO ran it well past its RPM max and blew the motor. Adriancl can fix you up as he's tuned quite a few Minis for forum members - mine included. Given your current mods it's a sure bet that you also have a smaller supercharger pulley and maybe a larger crank pulley that will only exacerbate your stock tune problem. Touch base again with Adrian. He lives in Romania so factor in the time difference. Super guy, super service, super reasonable and very knowledgeable.

 

Hey everyone. Thanks for all the replies! I got ahold of Jan and he gave me the history of the car. I sent him pictures of the cam and it looks like it is stock. I thought that the casting numbers were grind levels but apparently that isn't always accurate and they are the stock profile.

I ended up buying a stock engine out of a scrapped car and bolted on my intake and SC (17%) to that and put it in the car. Since it has the stock injectors I was able to get the to start on the stock tune! The idle is ok, it drops the rpms and has to surge the throttle about once a minute. It also has some significant hesitation when I give it throttle when it it idling so it looks like I'm hunting for vacuum leaks this weekend.

The car also has an exceedingly obnoxious non-resonated catless exhaust that needs to be fixed at some point but for now it runs and that's a big step forward from a car that sat in a gravel lot for almost 3 years.

I appreciate the community chiming in about @adriancl. I'm going to try and get everything reliable at stock and not push too hard. Any advice on the hesitation and rough idle would of course be appreciated.

 

What do your fuel trims look like?

 

All over the place, but I really haven't driven it anywhere except up and down my dead end street. I did a few passes on my street and got anywhere between 1.5 and 13 on my long term trim and -12 and +15 on my short term trim.

 

What are short term trims doing at idle?

if short term trims go down when you open up throttle from idle...could be a vacuum leak

 

Yup, they definitely go down. I'm also only running -7 lb of pressure at idle and I think it should be almost twice that... I have vacuum system issues it looks like. I thought I found all the "common" spots and inspected them but it looks like not. Time to hunt.

Edit: in HG != PSI, I'm running 12 in HG and it should be 15 in HG so I am close but still lower than it should be.

 

Update: I swapped the MAP and T-MAP sensors to another set that came off of a running car. There was almost no change so I think both of those are good. Not a guarantee since they aren't new but probably close. I think I'm going to have to do a smoke test. First time for everything!

 

Update: I did a DIY smoke test. Although I didn't see any real smoke coming out of anywhere I could hear a hissing sound and ended up tracking it down to the center rib on the aftermarket Forge intercooler. The seal/weld on that rib looks different than the other ones but I could definitely hear hissing from it. So I took it off the car and filled it with water, sure enough on the large opening side of the intercooler, on both the front and back, that rib leaked water. I ordered a second hand unit off of eBay and am waiting for it to arrive. I'll water test it before I put it on and if it passes the test I'll put it on the car.

If the intercooler doesn't sort it out I am worried because the last thing I can think of is that the timing slipped somehow. I replaced the chain, cam sprocket, guides and tensioner when the engine was out of the car so I visually lined up all 3 timing marks, but its not infeasible that I made a mistake. Is there a decent way to check timing with the engine in the car? And preferably with the timing cover still on?

Of course I'm open to any other suggestion as to what else the problem might be.

 

New-to-me intercooler is on and the problem is not solved. Since getting the timing cover off with it still on the car is a bit of a job that's going to have to wait a minute. Any other suggestions in the meantime would be appreciated.

 

I advice you to check the DME file. I assume is not a good one.I told you, i can help you to get a good file for your engine configuration.I don't want to blame anyone, but the files made by some American tuners are wrong made

 

So a bit more of an update that I left out in my last post. I ended up replacing the pre-cat O2 sensor, MAP, and TMAP sensors just to ensure the ECU is getting the right data. I also found a stock exhaust and hooked that up to the crappy chinese headers and no-cat. The car is much quieter now and can actually be driven daily.

As I mentioned earlier I flashed the stock tune from the tuner back on the car. I'm not 100% sure this is the factory tune but it is what the dimsport tuner claimed to be the stock tune. At this point the hesitation was still there at initial throttle application and there was some occasional seeking behavior at idle. To try and figure out the low-end hesitation I swapped in the 450cc injectors and flashed the Jan tune and the hesitation is still there. I also didn't notice much, if any, change in performance so that is still why I am thinking it is a mechanical/sensor problem and not the tune. Its also possible my ECU is just fritzing out.