Engine Drivetrain 2nd Gen S Most liked posts in thread: Dealer JCW and Factory JCW Beware!

To say that was very interesting would be an understatement. Startling that the poster suggested he wouldn't even tune a factory JCW.

 

Though I've only got 12K miles on my car, I'll let you know if he's right....

Mark

PS. I'll take my chances....

 

Wow...I'm scared.oooh. The funny thing is that the incident the OP referred to was an installation error, either by the owner or the dealer, of an o-ring. Now, how does this error condemn the integrity of the internals? I think the main reason for uprating some of the internals of the factory JCW was to justify the cost. "of coarse it costs more, look what we did!" Besides, any engines that failed did so during rigorous track testing where anything is prone to breaking, you find the weak links and make them stronger.
--Dan

 

Orangecrush, you came to mind when I read this article simply b/c I'd remembered your JCW had an RMW tune. Btw, where were your whp/tq numbers prior to the tune?

 

I wish I could tell you. Jan installed the map to see if it would take it. (apparently there were a few issues with an Italian tune on JCW's)

Point is, Jan ended up running the car on the dyno and came back with the numbers we have now. For a moment, we thought we had some sort of freak because he hadn't tuned it yet.

Turns out that though Jan thought the map was removed, it didn't, the dyno run I have now is the new tune.

Bottom line... no baseline numbers.

Mark

 

True dat, I read it before. At first, before reading it, I thought Factory JCW owners were just being condescending. Strengthened internals, yay!

 

JCW or not, this engine sounds scary. I'm sticking with my bombproof Brazilian Tritec.

 

Everything has its limits... it just depends on how hard you're willing to push it

There are two schools of thought: 1) maximum and peak HP, or 2) Safe-reliable and consistent not-so-peak HP.

If you're looking for Peak HP, then we are not the tuner for you and your cars (unless we're tuning your Drag Racing car)...

If you're looking for reliable and safe power for your DD and weekend RR car, then you have come to the right tuner. If you look at our tuning results, they are about driveability with modest HP gains...

It's true, Peak HP sells... but for us, reliable HP lasts

 

Seems to me that the MiniTorque warning is over the top

the fault referred to as costing a fortune was a screw up in parts fitment. The fact that the factory JCW has slightly lower compression is a common technique to allow higher boost pressures while avoiding detonation.

The post seems to be one of those "dire warnings" that comes down to the "factory knows what they are doing and who are we to question it" philosophies. I just don't buy it.

I'm sure that there are weak points in the turbo Prince that will be discoverd, just like the lower piston ring groove in the Tritec. But the leading edge mod crowd is the group that will discover them. And how to deal with them!

"Just don't modifiy it" really is more of a philosophy that works for the risk-avoiders! Go for it, break it and then fix it better is the way to more of what you want.

I take Mikes point about safe tunes vs peak power tunes, and that's true enough. But the factory set up is designed with headroom. It's there to last a very long time for people who may not even maintian thier cars well at all and use the car abusively (and that's different than driving it hard). So for well maintained and non-abusive owners, there has to be some headroom that can be accessed for more power and torque.

The whole Mini Torque thread reads like BS to me.

Matt

 

Matt, you brought up some good points... the OP is a well-respected MINI owner and here's one of the reason why he reacted this way...

Below is a tune done up by one of the UK Tuners... It makes good power, but it might be a little too aggressive for my taste: