CarlB

My R53 has a Mynes tune. They created the software to allow you to tune your car yourself. Some people have gotten in trouble because they were over their head, and you can destroy your engine. This has generally happened when there is something wrong with the car and they continue to flog it. They will now do remote tunes. I do not know all the details but here is what I know. You have to install their software on your car, and I think you have to have a wide band oxygen sensor. Then you drive around and log what the engine is doing. The software monitors all the engine parameters and the oxygen sensor gives them the air fuel ratio. You then need to create a file and send it to them. They look at the file and send you a tune to upload into the ECU. I believe Jan does the same thing. I also know Jan usually goes to Helex once a year. If you go to the dragon there will be people there to tune your car, but Jan and Mynes are generally considered the best. I will warn you about personalities. It seems that Jan and some of his customers must consider there entire worth on his work being the absolute best. They will run down everyone else. Jan has happy customers, and Mynes has happy customers. They both have customers who are unhappy. Jan's and his customers perpetuate a ridiculous "I am the best, just ask"

You will have a blast. Friendly MINI people from all over. All the roads are spectacular, but you should do the Cherohala Skyway. It is a spectacular drive along the top of several mountains. Lots of places to stop and look at the beautiful country. You can challenge yourself by coming back (or going) through the Dragon.

I have some of the BMW stuff in Fairfax. Lee Highway and Fairfax county parkway

Faith and I would like to thank everyone who worked at putting on a great event. We had a lot of fun. Great people, good food, and great spot.

Got back at 5 Sunday evening and back to work today. Fontana is heaven, can't wait for next year. Barry and Robin are great people miss them already.

I have a ASKO dishwasher. It is a high end made in Sweden stainless steel dishwasher. My wife didn't want stainless appliances. It worked fine when it came out, and it can be yours for free. I want it out of my basement

A harbor Freight Torque wrench on sale (on sale almost all the time) is $11.00. List is $20.00. These wrenches have a +/- 4% accuracy. A comparable Sears wrench is $35.00 and is better made. A +/- 3 percent wrench cost $100.00 or more. Some are digital and some are called click type. digital does not mean more accurate. I prefer the click type. A click type goes click and slips a little when the torque is achieved. You have to be looking at the digital read out to know. If you are assembling a engine you need a good torque wrench, and how to prepare the parts being connected. The point of my last post was to point out that the cheap wrenches are more accurate than the conditions when torqueing lug nuts. If you want to make the wrench last. (any torque wrench) do not use it to loosen bolts. Torque wrenches do not like to work backwards. Do not leave the wrench adjusted to the torque setting. Set the wrench at the lowest setting so the spring doesn't sag. You will need a socket, and maybe a short extension for convenience. I would also get a breaker bar to remove the lugs.

For wheels the Harbor freight torque wrench is OK. Better quality torque wrenches list their accuracy. The accuracy is dependent on the condition of the nut, threads, and the friction between the nut and wheel being consistent. It isn't easy to keep all of that consistent.

I really wasn't serious. I figured you and everyone else is running around trying to get ready. Looking forward to seeing all of you.

You can come over to my house and help me get my car detailed.

I would be happy to answer questions and explain how it all works.

One of the best parties at the Dragon! I really look forward to it, and have two parties. With the beer I trade for at the beer swap, we have a party at home. I invite friends to sample all the beer I bring home from the Dragon.

All the summer tires I know about say not to use them below 40 degrees.

I agree with everything that has been said. I would add that there are motorcycles all over the place. If you do not stay in your lane, and hit a bike, someone is going to get hurt or worse.

I vote for an Orange MINI this year Orange would be good! Maybe some flames?

Cast aluminum will generally be fine if it went back to its original shape. Examine the wheel very closely in the area that got bent. If you do not see small hair line cracks the wheel should be fine. Metal is elastic to a point. If it exceeds its elastic limit it generally fails then. If the bend got close to the elastic limit it might have stress cracks. The stress cracks will grow and the wheel will eventually fail.

I was impressed with Marks driving. I was working for his morning runs, and was afraid he would beat my time.

I can’t speak to the quality of Magan coil overs because I haven’t had any. I have KW coil overs and am very happy. You mentioned ride quality. The harsh ride associated with stock MINIs is the result of limited suspension travel. The R53 is not as good in this area as the R56 because the newer car has more suspension travel. MINI uses a combination of springs and bump stops to control the suspension. When the spring is compressed to the point the bump stops come into play the effective spring rate goes way up and the ride seems harsh. When you lower the car with the same length struts you reduce the suspension travel. If you do not increase the spring rate significantly the car hits the bump stops sooner. KW coil overs for MINIs are shorter than the stock struts and shocks. At a lower ride height the KWs have as much travel as the stock struts. My impression is that Magan and BC coil overs are a universal fit system that is adapted to particular cars. I would suggest you look at the length of the units and compare that to stock. You need to get the length from the top of where it bolts in the knuckle to the bottom of the camber plate at ride height. With that information you need to know how much suspension travel you have. One of the tricks with the KWs is they go deeper into the knuckles, to get more travel. I would suggest that you ask whoever is selling the Magan coil overs for the amount of bump travel at stock and at different ride heights.

Thank you for the help. I went to Passport yesterday and they were great. Off to DMV today. Hopefully I can prove I am an American citizen this time. My MD certificate of live birth was not good enough for them.

If you want to do it yourself there are a number of products and kits available. I remember a thread on Motoring Alliance not long ago. You use filler (what is used to repair car bodies to fill the curb rash and them paint. The hard part is the sanding. Wheels have lots of areas that are hard to get down into. The easiest way is to have the wheels glass beaded. Original equipment and most aftermarket wheels are painted with the same paint used on the rest of the car, two part urethane. The most durable type of coating is powder coating. There is a place in Frederick that will do just the coating not the preperation for $50.00 per wheel.

Thanks to all of you. I will try Passport. My car has different control arms for all four links. The headlight adjuster attaches to the upper link. I made a bracket to attach the headlight adjuster arm, but never got it adjusted correctly and it was making a noise. I have a very good but independent mechanic who didn’t like the noise and he disconnected it. The lights go to a neutral position when the sensor is disconnected. I haven’t had time to screw around with the linkage to get it working.

I just moved to Virginia (Fairfax). Where do people get their cars inspected? My car is lowered and the headlight leveler is disconnected. I took it to the local gas station and told the guy the car was lowered. That caused him to think I was crazy. He drove it in the bay and put a head light machine on it. Then announced the lights were 13 inches too high. Drove the car out of the bay and did not even set the parking brake. If the lights were 13 inches too high I would be getting flashed. Help please.

When I look on Tire Racks web site They list AR-1 wheels not AR-2 wheels. Are you shure of the model number?

Can you tell us what size wheels they are?

I would really like to see your set up at some point. I want to add water methanol injection when I build a high performance engine. If you are interested I have some of the technical papers written on water injection during the war. Pratt & Whitney the aircraft engine company did a lot of development on it. I will point out that water has about double the latent heat of vaporization that methanol has. That means for equal amounts of methanol or water, water absorbs twice as much heat.