cmcveay

Brian0758 proposed a meet up this coming weekend. Here's the idea: Meet at Sheetz in Haymarket (15315 Washington Street, Haymarket) on Sunday at 9 a.m. Gas up, grab a cold drink and head west on Rte 55. There will be several video cameras and still c

Lisa, I just PM'd you and then I read to the bottom of the post. Glad you go 'em moved around and I'm really glad you found that one of them has/had a defect so it doesn't cause you any problems on the road! Hope you like the guys out at Mach V, Dan and the crew take good care of us. Craig

We've got an adjustable, chrome wire shelf (roughly 5ft tall, 3ft wide and 18in deep) that would like a nice home where it'll be used and cared for. It is currently taken apart (all parts accounted for) and in the way. I can meet you half way or figure out a way to get it to you if you are interested. Craig

Hey Cadbury, it's been a while since we met at the Autocross in Waldorf. Places like Sears, Firestone and the like will do the flat repairs and rotations if you buy/have your tires installed by them. For a simple rotation, if you and the hubby can't do it, there are several of us that can assist and get it done pretty quickly. Look forward to seeing you at some of the local events though! Craig

My WiFi/3G iPad won't be here until June 1st!

Audrey, sorry to hear that about the PS lines. Keep an eye on it and be careful! The P/S pump in my old Jeep died and I'm a hard-head so I didn't replace it for almost 2 years. Drove with "arm strong steering" for that long and with 36" tall mud tires, it wasn't easy to do! Dale, I had to laugh! We had a great time over on the windward side today and an awesome trip up to the North Shore. This is Lona's first time to Hawaii to visit anything so I took her to a bunch of the little "off the beaten path" spots that I found when I lived here. We got some great video of her swimming with a sea turtle and some great fish pictures. Going diving on Sunday and then back to work on Monday.

I don't have my books on the SG2 handy but I recall it mentioning that the default refresh rate is every 2 seconds and you can go through the set up options and make it faster but I haven't seen anything that says how fast that changed it to... 1 second maybe? That's more than adequate for me as I don't drive down the road staring at the gauge, waiting for it to change. It'll refresh ever second or two and I'll do a gauge scan to see what the numbers are. As far getting into/out of the car and hooking stuff up, I routed the cable around the steering column and behind the trip panel to connect to the OBD II port so it's totally hidden and the OBD II port connector comes out on the side so you can't even see that it's connected when you look into the car. Since I've been on my road, the splitter and Tom Tom mounting arm arrived at the house so I'll so that part of the install when I get home next weekend. I do like having the SG2 directly over the tach since it puts in my field of view so I will probably mount the GPS to the right so I can reach it display with my hand on the wheel. While at MOTD, one of the guys working for WMW showed me his R56 SG2 mount. He used a piece of aluminum flashing, attached it to the back of the SG2 and then, it was attached behind the trip panel to left of the steering column. It was a super clean install and if you weren't looking for it, it would pretty much hide on the dash! The cable was neatly tucked in hidden. I might be able to get a couple of pics of the install if you are interested in seeing it. Good luck with your search! Craig

Audrey, I can do the strut tower plates with no problem. Never done the pulley thing but I'll do some research and get back to you though. I won't be home until the 21st and I'll be kinda busy with work for bit and then I'm going to take a week or so off and have some time on my hands. How's that? Gotta run for now though, I hear a shaved ice from the North Shore calling my name and I want to be at the Banzai Pipeline beach at sunrise today!

I like the craftsman that I loaned you. It was under $100 and uses the same batteries as my drill, sander, vacuum, jigsaw, skill saw and work light! That makes life a little easier.

Take a look at the scangauge II. I haven't tinkered with mine very much but it looks like it shows speed and there are a couple of threads on NAM about the way to calibrate it to show the correct speed. I know my speedo is 3mph off at all speeds so I adjust on the fly. I'm not worried about the service indicator or the warranty issue as my research suggests those are fed a correct speed value unlike the speedo which is calibrated to display a higher speed than actual to meed some arcane regulations. You can display up to 4 values at once on the scanguage, I've got Intake air temp, water temp, Air to fuel ratio and boost pressure and it's all read from the ECU so there's no additional wiring or sensors involved. I am tinkering with the backlight color and I have it very near the OEM colors. I used the Cravenspeed "W" mount and the scangauge bracket to mount it because I will also be mounting my Tom Tom from the same mount when I get home. I'm attaching a picture of how I have the guage mounted for now but it may change to move to one side. I like the current location as it sits just above the steering wheel and I can see it in a quick scan. JustJay has - or had - a scangauge bracket for sale if this fits your bill. Other really nice features is the whole trip meter portion of the gauge and, if that's not enough, you can use it to reset codes - all from the same little device!

I hear driving a MINI and group runs can have a healing and restorative effect upon you!

I was waiting for Dale to weigh in. Nothing like have a resident expert in the group my it out on the line... Maybe Mike can work something into the flames to obscure it? Dale - what do you know about the MINI emblems on the 2nd Gen cars? I think the rear is applied with adhesive tape, what about the front? Tks, Craig

Ryan, Automatic transmissions have their place in life and the world. All of the "cool kids" used to give me a hard time about having an automatic in my CJ-7 --- Until we went out to the desert and started running sand dunes that is. I'd fly up/down hills and they were toasting clutches and warping flywheels 'cause the sand will kill your momentum in a heartbeat. Don't worry about not being a "car fanatic", you are among friends and any of us is willing to sit discuss the function of a part or system at a level you want so you can make an informed decision on what you want to do. Speaking for myself and, from my experience, the rest of DCMM, if you ask questions, you'll get answers. Those are best left to PM's, emails or discussions at a run or a meet and greet although there are lots of "lurkers" out there who read the forums and learn from them. Don't be bashful, shy or intimidated though! I had a fellow R56 owner ask me where they should buy a pulley for their car since there was lots of discussion about it. It made me smile and I explained why we (the 2nd Gen MINI's) didn't need the same type of pulley as the 1st Gen cars. The offer still stands though. If you'd like to take Kooper for a twirl just to see what some of the mods will do, just give me a shout. Craig

Ryan, Jason quoted pretty much exactly what I did as well. I'll be back on the 21st and at the scavenger hunt if I'm not totally jet lagged and you are welcome to give mine a test drive as well. I'll add one item that Jason left off that I had installed at MOTD. Go for one of the engine torque arm bushings! I've got the NM bushing installed and dang! Does it make a difference when you are putting the power down. No more "rubber band" kind of feeling. I also added a Craven Speed adjustable shifter and I like the way it's made the shifting nice and "crisp". I'm sure I'll miss something but this is basically my list of performance/handling mods in the order I did them: Lowere (M7 springs), 22mm NM sway bar, M7 STD's and strut brace, DDM Street CAI, M7 Hot side boost tube, Borla (sport) cat back exhaust, Wilwood big brake kit and all braided brake lines, Riss Racing Catted/Coated DP, NM Torque arm insert, Craven Speed shifter and shiftwell cover, Alta adjustable rear sway bar endlinks. And then of course, the RMW tune. I'm running a set of Rota Torque wheels (17x8.5 and +45 offset) with Kumho Ecsta ASX tires in P235/40R-17. Lots of other mods to the exterior to "unbling" the car - I have no exterior Chrome, Joey Mod'd Xenon Headlights and blue LED interior lights. Give me a shout at our next run if you'd like to give it a whirl to see what you do/don't like about it. Craig

Ali, Next time, we'll let it sit longer. I think we only gave it about 15 minutes this time. A little more "soak time" should let the seafoam sink into and soften up any build up in the intake tract and combustion chamber. As far as your MPG improving, I'd say it's a result of both! The new pulley gives you more power - sooner - so you don't need to step into the throttle as much as you did before. I know I'm seeing a significant improvement in my MPG after the tune. Last Sunday when we were driving back from MOTD, I filled up at the last stop we made together and then I drove to work all week (only 15 miles round trip), ran a few errands after work and then drove out to Andrews AFB this morning. My combined gas mileage was just over 34! As long as I keep my foot in control, I'm getting great mileage! When I get back, we can do the seafoam thing again and we'll do it at your house so you can let it sit for as long as you like. Craig

Okay, I wasn't going to post it but here it is. This is my dyno sheet. It makes good torque low and has a very wide power band.

I ended up at 188/203 (up from 167/190) at the end of the day so my HP gains was along the lines of yours but my torque gain seemed to be a little low. There's no doubt that it runs/pulls much, much stronger now. I'm looking at an intercooler as that seems to be the "bottleneck" now. Craig

Jay, I am glad to hear that. The engine mods that I did before the tune did help and they did make the tune work better but they weren't anywhere near the "claimed" increases. I'll take the conservative dyno results though!

Ryan, Great improvements can be made with the tune, no doubt about it. That will give you more power and better mid/upper range performance. It's not cheap and, as Scavenger noted above, it's difficult to get it set up because there are only a couple of people tuning the R56 ECU. If you are looking for improved handling, take a look at a rear sway bar (I went with the 22mm NM Engineering version) and then the front strut tower brace which stiffens up the front end. I'm somewhat "down" on other mods like a cold air intake and exhaust. I've got both as well as the hot side boost tube and Riss Racing Downpipe and I'll be honest and tell you that I wasn't all that impressed with the dyno numbers for my baseline run a couple of weeks ago. The factory numbers for the MCS puts it at about 172HP at the crank and with all of that, I was looking at about 190 on the baseline run. The custom tune gave me a 22hp gain and the torque gain was almost 10lbft. The sway bar and front strut brace along with being lowered has made a huge difference in how the car handles. Feel free to PM me if you have any specific questions. Craig

I think it means they are going to replace your suspension with the JCW suspension!

I've got a scanguage and another type of code reader if you need to get to one. I'm in Annandale but I'm leaving on Monday and I'll be on the road for a work related trip for 12 days. Give me a shout if you need to get to it. It takes a couple of minutes to read the code. Craig

I had a Cravenspeed shiftwell cover, Cravenspeed adjustable shifter, Cravenspeed shift knob and an NM Torque arm bushing installed. I also picked up a Scangauge II along with the Cravenspeed mount along with the Gen II "W" mount for future use... Looking at a TomTom mount for it. Oh, I also had a stainless grill installed in the M7 hood scoop and it all started off with Koop getting a set of Celtic knot stripes from Mike at AE. At the panoramic photo, I heard Ali telling someone that she drove Kooper back down the Dragon and after that, she had to get a pulley put on Tigger... Now it's being blamed on Edge!

Ryan, When you see an event that Dale and HR MINI's are doing, there are two things you can be sure of. A good time and great people! Check out their website for the fall colors run in October as well. Dale, I look forward to hearing more on the

Jim, I'll be happy to dump all of my video's to a DVD for you. Like you, I'm working on putting together a couple of video's to share.