mdsbrain.com MINI Blog

I took Randy’s advice he gave me on Sunday. I went by my dealer to ask them to check my oil and to please replace the oil. They pulled the stick and did some test which measuers the coolant in the oil. That there is oil in the coolant. Not alot but some which leads to a bad gasket. What they then said surprised the heck out of me. They want to replace the head and gasket. Thinking the surface of the head that meets up to the block isn’t true. That the head will be replaced or they will send it to a machine shop to have it honed.

I have an appt for next Tuesday. Since they have 0 loaners right now and the schedule is full till then. So I am going to try and take it easy on the car till then. Which is funny cause the car was just on the Dyno Sunday..lol

 

P.S. If this doesn’t fix the car then this might be the end of this car and/or my time with MINI.

I attended 1 day of the Pulley Party on Feb 26 for a good time with Randy and the local guys. What a hoot! We had all kinds of MINI from the area that were stock, JCW, fully Randy modified and cars that had more boost then Randy does. One car put down over 200whp @ the shop’s dyno. This car didn’t even have a ported and polished head. (Crazy!) But we all think it was the freezing 30F air which brought out the big numbers that day for all of us.

I showed up to Randy saying, “I have to talk to you young man”. He made the point that so many other people did. If I install an aftermarket pulley, stock or otherwise it’s still aftermarket. So there would be something for the dealer to gripe about either way. Also that there has been no problems related to running a 15% pulley. So I agreed with Randy and kept the 15% supercharger reduction pulley.

As for the crank pulley, I asked Randy put the stock pulley back on. I didn’t realize till he did it but he put on the guy before me 2006 pulley. haha So I still have my 2005 stock pulley(paperweight). Randy joked that he has a new pulley mod, “The 2006 pulley” lol

So can I tell a difference from removing the crank pulley? Yes. The car doesn’t rev as fast, idle is much smoother and the car has alot less vibration. I am very pleased with the removal of the pulley. This might be unique to my car since so many other people have had only good things to say about the pulley’s performance.

Randy installing crank pulley and Unichip:

Love the hair Randy!

Unichip installed:

 

Dyno runs. Green is @ about 30F with crank pulley and car was still pretty warm from the drive. Red and Blue are after the stock crank pulley and Unichip was installed. To me the car feels smoother and just as stronge. I don’t notice the power drop and I think it was temp or due to the tranny for power flux. The crank pulley didn’t make that much more power. It was a stock size not oversized.

Dyno graph link to 300k pic so it can be read.

Car on the dyno video

 

Car on the dyno:

Connect to the spark plug for the rpm reading:

Cooling the Intercooler:

Pics outside the shop of some of the other HOT MINIs:

Some of the cars the shop works on:

More pics taken by Doug who attended the PP.

Tuesday night I was up contemplating my future plans. One item came to mind. What if I have serious engine problems and it’s blamed on mods? Well I got to thinking. I can’t afford even to have a head gasket replaced, let alone anything worse. So I started to research and I have changed course.
I ordered a stock size Alta supercharger pulley.  That’s right Alta makes a stock pulley. I didn’t even know such an item existed, but it does! So I have one coming. I am also swapping my stock crank pulley. So I have 2 pulley installs for Randy on Sunday the 26th.
That’s it! The mad modder is going back to stock boost psi and running stock pulleys. But, I am keeping my other mods on. Yes, I know I am going to loose about 20whp easily. But I will gain so much more in piece of mind.
I will be able to sleep better at night. My car will still have plenty of power and be loads of fun without the extra 3-5psi I was getting from the pulleys.

 

Please don’t take this as an indication that Alta products are bad for your car. I just want to know my car is safe and runs well. I plan to keep my car for many, many miles to come and don’t want to worry about if my car will run right or not.

The programmers for the BMW/MINI Navi has been hard at work it seems. And someone was able to get a copy of a beta version of one of the newest firmware releases. This one adds a new view called “Perspective”. It adds clouds to the images and makes the image look very 3D. To me it seems to make it look like you are driving down the road more realistically. Rather then looking straight down on the world.

 Images from a post by Scooby on NAM:

Icons disabled:

Icons enabled:

The only real downside I have seen to the update is your Navi will now read in Yards instead of feet.

Oh and no more accept screen

That is because this update is mostly made for the European market. So you will also have a few extra menus that are grayed out. Such as “Traffic Information”.

 

Ok so now the real meat and potatoes of how to do this. You can just upload the update and it works. But! When you turn on your car you will see a screen like this instead of the MINI logo.

To get around this the great folks @ x5world.com put their heads together and have fixed the problem. You need to do the following:

Download this file Navboot file . (I am going to work out a big download for noobs to use soon.)

Download the update. You must of already updated to V26 here.

But till then do this:

Disclaimer: Keep in mind that changes will be made to system ROM files and could seriously damage your navigation computer. The provided set of tools which will accomplish the aforementioned task are not Guaranteed to work 100%. As always, you take on any liabilty and responsibility for damages. If you need help try searching this thread first. Now with that out of the way here’s a step by step guide. You will need some manipulation tools installed first.

Download the following:
UltraISO http://www.tucows.com/preview/306129
GifExtractor
http://www.carmes.de/download/downlo…fExtractor.exe
.NET Libraries
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/d…displaylang=en
CD Burning S/W (ie Nero, Alcohol120, DVD Decrypter, etc…)

Steps:
1. Obtain correct Navigation CD image of S/W version (ie V26.09aNote: this version could be bad for your unit, V26, V25, etc…)
2. Load image onto PC
3. Locate “navboot” file. Usually located in \V_2\RR\0101\BMWC01S\app_sw\
4. Copy “navboot” to hard drive on PC
5. Using GifExtractor load “navboot” by clicking “Find” button
6. Once loaded, click “extract”
7. Now in the “found images” box highlight the first entry and using cursor scroll down to the image that you will change. Located at HEX address [b1f418] it’s the fourth one down.
9. NOTE! the new splash image has to fit the screen so you’ll have to edit it (with Paint, PhotoShop, etc…) by making sure that it has aspect ratio of Width 400 x Height 234 x Depth 8bit 96X96dpi, single frame. And saved as a *.GIF file
10. If the new gif image is larger than 4544KB then you’ll need to check the box “Do not check file size”
11. Now select the gif you want to load by clicking at the bottom “Select image to exchange”
12. Voila!! now you have a new splash that will startup

Optional: If you want to change the S/W version that displays on the top right of your navigation display such as “4-3/60″ (ie 4 is MIV system with S/W 60). And is found under menu->settings you can do that in the “New header text” box

Now to create the image:
1. Start UltraISO (you will see window split into four sections)
2. Goto File->Open (locate the Navigation CD image of S/W) or Open CD/DVD
3. Once CD is loaded into “Image” window navigate to \V_2\RR\0101\BMWC01S\app_sw\
4. Now goto Actions->Add Files and locate the modified “navboot”
5. You will be prompted to verify replacement. Select “yes”
6. Now you’re ready to make the new ISO image. In the top left window labeled “Image”, click the first entry (it will look like 20060220_120036 with a CD Icon) edit the line to reflect “NAV_SW” and press return
7. Goto File->Save as and name the file of your choosing with “file type” as “mdf,mds” if using Alcohol120, otherwise save type as *.ISO if using Nero, DVD Decrypter
8. Almost there!!!

Follow final steps for Burning and Install outlined here:
http://www.x5world.com/navigation-sy…-released.html

 

Once done enjoy.

I would like to express a big thanks to x5world.com for their help in the upgrade and links. And to scooby for use of his pics.

I will try to field any questions.