Mini R56 2009 Factory JCW HFS-3 Install (Cooper s owners too)

[shams1924]

Hi everyone, just wanted to share my install and experiences with everyone especially the mini specific community, at the request of richard L.

First of all, just wanted to give a big shout out and a BIG thank you to two people.
first being roger(czar) for his immense knowlegde and experince and sharing that with me. and his advice to me to buy this hfs-3 system for the mini r56 turbo. your help and directions have been invaluable to say the least :)

and of course and big thank you to richard(aquamist)
for his help with the installation when i got stuck. and the passion and dedication you have for your job i surely unrivalled. whilst i found out that the wiring diagram was incorrect for the map sensor on the r56, i told richard and he told me to check this and that whilst casually playing the old quitar at 9pm! and waiting for me to come back with my findings. GREAT!
guys! ask whilst hes around. you wont find many like him.

ok. i will now share with you firstly my install. ill try give as much help and detail as possible, i didnt take a pic of every single part, but i have a decent instructions and pics. every install is different when it omes down to water/meth. as each requirment is tailored for the induvidual and he must addapt the install the way he wants to. there is no one correct way.

as of writing this. the system is 95% installed with basic setup/testing purging done. no road testing as of yet because the hfs ecu has been sent to richard for a mapping cycle best suited for my car. so when thats back in a few days.. road testing galore!!! cant wait!!!! :D
install.....

[shams1924]

CLICK PICS TO ENLARGE

113
take out the battery and surround shround(tricky)

114
i installed the pump underneath the car chassis.
reasons. 1. hidden away.
2.the pump should be on a lower level than the tank.
3. there is alot of unsed space next to the back box. also ive got a m7 diffuser which covers in completely. you will still need to water proof it.
4.it sits directly under the tank. easy access for wiring and plumbing.
5. the plumbing to the front of the car is simplified because of the direction it is facing

115
you should wrap all wiring that is loose or in bundles like so. but dont start wrapping first without planning ahead of where the wiring goes first and the approximate lenghts you need. check and double check first.

[shams1924]

116
UNDO THE CARPET TRIM IN THE BOOT. hard and real fiddly. you can see a small self tapping screw from the pump sticking through. only a tiny bit. but dont worry. in that area. there is a polysyrene foam under the carpet. so no harm done whatsover

117
then drill a hole in the corner. so your wiring and pipe will come through. adjusted to the location of the pump.

118
get a rubber gommet and insert it. ahhh blood.

119
make a hole in the gommet for the plumbing. i cut the plug wire in half. so i didnt have to make a big hole. i then attached the plug wire back up with some quick release connectors, so i can disconnect anytime in future.

120
pump with plumbing into car

[shams1924]

121
now sort the main bunch of wiring from the pump to the engine. wrap em up

122
install like so. ground to chassis. cable tie. ready for wrapping later

123
this is the direction they need to go. past the suspension and above the sub frame. there is a gap on the side. make sure you ie them with a clip to the chassis along the way.

124
from under the car. look. along the petrol tank.

125
then over around the tank towards the middle of the car. and finally running parralel with the fuel lines

[shams1924]

126
wrapped and tied down nicely to the chassis with clips along the route

127
then up into the engine bay. with a slighlty different route to the fuel lines. cable tie them to the lines. head towards the engine ecu and battery area. tucking nicely behind everyhing as you go along

128
pump and wires being water proofed

129
FAV assembly. it is a dry cool location. easy. put to small self tapping screws into the firewall and they stick like glue.

130
wired up

[shams1924]

131
a longer shot

132
now read wiring diagram.
connect map sensor to pin 40 wire not 31 as on instructions. me and richard verified this.

133
the mini ecu wiring opened.

134
i tapped into them like so. with these plugs

135
almost done. highlighted are each connection point

[shams1924]

136
take of the fuse box. screws highlighted. its for bringing the wiring up and around it

137
make hole for the wire plugs. near the battery firewall.

138
like so

139
route of the wire into car

140
into the car

[shams1924]

144
now you need to locate your jet on the intercooler piping. with reasearch and speaking to richard and roger. location 3 is the best. just after the intercooler at the bottom of the piping. you want the mist to cool and mix with the air as it hits the air sensor. the engine will read it and give more timing and power. great misconception is that you need to fool the ecu. not so. you want to give the ecu a reading that it likes. so it will adjust for you. specially the mini r56.

141
we want to take off the long rigid pipe.
now you need to undo these bolts highlighted. and the headlamp. and the bonnet catch.

142

143

145
1/8 npt hole and seal with loctite 243. it is suitable for this nylon type plastic after speaking to a loctite technical department.
test the hole in a different plastic before attempting htis. you have only one chance.

[shams1924]

146

147
location of the jet

148
routed where the red line is. behind the piping

149
routed where the red line is. behind the piping. arrow pointing to the piping.

150
update*** pic of the diffuser. the pump is located above and behind it

hope that helps anyone out there.

[Richard L]

Very nice! Just one question, are you going to water proofing the pump? As is the pump is not going to live through a wet/rainy week.

I could be mistaken, is the pump inside the car?

[shams1924]

yes. under the car. but above the rear diffuser.
i have added water proofing measures.
i will further add a proper water tight seal around the wiring and pump.
dont worry , the car is not on the road yet!

is that ok richard?

[shams1924]

here is the new FAV richard sent me. more suited to he mini for a straighter more faster response.
151

water tank installed in the boot of the car. with the custom aquamist vinyl stickers. with 55% METH and 45% distilled water. = 50/50 mix
152

here is tghe main aquamist ecu.
153

[shams1924]

after many weeks of research and gathering the small parts for the job. IT WAS DONE!!!

thanks to richard and roger for the help.

i finally fired up the car. to check if the sysytem was installed right. after a small hic up in forgetting to solder a link on the board. the system was installed perfectly. witrh richard on the phone. we went through all stages to see if all was fine. and yes. he was very impressed with the install. all went well. not bad for a beginner.
just had todo the tedious task of fine tuning it for my requirements.
after many questions to richard.
i went out with the car. the nozzle on the windscreen. and i adjusted the triggers and fail safe options quite rigurously. and after a day or two of that.
i was ready to inject the good stuff into the intake.......:D:D:D

[shams1924]

ok. major read here. must read.

ok. here it is. after all this time. i am finally going to give it a road test.
so this is the main part. whats it like on the road? was it worth it? money well spent?
these are the questions that all may be asking......
with 45% to a 55% meth mixture. equals 50/50.
***update*** the following findings are from 3 days of testing in 5 test sessions.

1st session> went out nervously. in great anticipation. and after a mile or so. looking at the guage. the system was triggering just fine. i didnt notice anything at first. and i continued to set the gain and thres points whilst going over everything. step by step and a slow process. but i was in no rush. no power or gains noticed.

2nd session> so the system was set up almost perfectly. and on with the test. i started to gradually give it some juice.:) some weird and loud pops and bangs from the exhaust :). nice. for all those that know. the jcw has got a habit of that. but it seemed like the gates of hell opened up a little more.
normally the pops and burbles would go on or about 1 sec after you lift off the throttle. but now it goes on for about 2 secs. double than before. its like theres extra gasoline or mixture that keeps burning for a little longer.

but i didnt really notice any power gains as such.
so i devised a little plan to see if this was all a placebo. so what i did was put the guage hidden away from my view. where i cannot see if it is on or off. i told my brother to either turn it off or on. with out me knowing. and i would have to guess by just driving the car.

so we did that. off i went. i noticed some wheel spin and the power was great and kept building. impressed :D.
i took the guage from him and told him that the water meth is working.
to my suprise. IT WAS OFF! :eek:
I SLOWED DOWN AND THOUGHT DEEPLY.
got todo that again. so we did it again.
this time i noticed less power slightly and a slower top end power.
so i told him to switch it to the other setting. and within seconds. i said yes. this last setting is definitely more power. he showed me that the last setting was water meth off. i was looking very puzzled and confused.
i told him todo it one last time. first go i felt the power. and he switched, and a noticable decrease in power and a hesitation on the second run. he showed me and the first one was off, and the second slower run was water meth on!!!!

we ended the day with me quite dissapointed but more intrigued. what was going on???

3rd session> the nextday i tested again.
now i noticed a loud drone with the meth on. at 4-5000rpm. like a back fire pop and drone. a bit like firing an automatic rifle magazine but with the drone sound. and also noticed more hesitaion on accelaraion. and then later on with decelaration.
then i turned it off. and everything went back to normal. what is going on???:sad:
kept trying it on. same thing as above. hesitation and ocassional drone.
turned it off and all fine.

4th session> armed with a diagnostics machine. i looked for live data feed of the engine parameters. and found the IAT. intake air temp.
so with a live road test and a handy graph on the odb2 machine. i went out with my brother. at rolling start. 5mph. IAT temp was at 15`c. with water meth off. so i floored it in 1st upto 6000rpm. 2nd 6000rpm and 3rd ot 6000rpm. wow. that was cool! anyway. the temp climbed pretty fast to 30-31`c
so i went round again. same spot. same road. this time with water meth on. 5mph rolling with the temp at 17`c. slightly higher than before.
ok. so i floored it in 1st upto 6000rpm. 2nd 6000rpm and 3rd ot 6000rpm.
temp went upto to 25`c. there was slight power loss and hesitaion whilst i got there.
but not suprisingly. the water meth was working. it was actually and quite clearly doing its job! cooling the IAT

wow! what a day. some good findings here. but what the f$%* is going on.
its like the car dont like the cooler air/water. the ecu is reading cooler but its not adjusting accordingly. well, it is adjusting, but negatively.
as far as my knowledge is concerned. im finished. need the expert advice of roger or richard. or any one else with the knowledge.

to be continued........

[Howerton Engineering]

What size jet are you running?

Does the car run less boost with the system on and spraying?

[Richard L]

It sounds like the engine is having problem firing the mixture. The 1 to 2 secomd run on is evident the mixture continued to burn down the exhaust pipe.

I am not knowledgeable with Minis but all Minis I have encountered uses 100% methanol. The next logical step is try running 100% methanol. Perhaps a smaller jet with 50:50.

Just to recap, what is the fuel injector size?

[zakshaker]

have you checked A/F ratio ?

[shams1924]

What size jet are you running?

Does the car run less boost with the system on and spraying?

running 0.8mm jet. with no restrictor. i think its too much flow. even tho richard lashed the ecu for a smaller flow. roger suggested like a 0.5mm jet.

i will check if its running less boost.
update*** just went out with the 0.5mm restrictor. no flow on the bar graph. turned the SC on the guage and still no flow. i will now check the next size restrictor. 0.7mm.

have you checked A/F ratio ?

ill try to do that. do most decent odb2 machines have the feature to check that?

It sounds like the engine is having problem firing the mixture. The 1 to 2 secomd run on is evident the mixture continued to burn down the exhaust pipe.

I am not knowledgeable with Minis but all Minis I have encountered uses 100% methanol. The next logical step is try running 100% methanol. Perhaps a smaller jet with 50:50.

Just to recap, what is the fuel injector size?
i think the fuel injector size is around 400cc/min


***update***
thanks to all who have helped above. i will try those suggestions now. and hopefully we can get to the bottom of this.

@Howerton Engineering
did you have similar experiences to what i noticed when you tune the minis r56?

[Howerton Engineering]

I think the .8mm will be a bit too much when running 50/50. You can try 100% methanol with that jetting and it my work depending on the tune and peak boost you are running.

You may need to drop a couple of jet sizes for 50/50, just my guess without more data on the car.

[Richard L]

Water/methanol injection does not make power by itself. I am listing out three typical forced induction applications (sensible AFR):

1. Untuned:- Do not inject over 10-15% water/fuel ratio.
- It will help recovering power loss due to huigh ambient of poor fuel octane.

2. Mildly tuned with a few psi of boost increase:
- Inject 15%+ water/fuel ratio

3. Highly tuined with tens of psi boost increase:
- Inject 20%+ water/fuel ratio

When adding methanol to the mix, injection quantity has to be increased by greater 20-50% extra.

Over injection will result in power loss especially with boost increase or tuned. Once tuned, failsafe implementation is essential.


Shams1924...
I like to confirm howerton's comment, either run a small jet or go for 100% methanol ro avoid blowning out the sparks.

Assuming the mini uses 400cc/min fuel injectors. 15-20% of fuel is 240-320cc/min. At present, you are injecting over 450cc/min with a 0.8mm jet. The size is too big for an untuned engine. The reason for your power loss.

[shams1924]

Water/methanol injection does not make power by itself. I am listing out three typical forced induction applications (sensible AFR):

1. Untuned:- Do not inject over 10-15% water/fuel ratio.
- It will help recovering power loss due to huigh ambient of poor fuel octane.

2. Mildly tuned with a few psi of boost increase:
- Inject 15%+ water/fuel ratio

3. Highly tuined with tens of psi boost increase:
- Inject 20%+ water/fuel ratio

When adding methanol to the mix, injection quantity has to be increased by greater 20-50% extra.

Over injection will result in power loss especially with boost increase or tuned. Once tuned, failsafe implementation is essential.


Shams1924...
I like to confirm howerton's comment, either run a small jet or go for 100% methanol ro avoid blowning out the sparks.

Assuming the mini uses 400cc/min fuel injectors. 15-20% of fuel is 240-320cc/min. At present, you are injecting over 450cc/min with a 0.8mm jet. The size is too big for an untuned engine. The reason for your power loss.

thanks richard and howerton
ok. as 0.8mm was the smallest size. i took the next steps with that still installed.
i lowered the flow as follows.
i inserted the 0.5mm restrictor into the FAV. road tested. no flow. i turned up the SC on the guage. still no flow.
i done repeated the above steps again with the 0.7mm restrictor. again. no flow.
then i tried the 0.9mm restrictor. yet again. no flow recorded.
richard was spot on. together with the newer FAV and the new map on the hfs3 ecu. the flow was already reduced to match the mini.

so as suggested by the most people. i drained the tank and ran 100% meth.
results. car seems to like it much better than the 50/50 mix. still abit of after urn in the exhaust. but i dont feel any power loss. maybe a bit of power gain.:) initial testing looks to have gone some way to sort out this problem.
will test again tommorow. but i think i may need a smaller nozzle.
shall i send you my original FAV and the unused 0.9mm and 1.0mm nozzles back richard. so i can get a few smaller nozzles?

[Richard L]

It is strange that you get no flow at all on all the restrictors. I will send you a smaller jet to try. Please send the FAV assembly and bigger nozzle back to me and I change them.

Richard

[shams1924]

ok done that richard

update. the car seems to be liking 100% meth. i think its burning better.
not sure sure if its increased power.
also. when ive got the meth off. it seems the car is running better now. like restored power has come back abit. maybe this could be down to the cleaning the water/meth may do to the internals. (if someone can elaborate on that from experience.)

its not 100% there yet. but its on the right tracks now.
i may try 75 meth 25 water later on. and tweeking of the flow gains and THRES.
but in the mean time. richard has sent me 2 smaller jets. 0.6mm and 0.7mm.
ill try them soon and see how it goes.
after this weekend. expect no updates for 6 weeks as im away on a long vacation.

[softic]

shams1924, how is your project now? any updates?
I am going to do similar installation on the same engine (EP6DTS) just couple weeks later.

[softic]

I like to confirm howerton's comment, either run a small jet or go for 100% methanol ro avoid blowning out the sparks.

Assuming the mini uses 400cc/min fuel injectors. 15-20% of fuel is 240-320cc/min. At present, you are injecting over 450cc/min with a 0.8mm jet. The size is too big for an untuned engine. The reason for your power loss.
Richard,

Do I get it right that for 400cc/min injectors and 1.4 Bar boost I will need 0.5mm nozzle? (I have the same engine in my car)
Or placing 0.5mm restrictor is okay?

Thanks!

[softic]

Well, I have tried installation of all three restrictors and there was NO flow with ANY of them (((
And this was regardless of FAV - even with FAV detached there was 0.001% of water coming out of restrictor.

Richard, is it anyhow possible to determine why this happens? I remember than shams1924 also have had such issue and could not resolve it at all...
If still restrictors do not help - is there any was to change my big injectors (1.0 and 0.9 mm) to the smaller size (0.5 or 0.6 mm)?

[Richard L]

Are you saying you have no gauge bar display or no water flow pass the jet?


sofric, good point and well picked out...

Shams problem was due to the controller's flow table mos-matching the actual flow (too low for the display even with the SC at fully clockwised). Since then, he has sent the controller to us and got it eflashed.

The HFS (High Flow System) is designed with two nozzles operation in mind. For low flow application as in low-boost/small engines, the flow table of the controller needs to be reflashed. Jeff at Howerton Engineering in the US and us in UK, who will gladly do as a free service if you pay the return postage. unfortunately we don't have another dealer outside this

[softic]

Richard, there is no flow at all - even with FAV detached and using SYS jumper to start pump on full load.
I have just started fine-tuning of my car's ECU, so don't want to send the package back - just really very curious on why restrictors do not work at all?

If needed I can make some video of failure with restrictors...

[Richard L]

The restrictor is just a simple tube with a fixe-sized hole drilled.

Can you see through the hole, if you can't it is blocked. Send me a picture of the install of your restrictor. I have seen one time in the past people put it in the wrong side of the inlet fitting. Here is a diagram how it should be placed:

http://www.aquamist.co.uk/HFS3/restrictor2.gif


Question: can you tell me the numbers on the small label on the left side of the circuit board. This will tell me the flow table flashed into your controller.

[shams1924]

shams1924, how is your project now? any updates?
I am going to do similar installation on the same engine (EP6DTS) just couple weeks later.

very sorry. just seen the thread now afetr a while. install is finished.
i didnt use the full functions of the hfs3 and tune my car to run on meth 24/7
after long considerations, i lef it as it is, as and added protection, and i little speed booster when needed(seems to add 5bhp, i know thats only a bit)
on the jcw, it adds extra pops and bangs on the throttle lift off :-)


Well, I have tried installation of all three restrictors and there was NO flow with ANY of them (((
And this was regardless of FAV - even with FAV detached there was 0.001% of water coming out of restrictor.

Richard, is it anyhow possible to determine why this happens? I remember than shams1924 also have had such issue and could not resolve it at all...
If still restrictors do not help - is there any was to change my big injectors (1.0 and 0.9 mm) to the smaller size (0.5 or 0.6 mm)?

i seems that your issue may be related to the system not activating, has it been setup properly. you should be fine with 0.6/0.7mm nozzles.

oh yeah, i dont think the engine will like lower than 25 distilled water and 75 meth mixture.
most guys in ussa run 00% met.
20 water and 80 meth should be good.
if you add more than 30% water, the car doesnt like it. seems to let of aa loud pop(exhaust)every so often and hesitates abit.

[shams1924]

seems that alot of mini r56 have started ordering the aquamist. good news richard!!!
i think they may have grew in confidence.
im sure this thread will help alot of these owners. are the new hsf4 instructions updated for the r56? like where to tap into the ecu, as the hfs3, there was a wrong pin connection

[Richard L]

Yes, thanks to Jan and Jeff at howerton engineering who worked very hard to develop this platform with aquamist systems.

As far as the HFS-4 is concerned, the user need to add one more connection to the ECU. This connection enables the system to compensate the methanol flow more accurately with fuel delivery.

The installation instruction for the H4 is the same other than the wiring diagram, which is updated with your help some months ago. Thank you.

[shams1924]

just a few pics i had, of the tank and custom bracket i made to hand the gauge


http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh241/shams1924/aquatank.jpg


http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh241/shams1924/aquamistgauge.jpg

[Richard L]

thanks for the pictures. Do you have one taken near dust or with some background lighting.

[miniXavage]

I have just installed the HFS3 with the mini tank (right side).
When the meth kicks in (based on the gauge), there is a loud fluttering sound in the left trunk side of the car.

Anyone knows if thats normal?