To someone new to the MINI tuning world, it seems like many folks are still shunning the 19% pulleys. However, everyone who has one raves about it...

I have read many, many posts, studied what randy has to say about it....done my homework, if you will. Granted, if i were going to road race or autocross more than once every two years, I may stick with the 15%. However, looking at a car that will be a 99% street car, I am thinking that the 19% (or even the 17%) might be "the way".

What makes me open this door a little and somewhat question the time frame when randy wrote the Magna 15% Carta on his site is the fact that they are now offering the Webb Warrantee on the car with the 15/2 combo...a total of 17%. I know we get into the amount that the belt has to bend at this point, but is it really an issue? I tend to see a lot of folks with 15% pulleys telling how bad 17% & 19& are....but all the 17 & 19 guys rave. Eric from Helix seems to support the 17 & 19's.....so what is the real deal?!?

Have the smaller pulleys been street tested enough?

Thank you all in advance for your input...

-jac

 

I have had a 19% pulley for a year now, I had it installed at the dealer and I love it.

What you get is added torque. All it does is move the boost down a couple of 100 RPM. I like it best when you take a turn and want the torque to pull you out of the turn. I almost never shift over 5500 RPM.

I am sure there are the "lurkers" here that will give you a hundred reasons why you should have their set-up and not someone elses.

If you get a two part pulley you can change it if you want. One negative, you will get the DSC light to come on and stay on if you get into it during the winter due to "an out of parameters" response from the computer. There are threads here about that. When you restart the car it goes away.

Good Luck

 

Can you explain this further? or link to an explaination...I have never heard this.

 

the map sensor is set for only 18 lbs of boost max as my understanding of it.. if you go overthat due to wheel spin or of the such. it will give you the out of range code. And yes im one of the 19% guys.. which i did start at the 15% then moved up to the 19%. At the high boost area of the charge.. the Pulley will tend to slip using the 19% which causes the heat and failure of the belts. this is the main reason its really not suggested for extended use.

 

Wow. Very important data point here for Fishbulb. This would definitely help you avoid problems with a 19% pulley, but you will also miss all the fun!

 

gotta get in on this

 

joker: found this to right up your alley:
by Author Unknown


The European Union commissioners have announced that agreement has been reached to adopt English as the preferred language for European communications, rather than German, which was the other possibility. As part of negotiations, Her Majesty's government conceded that English spelling had some room for improvement and has accepted a five-year phased plan for what will be known as EuroEngish (Euro for short).

In the first year, "s" will be used instead of the soft "c". Sertainly, sivil servants will reseive this news with joy. Also, the hard "c" will be replased with "k". Not only will this klear up konfusion, but typewriters kan have one less letter.

There will be growing publik enthusiasm in the sekond year, when the troublesome "ph" will be replased by "f". This will make words like "fotograf" 20 per sent shorter.

In the third year, publik akseptanse of the new spelling kan be expekted to reach the stage where more komplikated changes are possible. Governments will enkourage the removal of double letters, which have always been a deterent to akurate speling. Also, al wil agre that the horible mes of silent "e"s in the languag is disgrasful, and they would go.

By the forth year, people wil be reseptiv to steps such as replasing "th" by "z" and "w" by "v". During ze fifz year ze unesesary "o" kan be dropd from vords kontaining "ou" and similar changes vud of kors be aplid to ozer kombinations of leters.

After zis fifz year, ve vil hav a reli sensibl riten styl. Zer vil be no mor trobls or difikultis and evrivum vil find it ezi tu understand ech ozer. Ze drem vil finali kum tru.

 

huh.....imagine that!?!?!?!!? life IS grand

.....so u dont know the author huh?

i guess we will all be forced to adapt

 

was googling ingsoc and found a few Orwellian societies...

 

I have a 19% and have had not problems even in colder weather.

 

So, from what I have learned from all the various MINI forums...

19% Underdrive is not so good because:

a) You don't get enough belt tension to turn the supercharger, so the belt slips, overheats, and breaks (commonly).

b) The supercharger is a simple Eaton style, with a maximum adiabatic efficiency with a 15% pulley on it. AKA a 19% pulley heats the air so much, you don't get any more power out of it...

c) The 19% pulley heats up the supercharger so much, there have been several cases of the ceramic coating in the supercharger flaking off!

d) The supercharger is WAY out of its operating range if you try and redline it

e) The waterpump is connected to the back side of the supercharger (same shaft as the pulley) and some people have had serious overheating issues because the water pump begins to cavitate at high RPMs, reducing coolant flow.


Those are just SOME of the complaints I have heard... personally I opted for a 15% pulley, CAI, Milltek Catback, and a larger intercooler. ALL of these will do nothing but help the engine or are already factory options (the JCW supercharger has a 15.5% pulley on it, so you know its rated for the extra speed).

RM2k5

 

....................this is a real good topic here!! must bump this up ^^

 

The belt heats up on a 19% under prolonged high-rpm use because it has to make such a sharp turn around such a small pulley. This sharp turn is not present on either a 15/2 or 17/2 combo. There are lots of people with 19% who have snapped belts on the track, but only a couple of failed superchargers I've seen posted here. Considering that likely thousands of 19% pullies and hundreds of thousands of miles are out there, it's probably a non-issue for street use. My 19% works great; moved the usable powerband down 1000 rpm yet still pulls hard right to redline.

 

The '04 MCS I bought has been modded with the 19 degree pulley. I must agree, the fun starts at 4000 RPM ! Since I don't race it, I'm no longer concerned about it, thanks to the wise folks of this forum !

 

I thought the JCW pulley was in the range of a 14% reduction. (13.8% is the number that comes to mind.)

 

When I was pulley shopping, the shop carried 15,17 & 19 and they recommend to go with the 15. They stressed that if I planned to autocross to stay away from 19 for it melted the belt. They did say for street the 19 held up okay but still perferred that i purchased a 15.

 

I have had the 19% for a year. My Mini has had >100 autocross runs since then with no belt/supercharger/CEL issues. Granted I got a new belt at install and am runnning JCW injectors and GIAC ecu reprogramming.

My biggest problem is that it's no longer enough power. When my truck sells I'm going TurboKompressor.

 

Lord have mercy there’s a lot of bull being spread around here. Melting belts, no power increases, and cavitation; is there a burning cross somewhere in the background? What we have here is the failure to reason. Some 19% owners have stated the realities but there are those non-users who make the mistakes of using representativeness heuristic and the conjunction fallacy when reporting second hand hearsay thereby perpetuating the fundamental attribution error. Does the taste of bull somehow get better upon regurgitation than when swallowed the first time?

I’ve seen flaking lobe coating on low-mileage stock superchargers, that proves nothing about the stock size pulley any more than the same observation made on a 19% equipped supercharger is somehow indicative of potential damage (haven’t seen one yet). Those that use reason (competition use & limited resources) and have determined the 19% exceeds their comfort level for belt dependability have some evidence to support that decision. As for the street, I haven’t experienced anything but beneficial performance improvements. I also made sure other components in the belt drive system were healthy (replaced or corrected if they weren’t) and I continue to monitor their health as should be done with any belt driven system.

 

As you know from my pm's fishbulb, I am a proponent of the 19%. The power and torque increases are great. I keep an extra belt in the car just in case something bad happens, but I have no evidence that the belt is in any trouble. Worse case scenario, it breaks and I put a new one on. But like I said, I have no evidence that its in any danger on my car. I don't race, etc, I'm all street driving, and the 19% has been a safe upgrade for me. If it weren't safe, Eric wouldn't have installed it.

 

I have had one for 9k and have not had any trouble with belts, overheating, or cavitation. I used a NAPA 539 until last week. The belt was fine except for one fraying area at the edge. And for the record, there was a thread hanging out there before I installed it! I'm using a gatorback now. Noisy, but bulletproof.
I did get a CEL when I modded my BPV, but I put it back to stock w/ VGS & all is good.
I do not run much above 6k. If you run 19% @ redline then you're just looking for trouble.
I simply LOVE the additional torque! Utilising common sense, you should have no trouble running a 19% pulley with a quality belt.

 

hello folks, first timer. why not 15% sc pulley, 4% crank pulley? this would eliminate the heat of using the 19% sc pulley, but give the same ratio. whatcha think?

 

It is a great idea now, especially since there will soon be oversize crank pullies with harmonic balancers: https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...ad.php?t=38616

Only minus is having to buy and install two pullies instead of one, but you could then avoid the preventative maintenance of changing belts every year (recommended with the standard 19%).

 

But the crank reduction pulley would turn everything faster, so accessories like the a/c are running faster, etc. I'd worry about that.

 

If you run a 19% pulley, that is. I take my JCW to the limit regularly and sleep easy.

 

Do the 17% pulleys have the same issues as the 19%? I was thinking of going the 17% direction. Is this a good idea or am I going to experience similar affects of the 19%?

Garrett