Not really, but everyone on here sure seems to act like it, especially after the hundredth post I come across stating what a great deal someone got for their $800 rebuild........it's 3 gears, a couple seals, two rotors, and some plastic couplers.??!!! You can get a block swathed out for almost that. Guys we can't be so gullible to these shops and vendors, I'm so sick of the mini aftermarket looking like a snake oil show.
This all stemmed from the fact that my SC is on the workbench because a certain legend of the racing world was nice enough to give me his process and measurements for his S/C port, and before all you naysayers chime in about how you can't get power from a ported S/C, well then you don't spend any time outside the Mini world. The strip guys have been porting chargers for year and pulling gains, and if it's done properly, especially with honing the casing and raising the roof to allow more air and reduce friction, it allows you to run super reduced pulleys, like 24% without any substantial heat build. In fact go to a mustang forum, not only are there countless threads on not only porting it, but how to do it yourself.
To be fair it's not this communities fault, and I by no means claim to be a master mechanic, but I am very studious by nature, and for whatever reason a huge portion of them came out of thin air with no performance resume to speak of. This is a big reason the Mini world is littered with failed experiments, it seems there was just a lot of ego battles with the guys, and no one ever networked or reached out for consultation from established veterans of performance R&D, which is why you always hear the ported S/C didn't work........your right, those initial Cooper made ones didn't, because they were machined so unbelievably wrong that I don't even no where to begin, which is pretty inexcusable when people had been doing it for decades and no one bothered to ask their permission. Yet, we keep falling for these vendors rhetoric. Which brings me to my point. As I said, I'm getting ready to do a proper port on my SC, again not an expert, just smart enough to know that I'm not one and to ask someone who is, and figured while I was at it and my car was near 100k to go ahead and do the rebuild. Well that's where the spiral into paranoia began. I searched through every mini thread to find some proper instruction on tear down, build up, and timing adjustment, but it seemed the general consensus was, that a rebuild should only be done by an expert machine shop????? What? We all tear apart our engines but tip toe around the S/C and it's 6 moving parts? So I go over to the mustang forum and every 18 year old and their brother has a SC rebuild tutorial, while we all treat the thing like an atomic bomb. However, as many tutorials existed for the m62 and m90, they failed to address our freakish growth known as the PTO, which is driven by the rotors so they don't just slide out like all the other SC's, and while I could just start randomly assaulting it, my near ten years of being a helicopter/jet mechanic has made me terminally ocd with my work. In aviation you use a pub no matter how many times you've done it. Well after failing to find out info here, I contacted a couple of the rebuild shops asking where I could access pubs, to which they told me only an expert could do it, I said well I'm a help mech, to which one of the shops replied "you may be but you don't realize how complex a SC is.....WTF! Seriously! Not to brag, but have you seen a tuboshaft GE-419 jet engine taken apart, and somehow with a straight face tell me that the 3 gear SC is to complex? However, as baffling as that was I can't help but feel it's our fault, for whatever reason we seem prone to mob mentality, and running on hearsay, which is why we're not taken very seriously in the tuner world. I get tired of being called an idiot by a certain group of people because I didn't use a 30k worth of a certain brand (which I'll leave nameless) and put it on my 6k car???what kind of sense does that make? I can take 3k and get 450 out of a k series vtec. It's not a ferrari, it's a 4 cylinder chrysler block, if we don't get these price points down, the mini will totally fail to become a big tuner now that their cheap enough for young people to buy.So please let's stop being lemmings and riding band wagons, and if someone has a pub on the SC lemme know. Also, if I get this right, I'll be sure to actually get a dyne run, and will more than happy to help anyone out who's interested, and it won't cost $800

 

Over the years, many things were tried, the oldest first gen is 13 years old after all. I haven't followed the Mini world since the beggining, but we've seen turbo, twincharged and various other things. Some weren't sucessful, some were discontinued due to the lack of support or pricing, I'm sure s/c porting is up there somewhere. I'm no expert either, but I'm sure ported s/c would be a massive thing if gains were so incredible. You're throwing that 24% pulley thingy like it's almost nothing, yet a 19% will create quite a bit of heat. I'm no specialist in fluid dynamic, but I have doubts about what you are stating when it comes to adding a bit more space inside the casing and creating less heat.

Pub? As in what? If you're asking questions about how to rebuild/port a s/c or something similar to a shop doing them, you're kinda digging in their wallet and some of them might not like it.

It seems like you care a bit too much about what people think about Mini owners. The so called tuner scene is basically composed of ignorant idiots. You either get decent people or complete morons, rarely anything in between. I own a Mini because I enjoy the whole package of handling and decent power from factory, I don't care one bit about others opinion when it comes to my choice of cars.

I'll leave this here about the "tuner" scene:

 

I agree totally emini, there are ways around just buying parts. Rebuilding my own is always what I look into first,and for inspiration I look at how the Cubans have kept their old vehicles running for decades with no new parts at all. This is not what a parts salesman wants to hear but service and parts should support each other,not leech off each other. my 2 cents

 

One thing lost in the discussion...
Much beyond a 15% pulley, and the water pump cavitates, and STOPS PUMPING AT REDLINE...
So it is OK for short bursts...the block is cast iron, and can hold/store lots of heat....but go to a massive reduction, and even with a custom tune and more fuel, you will need an water pump solution...most likely an electric one....
Yes...its been discussed...nobody ever said don't port and polish a m45...
Stigimers who does lots of mustang superchargers does them on mini's.....

 

I thought kavs made 23% reduction pulleys? and you can push a charger as much as you want including the m45. like zippy said it drives the water pump, you can only spin the water pump impeller so fast before it creates voids in the fluid. then spins faster then doesn't move any fluid at all. now if you had a redesigned water pump, or a stand alone water pump, push that charger till the lobes fall off....


creating more boost will always create more heat, its just physics. and heat is always the enemy. with water/meth, a 23-24% pulley, and stand alone water pump, I see absolutely no problem. even with the stock intercooler. then upgrade to a2w intercooler, and put some guud stuff in there, still don't see a problem, and run even smaller pulley.


I would also port and polish the SC horns, or actually run tubing instead of that geometry.


I wouldn't say that we have maxed out our superchargers, we've maxed out our water pumps.

 

True, like I said I'm willing to experiment, that's why I'm trying on a spare charger, but an electric pump is part of the plan. Not sure if I want to try the Davies or if there's a way to retrofit the R56s pump

 

They sell a replacement one for the Sprintex kit, not sure if all required hardware comes with the electrical pump replacement tho. Since Sprintex owners are having problem with a bunch of things, but the pump, it might be a good option.

 

The advantage of keeping the m45 is keeping the factory water pump...
Once you switch to electric, why even keep the m45?!...and for a daily driver frankly, I would not, they DO FAIL much more often.....the pump sitting in the hot engine bay...they cook...heck ravenmocker, if I recall, had a DOA one when he bought one...similar ideas...
If you are serious, I might suggest checking to see if you can change the gear on the water pump drive...that would slow it down, and be fine with the bigger sc reduction...
Should be a simple job if one is going to take apart the sc....just a gear puller and a couple of seals...heck will already be apart!!

 

I have thought about the gear change as well, but what I'm really curios to see is 1. if the r56 pump will work since they're much cheaper to get a hold of.
2. if the PTO side of the casing can be removed altogether and replaced with one om the non cooper M45 plates, like from the mercedes. If it'll fit, that'd mean that that the PTO leak seal is no longer a problem, and there would be no parasitic drag on the rotors because they wouldn't be driving any gears, which might be a small amount of found hp for the motor. I've found a cadaver m45that needs a rebuild, so I'm gonna do the rebuild along with the port plans that larry from Endyne was nice enough to share, I've decided to try either the 19% or 20%pulley from KAV, and have found that the M45 from the SLK is pretty sheep second hand, so I'd like to eliminate the PTO assembly entirely. In addition I'm doing a dry film coat on the casing interior to eliminate friction, and coating the outside with a thermal dissipant coating to aid in shedding heat, plus a ceramic coat on the engine facing side to block heat. It'll be a lot of hunting, but I enjoy trying to do things people tell me I can't, that tenacity has carried me a long way in life. After this venture my next project is to build a variable geometry turbo conversion kit for the R53, I can't figure out for the life of me why that has been overlooked, but if you look at the tritecs power band, a VGT would be incredible, plus as a former jet engine mech, I'm fascinated by them since they're modeled from a jets 1st stage compression section. Look them up, they're so cool, Plus I can find the Garrett VNT dirt cheap, all it would need is a adapter plate for the manifold, piping to the intercooler intake, and swap the BPV for a blow off, I'm sure theres much more to figure out, and I'm no turbo expert, but if anyone wants to interject I'm open to suggestions, but a VGT would not only add low end TQ since they are nearly lawless due to their variable guide vanes, build power up top like a rotrex, and would eliminate the near 30hp loss of parasitic drag from the Eaton. I'm definitely gonna try, but I gotta finish my SC experiment first.

 

I am pretty sure port & polish has been done and was some what not very cost effective option, thus not many people even talk about it nowadays. (I believe original M7 promoted but that didn't fair so well..)

Anyhow, turbo conversion has been done for many years. One thing that keeps people from jumping right on to conversion = cost.

Its not like mini has a gigantic engine bay where u can stuff things in like b16 civics/tegs/etc... thats where mass production of 'kits' are pretty limited. Sure, go full blown custom if u have the needed skills but there is ecu tuning that is beyond physical fabrication of materials. That takes time, and yes, more $$.

If you want a fast car with a budget which includes used-r53 price into consideration, mini is NOT the car you want.

 

Expensive HP, yeah we're on the same page there. I just enjoy the handling and response, it's fun. If I really wanna go fast I have my Ducati for that. I just do it because I like challenges, and though I'm no longer a mech by trade, I'll always love doing it. Nothing gets me more motivated than being told I can't. I love thinking outside the box and innovation, it's just exciting to see custom builds, and I'd like to see more of it. After all, when I was growing up that was what tuning was all about.

 

My suggestion...
Save up your $$, and buy a standalone engine computer....you will need to do tons of tuning, and If You go to a turbo, you 100% need one.....
Should make everything simpler... While there ARE tuning solutions for the r53, the straight turbo option never worked with the ecu...it runs unbootsted at idle, unlike a turbo, so is dramiticlly different...
And tuning is very different too..so find someone who understands tuning cars, get a widband o2 sensor, and have fun...as a pilot, I have spent tons of time around shops and mechanics....
One reality point is...once you get to 250+ HP...and most of the drivetrain has been swapped out, and you have bragging rites (you can do 250+ with stock parts, a header, meth, and a tune safely) you will find the issue is putting DOWN the HP....no awd here...so it becomes just a number...
A mini is all about handling. And the ability to have a decent amount of speed on a budget...
With you plans, I see $20,000 in parts...maybe $10k if you scrounge, and don't mind having a garage queen that pops CV joints on every pull....
I love a one of a kind mini....but reality and sanity kicks in...
Stegiminer will port a m45 for about $200...so folks do it...much more and you start going down a rabit hole of "might as well".... So much more limiting you...than a SC and boost...
You need a BVH, header, etc to flow more volume and get of the restrictions IMO BEFORE you go crazy trying to SHOVE MORE AIR IN.....