OK, here's the deal. I bought a Cooper about three months ago because I loved the options and color, solar red (it was on the lot.) Now that I've had it for a little while I'm finding myself wanting more power so I'm thinking a supercharger would be awesome.

Now, I work with some guys that build race cars and have a lot of experience with custom supercharged setups that are more than willing to help me make this happen.

So, my question... would it be possable to get a MCS supercharger and fit it on my Cooper? I would either not run an intercooler or plumb up a front mount. I can make brackets, tubes and all that stuff custom for the price of the materials.

What all would I need if it's possible?.. supercharger, ECU, belt... mounting brackets? intake manifold?

Any info you can give me would be amazing... thanks everyone.

 

S/C, intake manifold, intake, belt, new tensioner, idler arm would be the most important I would think... You'd need some bracketry, no doubt. Dunno about the ECU - I would think a good tune or piggyback might take care of that part...

IMHO, drop in a FMIC (front mounted intercooler) and plumb it all up...

I'd almost say to go turbo... or, have less headaches by going full boat on the N/A mods like a polished/ported head, cam, CAI, TB, header, cat-back and software...

 

Don't forget the MC parts that aren't likely to take the strain for long - forged engine internals for example, plus the clutch, tranny and half shafts.

 

...don't forget the battery. They ran out of engine bay space with all the supercharger gear in the Cooper S and ended up displacing the spare tire to put the battery in the boot. I thought about adding a turbo but ended up swapping out my '02 MC for an '05 MCS (with LSD). No fuss, no muss.

 

Hm, yeah. I thought they were the same engine.

What goes where the battery is on the MCS?.. how about a good engine bay shot of a MCS?

Thanks for the input everyone... keep it comming.

What about fuel management?

 

dont forget the MC motor is 10.5:1 CR too, thats too high to run the SC.

you will need the MCS head too. (OR bottom end, im not sure where the MC makes the CR at, the head or the Pistons...)

 

Yup, they're the same engine, but the S gets a few alterations to cope with boost, etc.

 

You'd need to ditch your water pump too as that is built in to the supercharger, in all honesty sell the cooper and buy an S, it will save you somer money and headaches.

 

front mounts are no good..
1. too much plumbing = too much psi drop
2. engine moves too much: The mini engine moves a considerable amount and having a solid mounted FMIC just doesn't really work..

The fireball tim has one they had over 5psi drop through it...but thats ok for them cuz they are running like 30psi...if your running a measly 15% pulley you are at wat 16psi?...it would be like putting an alta IC on a stock cooper s...cold air but ~10psi...

 

Here's a small list of what you don't have....


Forged pistons
Forged crank
Forged con rods
High temp valves
High temp valve seats
Aluminum intake manifold (to take high pressure)
High flow fuel injectors
Oil cooler
Large bore Throttle body
High torque gearbox......ETC.

Here's what you could do....

Cosworth ported head
Schrick cam
58mm Throttle body
High flow exhaust
Exhaust header.....Etc

Feel free to call us here at M7 and we can help you out to find
a reachable goal.

peter
team m7
562-608-8123

 

Not exactly true dude.

1. no such thing as too much plumbing, take Ryephiles MINI for example.


There may be not much space, but with smaller diameter plumbing, I believe there is less of a pressure drop.
2. If you PM me, I can point you in the right direction for less engine movement. I have a redesigned and stronger bottom torque link that as does Rye. it works awesome on our Higher than Normal Horspower Vehicles.

 

It was just a matter of time.....

He's right though, get an S if you think this will be easy (or cheaper than trading to an S).

There are a number of us who have put a LOT more $ into our Coopers than it would have cost to just switch to an S, but I for one am doing it anyway because I enjoy a challenge and want to end up with something unique, not because I wish I'd bought an S.

 

If he switches to an S then he looses the looks of the Cooper and the ultra rare SR. I say stay with it, but seriously consider the turbo end of it first, it may provide less of an all around headache. Also I think the real neat part of this is if he shows up to the track and comes along side an S they'll be in for one heack of a suprise in the straights.

 

That's actually my thought as well, I just got the impression from the first post that he thought this might be a relatively simple project. I'm planning to turbo my MC one day as well but I won't start until I'm ready to commit to changing out everything that seems like it might affect durability. I don't like the idea of making a few go-fast changes and then waiting to see what breaks first - much rather take my time and overengineer it.....that's a street sleeper to watch out for.....

 

Rye's is a turbo only MINI, routing that would be easy and pressure stays higher through tubing in turbo cars...pressure starts dropping fast with s/c..also the plumbing setup would be way different...the intake mani piece would be the same, but to build something similair to the s/c side horn would be difficult..

all in all its just not logical...if you want air-to-air: m7 dfic...water-to-air: gintani

 

I didn't say an FMIC would be the most EFFICIENT, but it would be the most STEALTH... assuming he wanted to keep the stock Cooper hood.

FWIW, you can find S longblocks (make sure it's an S longblock), S/C's and everything else on eBay.

Anything's possible given the time and money... the S guys just like to think they're the only ones that can have forced induction. The tranny is purported to be a weak link - and yet, I've seen more fragged S trannies than I have fragged Cooper trannies. A lot of the longevity of your trannny depends on your driving style and the power delivery (as well as nominal hp/torque from the motor).

I do think I'd stay N/A, though...

 

Thats why we are providing him with the info of how to do it, where the pitfalls may be and other forced induction options that would provide and equal if not larger power gain???? And just how many of each tranny have you seen deystroyed and where is it that you see these destroyed trannies MC or MCS?

And he could go water cooled and keep the stock hood. Esp. with custom plubming.

 

Local peoples, personally observed by me...

3 Cooper trannies (same guy's on his 4th Midlands box now, which leads me to believe that's driver-related)... Failure on the Midlands box was the same plastic carrier bearing in each case - depending on when the driver stopped, the damage varied from very mild to full-on detonation. Mods on the car were very mild, IMHO. There's now a metal retrofit fix for this bearing - I still don't know how much of an issue this is, but there are seemingly many people out there that have had their MC trannies replaced.

5 MCS trannies - 4 wasted by dowels pulling out of aftermarket flywheels (agree, this is not Getrag's fault) and one that grenaded in spectacular fashion on a highly modded car (whose internals looked like they went through a grinder).

The point is that neither gearbox is bulletproof... I hear all these stories of gearbox failure, and I've seen some, and how much more "bulletproof" one tranny is versus the other. None of the failures I have seen have seemingly been directly related to hp mods, save maybe the one highly modded MCS failure. The one's I have personally seen are mostly due to faulty aftermarket parts (e.g. the flywheels, which were branded SPEC and yet were leftover Fidanza that were sent out when they merged - dowels backed out and wreaked havoc) or driver error.

 

I had those fantasies too when I was close to beta testing M7's pass at developing a turbo for the MC. As I recall, they discovered that it was to much stress on the engine so they stopped working on it.

Now for the stealth look ..... I've been wondering. Could an MC hood be fitted if a front mount intercooler was used .........

 

Don't see why not, batt should be about the same size as the air box and the IC is what was causing the most difficulty.

BTW I drive an S so no fantasy for me, just high ins. premiuims and car patments and gas recipts.

 

BINGO. I don't think I could live without my Solar Red paint.

Anyways, Thanks for the input everyone. It doesn't look like I'll be doing this... to much hassel. I just wasn't sure how much engine work and all that had to be done.

And, there aren't really any big gain N/A mods are there?

Oh and for the record, I'd actually rather be N/A but I like HP and Torque.

 

Yes... ported/polished head and cam will give the biggest gain... depending on the head you choose, anywhere from 20-25 hp at the wheels I reckon.

 

For the Midlands Cooper 5-speed, you need to decide how to count the cold weather related failures. They're certainly not due to power related stress.

 

Thats why Cryo treating your gears (synchro's) are a good idea.

 

Since the problem was with a seal, I don't see how doing anything to the synchros would help. But I know next to nothing about transmissions.

What would help is not living in Vermont.