Well, I've never actually watched it being done, but I imagine that an experienced person with all the right tools could probably do it in 2 hours or less.

Note - that is wild speculation. I'm sure that others here will have more experienced answers.

 

I'd expect to see a pully quote between 3 and 5 hours as reasonable, the more experianced the shop, would be lower a lower quote anything over 5 would be too much.

 

I will definetely call them up and see what they say. Thanks for the help.

 

I've done three pulley installs at home, and the longest (first time) was about 3.5 hours. The shortest was just under 2 hours, a good chunk of which was removing and replacing the belt tensioner so that I could get my pulley puller (the Alta Pro model) around the pulley.

If I were doing this frequently (like a professional shop), I'd get one of the pullers that doesn't require removal of the tensioner. In that case, I'd expect to be able to do the job in a little over an hour.

 

Thats not too bad for time. did the install procedures come with the pulley or did you find them somewhere else?

 

I used Randy's write-up from this site. If you can't find it, let me know and I'll see if I can track it down. The instructions are pretty complete, but if you have a 2005/2006, there's a part that removes pretty easily that makes getting to the tensioner bolts a LOT easier. It's not mentioned in Randy's writeup because it was originally written for the pre-2005 models, although he has added some notes for the later cars.

I'd also recommend removing the electrical connection from the coil pack. All three times I raised the engine, that was the part that was closest to hitting/binding under the hood.

 

yeah i found his write-up and yes mine is an '05. I might just attempt to do this myself. If there is anyone in the southern maryland area who has done this and might want to give me a hand doing this?

 

Well, if you find yourself in Norfolk with a few hours to spare, I'll help you put it in. I already have the Alta puller and the factory tensioner tool.

If you do it yourself, the piece I was talking about earlier that's not mentioned in the write-up is the large cast-aluminum bracket that attaches to the passenger-side motor mount. It's affixed to the engine with 16mm bolts (three of them, I think). It only takes a few minutes to remove the bracket from the engine, and it gives you a lot more room to get at the rear tensioner bolts.

Oh, and to remove the coil pack electrical connection, slide the red tab toward the passenger side of the car with a small screwdriver, and then squeeze on the top and bottom of the connector as you pull it rearward.

 

I might take you up on that offer. I am going to call around to a few shops and price it out around here before I decide to do it myself or have a shop do it. I will let you know what I decide. I might get to take a road trip to Norfolk! I have not gotten to take a long road trip with my MINI yet and I am looking forward to it.

 

Depends on what your objective is. I wanted the stock look as much as possible so I went with the JCW intake. Seems to flow as well as the others and sounds like stock until you push it.
Choose wisely on the exhaust.. Too loud and you will grow tired of it quickly... but that depends on you. Make sure you don't get one that drones... it wil make you crazy.. I got the Milltek.. sounds deeper and almost stock when you just want to cruise... but it's plenty loud when you get on it...
Go easy on the mods and you will be rewarded with a reliable everyday driver.. that is also very streetable and has that edge...

 

yeah the exhaust, intake, and supercharger pulley are about as far as I am going performance wise. I am going to put the Iridium plugs in and myabe and MSD Coilpack adn Igntion but nothing too major. And I think i am going to go with the Miltek, I liked the way it sounded on the videoclip but I need to hear it in person before I buy it. But on a good note...none I have talked to has anything bad to say about the Miltek exhaust.

 

I've been thinking about similar mods - haven't done anything yet, though I wonder if the money spent on the MSD stuff might be better spent on an overbored Throttle Body and the Detroit tuned bypass valve. I'd like to read some opinions on these items.

 

Really, unless you have some reason to believe that you're not getting complete combustion, you probably don't need to upgrade the ignition system.

Also, most people that have gone with the oversized throttle body and posted about it here haven't noted much of a difference. It might be different if you put in a high-flow cylinder head or something else that really demanded a huge increase in airflow.

I've heard great things about the DT bypass valve in terms of fixing the off-idle "stumble" if it's present, but I don't know how much of a difference you'd notice if you're not experiencing the stumbling or "yo-yo" effect under constant throttle.

 

I agree with you on this, I think its money that can better be spent.


Installing a pulley takes about 2 hours or so. You can have it professionally installed, or meet up with a forum member and tackle it yourselves which is fun. I know I enjoy working on my own car even its nothing more then changing a burnt bulb in the taillight or rewiring my stereo because I messed it up last time I took the headunit out.

As far as throttle bodies are concerned, save your money. On our dyno, it made 1.8whp. Once again, money that can better be spent somewhere else like an ecu, header or injectors.

Milltek makes a great exhaust. I have heard almost all the exhausts available for the MCS, and for me its a tie between the Milltek and the Invidia we are evaluating right now for the best sounding exhaust. I know Eric prefers the Milltek.

 

There are some technical problems I'm helping them resolve with respects to that. It was noticed yesterday morning and I'm doing my best to help get it back up and functional between work and sleep.

 

WOW, What happened??

 

Out Motoring is the place to go and Aaron will help you choose the right products.
You might want to change out your spark plugs with the new pulley and exhaust. Your car will run leaner so you don't need the temperature that the OEM plugs provide. I just swapped mine out with my new milltek and my MINI has never run better.
JCW intake, 15% pulley, Milltek exhaust oh and cooler temp spark plugs.

 

That depends on whether someone is just looking to buy parts, or also wants them installed. OutMotoring is a good vendor... but Lucky Dog Garage provides service AND parts... so if someone (who lives in the DC region anyway) wants to have it all taken care of, LDG would be the better choice. If they want to do a self-install, then yeah, OutMotoring is worth looking at!