I've been looking into pulleys and I just wanted to know what the % mean. Does a 15% create more hp than a 19%? Or is it the other way around? And when you install the pulleys do you need other things like sparkplugs also? Whats a good brand of pulleys? I want to go Dinan but the $1k is a bit much for me and I don't know what % it is. They just tell me its 15 psi so I'm not sure if thats a 15% or something else.

Thanks in advance

 

__% means it is a certain percent smaller than the original pulley. 15% smaller for example.
15% pulley works fine on it's own. Adding a fresh air intake and better flowing exhaust will help also.
Pulleys smaller than 15% will have additional needs and cautions.
Search the forum, there's a lot of info on this subject out there.

 

Far as i can tell, if you stick with the 15% you are fine with just the pulley. Some people (and suppliers) suggest you switch to a cooler level sparkplug when you switch to the 15% but from what i can tell you really dont have to.

Really the biggest decision is going to be whose pulley you buy. Their are quite a few.

 

the smaller the pulley, the faster the supercharger spins (and the faster you make power)

a 15% smaller pulley has a surprising effect on the MINI. it's almost like a different auto. it is also very helpful when running the air conditioner. before i had mine, the auto was sluggish to pull off from dead stop with the air conditioner on. Now it is not and the roll on throttle when at speed is very good with the air conditioner on. with the air conditioner off and a 15% pulley the auto is fun. as stated above, you get more benefit from it by using a larger air intake. a larger intake can be a non-stock box or simply a filter without box

 

a lot of people stick with the 15%
(im going with the 15% myself.)
trying to either buy a used mini-madness one or just a new one.

 

I just read a whole thread on the some Dinan products, so I'm going to try to save up some money to get it.

 

#1

 

 

I like the design of the Dinan cold air intake. It had good reviews and it draws cold air through the cowl vent, rather than pulling in air under the bonnet. Plus, dinan makes nice stuff.

 

There's no sense on wasting that much money on Dinan.....stick with M7, Alta, Helix, Webb and you'll be fine. I'm running an M7 16% with the stock OEM belt and have had NO prolems...stock plugs as well.

-Cody

 

You can mix & match - not an issue. I ran the Dinan CAI along with a Craven pulley and Alta hose and one-ball exhaust and MTH tuner file and NGK plugs - works great...

While I really liked the design, look, and sound of the Dinan CAI, my car has a teakettle-like throttle whistle that, while unrelated to the CAI, is audible through the CAI but not so much through the stock airbox config... I ended up switching to the JCW intake and love it. Not as much supercharger sound - but gets plenty of air, sounds more refined at all RPMs, and looks good (to me).

But if you have no throttle whistle - or it doesn't bother you - then I endorse the Dinan CAI - good stuff.

 

 

I have the Dinan CAI and have no throttle whistle, although some do.

The Dinan packages are too expensive, you can do better elsewhere.

 

The Alta also pulls from the cowl vent and also the regular air intake on the front of the car. Not sure about the Dinan, but I bet they still pull from the the front also.

 

The MCS should have came with 15% reduction pulley as OEM. It is still the best $ / HP mod. with absolute reliability.

 

Yep - the Dinan - like some other CAIs - uses the stock bottom half of the airbox - which is the part the snorkel from the grille connects to... so it feeds through the stock snorkel, the stock grommet into the cowl, and an additional opening into the cowl.

 

Yea I kinda figured, which is still ok, still ambient temp air .

 

Hondas have this problem when running a CAI as well, the fix for them is to turn a manual idle adjusting screw on the TB until the whistle stops (the ECU compensates and re-adjusts the idle electronically to where it should be)

I'm curious if the Mini's have such a screw on their TBs.

 

No screws Louie, all computer controlled.