Anyone who's been in the mini community for any amount of time has probably noticed that there are quite a few ideas and stories that have come up regarding certain mods and what they will or will not do to your car. So i say let's blow the myths and stories out of the water and clear the air once and for all as to what mods work, what mods hurt, and to destroy any ideas that just aren't true.

Also let's try and keep our comments to actual experience and not base our posts on what we've heard, as it seems that that's how these crazy myths have developed in the first place.

Please post things you've heard and things you're not sure of and also to end myths based on experience.

For example i've heard you'll have problems with your engine if you get lightened or oversized cranks pulleys, bad things happen when you put anything over a 15% reduction on your supercharger, the plasma booster works, etc...

 

I don't think this thread is going to last very long....there are just WAY to many variables to take into account, including the car itself.

-Cody

 

I'd love to find out about the light weight crank pulley. I have one ready to put on but then i started hearing things about vibration issues.

 

Yea, but let's have fun with it!
As for a pulley, I have a 16% with no issues at all and I know many with 19%, also with no issues. Like it has been said, things can always go wrong and break, just because you get a 19%, doesn't automatically mean that you will break something. Like said before, many other variables exist.

 

Palo Uber is a real person -- and a world famous artist . . . BUSTED.

I have personaly experienced not meeting him.

 

wow, ive never met him either

 

 

use the search function. Read about motor's and motor design in a few books... make your own conclusions. Too many fanboi's and keyboard experts here to get any sort of answers that have not been hashed out long before.

 

+1. It's a whole hell of a lot of grey area and risk assessment. Very little is firm and 100% definite on many topics.

- Matt

 

The only myth I've ever seen satisfactorily debunked was the 14% supercharger pulley on JCW cars. I think in actuality it's 10%.

mb

 

i don't wanna search this stuff out, there is just too much of it in too many places. Thats why i started this thread so we could have one place to go to make our own decisions after hearing from first hand experiences. Lets get all the opinions and discussions down in one place so we don't have to search through thousands of threads to find stuff out

 

you're right it's better to just not do research and just look at one thread and mod away. good luck.

 

i'm glad you're feelin' me on this one dawg

 

british RACING green,
Not to be mean or disrepectful to anyone, but I believe minimusprime is being sarcastic! (Correct me if I'm wrong minimusprime).

IMHO you gotta do your own grunt work on research. I am not mechanically inclined, but I bought the Bentley MINI Service Manual to help me understand the MINI and how the Mods (mechanical/electronic/aesthetic/etc.) I want to do will affect it. Furthermore, if you do find an answer/opinion in a single thread, how can you be sure another person with a better solution/answer ever chimed in?

I have searched about 10 threads regarding mounting options for my iPhone, and I still have not found one I liked. But the people that have posted swear by their choices, and that's fine. At least, through this process, I have deduced which mounts I won't use!

Please don't take this as attack, just some friendly advice.

 

Here's one.

Replacing your plugs with non-OEM plugs will not necessarily lead to the #2 plug becoming loose and ejecting itself from the head taking the threads with it. Denso. OEM. NGK. All the same.

But if the plugs (any plugs) are installed incorrectly without proper torque, anti-seize, reinstalling without new washers, installing in hot or even warm heads and not putting dielectric grease in the boot then your chances of plug ejection increases no matter what plug you choose to install.

Rich

 

Tru Joy,
Not to be mean or disrespectful to anyone, but i believe british RACING green was also being sarcastic LOL
I'm just having fun!

 

Rich, thank you for your post

 

I thought there was a bit there , but decided not to comment on it...oh well! No hard feelings. I stand by my previous post, but also hope you get what you want out of this thread.

 

True Joy, thank you and i think you should be acknowledged for the kind and straight forward manner with which you used to break the news to me though, good job, honestly.

 

Here's the ones I like:

- The car doesn't need any servicing until 30,000 miles.
- Oil changes can go 10-15,000 miles.
- No air filters necessary until 45,000 miles.

None of them are true. Annoys the heck out of me when people mouth off about "proper servicing" according to the factory. I use Valvoline 5-30 synthetic every time I change oil. Does it last to 10k? No. It's filthy by 6k.

That post about the sparkplug blowing out is interesting. I've heard of it, but haven't seen it yet.

 

synthetic will go 10k without a change without much adverse affects... I don't run mine that long... but the oil i had analyzed that came out of my car at 6k could have gone a lot longer without a change... at least that's what the lab told me.

this thread is already full of keyboard engineers spouting off assumptions. it will prob get better from here.

 

I want to play. I did research a long while back and saw where it was said that it would be about 300-500 bucks to get a pulley installed. It kept me from getting a pulley for a while.(saving funds) After getting the pulley, the first place I spoke with quoted me for $150. Sure some people may have paid that much, but IMHO, they way overpaid.

 

Can someone clarify this with real life examples: I've heard of 17% and 19% supercharger pullies being ineffective of producing extra power due to the fact that they increase heat in the engine to a point where the extra power that's made is basically lost due to the high temps?

 

if you read the pully application suggestions on some of the companys that sell them, they will recomend a 19% pully to be used street use only and not for race, because of the long term hi RPM usage the car will go through in a race situation. which is not the case for the others

 

i saw a few dyno charts a while back from a 15 and a 17% pulley, the 17 did provide more power but it wasnt a huge amount... <2whp. If what you heard is true, then a 15% should make less HP than a factory pulley due to the heat increase. If there is an increase in temperature, it wont be enough to offset the percentage of reduction that your seeing. I cant remember the thread that had the comparison dynos though.