Well last night I took off a bunch of stuff the get to the heat shields above the header and they were touching. I moved them apart put the stuff back on and went for a drive. Well at first I thought everything was good to go no noise. I did not go far incase the noise was still there and I did not want to heat up the engine to much incase I had to get back in there. Today driving to work heat shield vibration was gone but I still have the other vibration around 3200 rpm. So long story short no luck thus far. I'm going to try to get under the car again tonight.

 

I installed a VIP stabilizer (after the header) and it made no difference on the vibration...

 

When I had the 22 inch resonator welded in I had to use custom mounts for the front (middle section of the car) They were quite a bit stiffer than stock and made no difference in the vibration

 

Crazy. I'm gonna have to hear yours again. Ready to get on the creeper again? Header came today. Haha!

 

Sounds totally different (Thank God) since I went back to the stock exhaust. The vibration is however still there. You might not have it without the head and cam to go along with it. Have to report back here what we find.

I'm surprised that you quick licking the header long enough to even post! Dude, I'm unemployed so I'm pretty much good to go whenever for the install man

 

Well the thing is....I do have the cam too. Just lacking the head. I'd like to see if we get vibration through mine too...

 

Tomorrow i'll test another mini with the shorty and miltec cat back and i'll tell tou the result

 

I have the head/cam/shorty along with a Miltek and get a distinct resonance at around 2300 RPM and 3400 RPM. Also added a 12” resonator (to quiet things down), which while it helped with the overall volume didn’t really diminish the resonant vibration.
It’s not quite as bad as BlimeyCabrio describes his, but it certainly rumbles the seat, and gets a little annoying when cruising.

 

This is exactly what i have but with the stock exhaust.

Does anybody know if Jan did find a mini with this problem so that he can try to reproduce and solve the issue?

 

I first reported this issue way back then..miltek exhaust w/shorty header...resolved by increasing my rpm idle at 900 rpm instead of 670..that resolved some issues.


https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...d.php?t=148670

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...d.php?t=151394

 

Seems to be a similar, but somewhat different issue - no one else here has reported the "whole exhaust shakes violently" issue - and none of our issues are at idle...

 

I haven't had any issues with the RMW street header and the JCW exhaust but I am running the Mini Maddness locking header bolts to make sure everything stays put and I ditched the origional upper heat shield and I am running the Aerogel with ZERO issues, even though some folks scared me by saying it may burn up. Try ditching the stock upper heat shield and run the aerogel only. You don't have much to loose since it is only like 100 bucks.

 

At least in my case, easy to see that the problem is neither the heat shield nor the header bots. But thanks for the feedback!

 

All this makes me not want to install my header.

 

Nooooooo..... I'd install mine again. In a SECOND... It's awesome... just a few kinks to work out. I think it says something that I still feel that way... the RMW header is an insanely good mod... just a little side effect....

 

Do you get any buzzing of the dash or anything above 6k? I don't have any issues other than a slight buzz from 6k to 6.4k.

Thanks

 

Fear not my friend! Come drive my car this weekend, see for yourself if its worth it

 

Eggzactly.

 

Soon Rob, soon...

 

add me to the list + miltek

on the road at a steady 60-70mph it makes the steering wheel shake

on a slight incline under load, you can end up feeling like chuck yeager

on track @ 90mph + car is steady

driving thru the gears up to big speeds no real issue

i have run the car in the air on a lift, no load 2500rpm-3500rpm = ok
i can also confirm no contact with heat shield

i daily drive a 1.8vti toyota avensis with 160,000+ miles, piston slap,
uses 5ltrs+ of oil every 2000 miles,
this currently feels like a v12 jaguar compared to the mini

 

Hmm....sounds like a helmholtz resonator would fix this problem

Now somebody just needs to do the math to figure out where to put it in the exhaust and how long it needs to be.

 

I know how to fix this problem. Put the RMW exhaust on

 

Yeah, that would do it.

 

That's exactly what I'm waiting on. Jan to finish my cat back!

 

I'll second that motion

I know Kelli's MINI has the RMW race header and exhaust. I've got the RMW street header and street exhaust (4 resonators total), and I don't have any of the issues being brought up here.

I hope all of you get your problems solved so that you can continue to enjoy your MINI and the increased performance this header brings.