After reading about many different intake systems, I'm more confused than ever about which would be best to add to an S - not for racing purposes . . . just for better highway performance. I''ve also read that the Alta is probably noisier than most. Is this true?

Feedback please ! Thanks !

 

I was also strongly considering the Alta which to me seems like a great buy (with the silicone hose), but I rode in maxmini's car which is equipped with the pipercross viper setup and I have to say that the sound his intake makes is absolutely awesome. It sounds sort of like a turbo car at part throttle and when he got on it, you could hear the thing sucking like crazy. I'm definately getting the pipercross now, but if I hadn't ridden in Randy's car I'd still have my eyes set on the Alta. Hope I didn't confuse you anymore.

regards,

amir

 

I recently replaced my Mini-Mania cold air intake with the PiperCross Viper, and have noted 2 differences. The alteration in sound is definitely pleasing and is very authoritative, and I believe I am accelerating a bit faster, although I have not clocked the car with either intake system. IMO the PiperCross Viper is an excellent air intake system, and I think you would be pleased :smile:

 

>>After reading about many different intake systems, I'm more confused than ever about which would be best to add to an S - not for racing purposes . . . just for better highway performance. I''ve also read that the Alta is probably noisier than most. Is this true?
>>
>>Feedback please ! Thanks !

Here's my take on intakes.
If you have a stock MCS and are adding just the intake then don't expect much. Why? Because the intake is not the limiting factor. Sure the Supercharger sound is louder and that is nice but the dyno numbers will show limited power gains until.... you add an aftermarket exhaust or add the 15% reduction pulley or better both.

If you add only an intake probably the alta intake with hose will get you farthest.
This is my understanding of the Piper Vipercross intake- it is for the cooper not the cooper S and it was modified for use in Maxmini's car.
If you check Diamond racing who sells this intake and check the intakes for the Cooper S you find:
http://www.diamondracinggroup.com/ca.../cooper_s.html
and for the cooper you find:
http://www.diamondracinggroup.com/ca...es/cooper.html
The Mini Cooper Viper Induction kit for $285

Nobody else sells the Pipercross viper for the MCS so I don't really know what to make of this. Maxmini has the intake hose pointed to the firewall area and via a hose out to the air duct area by the driver's windshield. Whether this is good or not needs to be tested on a dyno. The reason why you get more SC sound is that the air is being sucked in closer to the driver exclusively since the hose doesn't get much air from the normal air inlet going to the lower portion of the airbox.

Now if you are not racing and just want to add an intake that works then for not so much money consider the Pilo intake ($145) or even a drop in filter like the Unifilter for less money $39. You pay less and you get less HP. These all will work better with the aftermarket exhaust and pulley when added.
http://www.webbmotorsports.com/intake-mcs.php
The piper filter listed here is not the same as Maxmini's Pipercross Viper.

I have the Madness intake and that works just fine for me.(quicksilver exhaust no pulley or ECU)

 

I have the Madness intake on my MCS but if i had to do it again I'd get the Pilo intake. Same design almost same gains for over $100 less! Plus Pilo Racing is a great MINI company - I have nothing but great things to say about them. Oh yeah - and their intake only takes 10 minutes to install. And that's assuming you never installed ANYTHING in a car before (like me!).

The bottom line is air intakes don't make much power in the S. You get added supercharger whine (especially high end), some power (again, especially high end) and well it looks cool under the bonnet. And for $140 or so that the Pilo intake goes for, i think it's well worth the money. But there really is only a couple of HP difference between the highest and lowest HP intake with most right in the middle. So ultimately, it really doesn't matter. Again, I would choose Pilo b/c of quality, best price and ease of install and re-install because you do have to take these things out and then back in again to clean them. So ease of installation is very important to me.

 

Not true. Randy from webbmotorsports sells and has always sold the Pipercross intake for the S. Contrary to the reviews in the posts above, however, Randy claims the Pipercross to make less noise and power than most of the other intakes.

 

Hello S owners.

Only two cars have the Viper "S". The official release is right now at SEMA.

Minihune is correct nobody is selling this unit yet. We do not have it listed on Diamond Racing site yet.

Greeatgro Randy Webb is correct any standard induction kit the with a cone filter does not make as much gains as a true cold system. The Pipercross induction kit is not as loud and flows less then the Viper "S".

The Viper "S", as far as I know, is the only true cold induction system for the "S". Completely plumbed to pull air from outside the engine compartment.

With the Viper "S" you basicly have a straight approx. 3 inch ID hose the is about about 12 inchs long, pulling and filtering air through the Viper Filter. For more techies info on the Viper goto http://www.pipercrossusa.com.

After SEMA the Viper "S" will be available for purchase.

 

I Installed an ALTA in my car and I'm very pleased with it. It does make a sucktion sound and the sc sound becomes more addicting. The cunstruction of the Alta is tops, was easy to install and made a noticeable difference in fuel efficency. The engine revs. freer. It's been in my car now for 5000 miles and is still looking great. Its stayed clean and was never a problem in the rain. I would certainly recomended it. Eric from Helix told me that the only two intake systems he found to make decent power were the K&N and the ALTA. Did the intake and a week later found myself doing the 15% reduction pulley, great upgrades! Good luck searching, it's all good.
:smile:

 

>>Hello S owners.
>>
>>Only two cars have the Viper "S". The official release is right now at SEMA.

Thats what I thought- Maxmini and RECOOP are the only two I know that have the Pipercross Viper in an S.
If you look at Maxmini's engine bay pictures you can see clearly that the intake is just like the Viper seen in MCs but it is adapted for an MCS. At first I thought maybe they were just using the parts from the Viper and putting them into the MCS.

>>Minihune is correct nobody is selling this unit yet. We do not have it listed on Diamond Racing site yet.

Thanks for clearing this up because for a moment I thought I was halucinating.

>>Greatgro, Randy Webb is correct any standard induction kit the with a cone filter does not make as much gains as a true cold system. The Pipercross induction kit is not as loud and flows less then the Viper "S".

Webbmotorsports lists a Pipercross intake for the MCS but it is not the Viper and has never been a Viper. WMS sells the Viper but only for the MC.

>>The Viper "S", as far as I know, is the only true cold induction system for the "S". Completely plumbed to pull air from outside the engine compartment.
>>
>>With the Viper "S" you basicly have a straight approx. 3 inch ID hose the is about about 12 inchs long, pulling and filtering air through the Viper Filter. For more techies info on the Viper goto http://www.pipercrossusa.com.
>>
>>After SEMA the Viper "S" will be available for purchase.

Would be nice to see some independent dyno numbers for the Viper for the S.

Another point is my understanding is that Diamond Racing is the US distributor for Pipercross and should have the best price for it when it does come out.


_________________
ALOHA

 

I'm still confused. So Diamond Racing sells this kit only for the Cooper but it works for the S? I followed all of the links above and only see the standard pipercross that WebbMotorsports carries. If Diamond Racing is the only one selling the Viper "S" version, where is it? I can't find it!

 

>>I'm still confused. So Diamond Racing sells this kit only for the Cooper but it works for the S?

 

Just to add more fuel to the fire, dyno numbers are not an accurate representation of a cold-air intakes performance as they cannot accurately simulate the air flowing through it when the car is driving down the road. Just something to think about.

 

Ok. Now I get it!

 

Question? The Madness intake seals the filter of from the engine compartment about 98% of the way around (it would be a simple job to add foam in the few small gaps to form a complete seal if you wanted to). How is this not a "true" cold air intake?

Between being fed by the stock grill vent, and, in the case of my setup, sucking fresh air from the back where the wall was opened up to gain access to the open grill in front of the windshield, the Madness has a near exclusive outside air source. The only way I can see it getting any better is if either the walls around the filter were insulated to stop any heat transfer, or you moved the filter out of the engine compartment all together.

Am I wrong in my thinking?

 

>>Question? The Madness intake seals the filter of from the engine compartment about 98% of the way around (it would be a simple job to add foam in the few small gaps to form a complete seal if you wanted to). How is this not a "true" cold air intake?

I guess you would need to think about how we define cold air intake. In the Madness setup that I have the engine bay heat will heat up the Stainless steel intake box on two sides and hot engine bay air will leak into the fresh air of the intake box area. Since the seal is not complete and the direction of airflow is into the air filter from ALL sources then you get a mix of fresh air from the front of the car goinging through the air inlet hose and from the rear air duct by the windshield and from all of the leaks to the engine bay. How much of the mix is hot air and how much fresh air will depend on design but it is definitely mixed.

In the Viper the entire air intake filter is surrounded by a cover that serves as the intake box with one hose that leads to the source of the fresh air (in this case from the windshield area as far as I can tell but it is best to check with the details from Diamond Racing once released). The cover to the filter helps to reduce the heat influence from the engine bay and keep the cold air flowing with minimal or no mixing of hot and cold air other than for the heating up of the entire air intake unit itself. This is all in theory. How the air truely flows when the MINI is moving is where it makes a difference. Do not judge an intake or it's power by the noise it makes.

>>Between being fed by the stock grill vent, and, in the case of my setup, sucking fresh air from the back where the wall was opened up to gain access to the open grill in front of the windshield, the Madness has a near exclusive outside air source. The only way I can see it getting any better is if either the walls around the filter were insulated to stop any heat transfer, or you moved the filter out of the engine compartment all together.

I guess you have to ask how air tight is this Madness air box-how well does it keep air out without being a true closed box like the original airbox. My Madness air box doesn't look that air tight but it is close. There is alot of heat in the engine bay.

 

Wel lthis whole thread made for some good reading nice work. Let me see if i can add anything that you dont already know. The way the viper is set up in my car is that it takes the cold air thru the rear bulkhead straight to the foam intake and then into the engine. The filter is covered with a carbon fibre cover which helps insulate the heat which the metal sides of the air box wich is the same style as used by madness and alta etc. Thos boxes get hot just from heat conduction thru the metal. To prove to myself that I now have what i consider the best system to date got a simple indoor /outdoor thermometer and ran the lead to the face of the filter element. The air hitting the element ambient or ambient plus one degree at all times. I haven't done a dyno test I will admit but on paper and with my little test method it seems to work. BTW i also own the Rogue, BMP/Promini, and K&N Typhoon as well.The butt dyno tells me I am on the rite track. Hope this helps, RandyPage Titlemaxmini home site

 

Randy........How do you like that strut tower brace? I was thinking of ordering the same, but heard that it did not do much for the handling ? Do you find it helps? :smile:

 

>>Randy........How do you like that strut tower brace? I was thinking of ordering the same, but heard that it did not do much for the handling ? Do you find it helps? :smile:
Based on Maxmini's previous posts- I can tell you that he is a firm believer of the advantage of a strut tower brace especially with coil overs or lowered MINI. If you check the strut tower brace threads he has already posted several strongly positive experiences. And others in my area also swear by it and say that they can feel the difference but the objective data such as track times being lowered does not bear out such an advantage- even with experienced drivers.
And so the debate goes on. It should not be your first suspension mod- that would be the rear sway bar.

 

I would say mine, the BMP sounds great and I feel a faster accelaration in all the rpm range.

 

Thanks......Ill do a search! :smile:

 

I saw your bmp strut tower bar and would like to know where you got it it looks great on your car....

steven I hope you get this mail. thanks for any help you can give me

stevmwong@hotmail.com

 

>>I saw your bmp strut tower bar and would like to know where you got it it looks great on your car....
>>
>>steven I hope you get this mail. thanks for any help you can give me
>>
>>stevmwong@hotmail.com

steven,
Aloha and welcome to NAM,
The BMP strut bar is widely available from several of the NAM sponsors- roughly $240 for the aluminum which is lighter than the $230 steel powder coated bar.
http://www.promini.com/products/stressbar.shtml
http://www.webbmotorsports.com/suspension.php

Here's mine-with madness intake