Posting over here as well.

Over the past few weeks I had a bunch of NM Engineering products installed into the engine bay of my 2009 Factory JCW.

This is what was installed:

Billet Aluminum Tie-Bar aka Strut Tower Brace
Hi-Flow Induction Kit aka Cold Air Intake or CAI
Titanium Turbo Heat Shield
Discharge Pipe aka hot side boost tube
Air Charge Pipe aka cold side boot tube

I also had their SS brake lines and torque arm insert installed. I highly recommend the torque arm bushing. It definitely makes the shifting better and makes you more connected with the car.

NM Engineering was great to work with. Their parts are well designed and well made. All the parts came with very easy to understand directions with color pictures printed on heavy stock paper. All the parts were in stock and they shipped the same day that I placed the orders. They always provided a tracking number.

I am not great at writing reviews so I will say that I like the look of them in the engine bay. The intake sounds great. You can hear the turbo spool up with a nice woosh and then blow off with a not too loud pshh. The car feels stronger and pulls harder.

Next up is a Helix Intercooler that Helix will be installing for me hopefully some time in December. And after that a RMW tune when Jan gets to the NYC area. I will be getting new Team Dynamics Pro Race 1.2 black matte wheels in the spring and then I am done with mods to my JCW.

 

I likeee that strut tie bar! How hard was it to install the cold and hot side induction pipes? Ive been looking into them, I just wish the blue went better with my dark silver

 

I'm hoping to be able to do a similar NM overhaul on my MINI. Thanks for the review/feedback on the experience thus far.

 

I had my mechanic do the install. he said the cold side was a pain the the butt (that seems to be everyone's experience). He said he had to put the car up and down on the lift a few times to be able to do the tops and bottoms.

He installed the pipes, intake, brake lines and torque arm insert bushings in a bit less than 3 hours. Which I thought was fair.

I did the hard stuff, the heat shield and the strut brace.

 

Very nice engine compartment...thanks for sharing!

 

Its like nm designed their products exclusively for the LB owners! I love it! :D

 

Hi onefish2, I also bought the NM Intake. Can you please tell me what to do with the metal bracket that is supposed to be attached to the ECU with a double sided tape? I can't seem to figure out what to do with it.

 

or just come to me for the install :P my version of payment is bring a beer hahaha. but anyway i've done multiple intakes, intercoolers, suspension pieces and such by myself... u can ask Tortie (a fellow NM owner...) i put her intake on in 20 minutes (would have been faster if i had the right tools at the time... hex keys aren't quite as easy to use on Torx as a torx bit :P ) but they all fit very nicely and hard-piping is always nice


btw MIN 18... the double sided tape that goes to the ECU... that basically just holds the stock snorkel in place (there's a small piece that connects to it) to get more cold air right under the intake... similar to Alta's way... technically u can go without it though if you feel it clutters up your engine bay.... you'll just have a little more heat soak in heavy stop and go traffic...

 

Just seeing this now. The instructions are not clear on how to do this? Why ask here? Why not just call up NM Engineering and have them walk you though it.

 

oh and as a side note... anyone who was debating NMs Strut Tower Brace... it is the best out there... for a couple reasons...

1) tube design is a lot stronger than the typical bar design because a tube won't flex in the middle

2) lots of clearance for a lot of intakes (only real problem one was DDMWorks Race intake but i was running the two for quite a while with no problems... now i'm on Defenders of Speed though for intake

3) there are no pivot points in the design. most braces have some kind of pivot point because they'll have just one bar and one nut and bolt each side which lets the bar pivot... since NM has two it's solid and doesn't pivot at all...

4) even though it's not an issue in the R56... for those who want the piece of mind, NM has the strut tower defenders integrated into it

5) the bar is adjustable for distance between the two strut towers... may seem weird but anyone who knows that mini put little slots for camber adjustment in will know that being able to "lengthen" the bar will compensate for the 1/4 of an inch at each side of the car... to my knowledge the only other company out there that makes a similar adjustment (outside of JCW which has adjustable length for the center bar...) is GTSpec... they put slots in their tower defenders to move with the slots on the strut towers...

(without thread jacking, if anyone has any questions just PM me about fitments, i had M7s, GTSpec, JCW and NM STBs... Alta and TSW lower control arms, Alta and Helix13 Intercoolers, NM, DDMWorks Race, stock, and Defenders of Speed intakes...)