Ya.
Just rotate the lower half of the airbox in towards the cabin of the car. It should come out then. Will take a few wiggles.

 

Thanks Matt. The new part #8 looks to be less expensive then buying the whole unit from NMEngineering as well

 

Ryan

Are those regular hose clamps or some sort of clip on thing? Doesn't look like there's much room to get any tools in there for tightening up clamps.

PS nice clear photos by the way!

 

The upper side should be a slide on clip and the bottom should be a hose clamp. The ease of installation is no more difficult then doing the NM or any other boost tube. Pretty much the same stuff needs to come out.

 

Yes. you will want the Y piece out of the car to gain the necessary leverage to get the plug in. I cheated and cut a little taper into the plug then put it on the floor and pushed the housing onto the plug.

 

I just did mine. Not an easy job to get the "Y" piece out. The clamp on the bottom was a problem; the 7mm hose clamp bolt was in a position that allowed a 1/16 turn at time to loosen. The plug was equally hard to get in. Tapering did not work; finally had to put the plug on my belt sander grind off about a 1/16". It went together in a much shorter time as I was able to re-align the hose clamps to a better position to tighten.
Incidentally, at the opposite end of the air box (right side facing the air box) there is a clip that looks like it was designed to hold a hose or cable of about a 1/2" dia. But there is no hose in the area. Maybe it is for something with the auto trans (which I don't have). Any ideas on this?

 

Yup just as Mike says.
One is a regular clamp and the other is whatever the technical name is for it. As mike says the slide on clip ...

There is enough room without the aribox in there. I can fit my hand in there pretty easily. Although if the clamp is on the strut side it might be a little tough. Certainly a little tedious for people with bigger hands.

 

Is there anyone out there that just has removed the entire tubing (non-stealth) for the noisemaker delete? I'm having trouble with removing the part 16. The part that goes to the firewall. Any hints to remove it? I don't want to break it just in case I do want to keep it.

 

As you can see from the RealOEM.com drawing, that little duct (Part 16) has little plastic clips on it that attach to the port in the bulkhead panel. If you push in on the center of the duct with your thumbs, this pushes some of the clips away from the port. If you can push in on the center of the duct with your thumbs and pull down, you should be able to remove it unscathed.

It's not the easiest part to remove, but it is do-able.

-Clint

 

I found this thread very helpful. I wanted to add a couple notes:

The expanding plug works great. I just bought the 1 1/4" plug and sanded the plug down for a very tight fit (take the plug apart, use a 3/8th twist bit and just jam the rubber plug on the end. *don't drill out the hole*) then use some 150 grit sand paper and spin up the plug to sand it down to a perfect fit. Put a little dab of locktite on before you tighten.

You'll need a 1/2" socket or quick wrench to tighten the plug. not much space back there.

I can confirm the pass-through through the bulkhead just opens into the cowl area - see attached picture and you can see where the sheet metal opening on the inside of the cowl area. I just left mine open.

hope that helps ya'll

b.

First pic shows installed plug.
Second the pass though the bulkhead into the cowl area.

 

...went to my local auto parts store and the counter dood called these "freeze plugs"... [edit] found out that *that* counter dood didn't know S, they're called compression plugs. He also sold me the totally wrong size marked in the right-sized package. Went to a different auto parts store and got a 1 1/4 and a 1 3/8 plugs. I used the 1 1/4, I trimmed the edge just a bit and it fit perfectly. Tightened it up (not too much) and the metal washer on the outside seems to be the perfect diameter because it sits on the edge of the Y thingy, so it seems it can't get pushed too far in. Put the hose to the noisemaker back over it and hand-tightened the clamp (which was a beioch to work with, along with that damn hose!). Took it for a drive and it sounds a little different, a little quieter, but not much IMO. Only did one hard acceleration (lots of cops around here, not safe till daylight) and it did feel punchier.

Question: maybe this is obvious but that's a pressurized system, so the only thing I really have to worry about is that plug shooting out into the noisemaker hose, right? Nothing's going to get sucked into nothin', right?

 

Could someone with a 2012 past the part so those of us with the odd '11s could install it and keep the factory looks with the added "performance"?

 

BamaCooperS must have done the mods, I was looking today and found them!(he plugged up the "Y" on #8 and replaced #3 with a straight pipe) Without having one and without hearing the noisemaker how was it? I miss my ole supercharger wine.

 

I just went out and looked under the hood of my 2011 R57. I was shocked to see that I do not have the noise-maker setup. There's no "Y" sidepipe in the connector between #7 & #8 in the diagram.

 

Have a Sept/Oct production 2011 and have it. Anyone recommend a company that has a nice pipe? I am leaning towards Alta or NM and should I just do both hot and cold side while I am at it?

 

The NM stuff is nice. They have a metal tube which minimizes the pipe flex when the turbo comes on boost. Supposed to help improve turbo response. I would do both. But if you are going to do just one, do the hot side. That seems to have more restriction. The hot side change goes well with a FMIC change...nice performance upgrade.

 

cgaubuchon - I have an un-used NM cold side pipe that it now seems I don't need. If you are interested in it, PM me...

 

Yeah I figured the hot side was a little more beneficial. Just seems like a lot to replace the two without really providing any gains. I do love NM though and have not treated Archer to new toys in a while.

Few more questions:
Anyone have a comparison in sound after removing the two pipes with muffler/noisemakers? Have heard it deepens the engine noise a bit and like sound of that (pun intended).

Possible to take the hot side pipe out without jacking the car up and the front bumper cover off? Wont have garage/life access until spring (winter projects ) and wont pull the trigger on the hot side if I wont be able to install until warmer weather rolls around.

 

Doubt you can take it off without jacking the car up. Maybe you can do it without taking the bumper off, though. I did mine when I did the FMIC, it was really easy. Of course I was disconnecting that from the stock IC anyway. However, the way I remember it, you could only get to it from the bottom.

 

I know this is an older post, but has any one taken off the tubes from the Y and capped the Y? I think that would be the easiest and your getting rid of all the unnecessary tubing. I dont care about the "factory" look as I dont have a factory warranty.

 

I can see the noisemaker. Does the hose on the left have to go too?

 

Just wanted to update this thread with my most recent experience. I ended up taking off the airbox, removing the host at the T joint, and plugging the noisemaker pipe at the T joint with a 1" neoprene expansion plug, as suggested earlier in the thread. Looks stock, and it's completely reversible.

I got a plug just like this: http://www.petersenproducts.com/imag...ug-1432075.jpg

The wings on the plug were small enough to fit inside of the factory noisemaker hose.

 

HI...I'm new here....A month ago i bought myself a brand new 2012 R56 MCS n i m really loving it...So recently installed a K&N universal airfilter n a greddy blow of valve....
The problem now is that the blow of valve is not working at all.Is there anybody here can help me to source n solve the problem for me.....btw i cant seem to find the built in oem noise maker located n also where can i get the vacuum to connect to the blow off valve.......tq pls help

 

Here's are two quick & easy ways to connect a vaccum/boost source to your MINI. Drop me an email or a phone call if you need more info.

ATP Turbo Boost Block:
http://www.defendersofspeed.com/vacu...ooper-s-turbo/

-OR-

BSH Dual Boost Tap:
http://www.defendersofspeed.com/bsh-dual-boost-tap/

-Clint

 

Back to the original subject of this thread -
I did this mod last weekend in about 60 minutes. I used the rubber expansion plug, and removed the stock items 10, 13, and 16 entirely.
The whole point is to remove worthless weight. It's only about 3/4 of a pound, but I personally hate non-functional stuff on my cars.
The 8-21-11 and 1-15-12 posts are all you really need to look at to get this done.
Everything else is visually obvious, and nothing will break.
Thanks to all the contributors.