Thanks much! Can't wait to see the pics. BTW, nice (?) to know someone else has trouble uploading pics here .

How does the Water/Meths keep everything clean.
Obviously anything in the induction path has the methanol mix to absorb any oil but what about in the valve cover where all the gunk builds up around the valves?
I thought the idea of the oil catch can/s was to collect the oil vapour from the valve cover area and thus prevent the buildup.
Where are people hiding the water/meths containers?

Half the problem with the design of our motor and most direct injection motors is the fact that there is no fuel mixture passing over the intake valves. In a normal, port injected motor...fuel passes over the intake valves and "cleans" them. Like all the commercials you see for Shell and their "nitrogen enriched" gas and how it removes gunk from valves. In our car, those valves never see the fuel, so it doesn't matter whats in the gas, its not going to clean them.

Water/Meth fixes that problem, essentially steam cleaning the intake valves with 2 solvents as the atomized water/meth mix passes them on the way to the combustion chamber.

Not to mention lowering IAT's drastically and effectively increasing your fuel's octane to 110+. As 'JamesHunt' said....meth is a win-win.

Thumpermcs, your reply makes total sense. I was still thinking carb engines.

So running water meth raises the effective octane, does this mean the car will need a tune. I realise that a tune will get the optimum but is it totally necessary. Also I guess you could drop down one octane rating, or are we still better off using premium 98. Here in Australia we get 91, 95 and 98.

The other big benefit for me is that I live in the tropics so the cooling effect will be most beneficial.

To get the most....yes a tune is in order. I wouldn't run a meth kit without a tune. You certainly can though and people do. Just seems like a waste to me though. It won't hurt your car...but to get the most you need a tune. Think about it, you are dramatically reducing inlet temps and introducing new liquids to the combustion chamber (one of which is flammable, and both which drastically change the heat properties in the chamber). Completely changes the nature of what is going on in the combustion chamber. If you are going to install anything, and get a tune because of it, a meth kit is at the top.

I would never drop down an octane rating on this car. I don't care if you're running meth or what. 10.5:1 compression ratio, 18 psi (tuned), and relatively lean afr's (sure its direct injection, but still)...it's fuel needs every bit of octane it can get. I'm pretty sure you guys use the Euro octane rating so your 91, 95, 98 doesn't correspond to ours. We have 87, 89, 91 here....Eastern states have 93 instead of 91.

Words of wisdom

I started to follow this thread and another thread on air intakes with the idea of doing what is mechanically best for the car. By this I mean interim oil changes instead of the factory prescribed gazillion miles between oil changes. After reading lots of threads I have realised that the PCV system needs some attention, and there appears to be 2 solutions. Fit 2 Oil catch cans (riss racing use the right breather line and M7 use the left breather line) or fit water meths. After a fair bit of reading elsewhere, it seems that water meths is mainly used for the Horsepower and not so much for engine care. As Thumper pointed out a tune is the optimum but living in a town where there are about a dozen Minis, I doubt that there is a tuning shop here that has even put a Mini on a dyno. Until RMW bring their remote tune to fruition I can't see that happening. Also I am not after a race car. Water meths makes the most sense and is cost effective as "James Hunt" pointed out, although you do have to top up the water every so often. The water injection point is set by boost or injection timing, so it not always on. So what is best to do for the car, fit catch cans? Use Liquid Moly or Sea foam cleaner? Or fit water meths? Aquamist group buy http://www.aquamist.co.uk/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=1748

Paul,
What you described seems to make sense, except for one thing. Every PCV system that I have ever seen needs to have a "breather" which brings "metered" air into the crankcase. The air is then circulated around, gathers blowby and exits through a line to the intake maniforld (or throttle body).
From your description of the system operation it would seem that the "right" tube (to the throttle body) has a PCV valve in it. That would make the "left" side line the breather because I cannot find anywhere else where there is metered air (after the MAF) going into the crankcase. That raises the question of why the "left" tube is oriented the way it is (if it is drawing air in) and what the little tube with the pug in it is doing on that line. It makes me think that BMW is getting slick and only using the "left" tube as a crackcase exhaust when the right tube closes under boost.
I have been pondering this for a couple of days (and doing lots of reading up on PCV systems on the internet) because a new vendor is offering a plug which can function to block off the "right" side tube. I think that is defeating the system BMW put in place. It makes more sense to me to put a catch can on the "right" tube first, and if you have the inclination put one on the left side also.
Any thoughts?
Cheers,
Greg

Not sure about MD smog regs, but Calif. has banned crankcase "breathers" for decades. The MINI's atmospheric vent is through the intake air filter. No crankcase vapors are permitted to exit the engine unfiltered or unburned.

With regards to the original post, we have recently released a product that accomplishes what you are looking for. This quote is from another thread about the same topic.

Some images as well:

Blockoff installed:


Boost Tap Installed:

Dwight,
You misunderstood me. The "breather" takes in metered air - it does not discharge air. OK, where is the "atmospheric" vent? I've had three different CAI's and have never seen a line going from the intake filter area to the crankcase. That is exactly my point. The "vent" needs to be on the engine side of the MAF if you are going to be dumping blowby & air into the throttle body, otherwise the ECU will not know how much air is going into the intake. The only line I see that fits that bill is the one off the tube going from the intake filter to the turbo inlet. That line has a sensor or switch (two-wire line coming off of it) and then goes in the driver's side of the valve cover.
I would really like to take off my valve cover and look to see what sort of baffling is on each of the two tubes and if one or the other is directed into the crankcase. If it keeps snowing here I will do it to entertain myself since I won't be able to get my MINI out my street.
Cheers,
Greg

Cool. Only problem is I can't get a tune down here in Aus yet, until Jan comes out with his remote tuner

We love methanol injection over here however the cleaning affects of the injection process are mostly seen in the combustion chamber. From all the DI manifolds I have pulled from cars with meth injection I cant say I have ever seen anything on the intake side that really said "wow this is the ticket"

All that said, with a tune you can make some serious power with methanol injection.

Picture-1.jpg?t=1202346507

My car rmw dyno results without meth 225whp and with meth 228 whp on a humid and hot day.

What were the details of the tune? In the graph I posted we were able to safely increase ignition timing and raise boost to make the gains posted. Essentially a "race gas" file. This was done while monitoring IAT, EGT, Ignition Retard, and AFR. Its nothing really that ground breaking though.

you would need to ask Jan

I'm going to go head and make an assumption that that dyno is from a VAG 2.0T and not a R56?

And that the DI intake manifolds that you've pulled off that have had meth systems are from a 2.0T as well...

Just assuming as very few R56's are running meth injection currently...and even fewer are tuned+meth....

the powercurve graph does look very different and is that hp or whp ?

Prince 1.6t FTW

To get back to the thread, can 3/4" ID (19mm) heater hose be safely used as PCV tubing? I think it can as it holds up to hot antifreeze with no problem. just want to be sure. Real close to finishing the OCC install. Thanks

Yes

Heater hose will sweat oil after a while. It wont degrade immediately but it will "purge" itself.

Yes this is very much correct. My aim was very much to say that methanol is an excellent way to make clean power but is not the solution for carbon buildup on the intake valves that it is often made out to be. That said, I run injection kits on all of my cars. Love the stuff and would love to help harness our relationships with kit manufacturers and our own manufacturing to help make it easier to get kits on the Mini's

Thanks, that was what I was afraid of. Would neoprene tubing be OK? I've got a way to cover it so it won't look ghastly. The old hot rodders used it for fuel lines once upon a time. Want to maintain the 19mm ID as I'm putting one of your duel boost tap's on. Am thinking that you don't want to put a restriction in the PCV tubing as one will now be doing the work of two. Am I right on this?

No, in factory orientation only one port was working at a time for the most part. The left port under vacuum, the right under boost. Now it just operates like its in boost all the time.

Neoprene should do well as it was designed to "perform well when used in contact with oil" per dupont.

easy meth kits on R56s... heaven does exist