How come no one is into using no name intercoolers? The 335i guys are doing it with success.

Someone needs to find inexpensive intercoolers for us. $700+ is crazy

http://www.e90post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=456694

I sent an email to cxracing to see what they can do ...

 

It's been brought up a couple times, and I've been thinking about doing it, doesnt seem hard at all I just havent had the time to have my car outta commission for a couple days. With some custom tubing you could easily fit an ebay intercooler in there. If you do it make sure to document it

 

There are intercoolers and INTERCOOLERS, don't be fooled by the overall size or by the calculated volume!

In the case of the intercooler, size is not as important, as the cores ability at cooling and recovery rate, these are the 2 most important factors, this will be reflected in the cost of the unit!

 

Because MOST (not all) of this forum is very tunnel visioned. Trust aftermarket vendors completely. Trust their marketing completely. Anything else is ridiculous and stupid and will kill your car.
Thats one thing that bothers me about this forum is people's hesitation to try "against the grain" things. Either that, or bat down anyone wanting to try something different. If vendors haven't thought of it, then its not a good idea. This forum is in the world of "a COLD air intake, aka hot air intake" will provide 10 whp from stock with no tune.

I've been wanting to do a fleabay IC for a while. But anytime I bring it up, I get shot down. And its going to take me MUCH longer to do everything by myself, versus having a collaboration of everyone on a forum helping out with trial and errors, ideas that worked for some, measurements,calculations, etc.

This is why the R56 aftermarket isn't moving very quickly, its all bolt ons and an ecu tune. I know of only one person with a P&P'd head, who was able to prove on the dyno to make additional power. But since no direct mini vendors sell it, it must be a bad idea.
ugh
/rant.

 

A head from a major vendor will probably come sooner or later for the R56. The demand probably doesn't justify the development cost yet.

 

Look, I'm all for someone wanting to do it differently, but an Ebay intercooler isn't one of the ways I'd recommend.

Those are genaric cooling cores with SOME form of end tanks. Will it fit? How does the core perform in terms of air flow? What is the flow management of the end tanks. (I know I'm just a mechanical engineer with 20 years of racing and engineering, but cut me some slack...lol)

I can guarantee you that the closest those things have come to engineering, was the guy that set up the Chinese peasants to weld them up...

At least the Helix, Alta, and Forge units have at least quality cores.

 

Just before Thanksgiving I installed Alta's dual cat downpipe to make a full turboback exhaust and upgraded from the stage 1+FMIC map to the stage 3 map. The difference is very noticeable. Overall the stage 3 tune is even smoother with the added low end torque. With the standard stage 3 tune I had some instances where the boost would peak over 22 psi then drop to about 4psi and not go any higher until I let off the gas for a second. Jeff thinks it may be due to airflow differences from my DDM works race intake which has a ram air design. After a trying a few customized stage 3 tunes from Jeff we found one that eliminated the boost cutout. It peaks at about 21psi and sustains right about 20psi. That's about 5-6psi higher than the stage 1 tune. Anyone else see this kind of boost cutout around 22psi? Would I be better off with a different intake?

Is water/methanol injection needed for tuning to boost levels higher than I'm seeing now?

 

The factory stock cylinder head for the N14/B16 engine, is already very very good, and will support more than enough power, for most people who read or post on the Mini forums world wide!

Yes it can be improved and yes it's already been done by me, and I think Thumper also.

However that said, the engine can produce very good power from a few simple bolt ons with a tune to get the best of those, without going to the extreme of cylinder head work.

I also believe that 250-300bhp will satisfy 95% of people, this is a huge amount of power, and is quite difficult to apply and control with FWD, it can quite quickly spoil what is already a fantastic fun driving car, with great MPG.

 

You need to either hybrid your stock S turbo or source yourself an alternative, if you continue to push the stock S turbo to this amount of boost abuse, then your going to be replacing it sooner than you would like to!

 

I agree exactly, I've been eyeballing the idea for over a year now, I'm just not ready to have my car out of commission while I fab the stuff up. I think it's funny that some people think DIY is a bad idea.

People have been fabbing up stuff for their cars for years, and just because its a Mini/Bmw or whatever doesnt mean you have to spend a boatload of cash on parts when you can do something that performs 99% for 1/4 the price.

I wish I had the time to show that an EBAY intercooler will indeed produce good numbers, even though there will still be naysayers and bench racers. It's been PROVEN that ebay intercoolers are very effective, you just have to open your eyes a bit and check out some other car forums

 

I have the same problem with my stage 3 Mini Cooper S (10/2007) and once it hits 22ish psi it drops to 10psi until I let off the gas it hits 22 again.
This effect is followed by a very loud pop from the exhaust from the excess fuel. I started a new thread about this problem, so lets take it there.

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...st-sensor.html