Finally got around to putting on a 15% pulley today. I was expecting to be blown away the way everyone talks about them. Can I say I'm honestly not that impressed? Seat of the pants dyno says no biggie. What gives?

 

Well, you are correct to an extent its definitely not some big huge horsepower booster and you notice more boost with a 17% - 19% but if you have driven your car bone stock for some time and you then throw an aftermarket CAI and a pulley on it is a pleasant change and does wake the MINI up a bit, people tend to exaggerate "gains" they achieve with mods sometimes in my opinion.

 

Sounds like you had unreasonable expectations. This isn't a "blown away" mod. Unless driven back-to-back, it's pretty hard to detect a 10% or so power boost. Your 0-60 probably dropped a couple tenths, again, hard to detect among all the other variables. I "think" I noticed the increase driving out of the shop, but it wasn't enough that I was taken aback or that was "can't help but notice" obvious. In the next few weeks, I did notice how it seems to have a more authoritative pull when doing an aggressive pass and on a driving tour with high-zoot Porsches, Vettes, etc., everyone seemed to be amazed that they were having to push pretty hard to keep up with me. I do know that the power I have now is all I want in a 2500-lb FWD'er - I may have a more powerful car in my future, but if so, it will be a RWD.

It's pretty hard to screw this up though, so I doubt anything is wrong. It's just not an huge boost, but then again, its not a huge mod, so in terms of what you got for the trouble, its great bang for the buck.

- Mark

 

your not gonna feel much with a 15. You can feel a bit more with a 17. Passing in 6th gear is more pleasant now. But not untill you do a total package, ie exhuast intake and tune you will feel a fiffrence.

 

I wasn't really blown away by my pulley either but it was noticeable. The main difference I noticed was when you floor it you get thrown back in your seat a little more. But really its only 15-20 hp or so, thats not enough to completely change the car or anything. The reason people rave about it is because of the bang for the buck factor. The car really starts to come alive when you combine it with an intake, exhaust, tune etc

 

Cheapest 20 hp you will ever add to a car....
If the car is not noticablely faster...i'd wonder if your bypass valve is leaking...or ic boots...
On my car..I added a pulley ( a 17%....years ago) with about 40,000 miles...and first time I reved it up...I smiled!! Boost came on at much lower rpm...was just more fun to drive.
Will a car with lots of miles or some overdue mantaince respond differently...yes. Only you know the status of plugs, wires, valves, etc...

 

Car has 55k. I changed the plugs with the pulley.

I will say that I think the power curve feels a bit flatter now. Or there isn't a lag when I jump on it. Just smooth.

I'm in no way unhappy with it, I guess I had just built it up too much.

 

Throw a CAI on and "one ball" your stock exhaust or get a nice catback setup and you will smile a little more, then as the addiction takes grip consider a header, cam and ECU tune and you will smile big every morning before you get in. I still do and I have a ported and polished head that is still waiting to go in.

 

Did you change the belt? If not the stock belt is too long and will not allow you to make full boost.
We keep them in stock if you need
http://www.waymotorworks.com/15-or-1...rger-belt.html

 

I did change the belt. Bought the whole kit from you guys I believe. Pulley, puller, plugs, and belt.

 

FWIIW, I have been using a stock belt on a 15% pulley for 25K miles without any issue. (If it was sllpping, it would have long since failed.) At the time of pulley replacement, using the stock belt was the pulley vendor's recommendation; only later, did the vendor advise that shorter one would be better. I'll go shorter when I replace it pretty soon, but I doubt you'd immediately have any issues making full boost with a good-condition stock belt.

- Mark

 

Sorry but the car will run and drive as you know with the stock belt and a pulley, but if you do all the testing like we did you will find the belt actually has very minor slip under hard load and is costing you about 10hp. It's always funny when we get cars in with the wrong belts and change them, the customer always thinks we did more than just swap the belt after they drive it. If a vendor is recommending a stock belt they are very wrong, and hopefully they will read this post and it will educate them a little on why you need a stock belt, as there is even more to it than just the power loss.

That's good, without driving it then it may just be less than what you expected, or hate to say it there could be something else wrong with your car like weak clutch or a minor boost leak? These are only guesses as I can't see the car.

 

I disagree, but then you're selling belts. No belt with significant slip will last long.

- Mark

 

I actually SAW it with my own eyes the day may car was tuned on a dyno...
One of the cars getting tuned...Jan/rmw saw a hp/tq curve and suggested the owner change the belt....did it in the parking lot... Then re dyno'd the car....

 

Okay. After spending considerable time with the new pulley, I have some thoughts.

It's not the OMG mod I figured it would be, definitely more subtle. Gone is the snap you back in the seat jolt from the boost kicking in, because it's there right from the word go. I guess that's why I was puzzled. I just expected a bigger "kick". Passing and general acceleration is much improved.

I haven't done it yet, but I'm considering an ECU reset to see if it gives me a little more performance. I'm not looking to get crazy amounts of performance, just optimize what I have.

Would I do it again? Maybe, maybe not. The parts were not prohibitively expensive, and I have the skill set to do this job myself. If I had paid someone to do it, I probably would have been more disappointed. So take that for what it's worth. And yes, the belt needed to be changed anyway so why not just do the pulley at the same time.

Anyway, as for future mods, they're not out of the question, but without a tuner nearby and dyno access, I'm a little shy of most mods (injectors, custom ECU reprogramming). Maybe I'll concentrate on the suspension for a while.

 

Owners of the early cars (2002-2004) really notice the difference from the pulley mod because of their poor gear ratios which were changed in the 2005-2006 MCS. It enabled them to get off the line much quicker. As for the stock belt on a 15% pulley, one day, you'll "stand on it" from a traffic light and it'll go into "limp mode". Then you'll understand the benefit of a smaller belt.

 

Not quite understand what you mean by that. Like I said, I do agree that acceleration frm a dead stop has improved, but I don't know what "limp mode" is or how that would affected it.

 

I'm just sayin' the early cars bogged down from a standing start because the 1st gear ratio was too high. The 15% and higher pullies helped by adding additional boost, thereby overcoming the lag. The stock (or an old stretched) belt on a 15% (or higher) pulley under WOT (wide open throttle) can slip. Basically, the engine senses that as a malfunction and goes into "limp mode" (CEL=Check Engine Light). You push on the accelerator but it will barely get out of its own way. Shut it off and re-start, clear the code, then get a new belt.

 

Older MINI ? High mileage ? On a well maintained low mileage MINI one would probably have the wow factor. The 15% is a good pulley for most applications, and easy to tune.

A car engine is basically an air pump. You just changed it's gear ratio to make it suck more air....did you install a CAI or add a drop in K&N high flow filter ?

Remember, when one does mods to a drivetrain, you have to look at the big picture. Not just how it affects components down stream, but at times upstream as well...

 

He saying without supporting mods, more air will have trouble getting in and out of your engine. Thus less of a "wow" factor than if you had installed an intake and exhaust.

 

I did the pulley on a 2005 S auto.
I then did the CAI and it was pretty darn impressive.

 

I got an 02 with 100k miles . Did the pulley first , I can't say I could really tell the difference . Then I did the 1 ball , again I couldn't really tell . Then added alta catback , again didn't seem different . Now I got alta intake , 15% pulley , and alta catback and still can't really tell.

I thnk part of the reason is because I did all the changes gradually and since none of these changes have a wow factor on their own , I prolly got used to the increases of each mod and therefore don't notice the final effect . I'm sure if I went back to stock in one shot I would feel it

 

I noticed a small gain in my R53 after installing the mod. But I also installed new plugs and wires and O2 sensors at the same time. Then again I drive the same road day in and day out with all the sharp turns and such. I drive my MINI pretty hard and know it and how it performs. So if something works I will more then likely notice a difference like I did with the WMW 15% pulley. It wasn't a huge difference but to me it was enough that I was happy with the money spent.

After I did a CAI and one ball those mods began to show as well in conjunction with this one.

 

Sorry if I missed it, but my car is a well maintained, 55,000 mile car. Never abused. Maintenance always up to date. The rest of the car is in excellent shape.

Again, don't get me wrong, I like the performance I am getting, it's just I had built up this expectation of what I was going to get. The improvement was more subtle than I thought it would be. It's not like I'm going to revert it back to stock or anything.

As for the CAI and exhaust...possibly down the road. Right now I have to concentrate funds for Mama's new MINI (#3!)

 

Hey all - I know this thread is a few months old, but i thought i would recap my pulley experience for those with questions (like me) that may be searching older threads.

Traded the beloved R50 for an '05 R53 with 93k miles; obviously a well cared-for car, dealer maintained (but not Mini-freak maintained), and other than Mich Pilot non-RFTs and a bluetooth interface, the car was original and stock stock stock. The only non-original bit i can tell from the documentation is a new crank pulley and belt.

What I did:
1. Seafoamed, then ran around the block to blow the crap out. (not much smoke)
2. repeat step 1; even less smoke this time. Pulled directly back into garage to start the pulley swap.
3. Disconnect motor mounts, lift motor, etc. remove belt and stock pulley.
4. Install WMW 17% belt and pulley with great care, and blue loctite.
5. Put motor back where it belongs, and tighten everything.
6. Start motor and listen/look for bad things. None!
7. Shut off motor and install plugs that came with the WMW kit.
8. drain sump and install Mobile 1 and new filter.
9. RESET ECU so that the computer can learn it's new "situation".
10. Motor!

Did the seafoam first to avoid crapping-up new spark plugs. Changed the motor oil just as good measure following the seafoam process.

Results:
Does it pull as hard as my old '68 notchback with a 400hp small block used to? No. It definitely pulls harder than prior to the pulley change; I would have to agree with the 15-20hp increase folks cite, which is quite noticable in a 2600lb car. And this is with stock exhaust and the paper air filter. So i am puzzled by those that say they didnt feel much change. Maybe it is about expectations. The car pulls much harder at the bottom in low gears, and also is stronger at highway speeds for a 6th gear roll-on, or a shift-to-4th 5500rpm blast.

Is the performance change with the 17% much different than the 15%? dunno. Is the new crank pulley a factor? I dont know how these things fail other than catastrophically, so probably not. This is a street fun car, not a track car, so i enjoy short fun blasts rather than sustained WOT, so i avoid heat soak issues.

So I highly recommend the 17% pulley mod, and ECU reset. And the WMW puller worked like charm too!