Ok so my brother friend is upgrading his 2013 mazdaspeed3 and was offered his stock ko4 for 300$ what would it take for me to bolt that to my 2011 Cooper s ? Can I run safely for a little bit without a tune? I will also b installing meth once the weather gets warmer if that helps I assume some of the mounts maybe different? I am a full time mechanic but turbos are a difdifferent world to me any advice is well appreciated thank you in advance

 

I don't believe that it is a bolt-on replacement. Not worth the trouble even if it was free.

 

its nowhere near a bolt-on affair. Different on both sides of the turbo. I would not run a K04 without a tune.

 

I think there be a lot of work involved to getting a mazda ko4 into a mini, I believe the mazda ko4 and a audi/vw ko4 are different as well. I believe mini mania has a upgraded turbo that has ko4 internals... that is what you should look into.


as far as I can see right now, with that turbo you would need a tune, exhaust manifold, down pipe, and new piping. might be more work than willing to give.


could it be done? prolly. worth doing? that's up to you

 

So if I got the turbo cheap enough would it be worth it for the internals? I assume my factory turbo would need to be machined? Is that safe?

 

I have ran K04's on stock tune minis and just kept the RPM's below 4K kill it was tuned. I logged it and everything was good, if you drive it mild

mQubed Motorsport, Manic Tuning Dealer

 

Ya I mean I'm gonna a get tuned regardless but what am I looking at in order to swap internals?

 

Not sure about internals with out getting the housing milled out. Might be a headache with out the right connections.

mQubed Motorsport, Manic Tuning Dealer

 

A Mazda K04 will not work on a MINI with a lot of fabrications. It is different than a K04 that is built for MINI application. Just google 'Mazda K04' and then compare it to the K04 offered by JMTC. Not even close.

 

Mini turbo waste gate works on a vacuum. I'm told that most others work on positive pressure. If your Mazda turbo doesn't use a vacuum, that's one more "adaptation" you need to make. Might also make getting a tune harder --- dyno vs. remote tuning.

Swapping internals eliminates the mechanical fit problem, but introduces other issues --- reliability, etc. I suggest you consider a turbo swap with a well-respected vendor that has Mini turbo experience --- IF you really want a "bigger" turbo.

 

Ah I will have to go that route was just hoping it would be close with little modification needed because of the price

 

You could get it to work but, it would not be worth the price to do it. Just get a JCW turbo instead for a few bills more.

 

Ya that's what I will end up doing when I am done with tune and meth kit install