I have a 2004 Mini Cooper S which I bought about 2 years ago and I've been modding it ever since. So far I have a MagnaFlow exhaust Madness Cai 16% pulley on supercharger a race chip throttle enhancer and Vibra Technics upper and lower motor mounts with powerflex bushings in the tranny mount. I've done a lot of regular maintenance as well including servicing the supercharger and suspension and bushings. I'd like to replace the harmonic balancer with a 4% Overdrive M7 lightweight crankshaft pulley and knowing that I'm going to be pushing my supercharger around 20% Overdrive I'm going to be putting in and upgraded intercooler. I have two questions 1 what are people's thoughts on getting rid of the damper and going with a lightweight pulley? And no2 am I pushing it too far and will I need to get a tune or should I be okay with just the larger intercooler? Any input would be greatly appreciated.

 

Welcome to NAM. Going to move this post to the Gen1 Mod area.

You are going to get allot of different opinions on that 4% overdrive. I am thinking the ECU cannot handle over 19 PSI or something like that. Then there is the whole no harmonic damper thing on the pulley. There are several vendors here that not only sell aftermarket parts but also perform work on MINIs in their respective areas.

 

Thanks I'm new to this site so I'm still just figuring out how this all works. It's pretty huge and there's a lot to take in.

 

Rather have you ask a question than sit on your butt and ask nothing at all.

Over 85,000 threads on the Gen1 car here and around 280,000 posts on engine/suspension modifications. Put that together with the current members and the vendors, some that service MINIs and some that drive MINIs.

 

On my car I replaced the stock pulley with a ATI 0% dampner pulley. Overdriving the supercharger means more air, but I'd imagine you need the fuel and valve timing to go with it. The whole thing is a system - air, timing, fuel, etc.

 

First, I didn't know the actual calculation, but 4% over at the crank, won't translate directly to 4% more at the S/C.
But more importantly than that,I would never use a lightened crank pulley, the minimal, if any, gains in lightening the rotational mass are not worth the possible issues of there not being enough actual material on the pulley for it to handle the stresses it takes.
Personally, ATI or one of the fluid gels.

 

We will never recommend ANY lightweight non dampened crank pulley as we have seen the damage caused to bearings and oil pumps over the years as you need a damper to cancel out the crank vibrations to prevent such damage.

Now with still ignoring that fact adding 4% overdrive on the crank is also not a good idea. 17% is pretty much the limit of how fast you want to spin the supercharger as it gets inefficient over that and not gaining you power, but will gain you heat and possible water pump issues.

So either way go with the ATI damper on the crank as it will be lighter than stock and also dampen better than stock. We often see cars run smoother after install.
https://www.waymotorworks.com/super-...ulley-r53.html

If you still want to spin the supercharger faster to get more low end you can upgrade to a 17% supercharger pulley
https://www.waymotorworks.com/17-sup...ulley-wmw.html

 

There have been other discussions on a larger crank pulley creating stress on the alternator and AC compressor. First, with a smaller pulley on the SC, that unit is already moving faster than OEM and there is not too many postings, if any that I am aware of, where this has led to premature SC wear. On the alternator and the AC compressor, yes a larger crank pulley will create increased rotations, but so does putting your foot on the gas. The stock rev limiter cuts the gas flow but the engine will still over rev a small amount. If you take the stock red line of 6750 and for the sake of simplicity use 2% for an "overdrive" factor, the stress on the parts would be as if your engine RPM was operating at 6885. IMO this is well within OEM tolerances.

On the impact on the motor relative to timing, fuel mixture etc, the MINI ECU compared to the "computer" used on the Apollo space missions (in the capsule) is like a 1968 **** Computer (that I used in school) to a 2006 Iphone. The ECU is more than capable of maintaining proper engine function.

The ****'s brain, was housed in a mid-sized suitcase type structure. Today, that same computing power is the size of the end of a pencil eraser (if not even smaller)

 

Another good low cost mod (compared to others) is a Detroit Tuned BPV. It would produce a very nice enhancement although you will notice decreased gas mileage. Some people do not like the increased acceleration as the boost kick in point drops but others have a very BIG grin.

 

Besides the drawbacks of engine damage described by Way, I would also add my experience with temporarily having one installed for T and E.

1- The light weight makes them only useful on a race track where you rarely get past 3rd gear.

2- The lack of rotational weight on the crank results in lack of torque response going on/off throttle in higher gears as you would do on the highway.

Just get a 0%, ATI makes a good one, or OEM upgrade to the 2005-2006 R53 crank pulley as I did before the ATI's were available. They are a bit lighter than your 04' OEM one and 0%.

If you want more boost sans tune, then stick with 17%.

 

Did some looking around at all the threads I could find and I see the general consensus is go with a damper. So I'm going to go with the ATI super damper. Thanks y'all this forum is amazing.

 

Yeah, mine sure did. On the way to shop, known stretch of highway, I took my hands off and had tons of vibration in my wheel. After the damper crank pulley was installed, the next day, same speed, same weather, extremely small vibration. I was actually kind of shocked at how much of a difference it made [versus original 155k miles pulley...that was starting to separate ]

 

A lot of folks forget when they entertain that fancy, shiny, bright colour aluminum light weight pulley is the rotational mass on the other end of the crankshaft. The flywheel and the pressure plate overwhelm the reduction of the crank pulley mass. If you want your engine to spool up faster, get the SM clutch kit. Be careful how far you go with a light flywheel and aggressive clutch kit. I have driven a MCS with racy FW and crazy clutch and it is crap on the road. Miserable to say the least.