Did I read somewhere that there was a john cooper works air intake for a non JCW car? How much and how many horse power is gained? Or am I just crazy?

 

If I'm understanding the web site correctly and the MA, it's available as a stand alone upgrade. The part it self is around $450 and as the install wasn't on his price sheet he thought it would be about an hour and a half for the install.

It's supposed to do 5 bhp on its own.

What I'm not sure of is if it's only available on 2005 cars. Also, he didn't think they had actually installed any yet so I think it's something new.

HunterBoss

 

Part 13-72-0-391-513
MSRP $450.00
Labor 0.75 hr

 

But is it available for all build dates?

Do you know when it was introduced?

 

The air box fits any year MCS.

I think it was introduced last month.

 

Is it a 5HP gain? Is it worth it for 5hp? Or
should I ask is 5hp noticable.

 

No intake system is worth $450!!! How about saving yourself $420 (not including the $60-$70 labor charge) and strap a K&N filter to your throttle body? I setup the hot air intake system on my car for $35 and love it. check out this thread.

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...hot+air+intake

 

I'd do the HAI and the MTH, and still have money left. Oh yeah, that's what I did! I couldn't be happier.

Matt

 

Can someone please point me tothe thread that explains why you want to have a hot air intake and not a cold air intake?

I'm confused.

 

Actually I had this discussion on another thread about the fact that the intakes for the MINI are not true cold air intakes
https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...ad.php?t=33622

A true cold air intake (CAI) would actually put the filter/intake outside of the car somewhere by the front wheel or int he bumper.

Now as to why you would want hot air I am not really sure. I was always under the impression that the colder the air the better. Keep in mind you want the intercooler and supercharger to run more efficiently thus giving more power. The fresher/colder the air is the better performance you get. With that being said Hot air would degrade your performance.

Now I am not expert at all and this is all going by what I have learned. There are way more people on this forum that know the details way better than I do... I just thought I would feel imprtant and try and give some type of help for you HunterBoss.

Oh and don't waste any money on the JCW. An Alta or other manufacturer of an aftermarket would be a much better cost benefit!

Chris

 

its always worth it if it's got the letters 'JCW' to some people! long discussions of why people choose jcw over aftermarket is so repetitive... i dont want to get into it right now, but the bottom line is that some people prefer to have a warranty on a part even if it cannot literally fail

 

So, the difference between cold air and hot air intake might be a function of where it is located?

Could "hot" air simply be a contraction of "not really heated, but not as cold as you'd really like it and better than nothing"? :smile: Which, I guess, sounds better than "Tepid Air Intake."

HunterBoss

 

It might also depend on whether the filter is "shielded" from underhood temps ... and how much the the intake costs

Much like stock exhaust with the resonator removed has become known as the "One-Ball Exhaust", an unshielded K&N filter attached directly to the throttle body has become known as the "Hot Air Intake".

 

The biggest reason not to go with a CAI is that the temp of the air charge AFTER it goes through the intercooler is the same temp. You can pull in cool air from a CAI all day long, or pull in hot(er) air all day long from an HAI, but the temp at which it flows into the engine will be the same because of the intercooler.

So save your cash and go with hot air intake.
I just wish this idea had been found before I bought my PILO intake!

 

Is there a difference in the design of the airbox on the '05 MCS vs. '04 models? In other words, is it safe to order a Dinan or Alta system for an '05 MCS convertible? I called Dinan and they said they had not certified the current model airbox for the '05 - basically, they had not had time to look at it yet to see if it fits. They hoped to do that 'within the next 30 days'.

 

Up above where MINIAC said the JCW airbox will fit any year MCS tells me that there's no change in the stock airbox, so you would be safe betting that there are no changes in the '05 model. You should be safe ordering the Dinan or Alta intake.

 

I bought and installed the JCW airbox myself, I liked the idea of drawing cool air from the hood cowling area and for noise reasons didnt want to have to hear the intake at lower RPM's. I went from an alta intake and there is a very noticable performance difference once the cold air intake opens at 4500 rpms as well as off the line. Living in a rainy state with an open style intake such as the Alta did cause a few problems where as the JCW system offers open intake system performance on demand with a stock intake noise level. At $360 it was a steal

 

Where did you find one for $360??? My dealer is quoting me $450 (without installation) and the cheepest I've found it was $405 from Classic Auto Campus.

BTW, how hard was the installation?

 

He got it from Classic but someone made an error as that's below their cost.

The Classic discount on the JCW air box and JCW upgrade kit is 10%.

 

Wow! That's quite an error.

Thanks for the info.

 

The reason cold air is desirable is because it is more dense therefore slightly increasing power by creating more combustable air in the cylinder. I would disagree with the statement that temp after intercooler is the same for both CAI and HAI based on thermodynamic principle. HAI has gained intrest and use because the amount of flow restriction based upon routing of the CAI systems. The HAI systems are virually unrestricted allowing free flow of hot air, the higher temprature air takes less HP than the increased amount of air inducted. This theory is challenged by those who say that because of the supercharger you can not increase flow you can only increase the density of air. I agree with this assesment.

btw, unless you are a racer or big gear-head you will never notice 5 hp

 

The discount has always been 20% but since they had such a high demand for this airbox they might have reduced it, there are two kits available. One is the complete kit with injectors for the works cars and one is the intake by itself for non works cars. If memory serves $75 bucks seperates the two kits. The install is a piece of cake, 30 minutes tops.

 

Ah, that makes sense. Too bad as it would have been nice to save another $45. Oh well.

Thanks for the info. It's good to know that the install was easy anyway.

 

CAI / HAI would only have the same post intercooler temperature if the intercooler were 100% efficient (which its not). However, its probably ~ 80% efficient, so the HAI is actually an "80% cold air intake". There is no denying the benefits of cold air but sometimes we need to look at the big picture to determine if the advantages of the "cold air" the current intakes provide with their poor ducting are worth more than the pumping losses we can eliminate with less ducting.

We most certainly can increase flow of a displacement based supercharger if the flow is being choked upstream. Every aftermarket intake is operating under this assumption.

The HAI works on a few different intertwined principals, but the main benefit is the flow restriction that you touched upon above. When we decrease the pumpling losses, we also decrease the pressure losses in the system (ie the pressure is higher/less negative). Higher pressure = greater density. You'll find these graphs in the HAI thread.

Happy Tuning!

--
Cheese