What does one give up by getting the hp-boosting pulley? Is it gas mileage? I'm wondering why the MINI engineers made the choices they did. Theories?

 

JCW uses a 14% pulley, and Mini Warantee's it.

They didn't put them on so they could sell you JCW.

 

Why don't manufactures give you the engine they race? conservatism which translates to percieved reliablility. AND believe it or not, not everyone wants or appreciate HP/Torque. Proof? 2 examples - YUGO & PACER.

3 bears theory - mini, S and JWC which one is just right for you?

 

I believe that to some extent they built the engine to last for a very long time and a smaller pulley causes engine parts to not live as long.

Just my .02

 

Any fact in that .02?

Sure it makes the belt wear faster, but I doubt it makes engine components deteriorate faster.

 

Sure it does.

ALL power is made in the engine. MCS has a lowered compression ratio to withstand the boosted power. Keep adding boost and its not going to help that little engine wear less.

The fact is, its a little, tiny 4 banger and, as they say,
"there ain't no substitution for cubic inches"
so to get around that, they got to squeeze more HP from that tiny engine ... ergo, the more boost you have, the more work your making that little engine do.

How long will it last? no idea, maybe forever. Maybe not. The ars have no track record yet to get a reasonable size amount of data to analyze. Its not like there are lots of engines with 150K miles on them to tear down and look at the parts, right?

When the TC guys talk about forged pistons with more power ... obviously the stock pistons aren't good enuff

 

Well if by messing with the size of pulleys, the weight of the pullies or the construction of the pullies doesn't cause some problems then what does

 

They used to. Used to be very easy.

The other day on Speed Channel they showed the original 426 hemis and 429 Boss Mustangs. The 429 WAS the NASCAR engine DETUNED. All to beat the Hemis. NASCAR was the game in town.

Actually MINI does to. Buy a JCW motorsports kit and its Exactly what they race in the MINI Challenge series, Right now they are 225HP. Of course, you can't get one here

 

It's a metal wheel. Wheel's aren't all that complex that I know of, which is why they can be sold for ~ $100.

And on my 2005 pulley problem thread, not a single person posted a problem which could be directly attributed to an aftermarket pulley, except increased belt wear.

 

I agree with your there Will. Maybe my car is the exception when it comes to the lightweight crank pulley

 

Wasn't the question about engine "components"? The pulley is not part of the engine. The engine will run just fine without it albeit with lower HP.

As I said, there is no way to determine the long term results of internal engine wear due to higher boost until you have a reasonable enough sample size. GIve many 140K MCS sold in America (and thats all there are going to be), its going to be quite some time before anyone is going to know.

How many MCS, w/pulley have 100 - 150K mile on them? Not an ancedotal "I do" or "Joe smoe" does. real numbers like say 5,237? Also, the sample size of those that answer a single thread on this board is miniscule compared to the huge MINI population ... it really means little... just not enough data points and not enough miles.

 

I'd recommend giving one of the back issues of the White Roof Radio podcasts a listen. Randy Webb weighs in on the extensive testing they did on pulleys, using the data they received from the maker of the supercharger.

I remember he said something like... A 15% pulley seems to be the size that should have been stock on the S and the reason he thinks they used the lesser-powered stock size was more about slotting the hp of the S in a good place between the MC and the JCW for sales/marketing rather than performance. (On that last point - if you give a stock S too much more horsepower than an MC then fewer people will buy an MC, and if you make it too close to the JCW less people will bother to buy that.)

 

But remember, his ideas of extensive testing is 40K miles or something like that. BMWs is 150 - 200K. Big difference. I could be wrong.

On the other hand ... MARKETING and placement for sales may be the exact correct answer since money drives everything. Good answer

 

You are right. I agree that we really have no idea what the long-term effect of a 15% pulley will be.

 

but arent there people reporting no problems have a 15% and are close and over 100k. I remember reading several post on nam about this.

 

It is miniscule, but not insignificant. Samples can be off, but they are just that, samples. If you poll 100 people, you'll get a ratio of answers. If you poll 1000 people, it should be a bit more accurate, but still close to your original 100 ratio.

I think if it was a normal issue that aftermarket pulley's affected engine components, we'd have heard more about it.

And MDS, I don't know if your problem can be attributed to your pulley, since you've put so many other mods on. Even the dealership said the boost produced with the pulley is within tolerances, eh?

 

Actually, it's there's no replacement for displacement....

 

I disagree. If the JCW kit provides a similarly sized (-14%) pulley, then they've already done the reliability testing. What we *don't* know about are the long-term effects of the damper-less crank pulley.

 

Er, "within tolerances"? Which tolerances? Do they have (internally) published tolerances that give them guidance as to acceptable boost levels for the stock head gasket? When they say that, what are they saying can (or can't) handle the boost?

 

A popular saying in Australia is "only milk and orange juice comes in 2 litres"

True, but that being said, he also has (generally) more extensive experience with these sorts of things than most other people - so his comments are as reliable as you're going to get outside of BMW (and it's not as if you can trust them... )

As for that podcast....that was definitely the best one whiteroofradio has put out...have a listen if you havent' already....

http://www.whiteroofradio.com/woofcast-9/

 

I believe our local Mini SA told him 'We're going to measure your boost levels to ensure your Mini is putting out an acceptable amount'. I believe the level he was looking for was less than 16 psi, and the purpose for the verification was trying to look for a connection to a blown head gasket.

 

Right, he tried to determine if my car was "overboosting". Using their own gauge they measured 16psi of boost. Which is inline with a 15% pulley and nothing crazy to call for a blown gasket. Although as I said its inline with a 15% pulley which is a mod. After all this excitement I am considering removing my lightweight crank pulley because I think its allowing me to rev the engine to fast and stay @ high rpm to long. Either that attributed to this problem and I am just lucky as hell or my engine has had a problem for a while.

I'm just glad I asked for a oil change

 

I wonder too why bmw doesn't just use a 14% pully reduction on S's. I don't buy the rational that it is to sell more jcw kits... as that number is like less than 7000 (which equates to less than about $3.5 million) which isn't as much as increased profits would be as demand would be increased and production increased due to making an even more competitive car in the market place.

I think that cooper s's with jcw kits (<7000?) is pretty small compared to the number of cooper s's running around... also, bmw is competing against other small cars mainly, and not really competing against itself (jcw)... I would think if engineers and bean counters got together, bmw could make more money if there cooper s's made about 180 hp, which makes it even more competitive against an acura integra s, etc....

thus, I still ponder why bmw just doesn't sell the standard s with a smaller pully... Is it due to warranty cost concerns?

still pondering why...

 

I think the reasons why MINI's don't have smaller pulleys from the factory is pretty well spelled-out by the above posts. The point is, for the last 3 years (well, almost 3 years) MINI enthusiasts have had a phenomenally high grin rate and a phenomenally low failure rate over thousands of pulley installations and millions of miles.

 

What an ... umm ... interesting podcast. RandyBMC claims that the the stock MCS exhaust has 12 psi of backpressure (Dinan measured 2.5 psi). Randy also explains how the supercharger has parasite drag, and that putting on lighter brakes reduces the reciprocating mass. He mentions someone producing brake bushings that have a higher durometer than the stock ones (ummm ... yeah, bronze is WAY higher than rubber)... and worst of all, he admits his fridge is filled with cheap beer!