Can anyone give me details about the $5000 dollar dealer upgrade, coming out next month? It is supposed to include an improved head and a pully for the super charger. Other than that, I am not sure. The good thing is that it doesn't void your factory warranty.

On that subject, can anyone tell me what mods don't void warranties? ie: airbox, exaust, chips....

Also, is there a performance exaust that isn't loud?

Finally, what is the most horsepower you can hope to get with off the shelf mods? What are the best mods out there?


thanks,

Paul

 

>>Can anyone give me details about the $5000 dollar dealer upgrade, coming out next month? It is supposed to include an improved head and a pully for the super charger. Other than that, I am not sure. The good thing is that it doesn't void your factory warranty.
>>

You're refering to the John Cooper Works MCS upgrade. It consists of a new supercharger to which they've put a 15% reduction pulley and teflon coated the internals. A new head, which sounds like it's only been ported and polished (no new cam stock valves), an exahust and finally an ECU upgrade. The ECU upgrade is about the only thing that John Cooper Works has an advantage with because of their relationship with BMW. If you were to add all this up it comes up to WAAAY less than $5000. Basically the premium you're paying goes towards your warranty. Furthermore, no one has confirmed this as far as I know, but I believe that your old engine parts they replace will be taken in by MINI, so this price takes into account the core charge making this a VERY VERY expensive kit. But if you want to keep your warranty it's the only way.

>>On that subject, can anyone tell me what mods don't void warranties? ie: airbox, exaust, chips....
>>

Technically speaking nothing will void your warranty unless MINI can prove it caused the failure. So for example if you put in a pulley and your horn breaks, it can't really be said that it was the pulley so MINI is obliged to fix the horn. That being said an argument can be made say if the water pump broke and you had a pulley (as the Supercharger powers the waterpump) that MINI could make an argument that the pulley caused the failure. It really depends on your dealer and how they handle upgrades. I was just talking to my dealer the other day, they've done 3 pulleys however since the announcement of the JCW kit the dealers, at least in Canada, have received a letter from MINI/BMW telling all the dealers that they are not to install any aftermarket parts no sanctioned by BMW.

Generally speaking dealers won't give you any issue with "bolt on" performance upgrades such as intakes, exahusts, springs, swaybars but start to take exception with things like supercharger pulleys, LSD, flywheels, clutches.

So as you can see there isn't any easy answer to what you are asking.

>>Also, is there a performance exaust that isn't loud?

Borla is the quietest but doesn't return as much performance.

>>Finally, what is the most horsepower you can hope to get with off the shelf mods? What are the best mods out there?

The best single power mod is the pulley hands down bar none. For your suspension it would be the sway bar. The limited slip diff is also very nice but costs some serious money and takes around 8-9 hours to install. Randy has a thread up right now with some dyno plots that have all his mods, refer to that as most of what's on their are basic mods like they pulley and header.

Cheers,

Paul
---
Southern Ontario MINI Club
http://www.somc.on.ca/

 

Paul,

Very nicely done!

22350,

Feel free to call and we can go over the entire gammut. Thre is a ton of information here on the website - check it out through the search function right next to the new topic button at the top of the forum.

Randy
720-841-1002

 

Hey guys,

a few more follow-up points and questions:

first of all, your post paulmon is the first to state what is actually different in the JCW supercharger other than the 15% reduction pulley. I guess there were some questions about whether the pulley was all that would differ about the JCW SC, and whether on installation of this kit you would get to keep the old SC with teh new pulley. I do remember now too, reading elsewhere about the SC actually being different by having either polished rotors or teflon cotaed rotors. This is useful to know, thanks.

second, regarding warranty, if one gets e.g. the Helix 15% pulley, and the supercharger fails, could MINI not argue that the increased rpm of the charger besause of the pulley was likely to create the failure? Could one than argue that the JCW SC with the 15% pulley is warranted?

Third, regarding other differences of the JCW package:
I noticed in several posts that rpm max goes up with the JCW.
I had thought that was because of the head differences with stiffer valve springs. IS that not so, and is the higher rpm max soley a reprogrammed ECU (maybe reprogrammed ignition timing?)
Just curious.

TIA!

Markus

 

Reprogramming the ECU can raise the RPM redline. The valvetrain in stock form is good to about 7800 RPM. JCW didn't change anything in the head other than porting and polishing.

As for the teflon coating, JCW calls it a fifth generation of teflon coatings. Your stock supercharger also has a teflon coating on the paddles. Make what you will out of the new coating.

As far as arguing about the JCW kit, MINI has a pretty good chance of winning that one - the JCW isn't the same car as the S. While it is logical in principle, I really think the reason the JCW kit is so pricey is because BMW made a deal with them that if there are failures, JCW will cover them (purely speculation and conjecture).

Hope that helps!

Randy

 

>>As far as arguing about the JCW kit, MINI has a pretty good chance of winning that one - the JCW isn't the same car as the S. While it is logical in principle, I really think the reason the JCW kit is so pricey is because BMW made a deal with them that if there are failures, JCW will cover them (purely speculation and conjecture).
>>
>>Hope that helps!
>>
>>Randy


Let's not forget the markup here. JCW did the design and supposedly lots of testing. That costs money. Add the price of the new parts. Then add the profit that JCW adds in. And it's probalby high since there won't be that many upgrades to the JCW S. Then BMW has to add a nice profit to the kit and FINALLY, the dealer adds a healthy profit to the kit. Then you might add even more for potential warranty issues. Voila, there's your $5-6k. :smile:

 

I'm 99% sure the stock eaton rotors are already coated with some sort of aluminized ceramic. There are lots of benefits to be had by modifying the inside of the eaton (which is a fairly junky piece) but i dont think that coating the rotors is the way to find gains. It may tighten up rotor/case clearances but Im not sure thats where the most gain will be.
Looking at the rumoured power output of the JCW kit compared to what people are finding with a similar "pieced together" system, I dont see that there is a difference in performance.


--
Cheese

 

this is great information and thanks. coming from the world of the big block 440, i am surprised that you can do everything i am thinking of for about 10k.

These are my next questions:

regarding the head, i am thinking of just having it ported, polished, and changing the cam. if that is the case, are there larger valves to be had and is it worth it.

second, if i do head, cam, header, exaust, intake, pully, electronic box, throttle body. Will I need a better chutch?