Well a night after coming back from HELIX and all I can say is goddamn the MCS is the best car ever!

After spending almost all day down in the great historical city of Philadelphia, it was plenty worth it.

Eric from Helix was very busy with my 04' MCS.... He installed the 15% Pulley (Helix's clamp on), DT Bypass Valve, Denzo IK22's, and instead of getting the Helix short shift kit (out of stock), a used JCW Exhaust.

I must say. The car runs amazing now! I thank Eric so much... he is a great guy to have work on your car. He knows what he's doing.

Some of things I noticed.... The car has such a different sound to it. To the people with an ALTA CAI that are annoyed with the whistle... get the DTBypass Valve. It eliminates practically all the whistle. Atleast from what I can tell. With the 15% pulley, the car is truely alive. In a blink of an eye you're doing over 20mph. Anybody contemplating getting the 15%...GO Get it!! The JCW Exhaust was a great added bonus. I wasn't expecting to get an exhaust installed but after Eric was having problems with the bolts on my stock exhaust being rusted (common problem Eric says), and being out of stock on the short-shift kits, I was lucky that Eric had a used JCW exhuast laying around. I gotta say, I love it. I was planning on getting the Miltek b/c I didn't want to be "that" guy with a loud obnoxious exhaust... But the JCW is perfect. Very subtle... To me, you only really hear it in the higher RPMs.

The grin still hasn't left my face from last night. I am beyond pleased with the mods finally installed. Everything just flows together very nicely and sounds beautiful!

A BIG thank you to Eric at Helix for taking his time on my MCS and dropping me off in the historical part of Philly. To anybody wanting to go down there, just do it!! I know I waited too long....

 

I couldn't get my grin off my face when I hit 70 mph in 2nd gear in matter of seconds after I did my 1st inital mods.

My car has been in the shop for almost a week come Friday pacific time for a head/cam and few other upgrades noted in my sig. I can't wait to get the car back and feel the whole newly found power as if it's my 1st time all over again.

I have few more mods I like to do to the car before I'm done with it. Some of which include a water to air IC from England, Quaife LSD, Coilovers (can't decide on one however, and or the type of money I want to spend on them, the M7 sounds good, Matt can you hold one for me?) and a header that I will probably do when I'm adding the IC.

Those should do me fine for a while, after that I think I could go with the enhanced SC.

 

What does a 15% pulley do to MPG?

 

If you drive exactly the same way post-pulley as you did pre-pulley, I don't think you'd see a change in MPG. I didn't. Some even report that their average MPG actually increases by 1 or 2 MPG...

BUT, I have to say this: The issue is that after you get the pulley installed, and you hear how much more the supercharger absolutely SCREAMS, (especially if you have an open-cowl type of cold air intake like the ALTA), then you find yourself accelerating most briskly up to the redline at almost any opportunity, just to hear that sweeeeeet jet engine whine. Any stoplight you come to is no longer an annoying inconvenience, but yet another chance to row through the gears and hear that glorious sound!

Obviously, this really reduces your MPG! That is why I began by saying that if you drive exactly the same way post-pulley as you did pre-pulley, you won't notice much difference.

 

pulley has no effect on MPG but YOUR FOOT does.

 

Looks like you've had a nice day at Helix!!

Now, get a GIAC software and enjoy the extra smoothness!

 

Yea i was thinking GIAC later on down the road...but I would like to first get rid of the s-heavies for some 16x7's with all seasons and also a 19mm rear sway

 

Please, remember to check your plugs for tightness. Plugs have a habit of loosening up and blowing out. Many stories of plugs blowing out of the head after changing (including Mike Turner's own Mini). My denzo's were loose after a few days. Just had to torque them again once. It is a good excuse to do a port job when it happens though!

 

...and how do I go about doing that? Any how to's out here on NAM?

 

Do you have a friend that is mechanically inclined? It's not too hard, but you need to remove the intercooler to get to the plugs and that can be a bit of a Bit@ch to get off and back on with no leaks. The torque people use is 18 to 20 footpounds (of torque). Just use the search feature (sparkplugs blown) on this site to get all the info as to why. Just don't believe all of it!

 

Im changing my plugs with NGKs. All work is being done in a professional shop that deals with Minis and BMWs all day. I will ask them about the loosening of the plugs and make sure they have it under control.

This does give me some concern however which amounts to being paranoid about the effect of the plugs eveytime you drive now.

 

I agree, I've had my Helix 15% pulley for about a month now and, I can't help ripping through the gears every chance I get. The car now runs like it should have from the factory. It's amazing that such an inexpensive mod can make such a difference in power and responsiveness. Interestingly, the heaviness of my right foot hasn't really affected my gas mileage much. According to my on-board computer, my avereage MPG went from 23.5 to 23.

My next purchase will definitely be the GIAC. With the new pulley, there's a little bit of lag at around 3/4 throttle, giving it a bit of an on/off switch feel. From what I've read on the site and also heard from Eric at Helix, the GIAC software smooths it out quite well.