Im woundering if my super charger is a generation 4 or 5 and if there is any difference.Ive looked inside and the blades are coated in black ,slightly textured.It says 04/04 on the dated but the car it came from was a late 04.Is there any difference between the two chargers

 

The new SC's fins are coated in ceramic I believe. 05-06 are the only MINI's with the revised superchargers as far as I know.

 

05/06 are the same as the JCW Superchargers.

If its an 04/04 build, old supercharger.

 

If this is true, and someone with an 05-06 buys the JCW kit, why even bother installing the JCW SC? Why not leave it off and sell it? is all the "magic" in a JCW coming from the head?

 

Yes its true. The 02 - 04 cars had the old style supercharger. The JCW kit upgraded that to the "coated one". 05/06 cars come with the same one as the JCW. Then again, they also come with 5 more HP to start.

The magic? Some comes from the head work but many will tell you there are much better heads out now. Some from the CAI, some from the catback, injectors, and JCW software. Why not leave it off. They probably do. Dunno.

 

It just baffles me. I have been reading on here as much as I can about the JCW stuff, and it seems I have read many opinions about every individual JCW part that say they do nothing to really improve performance. From the CAI, to the JCW flash, to the SC and Head, to the exhaust. And yet many claim the sum of the JCW parts is fantastic, while others laugh it off as a collossal waste of money.

I realize this is the nature of the beast, everyone wants to believe there approach to Mods is the best (you have to justify your investment somehow, if only to yourself). but it really makes it hard to make a decision on what route to take!

 

I have a replacment super charger build date 03/04 and it has black coated fins inside.My previous charger with an 02 build date had grey fins of which the grey was starting to peel off.

 

I'm not sure if the revisions to Minis sold in the US match those of the UK car, but our early MCS had gen. 3 M45 (no coating), then came the gen. 4 with the grey sparkly coating, finally the gen. 5 with the matt black/charcoal colour coating (which is the same -excluding pulley- as the Works kit charger). Generation 4 had the coating which tends to come off at high temps/rpm, and the gen. 5 M45 was fitted to all post-facelift MCS.

 

Im in the UK so i recon ive had a gen 5 as my 02 was the grey coating which did come off due to my engine blowing and being run to hot plus a 19% pulley .and various other reasons. thanks to the previous owner who over did it. but i hope then i have the newest charger

 

You have a legitimate concern. Read all the thread on JCW crap

Here is the bottom line ...

Many "enthusiasts" like to do the work themselves. They like to mix and match parts. Unfortunately, thats a guessing game. For some, its a hobby. Nothing wrong with that.

The JCW parts are an integrated package, tested extensively, meant to work with each other, and totally warranted by MINI.

There are pros and cons on both sides. For aftermarket, what if a part breaks? Who is going to fix it. NOT MINI. They may ... and HAVE denied people warranty service for aftermarket parts. Don't listen to anybody sprouted of MM Act either. Try to find ONE ... just ONE case of a consumer winning against a car company based on aftermarket performance parts. For a reference see https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...ad.php?t=49580
Mix and match parts also do not necessarily work together well.

On the flip side, its a lot cheaper and you may get more HP for your money

Go JCW and you get full factory warranty and everything does work together. The integrated parts are meant to work with each other and do so well. Downside is the cost.

Bottom line ... the decision is yours.

You can always go JCW and then add a head or whatever else you want when out of warranty. Now that JCW is a factory option, you cannot go wrong going that way if you got the money.

 

I under stand where your coming from as far as warenty is concerned but mines a late 2002 so its not a bother.I just wanted to know if i had the best charger or not.But ive found out from a reliable source that mine is the same as the JCW ones and has the black coated fins.I personaly the JCW package if your out of warrenty is a waist of money and realy just very cleverly marketed by BMW.The head is bascaly just has a de-*** in the ports and barley makes any difference,the air box isnt worth much of a look either,But as i said bmw have a huge marketing power and it clearly works.But for what they charge there is far better kit on the market.I would personaly go for a Jesus Head,modded cam,pulley ,remap,and header.I recon you would be on the way to a safe but quick little ride .But thats only my opinion

 

Thanks for the comments, and sorry fozworth for distracting from your original post. Personally, I don't want to work on the engine myself (I don't have the skills, time or space to do much more than a CAI install), and I don't have a shop or mechanic I trust to do that kind of work on my under 4000 mile MCS. So I will probably either do JCW or Dinan at my local dealer. Not sure I trust the dealer yet, but at least I know they aren't going anywhere.

I would feel alot better if I could drive or even ride in a JCW and a Dinan car to see what the buck are going to get me. Next move may be getting new rims and non-run flats.