Is it time to dig in and start laying down big cash for the bigger mods?
Im at about stage 1, minus the tune. (see signature)
Whats next?
Whats a safe order to continue my modding?
I have one ball mod, im thinking of deleting the resonator and fitting a flowmaster catback onto the stock pipes. Any thoughts on custom exhausts? Oem exhaust pipes look well made. Im not picky when it comes to sound, just need more flow!
What about converter swaps? Ive heard of most aftermarket failing. I dont want to thow check engine codes as a straight pipe would.
WHat about modding the throttle body?
Whats a safe lowest price for a good header? Im not interested in 700 dollar header, but im not gonna buy a 200 dollar ebay thingy
Cylinder Head work....Anybody have experience actually doing this part? What is involved? Intercooler removal im guessing along with perhaps some of the charger?
Cam shaft +2 crank pulley? ive read i think psi drop when fitting aftermarket head and cam correct?
Injectors...
What else, my satisfaction for my cai and pulley swap lasted bout a month. Now i NEED MOREEEE

 

I'm at the same point as you minus the one ball. I'm curious if a new exhaust would make a real difference worth the $$$.

Can get an invidia N1 for $550... but thats a good chunk of money we could put elsewhere!

 

I have nothing but a 15% pulley and VGS. Maybe seasoned mini tuners will correct me, but from the empirical data and dyno charts I've found on the net, on a r53 the ''air-flow'' kind of mods, i.e. CAI, headers, exhaust, cylinder head porting etc will all make a difference but a subtle one especially if you don't track race. For example, I've seen dyno charts that prove a CAI will indeed give you 2-3 extra hp on a pulley car... But at redline. My bet is these mods are best considered as upgrades when they become a restriction to your other mods, rather than power building mods.

It all depends of where you want to go, and how much money you want to spend, and if you pay the labor or you work on your car yourself.

Getting to the cylinder head is not very difficult, you don't even have to put the car in service mode. Just remove the intercooler, and then then the intake and exhaust manifold. On my car, I had to remove the whole front of the vehicle because there is a small slack when you bolt the exhaust air duct to the supercharger and mine was assembled in such a way that the exhaust couldn't clear that duct and the mounting studs, so it was trapped there until I slacked the supercharger mounting bolts enough to free the intake. If you do not plan on installing bigger valves, you can actually port your cylinder head yourself, if you have the confidence to do so. You will need a big air compressor, a die grinder, a steady hand, and patience. There are lots of good informational videos on the net. But frankly, a good part of porting a cylinder head is matching the head ports to the manifold ports, and the r53 head seems pretty well matched already. So IMO don't consider paying big bucks on a ported head, either do it yourself or try to find a used JCW head. You can also buy a big valve head. Don't know exactly what it does on the mini but many guys will tell you that bigger valves will help you build hi rev power, but you sacrifice some low end torque.

A camshaft, if you can install it yourself, will not break your bank and give you some power since it directly affect your compression ratio. But you will need a tune to go with it.

There's the sprintex supercharger... It is inherently superior to the stock one because it produces less heat. Nice increase in power but 3k just for the parts.

JCW GP intercooler... Won't produce power but will help to reach the potential of your engine, especially in hot weather. About 7-800 for the intercooler and diverter.

You say you don't have done an ecu remap. Honestly it is probably the most cost effective upgrade at this point. If you want some serious power, you might consider a water/meth kit. For 1k, it looks like it does wonders on our engines. It cools it down, and since it does a lot to prevent detonation, you will be able to tune your ecu more aggressively.

If I had the money right now, I would probably go for water/meth, camshaft, injectors, and slightly oversized pistons with higher compression ratio for something like 3k in parts. And then a good tune... Even better yet there's the RMW 2.0L stroker engine, but I don't think I'll ever have that kind of money.

 

Changes to a larger throttle body have proved to be fairly ineffective with our cars since the bottleneck in the intake system is the supercharger. Wouldn't waste your time or money there. Also, be careful with a lightened crank pulley. If you lighten the crank pulley and match it with a reduction pulley on the supercharger, say your 17% and a 2% crank, you're now at 19% reduction. It becomes more and more likely that you will over-spin the supercharger and create more heat and less power.

A $200 eBay header, aka OBXr, is not a bad investment at all. It does the same thing the $900 headers will do at a fraction of the cost. Tons of people are running the OBX/OBXr header or the Megan Racing header and have no issues with it. On that same note, you are able to run a test pipe (no cat) and avoid the check engine light. I'm currently doing it.

It sounds like you're in a spot where you could either go for a tune (and maybe some larger injectors) and call it a day, or you could decide to really dive in and start spending more money to try to get into the higher ends of the power that Minis are making. I have experience with Thumper for my head and Mynes Performance for my tuning. No complaints about either company or the products that they offer. Feel free to pm me for more info.

 

Just some semantics. A catback runs from the cat to the tips. If you replace the resonator (muffler) with a Flowmaster, you're just replacing a muffler.

As for the header, no need to remove intercooler or anything. Watched Way install one at an AMVIV, and it only requires jacking up the front and working from below.
Happy modding!

 

Try a swaybar....will make turns more fun!!
some of those $200 ebay exausts are sold by a few poor vendors for $900 with a bit of engraving on the tips.....

 

And intercooler removal on a gen1 is about a 3 minute job...4 torix screws...no fear!! Much simpler than sparkplugs!!

 

Getting a "psi drop" when changing a head or exaust is good!! It indicates low resistance to tge air moving, so MORE VOLUME....so the sc will be more efficient. That is why a jcw, same mods has lower boost...a ported head. But head work is $$$.

 

I've never heard of a test pipe. Can you explain to me what that is?? What about sound? Drone? I'd imagine great performance increase!

 

Test pipe is a section of pipe that replaces the cat.....will give you a check engine light...slight hp gain....just like de-catting a car....name is to keep it legal...
You are gonna just use the "test pipe" on the dyno right? Lol.

 

Eh not interested in check engine light. Its my DD.
Should i buy a aftermarket cat or is the oem good enough?
i was told somewhere its not worth exhaust upgrade without aftermarket cat.
i think with a good header my one ball with do, i feel its getting louder. what do yall think?
Also, what cc injectors can i run? can i put them in and run them until i get a tune? or is a tune neccisary with injectors?

 

My suggestion if you want to keep it a relilable daily driver with no check engine codes....
get a catback...will add a bit hp...if you find one you like...will add a bit of hp, better ones are about 5 hp....so easy to skip...mostly sound/weight. Header...you are loosing the precat...usually ok, but some cheap headers have a short life, cracking at the cheap flex pipe in 5000 miles...heck one is for sale broken now....
I would say, maybe put a cam in the car....then injectors and a tune....good power, decent hp for the $$ spent. Then i would spend $$ on suspension upgrades, maybe brakes (often overlooked).
I got to 200 hp, and decided it was enough for me...why melt tires?! Lol. The mini is for the twists, not the drag strip anyways....

 

PS
For best power, always tune with injectors....the 380's CAN be run ok, no tune, but if you have a cam, bigger ones are imo needed, and those cannot be run no tune...
So cam, then just pop injectors in when you tune!! Be maybe 220+ depending on the health of the car...

 

Thanks for this information!
Whith my current mods what should I be putting out? It's a pre owned car but runs like a top. 63k miles. Only noise I hear is the tensioner bearing. I'm afraid ill have to replace soon. Its Not loud but audible. Not sure exactly but it's on the belt side of engine and it was audible before pulley upgrade

 

Also what cc injectors should I be looking at with a cam? I'm guessing ill go with RMW for everything.

 

Guessing 180 ish to the wheels....
And remember, factory numbers are to the CRANK BEFORE external losses...so folks sometimes ger fixated on 200 or 210 to get about the same as a jcw...but if you test that much to the wheels, you have a significant number MORE than the jcw...
for injectors, check with your tuner...
I know rmw was liking 550's , and helx likes the 440's better, not sure what waymotorworks likes....but get quality, and imo get the right spraypattern to match factory, the duel cone. The tuner will "scale" them to run right in the tune.

 

so your saying im faster than a jcw at this point? or about as fast.

What is the best setup
CAM
INJECTORS
TUNE
need more info on matching tunes to spray patterns....
RMW sells injectors tune and cam on their site. would that be the easiest? How do i purchase a tune? I have to send my ecu in?
is there is cheaper "pack" including these three things? meaning can i buy like i did my pulley pack...sounds like im ditching exhaust upgrades and going this route...more bang for the buck.

on a side note does anybody have a link to a cam/injectors swap write up?

 

Couple of things here...

1. I could help you out with info for the cam/injector install. I don't have a write up together but its not a terrible difficult job at all. Only real big task is making sure you don't jump a tooth on the camshaft sprocket when dealing with the timing chain.

2. I'm pretty sure RMW and Helix both like the 440cc injectors. Mynes uses the 550cc. Way recommended the 380cc injectors to me back when I was doing all of my research. I ended up going with the Mynes FA53 software and the 550cc injectors. That way Mynes could tune them with their program and I knew everything would be together. I liked the idea of being on the side of "too much flow" instead of the "not enough flow" side.

3. You can run a test pipe without a check engine light. There is a sort of spacer that you can put into one of the bungs to lift the post-cat o2 sensor higher out of the stream. The idea is that it will get hit with less exhaust, causing it to not pick up on the fact that there is no cat installed in the stream.

4. Look around for what best fits you. I'm pretty sure RMW has never been accused of not performing, but they're never been accusing of being cheap either. Make sure you look at prices and the customer support you're going to receive when making your decision.

As for the mention of a Sprintex above, I may be able to help you out with that if that's the route you wanted to go.

 

Also, I just read your last comment above. If you're going to go with a cam/injector/tune combo, you might as well do the exhaust. If you're going to try to flow more air you need to get the air out of the motor efficiently. Also, if you're already in there for a cam, why not throw a ported head on there, if its in the budget that is? If you want to make real power, that step is going to have to be taken eventually.

Say you were to jump up to a Sprintex kit down the road. You will be eliminating the stock supercharger, which is the current bottleneck in the system. But by doing so, you'll be making the cylinder head the new bottleneck, because the Sprintex will be able to move more air than the head can handle efficiently. It'll run and make more power than stock, but it won't make all the power it could. If you're going to go down this slope, you might as well make all the money you're spending worth it.

 

So what kind of power does a tune bring?

Assuming exhaust is a waste of $$ (relatively), would injectors + a tune be a good way to top off a car with just a CAI and 15% pulley?

 

Can't really say how much power a tune is going to bring. But you're going to increase your throttle response, increase air sucked in and increase fuel used at wide open throttle. You'll run more efficiently and effectively and make more power. Not to mention the improvement in overall driving ability.

I'm still not convinced an exhaust is a waste of money. It may not bring 30hp gains like you could see from bolting a larger exhaust on a v8 motor. But if you're going to try to pull more air into the cylinder head and burn more fuel, you need to get everything out more easily. This is done with a header that flows better, the subtraction of a cat, etc. Leaving the stock exhaust system on a motor that has been worked for better flow and better performance seems silly to me.

As for injectors and a tune, if you feel that you're content with the pulley and intake, and may go to an exhaust later but nothing more, 380cc injectors could be run without a tune. Tuning them would give you better efficiency and performance, but the tune wouldn't be necessary to run the car with the 380cc injectors installed.

 

I would reccomend a Cam in your position if you want more power.
And a tune, Injector choice is subject of what tuner you use.
Like mensioned above Mynes runs a 550 RMW runs a 440/450 and Way uses 380.
I personally have RMW tune my car and have had great sucess and am very happy with my performance, (see sig)
As far as the Ebay headers for 200, yes they will bump some midrange but I fully disagree they will not perform the way a 900 dollar header will.
In this case you get what you pay for. Do the cam and the tune and see how you feel. it should net you around 210 hp to 215 i would guess.
I fully think you should not install the cam yourself. Its cheaper and easier to just pay someone to do it rather than think about and potentially find the pitfalls of messing it up yourself.

 

What order should i go about this?
Should i put them all in at once? There is a dynojet tuner in houston called Secret Service...do you think i should try them out? Can they ultimatly do what Jan does or should i use him>

 

Do the cam first. then the header, If you can swing for a cam and header with a tune do it all at once. its up to you to decide what you can afford to throw at the car.
Its highly unlikely that they can Cater to ECU tuning your R53. You could ask but unless you know for sure others have gone their with good results i would call Jan and ask questions of him and see if he can get you taken care of. (I know he can)
Houston eh, good stuff.