Has anyone done this upgrade to their MINI:

http://new.minimania.com/part/G2NME3...6-57-Cooper--S

http://new.minimania.com/part/G2NME3...6-57-Cooper--S

Seems like a pretty pricey upgrade and from a cheap Dutchman like myself the cost to benefit seems heavily weighted towards the cost side. Is this a better option:

http://www.sneed4speed.com/mini-spar...r56-set-brisk/

 

Just my opinion SNAKE OIL It's a fancy box. Do a search on Plasma booster and you will get lots of different opinions. Use the money for a tune instead.
IMO Stick with the NGK ILZKBR7A-8G = NGK 5992 gap .032

 

Ya that's what I was leaning towards. For nearly $1000 installed it doesn't appear to be a $1000 benefit.

 

A few folks have sworn by plasma boosters, but for about $1000, imo, tuff to justify something without a defined benifit....some folks say "car idled better" or "seems faster" but for a $1000 mod...seems like nobdy has ever done a real dyno test, with it on and off...makes me think its been done, then ripped off and "sold"....and telling folks it doesn't work would kill the value...funny cause saying it does would sell more....
Back in "the day" many debates on this product....nothing ever decided!! For me, that says it all!! Mods that work stay, ones that don't are sold!! And these could be had pretty cheap...kinda like piggybacks.

 

Waste of money in my opinion.

 

Okay they are on the expensive but, all of you saying that they don't work have no idea what you are talking about. They have been proven by multiple sources to improve power.
http://www.importtuner.com/reviews/p...s/viewall.html
http://www.okadaprojects.com/usa/ima...to/dsport.pdf\

PSA: Please do your research before knocking a product simply because of its price or your lack of knowledge of it.

 

There is no bang for the buck with them. Gains are minimal. Ok it smooths out the idle. Do you have an idle problem? The price out weights the gains IMO. So you can decide how much the gains are worth and where else you can benefit from the same money.

OKADA "Plasma Direct also generates a highly effective multi-spark discharge of 10 spark"


NOLOGY wires do the same "This revolutionary design allows energy from the ignition coil to accumulate in the capacitor until the voltage at the spark plug electrodes reaches the ionization point. At that split second point the entire power of the stored spark is discharged at once, creating a spark 300 times more powerful."

But let me guess how many will say NOLOGY wires are BS.

Would you use them?

 

I don't think anyone is debating as to whether or not they improve the car. They do. I proposed the question to see if it was an absolute must-have item or if my $1000 would go further on something else. It might be something I consider way down the road if my car ever idles weird or something, but for $1000+ IMO, for what I want from my car, that money can be used on a handful of better things. Some good and useful input from everyone though; so thank you all.

 

There in lies a problem as you don't need wires for the r56 since there is no where to put them.




Also if you don't want to spend a $1k on them then don't. It will give gains but, that can be had later on when you do other mods that might warrant needing them.

 

I guess you missed the point. But thats ok.

 

Are you using them? Going to use them?

 

I have been wanting to use them since I first read about them in 2007. Problem is I never really wanted to spend the money. I have been thinking about it more and more over the last couple of months.

 

BTW Nology wires are garbage. I can personally say I have seen their lack of power and watched them go up in flames.

 

Ok I can respect that.

My only question is what would warrant them? IF it is because of an idle problem, fix the problem and don't put a bandaid on.
I have read and see what they claim and it seems legit. Just not for the money and the small claims IMO.


I agree, I was just making the comparison to what the claims are. I tried them way back in 1996 on my Integra that I had. They turned out to be ****, but lots of claims saying other wise.

 

Lets see what would warrant them? Among others would be pushing more boost for starters. You need more fuel and ignition to support that.

 

There is one guy who has used these on his mini and is provided substantial power. I forgot exactly how much but it was in the double digits.

 

hey guys,

I'm new over here at Mini as of this last year, but come with experience from the land of BMWs and Audis. Winston over at Podi gauge set up his car with these coils a couple years back and did hard tests to prove it. Many people jumped on board and reported similar outcomes.

From both the Audi and BMW crew - mileage seemed to increase by about 3mpg. This was on both 2.0T audis and N/A e46 M3's.

Winston primarily did this mod because he was popping OEM coilpacks when he tried to push his car to 25psi. Since the swap, he hasn't had a problem since.

http://www.audizine.com/forum/showth...38-spark-plugs

Short Story - more MPGs, untuned dyno-proven 10+ WHP, and a much smoother car

That being said - its alot of ching

 

Like I said, no bang for the buck.

 

Well to each their own. I've seen people drop $500+ on intakes that dont produce 10WHP. Additionally, assuming a 3mpg increase, this becomes a free mod in about 6 years. I realize that is some time, but I cant say I've ever recouped any more than about 50% from any mod I've ever done - which means I had to sell it to even make that money.

I'd say that this is obviously a specific customer type mod, but I wouldn't throw it out the window because you dont want to hash out the cash for it.

 

+1111111111111

Definitely agree when people are buying a NM carbon fiber intake expecting it to be the latest and greatest and swear by it while there are proven dyno'd out there with the Okadas on and actually produce 10whp. Personally $600 for 10whp is amazing and this is on my mods list. I have a friend who has these on his E36 M3 and he also swears by it. The info is out there to prove the benefit of the Okadas it's just a matter of who wants to search and find the data.

 

Hmmm 3mpg, that would make it pay for itself eventually where other mods really would not do that. Hmmm thinking harder about this.

 

Good point on that! The M7 super AGS is nearly $700. Then you can add all the hoses and tubing to make the air flow better and it's not outrageous to say that it may cost $1000 when it's all-said-and-done. It seems like it really just comes down to what the individual wants to accomplish with their MINI. I just wanted to crowd-source an opinion on these items since I haven't really been able to dig much quantitative data for MINIs. For me personally, I wouldn't do this upgrade in the short term as I'm not wanting to push 25psi+ out of my engine. When and/or if I get a hybrid turbo to push more boost I may do this upgrade just to safely cope with the additional demands but that's a big *if* on the turbo upgrade. To each his own on this one, but some good points have been made.

 

I've got the Okada coils on my supercharged M3. They seem to work very well. Before, I would sometimes get a high rpm miss, the expensive coils solved that...

 

Kinda typical failure mode of an older, aged, heat damaged coil....
The question is, would NEW OEM coils have solved the problem...
Just like with sparkplug reviews...an old worn out component is replaced with new item....things get better....so we know the old coils WERE an issue...but do the new $$$$ coils work any better NEW OEM coils would have?
I am glad the purchase worked out for you!

 

I bet for a 3MPG increase ANY OEM would install them on their cars from the factory....both to meat fleet EPA/EURO CO2 emissions rules, but also for the sales advantage.....
Simply put they have not...so I 100$ they tested the product vs good OEM coils, and it did not get a gain!!