I'm looking for a little advice...
I'm ready for my next mod and am torn as to which one I should do. Should I go with a Schrick cam or should I do a 2% Crank Pulley? My Sig lists all my current mods.
I'd like a balance between "safe" and performance. I'm a little concerned with the 2% because there seems to be many people who are not convinced that it is safe for the longevitiy of the motor.
What do you guys and gals think? Should I go with the cam or try the 2% Crank pulley?
Thanks!

 

The WMS head comes wih the cam so I don't know what the effect of just the cam is but together it is a nice mod but $...... I noticed the effect of the crank pulley and for the $ is a very worthwhile mod. I did not do it until after Randy gave it his blessing.........

 

Can you add the Cam to a stock or JCW head?

 

You can add the cam to any head. All heads have cams. It will be good for more torque and power [prolly nearly 8 hp, 5 torque, I'd guess] that the crank pulley. It will not add any extra stress to the engine. The pulley might, although I'm putting one on my car Friday ;-). The BIG difference is in the price/difficulty of the install. It will probably cost twice as much to install the cam, because you need to expose the head. I highly recommend that you do a head AND cam at once, because the labor costs are probably only 50% more for both, whereas if you did a ported head later you would need to pay someone to do all of the cam install work and more.

 

Does the CAM make the idle different, ie., more rough? or as smooth as stock. In fact, does anyone know exactly what its doing to get that extra HP

As to the head, what's the advantage to porting and polish the JCW head ... some work had to be done in there since they tout that? I can find no technical detail anywhere saying what they do and vague declarations of "its pathetic" have no emperical value (as some may imply)

 

The JCW head has very minimal work. Most people believe it's just there to add to the profit of the kit. Put in a way: you'd never find an aftermarket tuner releasing one like it- there's very little benefit. The cam does change idle a little. The car doesn't shake, but the car definately feels different at idle- sorta like it's rearing to go. I have the Schrick. But, the exhaust is a bit louder/deeper regardless of exhaust :-D. The big change is that it increases the size and length of valve opening [to let more air in/out of the combustion chambers]. More air means more power.

 

Thank You for the explanation. The reason I asked about the idle was because I remember muscle cars with Edelbrock or whoever Cams with those Lumpity Lumpity idles and didnt want that in a MINI!.

So one more question.

Which for more HP, Cam or bigger IC like the GRS?

 

CAM. The larger top mount IC's have shown some dyno power, sometimes, but at rolling speeds your stock IC does just about as well as any of the larger _top mounts_. This is because you are limited by the amount of air entering the IC. You will see a good improvement in power on the road if you add a hood scoop, like the M7 one [m7tuning.com]. Search for TonyB's thread where he tested and got data for the power gained with a larger TMIC [he saw little change] and then with an M7 scoop [good increase] and then with both scoop and larger GRS IC [about same increase as just with the scoop].

 

I read that. What about Randy's CF front mounted IC. He's claimin 17 HP although for the life of me, dont see how it would fit unless it also acts as the radiator? TonyBs figures also contradict Randys Dyno chart for the GRS IC

 

They dyno chart is not wrong, it's just that driving on the road is different from sitting stationary on a dyno. The air flow is a lot LESS on the dyno, unless you use really really good fans. So, the larger IC's spread out the heat better, maximizing heat transfer given the low airflow. While the car is moving at a good rate, much more air hits the IC, and the surface area makes less of a difference.

You will have to check with Randy about whether or not he is still selling the front-mount. I have heard that he isn't, because there were CF durability issues given the engine's movement and perhaps the heat of the charge air after the SC. Maybe he still is. But, since it moves the IC to a location where air flows perpendicularly through the IC and since the air flows down and around better after passing through the IC when the core is in that front location, I believe that it makes more power.

 

Got it ... thats exactly what Steve Dinan said in his white paper on the Dinan site.

THANKS INGSOC!

 

guys im a little confused - any of you have links to explain what the following parts are and what they do?

- Cam?
-Head?
-Shrick?

 

http://auto.howstuffworks.com/camshaft.htm

from there just a do search on heads.

Schrick is a manufacturer of cams that makes a model that fits MINIs.

 

Cam = Camshaft - Most all internal combusiton engines have these (or 99%+ of them anyway I believe)
Head = Cylinder Head
Shrick = Name of a manufacturer that makes modified cams/camshafts for MINI's and other brands too perhaps?