I want to make my Mini alittle faster. I have C.A.I and a magnaflow exhuast. The mods I was thinking of are Headers and an ECU. Any thoughts on what kind of ecu to get and headers. The headers need to be smog legal in CA.
Thankss

 

those are my two next steps also you should get a throttle boddy too. I've been looking at megan and mth myself

 

I have MTH softwre on mine and am quite happy with it. As far as I know, only Miltek makes a header that Is CARB certified. It is more expensive than others, but it does come with a cat.

 

Headers are ALWAYS legal...Okay, well that statement is false. No inspector is ever gonna know you threw an aftermarket header on unless you tell him. It is only leagal if it has a CARB sticker with it. Which I don't think any of the ones I know of have. You get into issues when you don't run a CAT because 1-It kicks out an EML light because you have to stow the second sensor and 2-You won't pass the hydrocarbon test of the smog check without one. That being said...go with the OBX. You can buy 4 of them in regards to the others. For ECU tuning...I would go with the Unichip. That's the best one currently that I know of.

 

Unichip makes a MC chip?

 

I don't know about all that. I've heard cars with headers on them. It's pretty obvious that it is not a stock exhaust and would warrant a closer inspection.

 

I had headers on my civic and they knew so i wanna make sure its all legal. Unichip does make a chip for the MC. I dont really like it though. I had an evo tech remap on my '04 and I loved it. Dont like that it took almost a week to get back!!

 

Well...I grew up in Northridge for most of my life. So, I know how CA smog is. If I can get through smog with a 600 HP Mustang....I think I would be fine with a header on a Mini Cooper. If your so stressed about it...do a custom exhaust setup with no cat and when inspection is coming due....swap it out. Plain and simple.

 

Never said it can't be done. If you know the "right shop" anything can be done. But we are talking from a purely legal aspect.

 

a civic is alot more obvious than the MC haha.

 

Try the OBX header with the stock cat that should be good enough for passing emission. I believe Helix has them.

 

In Cali it is not enough to just pass emission. If they see something that is not OEM and does not have a CARB sticker, they can ding you for that.

 

Buy something with a Carb sticker, then remove the carb sticker and...there you go...hypothetically speaking...of coarse.

 

 

hmmm good idea

 

You don't wanna do that.....you would be doing something illeeeeeeeegal....

 

your right i would never do that!