Can’t say I’ve seen that manifold before. Are those aux fueling injectors, or meth ports?

How is that exhaust manifold run for you?

 

loving all my mods sofar.. this engine is SOOOO powerhappy idk how to explain it.. i didnt think itd make this good of power already.. after doing that manifold and ported head it picked up ALOT of power all through the Rev range and has 0 turbo lag any gear any speed.. lol I just tap the gas and it's in boost , like a supercharger, actually better than the r53 supercharger.
and YES those are auxiliary fuel injectors that I WILL run once I get plumbing and wiring figured out. I might have to go aftermarket ecu unless I find some type of piggyback or standalone driver for them. I also gotta upgrade the lowsided pump soon too but once I do I wanna run e85 with those injectors and run atleast e30 until I do.
I like this manifold better than my last one ( speedtech) this new one shouldn't suffer any low end loss like the last one kinda did but here's the difference. Although my GOD was that speedtech one beautiful.
Speed tech- short runner , bottom feed EASY installation.. no gains down low but an INSANE mid-top rpm pull..
miniworks- long runner , internal velocity stacks PITA installation and power delivery TBD but it's long runner and side feed design with velocity stacks and larger plenum SHOULD add power all through the Rev range and a more liner powrband. It unfortunately because of the long runner was a pita installation. Cut engine mounts , replumbing and rewiring or dang near everything behind and under the intake manifold AND I had to cut the rear plastic firewall thingy and patch it so the cabin air filter wouldn't get filthy immediately.
both required mods to the intercooler to throttlebody piping but thxfully i didnt have to do much with this miniworks manifold, my aftermarket ic piping hapoen to mate up very well. I didn't like the extra turns the center feed intake manifold caused because I could tell it was a kink right there because it tended to blow off the boost hose in that spot amd I had to get special clamps to prevent that. So this side feed should help in that aspect too. So this side feed has 2x less turns and almost 2ft less piping.. that adds up too.
I CANT WAIT to hear what it's gonna sound like because after I did that speedtech manifold, it made the engine sound like a massive tornado under my hood and it was beautiful sounding.
so fingers crossed I get some of that sound again but that last engine was n14 and this n18.. that dual vanos actually makes a big difference im noticing. It really really helps power delivery and for everyone thats said n18 wont make good power ARE WRONG !
just wait until I post a new video. This thing even before the mods was pulling SO HARD thx to the to module and high setting. Atleast on my car and setup the nm module added ALOT more power v the jb+.. the jb+ on max setting was equal to the NM module on its low setting..
I'm hoping to get it running today so check back tomorrow for updates.

 

 

 

Test drive ! failed !
soon as I went full throttle it felt fricken great for about 3seconds and then fell flat on its face.. boost no longer spiked fast , only made like 9psi.. I knew a hose didn't blow off because it ran fine under vacuum and partial throttle.
after I got it home I couldn't find an issue and then I decided to smoke test it.. well , somehow my throttlebody cracked.
maybe I dropped it or it weakened after I drilled out the bolt holes larger.. idk ??? Maybe all that boost , lol..
so new tbody should be here tomorrow and I ordered a different hose to connect it to my throttlebody because it's such a tight fit in that spot.. i did trim a mount meet to the tbody where the header panel bolts down and it gave me a little more room JUST IF I could dent in the strut tower alittle lol I even tried making a tool but nogo..
lol Dunlop direzza 2s are NOT a good tire when only like 15% tread life left ,40'F and damp.
Can't wait to mount my accelera tires...

 

Wow , I'm dumb.. I took on n off the manifold 3x and put back on the stock one even until I FINALLY found what was causing my low boost. Duuuuuuuh ,vacuum pump line underneath ( the little one ) it's a part hard/soft line and the hardliners cracked inside the soft line so it wasn't detected smoke testing.
i also installed a new divertvalve and did my custom progressive spring upgrade and I adjusted the wastegate 1x turn more aggressive too..
but check this.. I sold my nm module and gonna try a gts but with the new manifold and down almost 5psi ITS STILL FASTER I would peak 24-25psi and now it's only 19-20. But it's has a Hella better flowing intake manifoldan , about 2ft lefft ic piping amd 1x less 45' turn in the piping so its absolutelymore efficient. ! IT doesn't have quite the low end scoot but the mid range is much better and the top end is ungodly better.
it's hard to really test because it was 15'F amd i have dunlop direzza on still. So it just wants to spin. But maaaan what a pita this manifold was buuuuut it was definitely worth it.
the car will be put away for awhile , I washed amd waxed it and covered it.. in the mean time I start saving for a new windshield and install, need the 225 accelera tires and tpms mounted and balanced and then i need to find somewhere that will do a performance alignment. I dont wamt it set back to stock , I want the car setup to track /daily. So I need a custom alignment.
I'd still like to get carbon fiber widebody flares, carbon fiber vented hood and a cae style shifter but I have bigger priorities right now with the car...
Though my birthday is coming up soon sooo maybe I get something fun.

 

I hate those vacuum lines. My Forge BOV would pop a line off the actuator every now and then. Funny noises would ensue, power would be down, and boost would be very low. My mechanical boost / vacuum gauge would show lack of boost immediately. First time it happened, I had no clue what it was, until I popped the hood. Stupidly vacuum lines….

 

and what really sucked was a smoke test can't find alot of the leaks unless you use a scanner and open and close the purge valve and boost solenoid. Because I did smoke test it 2x .. lol had I just found that broken line I could have saved my self like 3x days of putzing around and swapping/installing stuff for nothing..
but atleast everytime I reinstalled the manifold i did the installation a little better and routing of hoses ect a little better to the point where minus a few zip ties and colors , it almost looks like thats where and how the stuff would have sat stock back under there.. well , with the exception of my foam panel I put in..

 

Forgot to add... since doing the oil cooler and new gaskets. The car has 0 leaks what so ever.. can you imagine that ? A mini/bmw , over 100k WITH NO LEAKS ?

 

New tires and tpms on , I had to install a replacement tpms module because the old one must have failed.
I colored in the tire letterings also.
I got it aligned, 2x and still wasn't satisfied so I spent 3x days perfecting it and its fricken solid now. I also lowered all 4x corners about an inch. I got the replacement windshield WHICH IS A SCORE because dang these ones are hard to find for this car and places like safelite wanted like 1000$ pft. They're nuts.. thxfully I got the windshield from a Ling time acquaintance who runs a local salvage yard and they happen to have a justa r58 amd I got the windshield for 100$ only..
next on the list is new passenger side axle, windshield installed and custom tune and this car will be ready TO RIP.

 

HollySCOOOOOORE !
dude who owns a local salvage yard lmk as soon as he gers in minis and he called so I ran on down seeing if there was anything worth grabbing. Unfortunately there really wasn't BUT he'd already removed THESE for me and literally GAVE them to me ( i been doing business with him for 20yr) and I couldn't in good faith take them so I offered to atleast buy the shop lunch and he'd Said just a 6x pack of PBR will do lolol so I brought him back a 24x pack and a bag of spicey mustard pretzels.. lol fricken scoooooooore !
now ille have something to get me by until i can save up for the custom tune because thatll be the last thing to do and i still gotta get the windshield installed yet.
I ordered front axles but the ones sent are NON s axles..lol look how much thinner they are ! I wonder if my car could snap one of these ??? So I just sent them back and reordered just the front passenger side for now because I can't find 2x again for the sane price I got them for. I see why they were returned because they're incorrectly listed.
sooooooo I installed the bov which is a VOLM ( forge fake) and I greased the piston and installed the stiffer spring. I already had a T in my vacuum line so I just came off of that for the bov source because it runs off its own sensor that piggybacks off the stock harness. Simple enough.
the nm module install is straightforward. And I'm super stoked to have an nm module again for the time being.
out of the jb+, nm module and RaceChip gts. The nm module DEFINITELY added the most power out of the 3x.
I OBVIOUSLY set the nm module to high. I mean cmon now.lol
o yea I also lowered the car probably another .25in also.
i CANT WAIT to start ripping around come the season !
here's pics !

 

Sweeeeeeet ! New axle , no more clunk ! And the car feels so good too , no wondering , no pull to any direction, completely balanced and predictable over any bump on any surface. Just absolutely AMAZING ride it is !
the b.o.v works just fine , actually it's not loud AT ALL you can ONLY barely hear it during wide open throttle pulls between gear shifts.
Thanks to the NM module the car is back upto 24psi. What a difference that thing makes.. I miiiiiiiight be able to have the windshield installed this month too.
Aaaaaand i found the exact same shift light i had in an r53 i used to have ,so i bought it and that'll be here Ina few days and I will get that installed. I'm pumped because I like this shift light much better than the jcw shift light or any actually I've tried. Unlike the jcw shift light , this one immediately starts climbing the lights the second your on the gas where as the jcw shift light only runs from 4k rpm to what ever redline you set it to and when your ***** footing the car , the light does nothing then and that always irked me.
God, I'm even more excited to get the car out and enjoy it.. can't spring hurry up and get here already....
O yea ! And since it lost a little fluid removing the axle i decided to just do another transmission fluid change.

 

Here's that shift light when I had one in my r53..

 

Took the car on a trip to Indiana to look at an r58 S because my brother drove mine last September and FELL IN LOVE and has been brought to the light ! He sold his 94' transam and saved up a little more but we passed on that S in Indiana and now he's on a flight to North Carolina to go I'm sure he will buy it because it's a Hella deal. A 2012 r58 JCW with 70k miles for 8500$ cash !!! THATS A DEAL IMO !!!
Well , I had a low oil pressure warning pop up RIGHT as I pulled out of my garage so I immediately pulled it back in.
i Immediately put it into partial front end service mode and my bumper had A BUNCH of oil residue in it and i found an an10 fitting must have loosed up a little during installation or from the trip to Indiana i just took. Lol i love these minis though even with these problems because any problems that ever arose for me the car has NEVER left me stranded. Well my r53 did ONCE but that way my fault.
I ordered and installed a new oil pressure sensor and upon restart after 30seconds the low pressure warning came on AGAIN. F to the A !
so now I'm thinking " ahhh crap , here we go again and another messy oilpump install " BUT after pricing a few oilpump it occurred to me , maybe I need to reset and clear the codes , which I did AND THEN thx Mr Cooper him self ! The engine is ok..
I found i had the towhook cover from my other r58 I'd owned and I drilled a hole in it amd painted it black so that the front towhook looks like that's more how it would look if it came from the factory that way. I will order a rear bumper towhook cover too and do the same to that , I'd like to have the covers still encase I ever decide to get rid of the towhooks.
aaaaaaaaaaand lolol the CAR PICKED UP more power too after fixing the oil issue , I must have set the wastegate a little different though I swear I did the same amount of threads ect. But lol I guess not because the car gets into boost so much better. And the wastegate can't be more than 1x thread different than what it was before. There is a sweetspot that needs to be found when setting up these aftermarket wastegates.

 

Also I installed my shiftlight and replaced ALL the clips in the passenger side panels because half were broken and not put back together correctly when p.o installed these pos seats.. but if my brother gets that r58 , I know he wants to build it up and ille be doing all the work so lol when he buys seats I'm told him I get his seats for doing the work and he said of course.
they're black lounge seats WITH red piping , ooooooooo next to the jcw Recaro imo these are the next best seat option.
O yea , i out on new fromt brake pads too.

 

Had to replace a tierod end because tiresplus stripped the other one , the bolt that pinches it shut they stripped. So I gotta take it back to have the alignment checked, although I got it set VERY close by my self with the few alingnent tools I have. It actually drives pretty dang good but I'm still taking it back for tireplus to atleast check. I'd really hate to prematurely wear these tires I have.. very seldom do I splurge and get name brand higher end stuff..
I also did a flush mount for the rear towhook now too.
I had my granddaughter over so we cleaned up my family's vehicles because she actually LOVES doing it with me , so why not take advantage of the free help right ?? The plastic trim restoration stuff imo is what really makes the car look nice. Once that ugly plastic trim is an even color and not tigerstripped or blotchy it's atleast presentable. But I still wish the trim was body color..

 

Even though my other plugs were new when I did my cylinder head. I decided to switch to brisk TWO STEP colder plugs and the car actually feels snappier. I'd have figured the opposite but hey. Ilke take it.
I also switched to an actual Forge bov and lolol it sounds no different than than volm knock-off one did..
took some grinding to get my intake to clear but I got it..
Now I'm gonna be doing some maintenance amd mods on my brother's n14 r58 he just picked up last week..

 

those alignment kits suffer because the suspension is unloaded wile you're making measurements and changes. The alignment changes as the suspension is compressed and the desired specs from Mini are specified with the assumption that the suspension is sitting at its "neutral" point under the load of the car. Those kits work well on solid rear axle cars where you can put the axle on jack stands and ensure you are fully loaded.

You can still do an at home alignment and get good results though, I did it with the tires on the car on the ground and a known parallel off to the side of the car. Took it to a shop for a check and it was basically dead nuts, they didn't even make any adjustments.

 

Did some work on my brother's new car yesterday, plugs , valvecover, oil change , gear fluid , coolant flush ,cone filter , sound maker delete, rotated his tires and installed an ebay bov for him..
lol hollyCRAP my car IS SOOOOO much faster than a stock jcw , lolol I kinda forgot how slow they are stock.
Now my brother wants to literally do ALL the exact same mods as mine because after driving my car and then driving his , lol his car feels n/a compared to mine. That's how much faster it has gotten and lol its still running stock tune too , kinda amazing actually this ecu has so much adaptability.
Anyway, here's his new ride..