I'm considering a second upgrade stage to my MCS. The first was JCW kit. I'm thinking of JCW exhaust and a smaller pulley. Which pulley do you recommend? I'm thinking of M7's or Ultrak's. I drive my Mini daily going to work and back home. I'm looking for smooth normal driving and so much fun and power only when needed for street racing.

 

They are all basically the same.

Most of my friends have a 15% Alta pulley.

 

Doesn't really matter as long as it's installed correctly. I have a 15% Madness.

 

I love my M7 16% pulley. With the Crank pulley, awesome enjoyment of the supercharger. Unfortunately due to Chicago weather, it hasn't seen a road in about 25 days!!!! -- Damn Salt Trucks -- Why salt just for freezing conditions?

 

I have a Webb 15% pulley and an Alta 2% crank pulley. SC boost went from 10# to 14#. Mileage did not change. Power did change a lot.

 

So guys, on which bases do you choose one vendor from the other? Is it the car life in mind? The part life? Price? Vendor warranty??

 

Price is the big one when it comes to choosing a pulley. Just about everything else is going to be equal. Do a search for "KMT Pulley", it's a pulley that is made in eastern europe and is sold through ebay for something like 60 bucks. Somebody bough and reviewed one, and surprise surprise it was just like all the others.

 

most pullies are the same. as long as they are actual bolt ons and have the self centering hub you are g2g. My personal favorite is the alta v1... it's a design that's been around forever... easy to install no oven pre-heating necessary.

Most of it is personal choice so just get which ever one you think you want.

 

All of the pullies provide the same driving experience. They differ slightly in design/material/marketing.

One item that may be an issue for you is installation: Some vendors loan pulley pullers when you buy their pulley. If you're doing a self install, that could save you money and hassle.

I've got the Alta V2 (installed at AMVIV), but would have bought a Webb had I done it myself.

 

They are all about the same, the only difference is the reduction size. Most recommend 15%. Try to get one from a shop that will loan you the puller. There are some good instructions out there, and It is not as difficult to do yourself as it sounds.

 

The only time I would recommend a specific brand is if you've had to have the snout on your supercharger polished or machined down to remove scratches. In that case, the Alta V2 is specifically designed to still clamp firmly, even if the shaft has been turned down by up to 20 thousandths or so.

In general though, I don't care for the V2 because one of the collar bolts is difficult to get to with a torque wrench.

Thankfully, the days of press-fit aftermarket pullies that had to be heated before installation are behind us. I've installed the M7, Alta V1, Alta V2, and Helix pullies (several times, in the case of the Altas), and they all pretty much go on with equal ease.

 

Why on earth are you running JCW injectors with your current setup?

 

the jcw head is about exactly the same as stock... the jcw injectors are a great match for the stock head and a pully.

 

I guess I'm going to get the M7's 16% and then combine it with the 2% later. I like to go very slowly on performance upgrades just to make sure that on every step and stage everything works fine and smooth. Anyway, thank you all for the advice.

 

Well, there's much performance difference noticed after the injectors installed. First, those ijecktors come along with a kit that includes ECU upgrade and the cold air intake. Second, the car gear shifting is much smoother, the power loss while shifting gears up is much less (less time and less RPM reduction) and so much fun sound. The HP gain guarenteed is 15HP. Originally, this kit is used to upgrade JCW Minis from 195HP to 210HP and they come stock on the GP.

 

your math is wrong... and there is no such jcw kit that has just injectors, ecu flash and airbox. you either have a jcw car or not.

 

Marwan is refering to the JCW Upgrade Kit (380cc injectors, associated ECU flash and air box) which took the original 198 HP JCW Kit to 207 HP.

 

MINIAC, you are
Guys, you should really try it. It costs around $500 and it's worth it.

 

I went with the M7 16% PULLEY and love it. I usually see about 16pounds of boost in 3th gear.

 

that's an upgrade to the original jcw kit though. Ie you don't have the reduction pully, head or jcw exhaust to go with it.

am I correct?

 

Yeah, same here. But I chose M7 only for future compatibility in case I plan to add the 2% cam pulley by M7 too. This is how I convinced myself to go for M7 and no one else.

 

Yeah you are fully correct. But still, this kit is compatible for all MCS and it's not required to have the full JCW to install this upgrade kit, I even had it installed by the local dealer. The way I see it boosting my performance is that it's including all that you might need for the 1st performance upgrade stage which all of us know: cold intake, ECU mod and so on. And just because it's not having the "reduction pully, head or jcw exhaust", it only adds 10HP to 15HP to your car.

 

Yes, but there's no reason you couldn't buy the kit to add the larger injectors and air box to a car with an aftermarket reduction pulley. I'm not sure the ECU remap from the Upgrade Kit is applicable to car which doesn't have the original JCW Kit fitted.

 

Can you explain more please?


Well, it's working perfect with me till now. It has been installed for 3 month and driven for almost 4K KMs. As per all official Mini/BMW dealers, "if this upgrade is not applicable to my car, I would get an EML error. This is because the engine would detect extra amount of fuel and doesn't know what to do with it unless the engine is able to make benifit of the ECU re-map". And finally, the JCW air intake has absolutely no issues/restrictions to be installed on ANY MC.

 

Are you sure they reflashed the ECU ... maybe they just fitted the larger injectors and air box.

I don't know how the ECU works ... you might have the larger injectors but not be using their full capacity because you still have the stock pulley.

This is getting off topic, so you might want to start a new thread on this subject.