I bought an 06 mcs jcw and already have the mod bug. I've been looking at the alta kit with 15% pulley ignition cap wires and belt. But I also want a true ram air from the good scoop if I can. Or is the scoop just for cooling the SC? Are all scoops open? Mine is but I wasn't sure if that was done by the person I bought from. Everytime I get a car wash my engine gets a little bath aswell. I've removed the flapper and that big plug and didn't notice alot of difference. A k&n is coming soon. Where else can I get more power? I wanna blow people off the road with this thing.
Thanks.

 

The jcw tune already has a reduced SC pulley (somewhere in the neighborhood of 15% IIRC).
The hood scoop is strictly for getting air to flow over the intercooler. So, yes, it should be open.
A ram air intake is completely worthless, even more so with a forced induction engine.
If you want more power out of this thing, I would suggest starting with a cam and exhaust. If you still have the bug, start looking at a more aggressive SC pulley.

 

You'll notice some slight increases in power once you add the K&N, particularly if your JCW filter has been on for a while. As far as your reduction pulley goes the stock JCW is ~11% so moving to a 17% would be noticable. Also if you're running the stainless jcw exhaust system look into the resonator delete mod. Again not a huge increase in power but a lot more crackle and pop without droning on the freeway.

 

Oh and be sure to reset your ECU after each mod. Its like viagra for mini's

 

Lol....
Sounds like you need to read a few threads....
All the info is around...
And just so you know...
The hood scoop on the r53 to provide AIR to cool the intercooler.....it MUST be open...
And a Ram air intake on a normal non sc car can give a slight gain...but on a car with a SC......lol... Guess you could chop a hole in your hood.... Fill your motor with rain water..hydrolock it......and it is useless on a car with a sc or a turbo....no gain...

 

Don't take air from the hood scoop for your intake it's a bad idea. We did testing years ago and found it steals too much if not all the air from the intercooler and will actually loose you power. The air tends to take the path of least resistance and opening it up will make it where the air doesn't want to go through the intercooler, and raised intake air temps.

As for upgrades we have a great pulley package to upgrade your pulley if you want, without expensive wires. Plug wires won't gain you power so don't spend big money on them.

 

Ok so ya I'm a dumby. Haha. I don't even know how much hp my mini puts out. I've read some day 210. Some say 225 so I have no clue. I do have the stainless exhaust though so I guess I'll look for info on modding that next. Any other advice for a newb???

 

All good mate, I caught the same mod bug not to long ago and have learnt a great deal through this and mini2 forums. There's a wealth of knowledge out there you just have to know were to find it.

The JCW resinator delete mod, just entales taking it to a muffler/exhaust place and getting them to cut out the resinator mounted under the gearshift section of the car and replacing it with straight piping. Having said this im from the Australian side of North America and car noise regulations are pretty lax down this way so you might want double check your local regs out before the mod as you'll certainly notice the extra noise.... tunnels will be an entirely new form of excitement

 

You MIGHT get that kind of hp WHEN FULLY MODDED.....
Stock you are 150 or so to the pavement...
JCW cars are 200 or (on a 2005+) 210 to the crank...about 180-190 to the pavement..
Tuned and modded 200-225 is pretty common to the pavement.... With a healthy low mile motor....less for older, tired motors.

 

Ok so today I ordered an amsoil airfilter to replacement paper cone filter should be in tomorrow they said.

Now more on this resonator thing....is it a power gain or just sound? Will I get more of that crackle and pop? (Btw I love that sound).

I'm thinking silicone intake tube and intercooler ends may be my next step.

 

More power... good question some people say yes but it could be placebo. I personally didn't notice any but In theory a freeflowing exhaust system should equate to some minor power gains.

Crackle and pop.... hell yeah! Your MCS will have a new grumble when idling and the crackle and pop is louder and more frequent... I too love the sound

 

Get a header to open up the stock exhaust, the stock header is a "bottle neck", drop in a better cam and a 15-17 % pulley. Top it all off with a custom tune. Your Mini will be almost more fun than sex.

 

Almost....

 

Hehe true and a fun theory to always devote more research into

 

It's a placebo.

Warning, nerd alert!

The resonator does just what it should, resonates. The length of exhaust pipe between the resonator and the exhaust valves dictates the resonate frequency of the exhaust system (kinda like a flute where covering different holes gives a different pitch). When the exhaust gases exit the engine, they produce pressure waves that correspond to each piston pushing the gases out of the respective cylinder. When the frequency of these pulses match the resonate frequency of the exhaust system, the back pressure drops dramatically and the engine produces a small boost in power.
The trick here is to tune the exhaust system to a specific frequency that correlates to a specific RPM where you want this boost. The JCW engineers spent some time thinking about this.
Removing the resonator will drastically lower the resonate frequency thereby giving a slight boost in torque at lower RPMs but ultimately robbing torque at a higher RPM (essentially lowering power output).
This same principle applies to the intake manifold, but this is pretty moot on a supercharged engine.

 

+1
The JCW is basicly pre-modded.....
Leaves you with the options of a smaller pulley to speed up the sc, and maybe a camshaft to get more HP...then maybe bigger injectors and s custom tune to support them.....you might see close to 240-250 HP depending on the tune and health of the motor....maybe a header depending on emissions/states noise requirements.....
Other stuff you list are mostly bling.... Low $$ items (if you call $150 parts low) that may add a fraction of a HP....heck some common changes can hurt you....
Most folks are trying to mod to get ABOUT THE POWER Of a JCW....you have that apparently.... So it gets more expensive to get more hp since the cheap stuff (the JCW kit includes most of the stuff that folks add to their cars from the dealer (injectors, a pulley, tune, exhaust, posted head ((slightly on exhaust side))) for about $5000, folks try to to try to duplicate kit, and get 90% there for 1000$ or so...)...good thing is you have a slightly ported head....and an better stock tune than the S.....
My car is nodded to about 200 HP to the wheels.....very fun, very reliable..... Folks can do more...just ask yourself....how much $$ do you have...things like $2000 clutches can go, just as tires get $$ for decent ones as you start to go much higher....so be honest with yourself....you can spend $5000 and have a awesome 250+ HP garage queen to brag about....things like methonol injectction can help you get there....it comes down to how YOU want to use the car and $$.

 

Hehe hanks Bean thats an awesome explanation of the pro's and con's of the resonator delete mod... you're nerd powers are bigger than mine

Makes sense but as mentioned I didn't notice any performance improvement (or decrease) for that matter so I still recomend it purely for added crackle and pop FTW!!