Another question, where are you located?
If you happen to be on the east coast, Helix in Philly does proper Dyno tunes.
+1 to the Aquamist as well. Friend of mine has a 385whp SRT4, gotta stick to the good stuff. If you're going to build the MINI, I guess it should be done right

I mean if you're not opposed to driving across country, like I said, you can get a 1.62l (fully built engine) or a 1.8l stroker from Jan in SoCal for $7-8k.
He's extremely reasonable, cheap, and definitely a nice person who dedicated most of his time to the MINI community.
There's videos of the engine being beat on in their forums. It's actually really wild. With a rotrex setup, you'd be looking at closer to 350 horses (again, so I've been told.) So for about $10-$11k, you get a proper street machine.

If you wanna build it yourself, I'd look into getting a low-mileage 1.6l oem motor and build it up.
Swap the old engine out, keep it as a spare more or less. Plus it'll be easier to work on that way.
Oh, and clutches. No matter what anyone says, I'd say stick with OEM styled clutches. Stage this and stage that blah blah blah clutches have had huge tendencies to fail after only 10k-30k miles.... and MINI/BMW has a knack for making strong-a** OEM parts.

Oh and be warned! The M45 OEM superchargers usually have failures after 100k miles! Most people who own MINI's neglect the S/C a LOT...

 

Thanks for the ref! Oh, and it's actually kind of rare for superchargers to fail at 100k. You see a lot of talk about it on the web, but our experience at the shop is that they can fail, but it's actually not that common.

 

Dang.. that's serious stuff!

 

Im in Austin. As much as i like my mini though, i think spending 12k on it may not be worth it to me at any time in the near future since im not racing it. 3-4k, maybe. But I'd never get that out of it if i sold it. But that's almost always the case with any car.

My car has about 145k on it, so the supercharger thing does worry me. As for neglecting it, what needs to be done to these to be up on service?

As for crazy expensive builds, having 20k in the car to have 350hp is a pretty good stretch. Can buy a really nice used vette for that, and another 4k have 800hp. But... it would never be as nimble as a mini..

Whu do i always find myself in this trap? "It must go faster!"

 

Happy to know that..

Are there different sized and pitched internals to swap with after mkt? For more boost? Better bearings, pr anything to aid in efficiency?


As for intercoolers, lots of talk about larger ones and extra rows etc, but the larger the chamber is, the less boost there is when trying to fill that space.

But at what % loss? There are several intercoolers out there, we discussed one earlier in this thread with 2 extra rows and a few degree cooling efficiency over stock, just wonder if there is really a performance increase or real benefit. Other hand, i wonder if there is a relocation kit to put it in front of the radiator. But again, that would cause a loss of boost and probably surging due to the time it takes to fill the extra tubing...


Also did anyone adress the bypass valve question? Is there an upgrade available to bypass at a higher boost level? Basically an adjustable blow off valve so to speak. Manually adjustable or stronger spring etc.

I dont have a boost gauge installed yet, so its still a moot point but.. it's on my list.

Honestly thought, the ONLY real problem i have with my mini is the lack of low end tq. Once it's going, its fast enough.id love more low end takeoff power so i dont have to rev so high during normal driving to take off.
Especially when carrying passengers and things.

But... it is a 4 banger so i cant expect too much. Just used to driving v8s.

 

First let me say that I have had our MINI for almost 10 years and have pretty much modified or replaced everything on it. We had it putting down 267 whp until the timing chain tensioner and guides went and we decided to just go ahead and build the motor. At this time we are waiting for a tune, but it should be close to to 280 whp. I've tried a lot of products, many of which were a waste of money, and found a few things that work. I know I don't know everything, but I do know a little and I've been on this board for a long time too. You can search around on here and all of these questions have been answered years ago by some very knowledgeable people who did a lot of testing. There were some pretty crazy tuner wars on here in the early days and a lot of info about these cars has been posted over the last 13 years. If you want to check out our car build, click the link in my signature.

I'll answer these questions based on what I know and believe to be true:

No, the Eaton M45 is a non-serviceable part. They don't make rebuild kits for it. Some people do rebuilds, coating, and porting/polishing. IMO, the cost is no where near any gain you would get from this.


So many intercoolers came out for theses cars and they were all tested at some point on here in a side by side comparison. Basically there were only two, the Defenders of Speed and the OEM GP, that outperformed the cooler on the car. The GP is expensive and limited and the DOS one is out of production so IMO just keep the one you have on your car. There are aftermarket diverters to channel in more air, but I have never used any. Meth cools better than any cooler or diverter so I just don't worry about it.


There is an upgraded bypass valve sold by Detroit Tuned. It was made to address a problem of what was called yo-yoing which at a certain RPM, the valve would open and close rapidly and cause the car to yo-yo. This was fixed by MINI after 04. The bypass valve does not increase boost though and there has never been a blow off valve for these cars. The only way to do that is to spin them faster, but after a point there is too much heat produced and it disrupts the flow of coolant at the water pump. It has been determined after the last 13 years that they work well with a 15-17% reduction pulley.

 

I haven't seen one beyond the DT One
GP intercooler is really the only tested one that showed any benefit
FMIC options are.....not so good
If your looking for TQ...stroke your motor...
Also I DD a 2.0 4 banger with over 1000hp that makes V8 guys blush....it's not the motor that's the restriction...it's the wallet

 

That's another problem (at least I think it is)......for that kind of money (no even including the price of the used Mini S).....you could buy a nice used GTO,Camaro, or Corvette with an LS motor in it that would smoke that modded mini on the street, and track. Throw on a single turbo setup for $4500, and you are making 700hp+ on pump gas. For some more money, throw on a twin turbo setup and you will have an honest 1000+hp daily driver that runs on pump gas.

For big HP, mini's just take to much money to get there....

 

IMO more mini's have had issues from folks "servicing" their SUPERCHARGERS than problems ever fixed...
Frankly, it is a wear part, and if you are a performance driver, getting it rebuilt for $800 with new seals, bearings, etc IMO makes sense for most, and it will be good for another 10 years...
Just adding oil with worn seals when you need $100 in gaskets, $50 in lube, and 6 hours to service it, with gradually decreasing boost as it ages is a waste of time...penny wise, pound foolish...

 

I agree. Fresh oil won't bring life back to bad/worn bearings. If it's to the point that the seals are bad and it's leaking oil, the damage is already done.

 

I agree as well......there is no minor service in a turbo rebuild as I've done 1,000s of them
At first I was told about the supercharger service plan and didn't think much of it I was just overwhelmed with a new car. But as time went on my engineering degree kicked in and I realized it's a farce. Your supercharger will last however long the supercharger lasts....that's it.

I met a mini owner a few months back who bought his brand new in May of 04. He has 213,000 miles on it and takes it to PIR regularly and comes to my shop for corner balancing every week now. He has never had the supercharger off or serviced once as verified by several of his buddies that now come in.
Oil doesn't fix anything entirely..it makes it easier for the problem to exist and continue wearing gradually until the viscosity breaks down again....
then you have twice as worn bearings the third time you service your charger ect....

I know everyone wants more hp out of a mini....but
Most people can't even track a stock mini properly
These days I see to many people with more power than driver training...
And if this is for drag..pointless

Best mods you can do for tq are stated...bigger sc/turbo...pointless unless you have at least an SCCA affiliation