Wassup Everyone, this is my first post. I've got 2006 Mini Cooper S (supercharged), had it for almost 2 yrs now and I love it. I've done a couple mods to my car since then, one being a pulley swap. I've upgraded to a 17% pulley system, someone asked me about installing high compression Pistons instead of stock ones. With that being said, my question to anyone willing to answe is: Is it possible to swap out the stock pistons and upgrade it to higher compression pistons for more power...

 

This is a old pic of my Cooper, new photos to come...

 

i have no idea about the pistons, but i do know that is a nice mini. Welcome to the forums. Cheers Badge from SC

 

Swapping pistons is like any other car. but typically for boosted cars you don't want to run over 9:1 compression since the pressure and the heat from the compressed air will make the motor pop. with many high boosted applications they lower the compression ratio to allow more boost. Stock is 8.3 compression ratio, going up a bit higher (to 9.0) would give you a little extra umph at lower engine speeds but would stress the motor with the super charger. I cant say what would happen for sure, but if you were to do it, you would definitely need a tune and 93 octane fuel. and possibly connecting rods. If you didn't add the pulley, I could see the higher compression pistons working better. but you have just gone from 10 psi to about 16.


for all that, it doesn't seem worth the extra cash to dump into it unless you were going to swap to a turbo. the m45 with the 17% pulley has already maxed that SC unit.


a cheaper option for more power would be to get a cam shaft that doesn't require a tune and then allow the engine to breathe with a higher flow intake and exhaust. The W11 motor is a single over head cam.

 

Thanks a lot, I'm glad I found this forum because I'm relatively new to the whole "Mini Cooper World"...

 

Thanks a lot, I really appreciate the help...I'm glad I found this forum...

 

Another question: Have you ever heard or do you know where I can find a performance chip for my mini?

 

depending on where you live you can find a tuner to install a chip for you.

 

tuning these cars usually isn't necessary unless you need bigger injectors. they have a self learning software that can change parameters over a couple tanks of fuel or through an ecu reset.


tuning has its better driveability and such. but is not required. as for "chips" those would be piggyback units such as unichip and the ECU will relearn around them haha, so you need to reset frequently to keep their parameters. ideally youll want an actual tune from a reputable person who can tune mini's. RMW, Mynes/Bytetronic, Waymotorworks, Detriot tuned, and there could be a few others

 

Very nice! Welcome!

 

I've seen Minis with "mist systems" that spray water on their engines to cool it down...Is this something that was made or can you purchase one?

 

swapping pistons is a big and expensive job and will require more work and tuning to make it all work. There are plenty of other mods you can do for less money and easier first before going deep into the engine. Feel free to call us and we'll help build a plan.

 

+1 - I suspect our new forum member is just learning / dreaming big. How many of us have thought about engine builds and/or swaps etc. yet the % of actual live examples remains very small.