Those are both great finds! I was scratching my head on the pressure drop thing especially since you said it still pulled like a freight train. Thats why I was asking where it takes the reading from. I've never owned a supercharged car, only turbo so my guesses are literally just that, guesses lol. I also love your idea of finding a smoked R50 and building a K-swap out of it. It got me thinking if I could find a hammered R50 for almost free I could set up the K20 or K24 in it then swap it all over to my car when mine dies. If you do pull the trigger on that I'm going to be watching closely and picking your brain! I have only found 1 person so far thats done it and documented it well...

 

fixed my fpr regulator line and boost hosing and got back some throttle response and 2psi buuuuuuut read below.

 

Long story short I was offered this oc for dirt cheap from a seller on ebay who'd said he had 4x laying around for past few years. So I bought it to try it... here's my results...
now, I fixed my fpr hose that was kinked and gained back throttle response and 2lb of boost but i still tested my other ic befor that way and I was peaking 16lb only and would see max iat of double digits ( was 95' day ) ran like 97-99 usually abd hard pulls never got over 130'.when running liquid cooled then just air cooled like 120's and spiked at like 150'. And car felt a abit sluggish as compared to normal.
now. This hobo intercooler. Jdm sport or what ever it's called...it was 75' tonight and normal driving it stayed under 100' in the high 90's.. on HARD LONG PULLS from stop to like 130ot peaked at 200'f BUT the second I let off it immediately went back to 150's within seconds and then in about 1-2min normal driving it was back down to like 110-130s and stayed around there as it gets heat soaked from hard pulls. I did like 7x more pulls all with the same result with temps.. but here's the kicker !!!!! Stock intercooler made max psi 20-21psi , water cooled ic maxed out at 16-17psi this hobo intercooler IT MAXES OUT AT 22-23PSI !!!!! then ontop of it , MY CARS NEVER HAD SUCH GOOD THROTTLE RESPONSE AND TOP END , OMFG !!!!! by time my car was usually doing 70mph ITS NOW DOING 120MPH AND IM NOT BULLCRAPPING !!! THIS THING FLOWS LIKE NO OTHER !!!!
I'm verrrrrrry hesitant to buy the grs motorsport now because I know itle cool better but how much boost am I gonna loose and throttle response vs this hobo ??? Now here's where it gets better !
I seen those temps and could tell that my intake velocity was way up so I turned on my meth and set it to spray the 1st stage at 17psi and no 2nd stage .. IT PULLED EVEN HARDER !!!!!!!! IT CAN FINALLY UTILIZE MY METH !!!!!! then on the longest , hardest pulls it NEVER got above 110' F....
hahaha BUT I don't suggest buying this. It took ALOT to get it to fit and not leak. 1st I had to put high heat tape around the ends to enlarge them about 5mm. I then had to port both ends as they would have been again about 5mm too short and caused interference. Stock boots also absolutely will not work with it either as they're too short and too wide. But after all the B.S , it was worth it in the end..
now I'm gonna be having Adrian tune in my meth and new parts and let's see if I can utilize my 2nd stage and lower iats more and pick up even more power..honestly ny cars NEVER , NEVVVVVVVER felt this powerful. This is what's its sapose to be. A I wonder how long my fpr line was kinked and my old janky boost line I replaced. I bet that caused the initial power loss I was chasing for past 3x months..
leads me to a BIG question , do I even bother buying the grs motorsport intercooler now or do I just stick it out with this hobo since it performs like I've been looking for an ic to do ??
here's pics guys...

 

So I removed the ic just to 2x check everything and I removed the tape around the edges since I had aftermarket boots and it actually doesn't leak.. I still cannot belive this ic makes only 1lb less boost than my stock ic and even then it only saw that extra 1psi for a few 100rpm.. they both spiked upto 200 on long hard pulls but this hobo recovers far far quicker and actually ACTUALLY provides better throttle response. I did alot of learning about how supercharged cars are effected by stuff like intercoolers and intake Manifolds ect.theres SO MUCH WRONG info on the net about it, supercharged cars respond completely different than turbo cars when it comes to upgrading the air intake system. I learned you gotta find the rite middle ground to amount of cooling needing and boost drop you'll get. And having larger intake all around the ic , I didn't need a huge ic. Supercharged cars will suffer throttle lag and boost drop the larger the intercooler. my water to air ic probably would have better suited my engine had I not had my ported sneed4speed Manifold, larger throttlebody and intake and catless 421 headers.. with the large intercooler on and even the 62mm core intercoolers it was just too large and caused the throttle response to drop as well as boost and power. Though the car can cool far far better , that's not what I need. For it being a street car / 1/4mile runner I don't need such massive cooling. Exp Since I have meth now.. Devil was 100% rite , you pretty much don't even need an ic if your running meth..lol I wonder how much throttle response and boost it would make with a intercooler delete , like make a tapered tube where the ic sits and have it be finned so as the scoops throws air across it it still has some cooling effect and then have the meth activate the 1st stage at 3pai and then 2nd stage at like 11psi for when I'm wot..
I still can't believe how much faster ny car is now.. I know that fpr line was kinked but I haaaaaad to have had some other bad vacuum lines. I did replace almost all of the under the ic and intake Manifold so maybe I fixed what was going on for the past few months causing my power loss.
I also installed ic sprayers onto the front of the ic which do an amazing job at cooling it when I don't wanna use meth or I want it cooler as I'm about to do a hard pull. I also made an air tight air diverter for the ic to force the air down through it as well as not allow any of the water from the ic sprayers to reach back by my wires n coil. I also boxed in the intake filter. Idk if that helps or not but it's not as enclosed as I can get it . I put a shield next to it , sealed it to top of hood , installed rear vent scoops AND installed an m7 aerogel heatshield so Idk what else I could do to make it any better. Though I doooooooo want the dinan airbox I been eyeballing. I still don't know if I should even bother with the grs motorsport intercooler or not..I mean , could it actually make as much boost as my current intercooler??? I know for a fact it would cool better but it would really suck to spend that much money on it only to have my hobo out perform it..
what are your guys thoughts????

 

Which is the reason why I said to stick with the stocker for throttle response/rebound and meth but I got tired of saying stuff so I stopped. I seriously got tired of offing advice based on science and experience when it doesn't seem to help you. Stop wasting money on intercoolers.

 

I'm sorry ... you were 100% rite.. I wasn't doubting you I wanted to see how much they did effect it personally. That's all...
I'm probably just going to keep the hobo then. The grs is just too expensive to buy to HOPE it doesnt have that much of a boost drop...
hey Devil ??? I hear the facelift ecu is better ect , should I swap over to the facelift ecu since I need a full retune anyways ?

 

Stop wasting money lol. the late model ecu will do nothing for you personally. It has better layouts for the tuner. GET A LINK G4. I know you want to see for yourself but your pissing away money like on that latest intercooler. I See iots for sale and hope you make the meager profit for your time your asking but the chances of anyone willing to spend that amount knows what to get and not to get.

You can also see more boost from shitty intercoolers as they flow for crap and excess creates pressure equals more boost but its not in a good way. I had said the best combo is the stock unit with a ddm divertor and factory under hood plastic and aqaumist. Today I did a 1-4th pull at 22psi from the tvs900 mind you and saw a max IAT Temp of 105 in todays temps. Your across the state so you know what todays temps where. I really wish you would have slowed down and bought the aquamist too but oh well.

You live in the Milwaukee/Chicago general area plenty of tuner shops to tune your car. Nut up spend the 3 grand for the Link the e85 stuff and proper tune and come out with another 50whp

 

Let me know when you have the money and I’ll tell what to get and what I have and I’ll share my map to get you going but you need injectors pumps sensors etc


my other suggestion if not ecu is sell sprintex get tvs with the 3k you didn’t spend on ecu. But my options and proven results require you to actually do it

yoir always asking is such and such that much better and I wouldn’t say it is if it wasn’t. So you have to either accept your current build as budget limited or come up with more cash. Ideally enough for ecu and fuel system upgrades plus either tvs or a turbo but I honestly think would be happier with tvs and instant torque or find a Uber rate rmw rotrex kit for sale which is doubtful

lots of your parts choices where budget based and that only takes you so far and now your seeing the limitations of budget based purchases like your head etc. when your trying is to get every last drop it matters. But I bet your leaving 20-30whp on the table with your current head and current build. Meaning change to rmw head only leave everything else and pickup that much. You have just maxed out what you bought. It’s why it’s better to be u happy while saving then unhappy after purchasing knowing you could have got better.

Nothing wrong with that you just maxed out the sun if your parts. Either save more or accept it is what it is. But spending here and there on small stuff like intercoolers or meth kits isn’t going to make more power. Those are for keeping the power you have consistently. I think selling the sprintex over the winter getting a tvs kit and the required rmw billet tensioner will make you happy and Adrian can still tune

 

Also why have you never bought the correct tensioner for the sprintex from Mike at Bytetroink? Just because you cant hear or smell a belt slipping doesn't mean its not to some degree let alone your suck fest when dealing with belt related maintenance

 

Devil. You under estimate my car..idk why you think my thumper head is such junk.. I can guarantee my cars making over 290hp to the wheels without my meth still , sitting as it does on its setup it has. And that's being conservative.
I know my head has room to be better but I could port it my self , I don't want the 1.8mm sized valves. Mine already atleady has upgraded valves n valvetrain. I will probably port it out to tpr2r spec come winter as well as then match the sneed4speed intake ports to it as well as my exhaust Manifold flange. All of which as of now are port matched to the tpr2 spec.
I'm not a rmw band wagon guy.... i dont wanna start bashing but i have my personal reasons as well as a buddy. I got what I got because my car has to be dailydriver able , it needs to be able to sit, at idle , for as long as it has gas in it and not sputter , stall or chug. As well as drive , I want full driviability and ease of driving..I know I could pull some more power and stuff but I don't wanna sacrifice that..
I'm just trying to dial in the setup I got and have it run to its full potential. With the money of a tvs , I'd be better off turbo or engine swap then at that point...
Spending 600$ is alot different than spending 3200$... lol though if I had the extra coin I'm sure I'd go tvs , but it's just not feasible for me...just like e85 , I'm not doing it.. I've considered them all but not for me..

 

Take it easy and best of luck.

 

I'm gonna take jerbears advice and your too Devil , after more testing today the car is back where I want it..it once again has its power back and honestly I think it running better than it EVER has. Between fixing those vacuum lines and this new intercooler and being able to utilize my meth.. WOW !!!! 80'F day with high humidity and sun and doing 20mph I can light the tires up and then going into 2nd break them loose again.
ny bro had his 94 TA out with me today and we were just cruising and his car is a 94 lt1 , 6spd Hurst, 388 rear gears , headers , exhaust and intake AND IT CANT KEEP UP WITH MY MINI AT ANY SPEED other than 60mph up and even then we're pretty even..then just cruising even after hard pulls my iats were never over 120 , stock they stuck at around 160-170 and had 1lb of boost more.that rite there today told me I need to just leave well enough alone !
this intercooler ISNT causing a restriction NOT by any means , if anything it could have had more fins internally for more cooling but that would sacrifice flow..and it has raised edged around the inlets inside , not like stock but they must be functioning as they should as it has the throttle response it should and vety very minimal boost loss. I'm sure that little boost loss is due to the little extra thickness and larger end tubes this hobo has..but either way. I'm keeping it. I got it to fit pretty well too now too and didn't need any ghetto rigging to fit. I could even reattch the rear intake Manifold supports as this intercooler utilizes those... I also set up my ic sprayers on it which do a fricken great job.
I'm just going to have Adrian dial in my new tune for my meth and few new parts I'd put on since my last tune. Then in a few weeks I'm going to take it back to the track and see what it runs...I doubt 12s but it's VERY possible if I get my meth dialed in , a brisk night and good launch. I've been learning to launch this sucka , I found u gotta dump the clutch at like 3400 and then progressively hot the throttle until I'm almost all way through 1st gear then I can go wot and not burn the tires off.. and these are good tires too ! Firehawk indy 500s 205/45r16. which ate one of my FAVORITE upgrades so far. What a difference just tires alone can make..my ebay forcum hena tires qere like driving on moist surface everywhere. They'd break loose SO EASY aaaaaand they faded sooooo fast..last time I ever skimp on tires.
live n learn !

 

Tires can make or break a car IMO. I couldn't believe the difference between a set of decent Falken street tires and eBay/Wal-Mart tires lol. I've been slipping and sliding a lot lately because I switched to some really cheap DD tires this last time around to focus more on the Vette.

I am still heavily researching a K20 or K24 to replace my R50 motor (186k miles on the clock now!). I LOVE this car but it is SUCH a turd! Honestly the economy variant of an Accord or Element motor would still be a massive upgrade over what I have now (160 HP, 161 Torque) but it doesn't actually cost any more for the 200 HP version so it would probably just come down to availability.


PS that Trans Am has a listed curb weight of 3447 lbs from the factory and IIRC the LT1 that year only had 275 brake horse power. In addition to the power your putting down, you have a significant weight advantage! It is still great fun to beat up on RWD V8's in a FWD hatch though, especially when they think they've won before the race even starts!
If you were close by I'd run the Vette against your MINI just to see how it does, I'm very curious. I think I'm still under 400 whp without the nitrous. It'd be a riot. If you can hook I think you'd take me off the line because I have serious traction issues lol.

 

Have you looked into the hybrid motor swap ? i think they use a k20 with a k24 head or vice-versa depending on how you plan on building the motor... it gets pretty interesting..
imo honda are dang near like Legos...
btw , my mini dogs my budfies c5 vette but its auto with just headers and Flowmaster exhaust snd its a soft top too.. but still ! Its a fricken vette almost same year as my car too.. i know stock vs stock that vette wpuld EAT these minis but hehe mines a lurker..
well it was..as of rite now , when it warms up it stalls and will not restart until cooled down..

https://www.northamericanmotoring.com/forums/r50-r53-hatch-talk-2002-2006/361695-p1689-anyone-ever-have-this-code-and-issue.html

 

That link doesn't work 😕 at least not for me.

And yeah I have such bad traction issues I have to be careful in the first two gears. But unlike some of the built smaller cars I've owned, it never stops pulling. It'll do 180+ mph. Fastest cars I've previously owned all topped out around 140 mph. So I guess it'd depend on what kind of race it was. From a dig, from a roll, how fast of a roll, 1/8 mile, 1/4 mile, til they run out of steam etc etc.

And the "Franken-motors" were big with the B series too. I want to just plop a stock 2.0 or 2.4 in it for reliability and sort all the bugs out. Later on down the road if the car becomes something other than an extremely high miles beater, I'd turbo it for more power.

 

 

Here's an update guys.... check it out and lmk what you think

 

Well...can't say for certain the exact cause of that stalling issue my car was experiencing buy I have a clue and I believe it started with a failing / weak fuelpump.
Ive driven the car now numerous times and ran over an entires tanks worth of gas through and 0 issues thankfully.
buuuuut to be safe I did order a face-lift ecu to have retuned so that my setup can be better dialed in and benefit more from its methanol kit.
I have changed a few parts since my last tuning and I do knowtice at fullpull my car runs pretty rich. Unfortunately my afr gauge only reads down to 11 but to goes down to 11 and abit below. Not enough to trigger a warning alarm or set off a cel but I'm sure there's gains to be had in dialing in my afr a bit better too.
so ecu should be here soon and once adriancl is back home we will begin my retune and tune fir the moon !

 

that's kinda how I'd like to do the swap also..i might huntbfir a r50 this winter and an engine and start it now that rice racer is almost done.
I'd too probably start as basic as possible, na , ect. And just get it up and going and all the little kinks worked out befor I went fir power with it and boost.. though I wonder about dropping in an already boosted engine like from the Acura rdx or something... I definitely am wanting to start a new project now that this one's close to being complete .

 

Wow! Given what I see on the video, I have to say that the suspension on your MINI is way too stiff. I had the Sport Plus on my MINI and removed it because it required an old-style kidney belt to keep from pissing blood. Yours seems even stiffer than that!

 

I have rev9 coilovers , camber plates , all adjustable front n rear control arms n end links ect ,all filled or polly bushings and strut braces ect.pretty much an entire performance suspension. I have my coilovers set so that I don't get rebound or excess bounce if I were to hit a bump while coming around a turn fast..lol yea I could set them for better comfort but in all honesty it's still not a jarring ride or rattlebox by anymeans. But hahaha yes, I have it set very stiff. May be too stiff for your liking but when times comes to track it , its set correctly.. I have my car setup to dailydrive BUT be able to jump on a track anytime , anywhere and run 0 issues and then be able to drive it back home.

 

AWESOME ! I was saving to buy a leap v3 carbonfiber hoodscoop and I ended up running across this listed on ebay ( lol of course I did and had juuuuust enough $ ) and HAD to pull the trigger on it as it was only one available and it was almost half the price of the leap version which this looks to be either an exact copy of or actually leap. I will find out in like 3x weeks !
so will be selling my current cf hoodscoop for cheap then. Mine actually sits perfect with no gaps or anything which is uncommon with these cheaper ebay ones that I am currently running.
mrblah , THANK YOU ! he already has sent out my programmed facelift ecu and even set it fir 550cc for me so i can atleast start n drive the car if I need to move it into range of my wifi for when adriancl does the tuning. We needed to last time as I have a few programs besides inpa on my laptop he uses when he tunes my car so he can monitor spefic things to know what exactly to adjust. The man truly is a wizard and a pleasure to work with.. I can say the same for mrblah , he's been nothing but polite n patient with me through this also.
Props to you two guys ! I very much appreciate your guys help. Also thx to who ever has helped me work through the few issues that gave popped up so far..
I also found the brackets for mounting foglight/race lights in front of the grill , stainless too for 13$ shipped , got brighter than what's offered on the package lights for 30$ for both and then a full wire harness for 12$.. lol how do the companies charge 150$+ for those 3x items ??? Thats just crazy..
I need the lights because I put in led headlight bulbs tgat are great for normal driving lights but the brights literally make no difference when turned on unfortunately so i will be using these fog/race lights as my brights. I'd had the setup on my last cooper and really liked them as they outshines the brights with ease.
I also found these super sweet C pillar covers that allow the air to flow off the window and directs them out through them . They will really add to my chunk widebody look. i will have to buy those though probably next month. I also found hoodscoops specifically made for the r53 too that are bigger than mine and are made with our hoods curvature in them. So I could cut them in over my already existing holes which I'm very much considering doing.. I will have to really give it some though as that will be a dangerous install with my brand new bodywork..
I wI'll too start scraping off the rear tint on my hatch window that has begun to bubble and have that redone since it's cheap and really helps the car look nicer. Bothers me having my car looking as clean n stuff as it will and then that rear window looking like crap..
my cousin also just sent me a few pics of some new r53's the salvage yard just got in , there's 3x of them and all looked to still have their sc' , heads ect so u will be running there asap as the owner and I have been doing business with each other for 15+ years now..I legit won't go to any other salvage yard with their prices because AL gives me absolutely unbeatable prices. So if anything is worth taking I will and post the stuff up and pass on some things cheap to hopefully help a few others out..
here's pics of that new hood scoop I got coming !

 

Old scoop is off and up for sale as well ad old shift light I'd had.
I put in the jcw shiftlight ( not OG ) but i had to order a dimmer switch as its far FAR too bright..lol blinds me when its telling to shift. Its pretty nice but i wish the lights went left to right to my old one but other than that everything else I like better.
I also got and put in the programmed ecu from mrblah and hooked up mpps and sent its base tune on over to adriancl for him to retune to my liking and mods..
I gotta find someone to help me next month or so as I'd like to replace my clutch with a lightweight singlemass flywheel and stage 2x clutch. I'd also like to get around to finally upgrading my brakes further to atleeeeeast r56 S brakes at the minimum though I'd really really like some brembos or something of the likes. I mean , it WAS my whole point of getting the 16in timeattacks.
sooooooo now just waiting on the racelight setup to get here , bigger hoodscoop and for adriancl to get my facelift ecu tuned for my meth n stuff..

 

For pulling the tint off the rear window pick up a cheap hand held steamer. They are for getting wrinkles out of clothes but work great for pulling tint. Just went through it on the Vette. Had 1990's 2 leayer tint thats been on there 20 years. The hatch had a lot of glue left behind but the front windows didn't even need to be cleaned after! Works great. Don't use a scraper on the rear if you have the defroster lines because they are mad easy to damage. Just get a corner started and work it real good with the steam on both sides and it'll come right off.

 

thx for the tip.. yea i do have rear defroster so I will DEFINITELY give the steamer a try. Do you think the plastic razor blades are OK or are those defroster filament that fragile?