Hi all,

Very new here, have joined a couple of forums but had no real joy in answering my question. Google gives me the meaning of life when all I want is a simple answer.

I have a 2004 mini one 1.6 with a remap and couple of other little bits, nothing serious really as it's my daily driver and I'm past the age of waving my **** out the window overtaking everyone in front of me. I have so far replaced front wheel bearings, both driveshafts and changed gearbox oil twice but trying to avoid the elephant in my engine bay....I think my midland box is dropping hints. So I found a breaker who sold my the full 6 speed conversion and told me the release bearing is noisy. I was planning a new clutch anyway same as crank seal arb bushes and the control arm bushes while it's all apart.

But the big question, the really big question....

What flywheel?

I can't afford a lightened one so it's either solid conversion or dual mass. Both are around the same price over on the little island UK, but I cannot find any detail's. I have the original with the box which looks in tidy condition, no rocking play and 5 teeth of rotational play.

Any help please :D

Cheers

 

DMF is a good choice for this conversion.Be careful, after 6gear conversion will need to rework the gear ratio maps of DME sw, and also to recode DME and ABS unit for 6 gears.

 

I was under the impression this was plug and play.

The car is currently a 5 speed manual midland, so has the solid flywheel. What's involved with the dme etc?

Cheers

 

I was under the impression this was plug and play.

The car is currently a 5 speed manual midland, so has the solid flywheel. What's involved with the dme etc?

Cheers

 

I was unaware anything needed programming. I'm going from 5 speed manual to speed so I thought it was just drop in and drive.

 

Without recoding, cruise control not work , will get a flat second gear and wrong rrsponse of DSC .

 

My mini is poverty spec. No cruise control,AC or anything lol

 

I didn’t recode mine, but I didn’t have DSC.

 

I just finished my 6speed swap a couple months ago. Valo has a single mass flywheel kit with clutch, flywheel, rear main seal, guide tube, release bearing and input shaft seal. The whole kit is about the price of just a flywheel. i love the swap but the down fall is it doesn't rev like it used to but...... im getting better MPGs since the swap. OP do you know everything you need for your swap?
;

 

6 speed swap

texas speed works has a 30 page pdf booklet on how to do the whole swap beginning to end

 

This is a great write-up/list. I am getting quotes of $895 for the 6 spd Getrag vs $1995 for the 5 speed, any reason for that (is one more desireable than the other? Anyway with this list of parts I'd be able to really compare the cost of the two.

My question is, would I have to change anything back later if I wanted to swap in a R53 engine?

 

From my understanding not anything with the trans. But you would need the computer and harness plus have the car coded for the engine. Or atleast that's from what I have read. With the six speed swap in an r50 you can still use cruise control except for 6th without any coding.😉😉

 

The 5 speed Getrag is rarer, hence the price tag. Keep in mind that the pre- and post-facelift transmissions have different ratios. Most people go for the facelift ones with shorter gearing. There are also LSDs available for the 6 speed.

 

When you say facelift do you mean 06+?

I'm really leaning toward the 5speed, seems its less hassle to drop in while I decide what my engine set up is going to be. Might be more flexible too. Plus after adding new clutch and flywheels and getting all necessary parts I might be in about the same $ with more hassle on the 6.

 

The 1st Gen facelift refers to MINIs built July 2005 onward ... 2005 & 2006 model years for the R50 and R53 and 2005 - 2008 model years for the R52.

 

The facelift was actually ~July 2004 build date, wasn't it?

I can't really help you with the 5 vs 6 speed Getrag choice. I've never bothered to look at what other parts, if any, are different between the Midlands and the 5 speed Getrag applications. The 6 speed is considered to be stronger than the 5 speed Getrag though. Supposedly that twin layshaft design makes a difference.

 

The 5 speed is more expensive because they only produced them for a short time I think, so there's a lot less of them about.

I done the conversion over the UK Bank Holiday and took me less then 2 days on my driveway. Not at all difficult if you methodical. I did spend a bit of time beforehand preping everything, I will list what I remember I bought for the conversion. Pretty sure the cooper s engine should drop straight in.

Gearbox (of course)
Starter motor
New clutch
Flywheel (I kept the flywheel DMF, drives fine)
driveshafts
Gearbox mount
Gearbox oil
Gear linkages and gearstick box thing
Modified reverse switch
Possibly airbox, mine is the square box and it still fit

Extras I bought for 'while your there' job
3 Gearbox seals (2 driveshaft 1 input)
Crank seal
Exhaust gasket (manifold to mid)
ARB link and bushes (I polybushed with super pro)
front wishbone rear bushes (I used PSB bushes)

I think that was all, I found it much easier to drop the whole subframe and remove hence changing the bushes while it's off and easy to get too. I left the power steering reservoir connected and just dropped it down back of engine as I removed it all.

I also emailed LUK to find out the dual mass tolerances as the flywheel I used came with the gearbox. There are videos explaining how to test on YouTube but free play (rotation) is 6 teeth and side play (rock) is 1.6mm.

Hope this helps

 

this helps wonders and inspires great confidence, I was dreading missing something as I am complete noob to these systems. 6speed it is.
Will I need a new ECU ?( I am swapping into a R50)

 

I swapped mine into a 2004 mini one. No need for ecu etc. Someone did mention reprogramming if you have things like cruise control bit mines poverty spec so easy swap. Bleeding the slave cylinder was the biggest task I found but this is the way I did mine.

-take slave cylinder off car
-Fill a paint cap with dot 4 clutch fluid
-Open the bleed valve on the slave cylinder
-Stick the whole back end in the dot 4 so the plunger is stuck up in the air.
-slowly pump plunger to pull fluid in (I gave it a few pumps
-take it out the fluid and keep bleed valve upright
-close bleed valve
-make up, or make beforehand, a strong metal bar that's about 5 inchs or more long.
-drill 2 bolt holes roughly same distance as the holes to bolt slave cylinder to the gearbox
-use a large drill bit to drill a few millimeters into the metal between those 2 holes, this is purely so the plunger does not slide sideways etc
-tighten the 2 bolts to compress the plunger with a rag under it as fluid will come out.
-connect to the hard pipe where it's supposed to go on the car.
-bleed it, I used a pressure bleeder but you can do the clutch pumping procedure.
-release the 2 bolts and bolt to the gearbox as its supposed to and you should be good to go!

Make sure you get the clutch friction plate the right way round, they are marked either gearbox side or flywheel side!