Worked on red mini for a bit. Went to muffler shop to see if they could change out the 02 on PW for me, they wanted $90 to chang3 an o2. Keep in mind I’m supplying the 02, amd was only interested since my garage amd all jacks are occupado with the red minis.

said no thanks, amd went to junkyard where they used to have about 8-10 r53s last year to see if I could find a broken cup holder to make another phone mount.

they only had 2 minis left, but one had anthracite which matches my cars interior, so I unscrewed the mount, and the mounting holes crumbled to dust. Worthless.

Grabbed the silver one from the other car, and saw a complete airbox sitting in the floor of the car.

flipped it over: Dinan.
Looked inside opening and it still had the Dinan filter element too. Took the lid off it with the dirty filter and took my two items to the front, leaving the base there. So I got both the Dinan box, Dinan filter and cup holder base for my phone mount for $50. Dropped by Lowes and got some paint to see if I can at least get a semi close approximation to anthracite, and then came hom3 and started pulling the Alta airbox and filter off the PW, and the rear cubby wall from the parts car since the Alta install didn’t have one.

cleaned everything, massively cleaned the filter, and once it seemed clean I dunked it back and forth in a full 5 gallon bucket to make sure I really did get all the dust out of it before giving it a recharge with a K&N recharge kit.

I painted the Dinan Lid too for that bit of subtle bling, plus it hid the micro scratches pretty well. Looked good under the hood, but no more supercharger whine in cabin. Will take some getting used to.
Of course, with stock exhaust and Alta box, thing sounded like an oversized electric RC car… no exhaust note just whine, so it totally changed the character of the car.










In 6 hours I have to be up for Donut Garage’s monthly Rides n Coffee, will be able to better determine the color match then, as well as take an underhood picture. So far though I think it looks good.
I bet I do NOT have 25 young people pointing the DINAN out to their friends like I did last month with the Alta though, lol!



oh, amd interesting tidbits I noticed today.

no rear fog harness, so if I ever run across a reverse light and harness, I might do a 4th brake light,

And chassis has BOTH. Engine Mount types, can take PFL or FL. Guess there was some crossover in the first 2-3 weeks of FL, cause the 06 only has FL, amd the 04, only PFL.

I’ll hang on to the 04’s PFL engine bracket just in case I ever wanted to swap over to it.

 

Just found the directions and realized Dinan wanted me to chop up the back wall.

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...ml#post2373316

Dunno why, it clears it fine. I’m guessing to make it easier to install the lid by tilting it into place, cause it was a bear to get on.

But I might add a couple 1.5” holes to top edge of recess above where the filter box is open, and dremel between them to make an oval slot to get some supercharger noise back.

 

I, too, had been concerned with cutting a hole in the back "wall" where the airbox sits so I sourced an extra at the junkyard. I tried a modded stock airbox that asked for a larger hole and it worked ok - better s/c noise too. Recently switched to the M7 as it removes the whole wall and the filter is like a foot long (it's huge). And the top is covered--I just couldn't run something open to the heat of the engine bay. Noise is good, but not crazy. For me, the loud whine is part of the fun!

 

It's so that the added high pressure source of cool air available from the cowl vent can be utilized. Many of the CAI's for the MINI and the DIY CAI that puts a K&N filter inside of a stock airbox utilize a hole saw and a big hole in the back of the airbox through that plastic divider panel. It really lets the air filter element breathe and liberates the wonderful noise of the supercharger!

 

Daylight pics

 

what’s funny is I did a big 2.5” hole in the back wall of divider above the factory one, didn’t make a lick of difference, because the Dinan has its opening facing up. So I will have to pull the box and divider out and open up the top edge of the divider recess that is right above it.

Think I’ll do just a couple of holes with one of my hole saws, then join the two holes with a dremel cut off wheel to make a big oval slot opening to let the sound out of the factory Dinan top lid opening.

I don’t see any reason to chop a huge section of the wall out like they want you to especially since the raised box edge doesn’t even line up with the OEM divider like I thought it might.

 

Addendum, was room for 3 “speed holes” side by side, so that is what I did cause it was easier.




Got about 50% of supercharger whine back compared to Alta “box” +no wall. + Alta foam filter .

It’s about the same as the JCW airbox + Alta filter From what I remember, maybe a little more muted.

pretty sure the real difference now is the Dinan filter is closed ended, vs the Alta which is open ended and thus a direct path to intake tract noise, cause with that SOB you could hear everything!

if I ever decide it isn’t enough, I”ll mod the Dinan with a couple speedholes on back wall of it too.


But ~50% of Alta whine in the cabin is a nice compromise and Works for me!

 

Went back to same junkyard looking for some more parts, thought I’d check the Dinan car for a Dinan TB for @MiniManAdam , but was stock, TB, probably because was autotragic. Did find the needed glovebox ac hose in it though. . Was looking for anthracite rear cupholder ring as well since mine is missing. The R50 with anthracite actually had armrest. Mine doesn’t. No go there,


so Alex & I pulled the entire rear console and armrest out, to swap into mine. $60 out the door.


while there noticed the Dinan r53 had had m7 bar, because the mounts were on the towers, and found the bar itself stashed under the back seat.

The young lady, Demi, who was coming over to buy my Alta diverter today had mentioned she had the m7 airbox.
once she arrived we got the Alta installed on her 06 chili, and I took her to that same junkyard to get the M7 bar for her since I had right sized tools to pull it.

also found the torx bolt once we got there to attach bar back to the mounts squirreled away in the car. Owner charged $50 for a complete m7 bar!

brought her back to my place, got the STDs off, and new one mounted.


hmm, that actually sounds a little dirty. But overall a decent day.

oh, amd this happened pulling into the driveway

 

Nice scores! The yards near me really have a dearth of Mini's. I have to be checking every day if I want to find anything and that's not feasible. It's always nice to find some great deals. If you find an intact shifter boot trim ring *(the inner part the boot affixes to- not the exterior ring) - I would be a buyer. I swapped the worn boot on Red Thunder II and that stupid ring decided to crack up. I really wish someone would 3d print that piece.

Anyway, congrats on the 160k!!

 

Ditto for the dearth. One of the two minis left in this yard is the one I pulled facelift tails off of A YEAR ago for Alex’s JCW. The other 6 are long gone.


here is what I have learned in this retrofit.

You can swap a later facelift rear armrest console into a super early FL or PFL (with rear console), if you have the complete thing, armrest, plastic “cover”, and base.
However later FL have a slightly smaller/shorter abs module which mounts under the base, under a “domed section” vs being mounted above it as with the flatter PFL… this causes interference with the bases enclosing top and you can’t get it down all the way To the floor.

Solution: chop/cut the square ‘lid’ or squarish domed roof off just that section of the base with a rotary tool, cutoff wheel, or similar. (It was dark AF so no pics, sorry)

By doing so the base has room for module to sit higher, and it only sits about as much higher as the domed roof height plus actual roof thickness was… ergo no interference with the base nor cover.
now you can just bolt it down using the 4 PFL hold down locations, attach the armrest with its 3 screws to the base, Slide the cover into place snap down, etc etc as normal.

 

Follow up pics

 

Tested Chrono yesterday for functionality, amd it worked.

just re- virginized it.










Later today or tomorrow after work I can try installing it again and loading my vin onto it so I have correct mileage.

 

Hope you keep the Chromeline rings - they look so classy!

 

Nice! I wish I could do cool computer stuff like that. Good score!!

 

I puzzled it out just following directions on git hub.

I do like the chrome rings on Alex’s, so I’m keeping those on the new regular Speedo /chrono mounting plate, but also putting the anthracite vent rings from the nav plate safely away incase I ever want to get an anthracite center ring and switch them out.

 

Fully functional.






I used bmw scanner aka PASoft to Move the data over. It’s easier than doing the ncs expert directions on GitHub. Still had to NCS dummies code it for US measurements though.


now to figure out how to move the air vents over from Nav trim panel to the other Speedo/Chrono trim panel and I can finish up.

 

Complete!






well except that I need to take the seat out and pull the drive out of the floor permanently. But that is not functionally nor cosmetically critical.

 

Most of the effort went into Chili, but I finally did another minor mod.

I have a bunch (like 4-6) “Grolish” branded f30/31/32/34 LED door puddle light/logo proj3ctors. The slides that insert between LED and projector lens fade out of left runni* to long/hot, and they are so cheap ($17 for 4) it was always far cheaper to buy new set than fix the old ones.

pull the M logo slide out, and you have PnP led puddle lights to replace the factory incandescent ones.


they are 5k white vs incandescent yellow white, amd about 2x-3x brighter as well.
bd pic but colors amd brightness es are pretty accurate.
compare to the interior light brightness to the puddle light.






can actually see puddles, gum etc with these.

Hope this helps someone!

 

No real updates until tonight. Was Driving Alex home at about 930 Sunday night and while taking a Left at a light it shuddered with a thump like it popped out of second… but it didn’t.

I can now stick it in any gear at anytime clutchless. Seems like the hydraulics are working, they feel like they are so I’m gonna go out on a limb and guess the dual mass flywheel is now a dual individual mass flywheel and the rubber connecting them probably gave up the ghost.

got it flat bedded home and into the garage just now where it will stay till spring and funds allow for ANOTHER engine out and repair.
probably time for a valeo smf conversion.

when I do it I am seriously considering swapping in the PFL open to replace the FL open so I can drop some rpm on the freeway. The FL deeper gears just blow the admittedly ***** tires off in first and partially in second when ever you get on it so they don’t do a hell of a lot of good anyway,


Alex’s chili needs work too, got an electrical gremlin that causes all the gauges to drop out and throw error lights up when you hit about 3.5k.-4k. Engine though runs fine. I feel like it’s an induced EMF issue or similar.

changed coil pack out to a known good one, took out the boost guage AND ITS WIRING completely, even disconnected the iPod adapter, to put it back to how it was pre engine swap… no change.
Next thing will be to FES and swap the alternator to the good one from the bad motor. Other than that issue which has had it sidelined for a couple months, it’s been pretty good.

 

Turning left would have put some tension on the drivers side axel... Maybe it popped out of the differential? That would cause the feeling that the gearbox is disconnected...

 

Unlike frosty, No thumpity thump thump, but I can try smacking it with a 2lb persuader to be sure it is seated. Never had these off/pulled from the gear box so highly unlikely. But I’ll do due diligence at some point. Thanks for the suggestion.

 

the PO of my dually wants to buy it back and I may be putting the rt66 pepper white up for sale to get back into a manual bmw wagon.

I’m going to have to Valeo SMF it before I can sell it, but I’m seriously considering putting my PFL 6 speed in it so that it can be a decent highway cruiser. It doesn’t need the deeper gearing around town, not with a 15% SC pulley. You can’t use the power cause it just blows the hides off in 1-2, a taller gear would help alleviate that and make it much more comfortable at 75-80 the able to drive the speed limit instead of feeling like 65-70 is really pushing it.


thoughts?

 

Hi Oniz,
How do the PFL cars manage the taller gearing?
Is it the CWP or just the 6th gear?
I take it from reading your post that all the gears are taller so I would assume ring and pinion?
I just scored a really nice 05 pepper white S that was a garage queen from Georgia and is all stock. Totally unmolested.
Thanks,

 

Taller final drive, correct. The deeper final makes the stock FL 160hp S zippier around town at sub 60mph 100kph but I’ve never loved how many rpm’s you turn at what are now normal highway speeds of 80mph/130kph , compared to what was normal at turn of century which was a 60-65.


Congrats on your purchase!

 

Wow, thank you! I have one in my shopping cart as we speak, don't need more vibration.