Corteco is what I put on the 06 JCW and it’s good. They are about 110 now, used to be 80, but still what I’d recommend for s street car/ daily driver.

 

I think we are on the same page as regards to gearing. It seems when they did the ratios they made it so that the car would pull 6th gear to redline, or close to it.
In my view you really want a tall 6th for highway and if you are pulling redline in 5th on the street you are way too fast anyway.
Even in the 2012 clubbie I gave to my son they pull too many revs in top.
So, the question I have is what I am looking for with the higher final drive? Is it specific to a particular model and/ or are these available new and or used?
When it comes time to do the clutch I would like to get the higher final drive if possible.
This is my 5th mini.
850 green rust bucket
1275 cooper S clone ( canada car w/ roll up windows)
05 bought new
12 clubbie (puegot !) (somewhat problematic)
05 pepper white- Not a spec of rust and lived inside a garage.
Thanks, Dave

 

Any pre facelift S has the taller/normal gearing getrag, postfacelift they are all deeper. So on an S you can use either getrag PnP.

edit, to clarify: the most cost effective option is jsut to swap the entire trans with your preference via another used trans.

I happen to have kept the PFL trams for that reason when I stripped my parts car amd sold it on as a KSwap shell to someone.

 

@teutonik found my fb marketplace XForce header ad, lol. Good detective work!

Have just put a deposit on a 1 of 1 e91ix 6 speed manual, so once I get this one back up and running, I’ll be putting it up for sale, as I don’t need two stick shift cars… plus I’ll still have Alex’s red JCW in the garage to scratch the mini itch.




*****************
so now the big question, if you were a potential buyer, which trans would you want to have in it? PFL or the original FL?

 

After driving Alex home in the 06 JCW last night which is mostly highway speed of 65-75, that made up my mind, PFL trans it will be.

and I’ll include the FL trans with it if someone is a purist or really wanted to pick nits, lol.


60-ish is comfortable at about 2800 iirc, but turning 32-3300 in daily highway cruising at 70ish is a drag. Even worse on the 80mph sections of interstate.


so if anyone has someone looking for a decently sorted FL in spring, I’ll have this one available in probably march to free up needed garage space. Just will be too busy at work and home to deal with it till then.
Thing I disliked about my f31diesel Msport was they are all auto, and even at 1/93 still a relatively common color combo.


so I had to take the opportunity to score this rare bird.
Barrique Red over Terra leather and manual. Barrique was only offered for 17 months, Terra for not much longer, so super rare on wagons (more conservative purchasers /dealership ordering) to find Barrique, This is one of one Xi BR over T manuals in North America. 1 RWD 6 speed in BRoT, and a few automatics. And that’s it.

it’s almost a chameleon color, it changes a lot based on light color and angle. Best description is a wine red with cinnamon undertones and purple overtones? Mmmmm. Wines.









Anyway will update more on the PW when I start working on it.

 

wow, that is a nice ride! Does that have the straight 6? hard to find the three pedal wagons in any form especially the RWD model.
Another question, what kind of rev drop do you get with the PFL trans? On my GPS I am doing 66 at 3000 RPM in my 05.
Wish someone made a 6th with a 500 RPM drop.

 

Yep, 3.0 i6 n52. The 325/328 amd 330 are same motor jsut with different intakes and factory tunes to get a different power level. People are getting 280-305 hp out of them with a 3.0 or n54 intake, catless headers and a flash.


iirc it’s not a huge drop, maybe 300-400 rpm, but anything that gets you from ~3200 to under 3k on the freeway would be a win in my book.

 

Flew to Detroit with the old man middle of last month



Drove 2100 miles crossing two time zones in 4 days home in OneOf1 , dropping Dad back off at home halfway thru as he had to preach that Sunday.




. First day was in a bloody snowstorm for 8+ hours and barely made 400 miles. . Middle two were in clear but freezing weather, 4th day was the desert and 70s. It was at that point I Discovered the ac didn’t work. Still had a wee bit of charge so recharged it and it worked. But ac pulley (clutchless ac system) is on its way out so I have not driven it since and been using Chili instead till I can get the compressor pulley replaced.
Of interest to r53 mini owners however is that e9x use a standalone electric water pump (looks like a little turbo) and they might come in handy for those running alternate superchargers or turbos.

Did have to make a brief stop in Big Springs to take this pic though and you might recognize the background.


and a couple more to see how it changes color depending on lighting. Under fluorescents it looks purple!


and in the setting sun, copper.



anyway that’s what ive been up to in the short term.

will have to get on Rt66 soon and get it running again and finally inspected and registered…

 

It’s been a long time and Rt66 has been parking in my garage for over a year now. Had to get a new battery yesterday, and
I had gotten a new 02 tool from autozone a while back and it did clear the header so I finally got the front o2 changed to the good used one I salvaged from parts car a couple years ago.

so that finalyl fixes everything that was required to pass inspection and emissions (wheel bearing, suspension, sensors) and have no CEL or warning lights… though the state got rid of inspections in the meantime.ah well.

now what is left to do is the SMF Valeo install to have it be driveable again

 

This was th3 o2 tool I finaly found that would fit.

 

almost done finally.







In addition to a new flywheel, it also needed a new rear main seal, new release bearing tube, new crank position and dipstick o ring, then lots and lots of cleaning, and a dash of silver caliper paint to clean the SC horns back up. I also do it on front of block and trans case to make chasing any future leaks easier.


The engine and trans mounts on this one I did in a medium grey to go with the painted IC core behind the silver ic cover, and grey painted Dinan Airbox. See above.

They were all imperfect, so it made sense to clean it up and carry that same color combo of silver and black against grey through out the engine bay, without looking garish or boy racer ish… Unlike the day I bought it with the bright red Alta “sh-tff” it had on it.


Waiting on a replacement strut mount stud to arrive tomorrow as I stupidly sheared one when I put the Cravenspeed STDs on it, but this thing should be finally done by tomorrow evening.
I know my mini loving friend Hunter, a former NAM member already sold his 300 and is eagerly waiting cash in hand to drive it for first time.

of all 3 r53s, this PW is the one I personally will miss most.
it wasn’t 100% perfect but it was solid and honest… and I was able to bring it back from the brink of clunkerdom / boy racer abuse just in time to now be a desirable, well sorted, beautifully equipped little box of truly reliable fun.

I wish I could keep it too… but 4 cars is honestly 2 too many.

 

Finished it amd washed it a just few minutes before midnight Saturday, exchanged funds for title, and then to break in the clutch and say goodbye I drove it one last time across town to Hunters house
will miss that little car.

 

So are you getting out of MINIs? I've enjoyed following along on your journey.

 

I am out of minis personally… but I still have Alex’s chili JCW here when it needs work.



And believe it or not, Rt66 is back in my garage. The new ECS sourced rear main seal I proactively installed… leaked.

so the new owner and I pulled it back apart again this week to put the same autozone sourced FELPRO rear main I used on Alex’s JCW in it instead. We had it apart and engine on ground and Felpro rear main seal installed in about 2.5 hours.

And since it was apart, address a few other items he wanted to do while it was engine out., ie supercharger fluid change, ps hose, a nicer charge pipe and some nicer boost tubes out of my part bin stash, and several other little niggles.
plus we are putting the PFL tall geared trans in it instead of the facelift trans.

 

Got it all done, god what a marked difference the pre facelift trans is over the facelift.
It’s now a refined adult car instead of a teen racer mobile. Just the trans is indeed that big a difference.
I disliked driving 65 mph on freeway last weekend in it with the FL trans, but same car a week later, except now PFL and I was readily going 75 and even did 80+ for a minute or so.

there simply is a huge difference in noise, comfort & refinement between driving around at a couple hundred below 3k rpm and driving around at a couple hundred over.

I don’t know what the cause of the reed switch CEL was, but it finally got resolved, Hunter worked on the DTML unit in the back while I swapped the solenoid by the supercharger horn, and ran a section of small hose to replace the 90 that always fails under the supercharger horn.

prior to tonight every 5-7th start I got the code, this time 15-20 starts later and still no code. Gonna call that resolved.

In short while it was apart, basically we fixed everything wrong with it and fresh fluids all around. Was nice ot get to drive it again, turned out to be a bigger headache to bring back than I had hoped… but the end result was excellent.

it needed a new battery jump point as the old one was a bit melty, so I went to the junkyard to once again scaveng3 off the same Dinan S that has been there for last 2-3 years. .in the past I Got taillights and reverse /fog light housing for chili off it, m7 bar for another mini owner, some random sensor or similar for the pfl parts car, my Dinan airbox and armrest for rt66, and today I got the reverse/fog pigtail for rt66 as Hunter wants to do a 4th brake light…, a minty like new front battery jump point for Rt66, amd for Chili, a front lighter with an intact amber ring

There’s not much useful left on it, so before I left, I also scavenged the (real) Dinan logo off the decklid as a memento, and thanked it for many years of service.