Is there a way to tell if your Cooper S had its supercharger pulley changed. I picked up a cooper S 2days ago, came with intake and exhaust, but not sure if the prev. owner had changed the pulley. What should I look for, the belt are showing signs of wear and tear. But the car is rock solid. Runs great.

 

I would look for the pulley (usually a silver polished piece instead of the factory black). It seems like it is pretty difficult to reinstall the factory pulley after it has been removed. Unless I am wrong, you have to heat the factory pulley up in the oven to put it back on the supercharger shaft. Really not worth the $120 it would cost to buy a new one. So I would say that if there is not a aftermarket pulley on the car now, there probably wasn't one on there previously.

 

There most certainly is. And should have been something you looked at before purchasing the car.... but nevermind that now.

Get a small flash light... Pop the hood, Look on the passenger side of the engine bay where the belt is visible. The Supercharger Pulley is on the top, closest to the front of the car, kind of hidden under a silver tensioner arm.

The easiest way for me to tell you whether it's the stock one or not is to tell you what the stock one looks like.

It'd be BLACK, and have no visible holes in it.

Almost all the aftermarket ones i've seen are of a 2 piece design, so you'd see little allenkey bolts on the pulley if it's an aftermarket one.

Good Luck.

PS. If it's a stock pulley, let's get you a new one pronto!

 

check out my gallery, there are several pictures showing what a stock pulley looks like.

 

Good Job Holdenontoit! I mucked my stock pulley up getting that bastard off. Your's looks prestine!

 

The stock pulley also has a ridge on the outer edge, whereas all aftermarket pulleys are essentially flat. And the stocker has a small plastic 'button' in the middle.

 

thanks. Up till recently I was making those tools.decided to dump what i had in light of the fact of the new engine.I did however sell a bunch to several vendors who will loan them if you buy the pulley from them: Helix and webb

 

Ok will look for that when I get home. What about driving wise, does the car pick up right away or only after 3k rpm. I notice that the car takes off after 3k rpm because thats when SC kicks in. If i did have a pulley will I notice any thing diff. Thanks for all the input.

 

Well, the Eaton pulley on the MINI is a "root" type one primarily designed to add power at the low- to mid-range. The smaller the pulley, the faster the blades inside of it will spin - that's why aftermarket pulleys are REDUCTION pulleys. Depending on the size of the pulley reduction (15% is the one most non-race folks use mainly because it doesn't require the ECU to be reprogrammed or anything) you'll get MORE compression, hence MORE boost at the same RPMs as you would with the OEM one. Of course, this puts a bit more stress on the supercharger itself, but most feel the trade-off for more power is well worth it. If you "downgrade" to the (larger) OEM pulley (assuming you have an aftermarket one installed now) you'll get a bit less boost.

See HERE for more info!