Wondering if anyone knows if an upgraded external waste gate is needed when I do an exhaust and complete intake upgrade...?

 

No. But why would you think this?

 

Well a friend of mine is getting a full exhaust and intake upgrade on his wrx and he was advised buy the techs there that it would be necessary....I don't know enough about this stuff to know why they told him that. I was just curious to know if I would be damaging my engine in some way.

 

I don't know anything about the WRX, but typically you don't use external waste gates until you get into the much larger turbos when you're flow a lot of air. The turbos (stock and any reasonable aftermarket ones) on the MINI are all small. Internal waste gates are more than capable and couple that with the fact the the MINI waste gate is vacuum actuated.

Changing the exhaust and intake on the MINI will not affect the waste gate effectiveness at all.

 

Thank you cerenkov....that's great news.