Hi everyone, Im new to the Mini world and lovin this site, lots of good stuff! I ran dry cone filters for my other cars but now in a mini, I see that there are two that people really like and I have to yet again ask to you all, which is the better intake? K&N or ALTA? and is it worth getting the hot side boost tube or is that just throwing money out the door? Also thoughts on Seafoaming for top clening
Thanks, 2010 Cooper S

 

I'd say no to the Alta and K&N. Check out the DOS, AEM, and DDM works intakes.

 

i have a good amount of alta products and am completely satisfied. as for the hot side boost tube i have one and its all high end power (5k-6k) so its really up to you weather or not its a waste of money for you or not

 

If you want an improvement in performance, spend your money elsewhere. If you want sound, buy the cheapest stuff.

Other than a tune, IC, exhaust and suspension (plus tires), most stuff does not do all that much for you except to lighten your wallet.

 

DoS

http://www.defendersofspeed.com/cold...r-2nd-gen-mcs/

 

Also see Czar's thread for the benefits of seafoam. You can find it on search.

 

i got the k&n cold air, you can find it real cheap with shipping on amazon, i got mine for under 205 shipped to my door brand new, i just don't know why you would want to pay more for a simple pipe with a filter, the k&n also utilizes the bottom half of your factory intake, i also have the hot side pipe, and the noisemaker delete on the cold side, the spool seems a little quicker but the removal of the stock hot pipe will make you hate your life lol, I've seen my boost hit 20.9 psi and hold it pretty good ... before i did the noisemaker delete, hot side pipe, and the alta stiff bov spring i only saw my car hit 19.0 (i have accesport too) ... to make a long story short, if your under warranty the noisemaker delete and stiff bov spring seem to be the best bang for your buck and easily removable whereas once you get the hot side pipe on, you might not want to deal with reinstall if your dealer cares about mods, the intake is also easily installed and removable, i love my intake BUT you will have a very distinct blow off valve sound from the factory diverter valve, i love having all the turbo and bov sounds but some people find it annoying, hope i didn't ramble too much, just want to share my experience!

 

Nilly1010, thanks for all that. did the Alta port ecu tune really work, i mean really!!! work?

 

The only answer to that question you will find in and about the forums is "Yes". Some people dislike it because it's a "canned" tune, and thus doesn't get every fraction of power out that it can; but I'm yet to see anyone say it doesn't work and work well.

Also: I've read and been told time and time again that the intake upgrade on the Mini is only for the sound (it's actually already fairly good and thus isn't the bottleneck), and both it and the boost tubes are pretty poor upgrades besed on price/performance ratio. That is, they give very little actual performance benefit for their price.

Most people recommend the NM (or similar) engine bushing, 17mm Rear Sway Bar, Accessport, FMIC and Downpipe as the best "bang for buck" upgrades. That's a range of parts from $60 to $1000.

All that said, my personal recommendation for the intake are the DoS, AEM and DDM Works. I'll probably be getting the DoS myself, I just like the way it looks.

 

19 mm sway bar, not 17mm.

And the tune can have some knock on effects such as intermittent boost loss. Seems like there are a myraid of panaceas for boost loss sold by some of the same tune companies to fix the problem they caused with their tune. Other potential issues with tunes are blown piston rings, CELs, etc.

Not knocking tunes. Most seem to pretty work. Just a few in some engines and ECUs show up as horror stories.

 

the accesport was by far still my favorite, if you have factory warranty and dont want to void it get the accesport because it has an uninstall feature which loads your factory image back on which i love, ive been back to the dealership and they cant tell at all, if you dont have any warranty left(or dont care) you can probably just get a permanent remap from an actual dyno/tune shop which will get you a couple more horses then the accesport would with a stage x map, not much more power, but a little and at least you know the tune would be made exactly for your car and mods, but i like how you can datalog on the accesport, you can get custom tunes for your accesport too but as ive found out the hard way, their arent too many "authorized" alta accesport tuners in the states and i would have to drive 4-5 hours and then still pay about 500$ for the tune which is what just a tune normally runs anyways , but like i said, i chose the accesport becasue i have an actual handheld device that i can switch back to stock whenever i want, the tune turns the car into an animal, i cant drive my car without the tune now, as for safety, all the factory safety limits are in place on the accessport where as other tunes sometimes override factory limitations, i have over 78k now and i drive my car decently hard, I just change my oil every3.5k like everyone should and i run mini crud-b-gone in my gas every 2-3k, i always keep an eye on my oil and coolant levels but they never really seem to move anyways, as for the boost tubes, if i could go back in time, i would of probably just left the stock hot side pipe in for now(for warranty reasons becasue its a pain to reinstall) and just did the noisemaker delete on the cold side and the alta BOV spring, as for cold air intakes, its very debatable wether you actually even get cooler air temps, but im almost positive my car feels a HELL OF A LOT nicer with the k&n typhoon, its utilizes the bottom half of the factory air box which has a ram pipe going all the way to the front grille,But i must say the cold air made my car quite loud, you can clearly hear the turbo spool and blowoff which is nice but sometimes i do want some peace and quiet lol, ALSO (not to drag on but i personally enjoyed this mod) i took out the factory mesh in the hoodscoop, i remember reading an article that said removing the plastic mesh in the hooddscoop could drop engine cabin temps from 20-30 degrees and gain as much as 2-3hp i am currently saving up for a FMIC but I'm just trying to find out what is the best at this point the alta, or the tyrolsport , the tune is i think still #1 but our intercoolers suck and get hot sooooo quick with a tune so if you can, pair the two together! tune and IC!

 

Its not that they can't tell, its that they dont care until its time to dish out the warranty denial letter. Everytime you flash the ecu a connection log is created. On the bmw isid tool its easy to see someone flashed the ecu when it read 4 flashes(w dates btw) and you havent been documented to have one.

 

Peteyb, I have had the K&N on 3 Jeeps and 3 Mercedes and the Alta on the Mini JCW. They both seem to do their job. I like the filters on the Alta a little better because I can tell that the entire filter has oil on it when I am done oiling it. It's not as easy to tell on the K&N. I run the same type of filter as the Alta on my motocross race motorcycles and it just gives me a little more confidence that knowing/seeing the oil on the filter is going to stop the dust from entering the intake. We live in Arizona and it is very dusty out here. I too love being able to hear the different sounds once you ditch the factory air box. I noticed a small increase in performance on the Mini since it is forced air (super charger) as opposed to the naturally aspirated Jeep & Mercedes which I felt a big difference in. It was like running a marathon and then reaching down your throat and pulling out a sock. It made breathing much easier. I think no matter which way you go you will be happy if you are looking for sound and you probably won't be able to feel the difference in performance between the different filters. That's just my opinion.