Been a NAM members for years. First adventure into MINI was a 2010 R56 S 6SPD Manual, black on black, fully loaded. Loved the car. Water pump went out 5 miles outside warranty and timing chain was replaced under recall. Turbo failed at about 75k miles and she ended up losing oil pressure and blew the motor. Logged 81k miles on the car. To say I was pissed would be an understatement. But damn these little cars are fun.

Couldn't decide, what to do with the blown R56 and ended up selling it. Was determined to find a low mileage R53. Well I ended up picking up a 2012 MCS 6SPD Manual with N18 motor. It was a super clean car, had most the service records.

HPFP has been replaced, New Clutch Replaced, Water pump went out and smoked the motor and MINI replaced with a short block. So now that those issues have been taken care of we will roll the dice again.

Definitley had to make some compromises with this car, but for the price it was worth it.

Pro's:
Mint Interior
New Motor, Clutch, HPFP, Water Pump, N18 motor

Cons:
OMG the COLOR - I am sorry if this offends anyone. But this is the worst color MINI makes. Luckily for me the car will be used for business advertising and will be getting a full wrap
It was a pretty low optioned car unlike my 2010 but again for the price and condition 2 owner car I can't complain

Plans for now:
Mario Downpipe
Mario ECU Tune
FMIC
CAI
Exhaust
Colder Plugs
Powerflex lower motor mount
Powerflex contral arm bushings
Forge Turbo Resonator Pipe (Resonator Delete)

...Once those mods are done:
Short Shifter
Coil Overs
Sway bar
Blackout all the chrome

That's the game plan for now.

My daily drive is a F10 535i - so this will be a little ripper I can drive around town and use as an advertisement for our company.

Here SHE is "Project De-Ugly" LOL

 

270 views and not a single post

Either way I wanted to post a small update but if nobody cares which it seems, guess I won't bother after this one LOL

ECU: Has been flashed by Mario (Can't say enough good things about Mario)
Went with a Manic Stage 2 Tune
New Plugs Installed
FMIC in the mail
Forge Intercooler Resonator Delete completed
Plasti - Dipped all the Chrome on the car

* Side note to anyone else looking to remove the resonator from the turbo to the intercooler. The muffler has a T20 bolt holding the hoses and the muffler in place. This little guy is quite the mother effer to remove. It will test your patience. Keep in mind this is a 2012 MCS and it required a T20 (I had read T25 elsewhere) I ended up jacking up the driver side of the car and climbed underneath. Once underneath I could at least see the damn screw/bolt. There is a hose clamp blocking it. I did my best to loosen the plastic pieces holding it in place so I could push it up and towards the drivers side wheel. Once it was out of the way I used a ratchet with an extension and one that had a little swivel in it. Had to hold a flashlight in my house and play the nightmare game of can I get it up into the bolt before my arms turned to Jello. After about 10mins I was able to get that little bastard off. Total pain in the ***.

To Do:
Install FMIC once I receive it
Install Mario SS Downpipe
Install Powerflex lower control arm bushings
Install Powerflex lower engine mount.

Need to buy: (Gotta Make it Sound Better) I know these don't really yield any performance.
Exhaust
CAI

 

Hey, just because we don't comment doesn't mean we don't care! You're over 300 views, so there's a lot of people checking it out.

It looks like you're someplace warm and sunny near a beach, even though I love my Chili Red R56S (also a 2012), I'd keep the color just as it is because it seems perfect for warm and sunny near a beach. But it's your car and you get to build it into whatever you want.

Carry on and keep posting your progress.

 

Welcome back to the fold.

Hmmmm, baby blue MINI. I am thinking that a lady had the car.

 

Check out the 70mm resonated Scorpion exhaust. I think you'll like.

 

I wish I could say you were correct, however definitely not the case. But the owners toe nails were the same color as the car

 

Catback System? Definitely looking for something aggressive and loud

Since I am doing a catless down, I was trying to decide between Turbo Back or Catless - appears neither make any difference in performance. So just looking for the best sound at this point.

 

Nothing better than a baby blue monster to wake up the "oh it's such a cute car" folks.

 

 

Keep us up to date - and I, for one, like the color. I'm old as dirt and it looks retro to me....reminds me of my TR3!

 

 

Latest Update:

For anyone attempting to install a DP in the future. Please don't start in on the project until you are at peace with yourself for the day. Removing the heat shield is a total pain in the ***. No sugar coating this. You have to have patience and have the right tools. If you are limited on the tools, I would maybe suggest placing the car in FES mode so you can gain the extra few inches you need to get your hands down in the tight areas. I used a small air ratchet with some swivel sockets and it was a challenge.

For the re-install I ordered some Heatshield Lava Wrap and omitted installing the lower factory heatshield. Getting the DP back in was definitely a tricky process as well. Like all cars once you understand the steps to place it back together it gets easier.

I would highly recommend the DP from Mario Kart on these forums. If you need customer service or help, he is right there to answer your questions and he has done this work himself so he knows what challenges you are probably experiencing.

Long story short after some cussing a some trimmed brackets (Not the DP) but the brakets that hold the DP I got the DP installed, with the heathshield wrap and I installed the upper heat shield.

Now I am just waiting for the FMIC to arrive and I will have this little project back together. After I get to test drive it for a day or two it will go up on the trailer and be ready for it's journey into Idaho where the work will continue.

I highly recommend getting the R56 up as high as you can to make your life easier when attempting the powerflex bushing and DP install

 

I literally just wrapped my down pipe from Mario today. I dont like the look of the heat shields so that is why I decided to wrap it. I also ordered a turbo blanket from funk motorsports on ebay, they are out of the UK. It looks like good quality and $170.

 

Nice! I used a spray bottle and got the wrap lightly wet and that really helped me get a nice tight and uniform wrap.

Post up your results on the turbo blanket when you get it. Do you need to remove the turbo to install it?

 

I didnt wet mine, I remeber it saying somthing about water in the little booklet, oooops. I feel I got a nice tight wrap. What does the water do exactly? And yeah I'll post some pics when I get it and I'm not sure, I dont think I'll have to remove it. Could be wrong though, I've never used them before.

 

From my research, and what the manual stated. You don't need to soak the wrap in a bucket or get it excessively wet, just a light spritz from a spray bottle. It allows you to get a little tighter wrap as it shrinks a little as it dries. Either way is just fine. It was a little slippery dry, so getting it wet helped a little. I ended up using hose clamps as I thought clamps came with the wrap.

 

I know it's an old thread but if you're still on here, what's your thoughts on the Funk Motorsports turbo blanket? Is it soft enough to be able to use under the OEM heat shield? Reason I ask is after about 5 years, the turbo blanket from Way Motor Works finally met it's end and started to disintegrate on me. From the time I had it on, I've always felt reassured by it and it did it's job perfectly. What I liked most about it is that it was tight enough around the turbo housing to fit under the OEM heat shield for the dual layer protection. However, just found out today that WMW no longer makes it for distribution and I'm not sold on the Forge blanket replacing the OEM shield by itself. I rather stick with 2 layers of protection if I can and I see Funk is the only other option available that similar to the WMW design.

Any input or feedback you could provide would be great.