Air Intake Manifold Porting Info for MidCal Mini Members

Discussion in 'MidCal MINIs' started by Nitrominis, Aug 26, 2011.

  1. Nitrominis

    Nitrominis Banned

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    Super Charged and Turbo Charged MINI engines can benefit with having the intake manifold ported to increase CFM and better improve cylinder air distribution. While this may seem a simple enough modification there are numerous methods of properly achieving the highest level of performance increases. As well every engine variation will have different end results as far as levels of power gains which cannot be compared from one engine to another subjectively. Intake Porting can be the basic manifold plenum and runner clean up to highly extensive port airflow reconfiguration for balancing cylinder to cylinder load for the adjusted least amount of fuel correction. That is one of the challenges to the porting specialist with regards to the single plenum x4 runner intake manifold used on the MINI. The two farthest cylinders will never get the same air velocity as the ones closer to the air supply or Throttle Body. Many shops offer intake manifold porting which will clean up the casting by removing undesirable material that could potentially slow down or disturb the air flow. Also the evenly removal of interior plenum and runner areas will increase the total CFM or air that can be pulled though an engine if naturally aspirated or pushed through the engine under boost using a Super Charger or Turbo Charged unit. These shops are experienced enough to know not to remove too much material that without considerations such as other engine parts and the end use of the engine could cause less than anticipated or diminishing results. It is possible to actually remove too much material in some areas and cause a loss rather than gain in power. This is one very good reason to have someone experienced in manifold porting perform the work.
    The end results of basic intake manifold port work will increase both your torque and Horsepower. For some that may request specific percentage or Dyno result numbers showing exact TQ and HP to use a basic rule of thumb to go by there really is none. As mentioned earlier there are too many variables to consider for any standard of comparisons. The end results of HP and TQ increases is the reward of how much custom porting and flow bench analysis testing to your individual engine and components is done. This kind of custom port modifying will run into considerably more money than basic offered manifold porting.

    As always a good practice after any engine performance part installed or modified is to have the MINIs ECU mapping adjusted which will always help add to the increase performance level safety and reliability of your engine.


    For more information I recommend contacting a local Performance Engine Machine Shop experienced in manifold porting in your area or one of the MA vendors that offer this type of intake manifold porting.
     
  2. jiminni

    jiminni Well-Known Member

    May 7, 2009
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    Me and Fracky had ours done by "Protech" here in Fresno :Thumbsup: Anyone interested let me know.
     
  3. Thumper460

    Thumper460 Active Member

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    Me personally.. I had mine done by Thumper Performance in Fl.

    oh, thats me!! LOL

    Just me................................

    Thumper

    PS: Rocking data Nitro!!
     
  4. jiminni

    jiminni Well-Known Member

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    Hey sorry about that Mike :blush2: Was thinking about locally but you are right in that you would definitely have more experience in MINI porting than our local shop :cornut:
     
  5. Nitrominis

    Nitrominis Banned

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    Some of the information I mentioned is high end intake porting service and reconfiguration that may require partial intake fabrication or complete intake manifold modifying which is highly specialized. To date I have not seen anyone on any MINI forum post information having done a balanced ported (flow ported) or fabricated balanced ported MINI intake manifold for an R53.
     
  6. SRTech

    SRTech Club Coordinator

    Aug 30, 2009
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    Then there is currently no such service for the MINI, or it's just too expensive?

    Steve
     
  7. Nitrominis

    Nitrominis Banned

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    Maybe too expensive?
     
  8. HRM

    HRM New Member

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    It is just too complicated for the net results to bother with. Now in Pro racing, they need to get everything they can while limiting what can be played with.

    This is a good article on what would needed to be looked at, tested (with a channel for each cylinder) and then retested while racing.


    NASCAR Winston Cup Engine - Intake Manifold Tech - Circle Track

    Not really worth the trouble to do it right. If one cylinder is already lean, putting in more air hardly helps, so knowing what the issue is would be the first step to correcting it. Also, unless running constantly at the highest RPMs, the amount of improvement that will be enjoyed by a driver may be fairly small even once maximized. Probably changing length would be best for a DD, but again, who is going to bother.

    That's why no one has spent the huge $$ to do this for a mini. Cost vs. reward.
     
  9. Thumper460

    Thumper460 Active Member

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  10. Fracky

    Fracky Club Coordinator

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    Great post Nitro! I'm happy with how my ported/polished intake manifold turned out. As a whole with the top-end of the engine build -IMO- it was a necessary piece to the puzzle. I don't recall the cost off-hand, but it was definitely reasonable.
     
  11. Nitrominis

    Nitrominis Banned

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    HRM nice reference info!



    As for any further response from me at this time on my thread my new signature pretty much responds in itself. :wink:
     
  12. Thumper460

    Thumper460 Active Member

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    Just -a bump..

    With the Ported Head, and the intake ports enlarged for more flow and better power, the interface where the intake and the Head come together is NOW a critical transition point.

    The 'miss-matched' ports will cause turbulence and restrict flow. Smoothing that transition is the KEY to allowing all the power from your new Ported Head.

    Just me....................................

    Thumper

    Ported Intake manifold f/ r53 : $275.00 exchange
     

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