Engine Drivetrain 1st Gen Cooper S Blimey's 120k service

OK, fuel filter is done. Glad that's a once-every-three-years job, because it's a nasty smelly PITA. Drove for a couple hours with the top down and the back seat out to get rid of the gasoline smell.

The good news.... Blimey goes like rocket ship. Runs better right now, overall, than EVER. First time I've had the combination of all my current go-fast bits working right at the same time.

Still lower on boost than I should be. Only thing I haven't checked on the pressurized side is injector o-rings. I'll do that sometime.

Even though peak boost is a little low, the boost builds much, much faster with the almost-new supercharger than it did with my worn-out supercharger. Give it full throttle and boost comes on like a light switch, which is the way it should be. Results in strong torque from about 3000RPM up, with the sweet spot starting at about 4000 RPM in all gears, but especially fun in 2nd-4th.

:cornut:

 

Since you brought it up, I'll talk about that.

My old SC had 120k miles on it. My car is harder driven than most, but has only seen a few track days, and has an automatic, so it never exceeds 6250 RPM even with a tune. The oil in my SC looked almost like new, gears looked like new, and oil level was only a little below factory specs. My SC eventually wore out a bearing, unrelated to the oil fill.

I strongly considered the Recharger. I know some folks who have tuned cars with manual transmissions and higher redlines, and who do lots of track days, have seen cooked oil in the SC snout. If my car had those characteristics, I think the Recharger would be worthwhile to do scheduled oil changes.

Most of the actual SC failures I've seen were either the result of bearing failure (like mine) or oil depletion due to seal failure. Oil changes do nothing to predict or prevent bearing failure, and would have to be done very frequently to catch a seal problem before the oil was gone and the gears damaged. And, if there were a seal failure, the SC would need to be removed to be rebuilt or replaced anyway. In my case, I don't think it really has much practical value. Either my new SC will last 100k miles, or it won't. The Recharger wouldn't likely impact that materially, on my car. Again, there are other cases where I do think it has value.

 

Scangauge, same as when I used to get higher boost.
I did change the TMAP sensor a while back.... I guess it's possible that the calibration on the TMAP is different enough that it could be off by 1 PSI or so... dunno.
But it doesn't feel as strong as it did when I first put on the 17%, when I was getting hella boost.

 

OK, a couple of days later, and still amazed how much better the car runs with the right exhaust and a fully functional supercharger. Which shouldn't be amazing at all, now that I say it out loud. lol
Zoom Zoom Zoom baybee. Wish I had Jan and a dyno handy, because I know there's more in there that could be brought out with a new tune.

 

I wish it weren't an 8 hour drive each way to Helix...

And while I'm at it, I wish I had a unicorn with a Rotrex.