R53 New 04 MCS owner

Good call on the resonated Milltek. You will be very happy with it.

The only thing I would add while the exhaust is off is a short shifter. Since the exhaust is out of the way you can remove the center heat shield and access the bottom of the shift easily and instal it in 5-10 minutes.

The two popular ones are below:
Greene Performance version. (6 set screws)
https://www.greeneperformance.com/collections/mini-oem-performance-parts/products/mini-cooper-s-r52-r53-02-08-and-r56-cooper-s-07-13-short-shifter

Helix version
http://store.helix13.com/helix-short-shift-kit/?fullSite=1

 

That is one of the R53 Mini Cooper features. Just look at my signature and you can see how deep that rabbit hole can get

 

Interesting experience, but completely different from mine. I have two cars with Milltek systems, bought about the same time early last year. One with resonator, the other with just the pipe. The resonated version is quieter than the bone stock system we pulled from our Florida low mile Mini. Now with the resonator in place, my dark silver car is quietest Mini I have ever driven, and it lost all the fun pops and burbles. I think I heard it pop once. It is now the most boring exhaust, which is why I ordered the pipe to replace the resonator for tooling around town. May keep the resonator for longer cross country trips, but for the handful of miles I usually drive each year, I want my full helping of pops and burbles, otherwise I can just buy a Camry.

My son's car has the non-resonated version and it's quite nice, no drone, just some pops and bangs, enough to have him think he would not want to drive that in his college town where the cops prey on imports while straight pipe pickups can roam with impunity. Even without resonator, that system is nothing close to the noise the Megan Racing exhaust makes (with resonator) on my blue Mini. On that car, I just have to think of taking back the gas pedal a tiny bit and there's a big old pop and burble. When revving above 2500 it is just way too loud for long 70+mph highway travel, and eventually I may just put another Milltek (non-resonated) under that car, unless I sell it and get a Subaru... decisions to make this year.

 

The pop and burple is all comes from the tune on the car and fuel over run setting at off throttle. It’s excessive un burnt fuel exploding in the exhaust system.

 

I loved the sound on my MINI. When I got my GTI it took a while to get used to no pops on overrun. Although the GTI does have DSG farts so that's something.

 

so how come I can totally modify that with just just the change of the exhaust? The only difference between my cars are exhausts, tune is bone stock. The loudest one is on Megan Racing exhaust, and yes, it has a 17% pulley, while the others are 15%, but I highly doubt the pulley causes more overrun. If it does, I am putting a 17 on all the other cars...

 

have some washers handy to lower the rear mounting points, as in most cases (both of mine) the tips will be rattling against the rear bumper. And adding a small hose clamp to the rear hangers to provide an arrest for the system to keep from sliding from side to side in the hangers also helps a lot to keep things in place and away from the bumper plastic.

One thing I ran into when swapping mine was that the hanger rubber in the center and rear was ripped. You may want to inspect those parts before you rip it all off and then realize you should order some new exhaust hangers. The rear inside ones are usually ok unless the car ran as a one-ball mod, which will put extra strain on the remaining hanger, plus, the actual hanger metal prong on the car may be bent where the remaining ball was attached. All that slowed my install quite a bit, especially the missing hanger on the passenger side ($45). Oh, and then there can be corroded bolts on the old system - have a cut-off wheel handy. I needed to destroy a nut with a dremel cutoff wheel to separate the original system from the cat.

But if all is well with hangers and rubber mounts and bolts, it won't take very too long to install.

 

You'll love the sound!

 

They do get warm but not enough to melt anything unless you might be racing. Even then, I never melted mine during track days. Nice job...they make your car look really businesslike!