1st Gen R53 Cooper S Most liked posts in thread: Port and Polished Heads?

Those links had a lot of great info in them, but what I didn't see was whether or not they went ahead and increased the exhaust valve size....

A couple of things to take away, a smooth polished port is not necessary, and in some cases will make the engine run worse, especially at slower speeds. However it does help to remove obstructions to smooth the flow to the valve.

Second, it may help to open up the exhaust ports, but not if the valves stay the same size, as you can't flow anything more thru them.

Lastly, this info was for a normally aspirated engine, forced induction might make this info incorrect, or incomplete - hence the cautions about using a head built by someone else who has already been thru the learning curve.

good stuff.

 

I have been curious about this subject myself. What about just taking it to a local machine shop that does port-polishing that may or may not have MINI experience? Is it a pretty universal skill, or does it vary greatly depending on each engine design? I get that some of the $2000 heads may perform better(proven) but if I can save several hundred dollars and have basically the same performance it would be worth it for me.

 

There are some tired and true methods to porting a head. Using them would get you close. However, most of the heads from vendors have been through multiple iterations making them better suited to the MINI engine peculiarities.

You would need to define your goals, then pick among the various methodologies to determine what will help you meet those goals.

 

yea im a ray of sunshine...because i cannot count anymore the times people have either decided to p-n-p their own head...or taking it to an "expert"...keep in mind this is a forced induct head on a euro car...its not a universal skill...what is good for the goose isnt often good for the gander

plus lets not even get into those who try to install the head themselves...forget to lock the timing gear out...crank their timing 90 degress and jack the motor up...sometimes you have to swallow the bitter pill called pride...admit its beyond your capability and leave it to the pros... there are some things ill learn on my own...but playing with internals of my cars heart or brain is beyond my mech experience...if you dont have the money now...save up and buy a quality head like a rmw... paying 2 grand for probably 10s of thousands in r&d and prototypes isnt a bad thing...plus they work! they are consistent at performance

 

That is why I asked, thanks for the info guys.

 

Actually, having a shop that has ported heads is a good thing to help you. The "BASIC" P&P will give you the results that you want... There is such a small amount of differences, in technique between a blown 4.6 head and the 1.6 head design as far as power produced thru a certain basic port work.

Just remember there isnt a 'put it back on ' button.. slowly is better. K>I>S>S> and dont forget the value of the valve job. Your machinist friend , I am sure, has already spoken to you on that, yes??

Also the basic head from Me is ONLY $1295.00 NOT 2000.00 !! you WILL see great power and torque gains from the TPR1 head. There are a few other heads out there under 2000.00 !! Actually my top head is STILL under $2000.00.
However .. doing it yourself will give you good power.. and a great feeling knowing you did it . Let us know how it turns out, cool??


Just saying............................................

Thumper

 

Cool,was wondering how your project was going. Keep us posted.