1st Gen R53 Cooper S Most liked posts in thread: Pulley upgrade and 4% overdrive crank?

You're gonna be generating a lot of intake heat and have an unbalanced crank pulley which could cause some serious problems down the road.

 

Over spinning the SC that much is useless - you'll just be pumping overheated air into the car and pulling timing.

 

15% and standard sized ATI makes a very good base to start. From there a set of 1 range colder plugs. Much more and you'll be wanting to get a tune too.

 

You can do it with a much larger intercooler, but you'll also need a bigger/better exhaust, and I would think a tune is mandatory....because once you start exceeding the compression ratio the engine was designed for, the computer just dials back the timing like WolfGTI says. Law of diminishing returns.....

Changing the crank damper to the ATI one is a good idea in general, as the rubber fails in them anyway.

 

Contact Jan. (Revolution MINI Works) You'll be happy you did. No one knows R53's better.

 

Even a 15% pulley will give you a nice boost in power without changing anything else, but that coupled with a good tune will be your best, safest and most cost effective bet.

Superchargers are different than the turbos that you may be used to.....

 

And when I say that, I mean don't spend money until you talk to him.

 

People upgrade to 17's, but usually not in combination with a larger crank pulley... disregarding the fact that the "stock" ATI pulley is actually about .8% larger than the stock MINI pulley. Non-dampened crank pulleys are not recommended by most, so the ATI is probably the best choice, or the PRW gel filled pulley if you want to save some $$.

What octane gas is available in your area, and will you be tracking your car?

 

Stock ATI damper and a 15% pulley is the way to go to start with. When you want more power, and you will, contact Jan at RMW for a Big Valve Head, Better CAM, 550 injectors, header and custom Tune for your car.

After that the only thing left to add is a Meth kit. If you want even more you have to buy a custom built RMW 1.8 stroker motor. 300 WHP and up easy.

It all comes down to money.

 

We are very good at helping you spend your money.

 

You might want to look at other kits elsewhere...different ones than the m7 kit imo....going much above the 17% reduction can cause serious issues....if you run very low rpm...can be ok...but not fun....the fact they are selling the combo is a HUGE red flag and a joke IMO.....just selling parts cause they can....and burning up motors in the process....going to 17-18% reduction about the max....some did do OK on 19% but lower rpm guys...folks who rev needed fuel injectors and a tunes.
also if you do a 4% reduction on the crank...you will over-spin the alternator, and need a NEW PULLEY FOR THAT or over-volt everything, and burn out the ac pretty fast....just a BAD COMBO IMO

When it comes time to tune...a drive up i95 to philly would be my suggestion to visit helix.....

 

It's not too hard, but you need the tool to remove the old pulley - make sure it's a stock pulley too, if it's a JCW the tool won't work - don't ask me how I know!

You basically remove the belt (need a tool for that too) remove the motor mount bolts and raise the engine up, pull the old one off and put the new one on.

I like the Craven speed pulley best myself.....