1st Gen R53 Cooper S Most liked posts in thread: Sill Cover vent (purpose?)

The 2 1/2 I used for years before I found out the true cfm rate of the Minis engine was. The new system I built utilizes that rating. The 3 inch was a race with my Friend Don@ DMH Motorsports to be the first to have a 3 inch on a MCS. Boy what a waste of time and money. Loud and did I say loud? No bottom end power, in fact the power went away everywhere and loud! :lol:

 

The 3" would do better on LB's car, but is likely overkill there as well. I bet your 3" system was loud.
Sorry for adding to the tangent.

I blocked off my vents and I don't care. An opening for venting purposes does not need to be very large to be effective. At sometime I may go back in there and cut a hole in the vibration dampening mat that is presently sealing the two holes, but for now, they are closed.

 

oh is he installing a turbo now otherwise no? There is fantasy and physic's and a lot more of the first with some peoples Minis!
I fall into the first as well!:lol:


Blocking off the vents will may cause the windows if in the closed position to pop out if you exceed 180mph? So you should be fine! :lol:

 

Well, he essentially has a belt driven turbo. Running ~20 psi of boost on the 1.8L, so he does pump some air, but still the 3" would be too much.

I will try to keep it below 180mph, but that's asking a lot.

 

Back to the original question...

The vents are for ventilation. I recall that the topic came up on MINI2 years ago. MINI sells an accessory boot box that happens to block the vents. Some who bought it complained about whistling at the windows when the AC is turned on, caused by air getting forced through the window seals. The whistling stopped and AC worked better when the box was folded up.

 

I didn't go look, but are these vents only on the MCS? I have the hard boot box in place and never noticed a problem with the AC.

Jim

 

Its all relative?:lol:

I would say that every manufactured vehicle since the late sixties has some form of ventilation. There were various ways to relieve the high pressure air and ventilate it in the passenger compartment by the different auto makers. This was mostly to allow for a better flow from front to rear of air conditioned air.The most common were door frame vents on Fisher Price bodies. One auto maker GM called it Astro Ventilation.
You will have some type of ventilation on your Mini.

 

His signature indicates an R53 JCW, but the R56 also has those rear vents. So, probably not battery related. Somewhere I've seen them referred to as part of the ventilation system in the R56.

 

Me either.........:wink5: