Good to see you over here Chris... I know Max was telling me from the get-go that THIS was the site to be on.

The car is looking great. Especially with the new intercooler setup.
And, if you haven't already discovered, the Mini valves are kind of notorious for going bad and dropping off the boost levels.

 

When I looked into the mini valve they didn't seem as prone to complete failure. Mine were not lasting very long so anything was an improvement. I did read that they leak due to the butterfly being installed by a retard from the factory. When I got mine I held it up to the light sure enough there was a large gap. Readjusted the butterfly and good to go.

 

Looks good, welcome.

 

difficult job?

how do you realign it?
I have a MINI and I will be doing some maintenance on it soon... not sure if this is worthwhile doing or not.

Does your mini bypass valve scream under light throttle low boost... say you were driving up a hill at 45mph and your on the cusp of the bpv being closed for boosts?

 

Adjusting the valve is probably worthwile since mine did not close properly at all. The difficulty of the job depends on how hard it is to get to the valve in the car. To adjust it just loosen the screws holding the platen the nudge it until you see no more light through the bypass when closed.

Also can't comment on noise at partial throttle since my setup is not quiet at all. Almost annoyingly loud.

 

Took the car to Cars and Coffee Irvine a bit back. An amusing experience since it is meant for expensive fancy cars. Surprisingly got a decent amount of positive attention. Although I am used to going in my old $500 Volvo and trolling since it had a ton of engine work done. Still have not finalized the rear aero in this pic. I have changed it since but still not quite happy with it. Regardless I plan to take it out for it's first track day in this config in two weeks. Fitting time since I tore the car apart exactly one year prior to that event.



Also finally built the ducting in the mouth. Air now goes through the radiator. Strange concept.

 

I love the IAT placement

 

The IAT screws into the cold side of the intercooler. Just had it out to check some things.

 

Went and dynoed the car today. Main changes since last time were e85, JR header, cam gears and the mini cooper bypass which seemed to give me a little more boost in various tests.

So it made 288 hp and 263 ft-lbs of torque. Seems like there is power to be had if I change the exhaust since I still have just a Racing beat catback. Some evidence is the car made 5 hp more and less boost (means less restriction for these belt things) when the dyno wideband was removed.

 

Can we please please please have video of this thing? I bet it's a ******* RIOT!

 

That is the supercharger kit that should have been mass produced. Nice #'s

 

Very nice man. You're getting close to the numbers all the higher hp sc setups are running, and you have way less done than them, so you must be doing something right.

 

Ive had to replace the Valve on all 3 of the SC minis ive owned. I always replaced them with a "Detroit" brand valve though, and never had a single issue.

 

Soon... with a poor attempt to drive it. Plan to go to Buttonwillow next weekend. Never bothered to try and get a video at the dyno since my phone's mic would probably be overpowered.

The thing I find really funny about this setup is the blower I use is one generation older than the ones in the current kits. Although the only difference I could find was the outlet porting on the later ones is bigger which was not hard to duplicate with a dremel. The other funny thing is this is just some mystery mileage blower from the junkyard lol.

 

does your boost hold steady to redline, or does it drop a bit?

interesting that the honda IM, MSM cam and stuff you still have that torque fall off.

 

At 5000 rpm boost begins to drop from 14 to 13 at redline. This happens regardless of pulley ratio so not a leak or blower running out of steam. I have been trying to find the cause for a while but gave up. The car makes plenty of power for me so going to leave it as is for now.

 

You sure the blower isn't running outa steam? When I had the mp62 it would hold boost all the way til you smacked the limiter

 

I put a much larger mose pulley on and ran 8 psi as a test. Boost fell off at exactly the same rpm which is why I think it is not the blower itself.

 

Well went to Buttonwillow for the first test of the car. Pretty much ended in fail. Time to start digging into the car again. So fun things that happened in order

-Misfie issue before even getting there

-Tire I mounted lost all pressure in two separate sessions even though it had been holding air fine. Small cut made it not bead but was fixable. Luckily this happened on the out lap of my first sessions where I was going slow. Paranoia remained though.

-5th gear said lol on first lap of the next session. 6th was crunchy as well. We were able to make 5th work again by installing the shifter backwards...

-From the sound of it blower replaced by Buzz Saw in next session. Only made half boost pressure and sounds like death during idle.

-At some point blew out all the exhaust gaskets after the header. Car was super loud and filled the cabin with exhaust. Great for the ride back...

-Averaged 11 mpg from the e85 station closest to Buttonwillow to home including track time lol

-And to top it off a headlight went out

I guess the good things from the few laps I got in.

-Coolant temps never went above 200 even when purposely tailgaiting someone for a lap to try and drive temps up. Considering normal temps for the old motor were pegged somewhere past 250...

-Intercooler works awesome. About 65 out and temps leveled off in the 80s.

-Mechanical and aero grip feels balanced.

-Belt stayed on and the bypass is fine. Two of the most common failure modes for this car.

-Car will spin through second on all seasons pulling a trailer with tools, 4 wheels and 25 gallons of fuel lol and drift on ramps with a trailer. That was a special whoops feeling.

 

Time for turbo?