ALTA:
Performance mods asside, is your Rally Light Bar easy to install on an MC? Will it require drilling into the bumper?

 

PM LOVEDOC, he's dying to tell you about this install.
http://www.morelove.com/
mailto:drbader@morelove.com

 

First off, thanks for doing a thread like this. Very informative. Second, I have been following the different Alta crank pulley threads (as well as the Pilo true dampered thread), and I STILL can't seem to figure out what the hell is going on. I hate to beat a dead horse, but I'll be damned if that crazy thing don't look like it's still breathing.

It seems to me that there are very educated people on both sides of the damper argument with very strong, contradicting opinions. There are a few serious enthusiasts on this board who have them on their cars, and that is encouraging, but I have also talked to some very knowledgable tuners who say things like "I would never risk my engine by putting one of those on my car!". With all of that said, I won't ask you to repeat your reasoning and research again here, but since you stand behind the non-damper concept, and so many people are leary of it, have you thought of offering some type of guarantee that the pulley will not cause engine failure? I mean, with the upside being an increase in boost and less rotational mass, and the downside being "possible" engine failure, it just seems like it could be such a stupid gamble if the nay-sayers are in fact right.

I would personally love to add a +2% crank pulley to a -15% SC pulley and get a chip tuned for 17%, but since I am not in the business of designing aftermarket parts or building race engines, I have to listen to the opinions of those that do. And they don't agree.

 

I have been running the lightweight crank pulley for months on the little devil

 

Can you make one of these? I have an 05 JCW and I want the equivilant of a 17% SC pulley, not 16.3%.

Ciao

Michael

 

dcsmd007,
At this point, our exhaust, and other(i would guess) don't fit the convertable. But if you have an exhaust shop close by they can surely modify the tube to clear the frame brace.

holdenontoit,
The nasty watery stuff is normal. It is the oil vapor and moister that flows around and through the crank case. The water stuff is from the engine heating and cooling down over and over again. Yes, this stuff is what normally flows through your IC, and that is why the CC is needed. There rarely will be pure oil in the CC.

dickdavid,
Yes there is required drilling into the bumper beam and bumper. With the light bar on the cooper there may need to be some added spacers to help it clear the plastic. We have shipped a few to standard owners telling them what you may have to do, and none of them have called back and said they did or didn't need them. If you are interested in one, i can email you the instructions to give you an idea what you have to do for the install. I too see this half filling in about a month or so, and i would guess that your climate does produce more stuff than most people.

 

BelowRadar,
It is ok to beat a dead horse, because that is what it is going to take for us to dispel the "non dampened crank pulley"!

Tuners will say many things, if they believe this particular gas is the only gas to use, they will tell you, (shell vs. chevron vs. BP....) If they say a particular spark plug is the only spark plug to use, they will tell you so, this can go on and on. And all of their points can be contradicted by someone else, maybe even proven.

I my self, being a tuner of cars (also frustrated in the lack of "user tunable ECU's") have used our lightened crank pulley on many cars with great success. Thousands of miles on cars with them and no failures. In the Subaru market, it took a couple of years of people running them to prove there is no problems, just gains to be had from the lighter weight. I always recommend the pulley to anyone, its cheap (relatively speaking) makes a noticeable difference, and for the most part doesn't hurt anything. I say for the most part because i know of thousands of cars with 100K miles and no problems. I would have to agree that at some point there may be a little more wear on things compared to a dampened engine, but 100K miles on highly strung cars shows that they will outlast 99% of the customers expectations.

I have pulled apart a few engines running pulleys and at 60K they show no difference in wear compared to an engine with a dampened pulley.

I think Pilo and ALTA are making 2 different parts for 2 different people. We make the part for the guys out there that want to feel the difference and don't care if their engine is going to last 200K. Pilo is making, or at least having made, a part for those people wanting to eek that last bit of HP out of their car, and are more concerned with 200K plus longevity. I believe the small weight savings with their part isn't going to be noticeable at all to most customers. Which is why i believe our part is the better choice for many people.

Again only time will prove the effectiveness and durability of the ALTA part. Pilo can continue to bash our part, or at least undampened pulleys, as they have done over and over again, but in a couple of year customers that have our crank pulley and things are working just fine, will prove how well they work. Look at Unorthodox, they make solid pulleys for nearly every car in the world, and if it was a problem, would they be in business?

MEB,
The 2.7" isn't something we will make but the 3% will surely suite your needs. It will give you that slight edge over the 17% guys!

There are some slight gains to be had by the lightened crank pulley, (3-5WHP, but the difference in feel is harder to measure) but the larger sized ones are where this part really shines. The JCW guys were our first customer this was made fore. Someone that has a smaller SC pulley, that doesn't really want to replace it, can buy the larger ALTA pulley and get that 17-19% difference with an hours worth of install. Plus gain the benefit of the better belt wear and slippage. Which still, isn't as big a deal as some make it out to be.

This pulley thing will go on forever, but in the mean time we will be selling the parts to the people that are really pushing the limits of the mini.

One last thing to help more people understand the vib dampeners. You ask anyone that designed the engine and ask them what frequency they have the problem at, they will tell you frequency X and RPM Y is where the engine has its "problem". They will even tell you that RPMS around this point don't have a problem so it is only tuned for that specific area. So the crank pulley has to be tuned for those exact areas or it is useless and adding unnecessary weight.

So just making a crank pulley with a urethane/rubber band doesn't necessarily get rid that particular frequency, or even at that particular RPM. So how does that even help? I am sure it dampens a frequency and some RPM, but is that pulley tuned for that?

Compare our 1.1 pound pulley to the dampened 4.6 pound pulley. From the stock pulley (7.1 pounds), is there much to be gained by the 4.6 pounder??
ALTA difference 6 pounds, 85% difference
Other Dampener difference 2.5 pounds, 35% difference

We don't have to make ours bigger to make a bigger difference in feel!

 

Jeff, did you tell Holdenontoit that w/o a catch can, all the water he's collecting would accumilate in the IC along with oil?

 

For what is worth, I used Unorthodox pulleys on my 99Si (B16). I spun that engine to within inches of life every day - had to in order to make power. 8,200 rpm redline several times a day for nearly 200,000 miles. Still runs...uses a tiny bit of oil, but that's to be expected at that ripe old age.

Michael

Again only time will prove the effectiveness and durability of the ALTA part. Pilo can continue to bash our part, or at least undampened pulleys, as they have done over and over again, but in a couple of year customers that have our crank pulley and things are working just fine, will prove how well they work. Look at Unorthodox, they make solid pulleys for nearly every car in the world, and if it was a problem, would they be in business?

 

ALTA,


With a 3% overdrive crank pulley do I need to worry about the pulley belt being too small now???

Thanks

Michael

 

Jeff-

Thanks for the info. I actually think the answers you just provided are enough to sway me toward the Alta. I'm certainly not expecting a 200k life span from my Mini. I just want to make sure that if I track the car in the summer, and then take it on a snowy unpaved road when I'm up in the mountains snowboarding next winter, that it's not going to be too much wear and tear for a mod like this. In other words, I'm all about adding performance, but I CAN'T have fussy parts that need to be baby'd or can be thrown out of balance under extreme conditions.

Kind of off topic (at least in terms of Alta products), but I'd appreciate your thoughts on chip tuning. Once I add the +2% crank pulley to my -15% SC reduction pulley, I'll need to modify the A/F ratio. (There is a dyno about 30 minutes from here that I can use to tune it) What do you guys use? Also, how important is changing the timing along with the A/F ratio when bolting on more and more parts? Thanks.

 

Not sure, but yes, if the CC is catching it, it would have normally gone through the IC.

That is the reason why all CC vents are routed to the intake track. They can't just let that stuff to the outside world, it would cause pollution. Most likely you don't see the water stuff in the intake because it gets sucked in to the engine, where as the oil stuff gets STUCK in the engine.

 

So if the catch cans are catching more water than oil, that should mean that there is more water passing thru the intake tract than oil. Can I ask why I've never seen a trace of water, water/oil mix ANYWHERE along the intake path? On the other hand I've seen OIL coat everything from right below the TB to the Intake manifold.

I know the CC is necessary, but I still think your hookup recomendations are what's making the cans catch water instead of oil.

Do you know if hotter air comes from either the PCV or CC vent first, especially during morning start ups? I have a feeling warmer air comes from one of those lines before the other.

thanks

 

MEB,
Thanks for the back with your SI. To answer your question about the belts is you will need a new belt. What size, not quite sure yet. It all depends on what SC pulley and crank pulley you have. We will have a matrix setup soon for what belts go with what pulley.

BelowRadar,
Hmmmmm, user tunable for ECU for the mini would be nice. But that will not come anytime soon! Anyway, there are many things you can use to tune the AFR's on your mini. One is the Apex AFC. They are cheap and work great. They modify the MAP signal to add or subtract fuel. This works for fuel, but not for timing. At this point there really isn't something like the AFC for timing. HKS has something, but it is pretty basic and really old.

The problem with any of these Piggy backs is they also change the timing. Adding fuel removes timing, and removing fuel adds timing. So say you get the AFR's to your desired level, you could be running too much timing which would cause knock, making you think it is too lean, when really its just too much timing.

Hope that answers your questions!

 

I will be looking into getting a short shift kit soon, but i just wanted to make sure i absolutley need one. What major benefits will i see if i upgrade to a ss?

 

sfjames2,
Like i was saying, the water isn't going to show up in the manfold only the oil. The water vapor is in the hot charged air, being ingested into the engine. Where as the oil isn't in the air, its just being pushed slowing through the hose.

If you have the CC hooked up the way we recommend you shouldn't see anything in the TB or intake tube. That is because we block off the grey high vacuum hose. The hose in the intake tube is the only place oil could be coming from, but you would see it before the TB, not after like you were saying. PLus this one is hooked to the CC and the only way oil would get sucked through that hose is if it somehow got sloshed into the hose under vacuum.

It also could be that there was already oil in the places you have seen it and it just hasn't "blown away". The only way to make sure there is no oil in the intake track is to clean it out with Carb Cleaner, then drive the car.

The way we tell people to hook it up is the best way for one can. The other method is to hook it to the PVC only. This, WE FEEL, isn't the best way for one can. For 2 can yes hook this up along with the other instation. In fact this is something some of the newer instructions explain.

Personally i have 2, one for each and i can tell you that the PCV method is the one that catches all the watery crap. The other, just oil.

If there are parts you would like to help install (aluminum support, connectors.....) your existing CC to the PCV system let me know. I would be happy to send them to you so you can play with the other method.

 

1nf3rn0,
I would say FEEL is the biggest difference. Your car will feel faster, Feel funner, and shift quicker. Our SS is adjustable in throw, and also the direction the ***** rests. Since there is a slight bend in the end of the shaft, you can rotate it closer to you or further away from you. Its all made from hardened steel for long life, and of course has instructions!

 

Thanks for your quick reply!

I appreciate the input. One last question. Are the ***** interchangeable? I.e. could I get a momo shifter **** to go with it?

Thanks

 

Thanks for the reply and for offering help, still skeptical, but that's ok.
I'll be taking you up on a replacement CC body (silicone) soon, 20 bucks still right?

thanks again

 

!!!! Filter Comparo !!!!

I got to see the Big intake everyone has been talking about, and i found the filter to be much smaller than we first thought.

Blue filter
2.75" ID
Originally calculated using their dimensions of 11"x5"x3.25" was:
90 sq-in
Now that i found out that the 3.25" dimension is really 2.625" it is:
72.71 sq-in

ALTA filter
2.75"ID
118.58 sq-in

Ours is 60% bigger, which means 60% more surface area to flow more air and catch more dirt. 73 sq-in vs 119 sq-in! In this case bigger is better!

 

I have a question for Alta. I currently have your 15% pulley and Intake installed on my 04 MCS along with a Milltec exhaust. My next mod was going to be a Unichip. I've just looked at your top mount larger air to air intercooler and was wondering which to invest in at this point that would make the most sense in progression. I do plan on doing both mods eventually but budget dictates the rate of expendature.2004 MCS, sport pkg, 15% pulley, Alta intake, densos, Milltec exhaust

 

the intercooler.... without a doubt

 

vegasdan,
The larger IC is a must for 19% customers, and for 15% customers it is something that will do nothing but give you HP. We have found, as has the mini communitiy that 15% pulleys work just fine with a rather stock S. The key word is just fine, you can get an extra 10WHP out of it b running the IC along with also less potential for knock because of the cooler charge.
Things like throttle response, and drivablitiy aren't effected by changing to a larger IC. Many people think that it will cause lag because there is more volume, this is not true at all. The overall volume isn't that much so the lag is nothing to worry about.

 

The ten hp is a sizable number and as is the favorite past time here on NAM can you show what leads you to make that claim ? There is the theory that due to the larger intercooler there is a actual loss of boost. Is your ten hp over and above that " loss " and what can we see that poves it? Thanks for the info.

 

Do you guys have plans to add any additional parts to your CAI system in the near future?
The door is WIDE open in my eyes for Vendors to come up with their own NEW stuff.