Best aggressive sounding exhaust hands down is a Borla sport (used to be called 'race' variant). You can spend a lot gradually on a lot of things (header, intake, throttle body, tune, etc.), but it might be better to spend a lot on one or two things if big gains are your goal. If I was going to do it over again, I think I'd start with maybe a TVS supercharger and one of their reduction pulleys. I hate that their s/c forces you to use a Davies Craig ewp - they SUCK. Perhaps there are more reliable EWPs that can be plumbed in to that system. Personally, I'd never go turbo because I love the s/c whine too much, but if you are so inclined, probably the biggest single hp gain might be had going to a turbo conversion, dunno.

Another method to change the power to weight ratio is the weight. Same power but less weight = increase acceleration. If you don't need creature comforts, gut the car. I bet you could find 300-325 lbs, but you'd end up with a loud race car. I've shaved 136lbs off the stock weight for my car, and when I add lighter wheels, I'll be over 150lbs. That's like adding 11hp in addition to the gains gotten from other things. Easiest places to add lightness are the wheels, the battery, and the rear seats. Rear seats alone (with hardware) total up to around 47lbs. A lightweight Braille battery can save 30lbs. If you still have the s-lite (s-HEAVY) wheels, and you go to some 16" Enkei or similar lightweight wheels, you can save over 40lbs.

All depends on your goals and the size of you bank account.

 

Agree! Borla on most cars is the best sounding exhaust. I really like mine on the mini. I was wondering about that electric water pump on that SC, now it makes me just want to keep buying a stock used one when this one goes out, just wish they were a little bit easier to replace. I think if I had to do it again, (which I prolly will LOL) I will do forged internals with a little bit bigger bore, ported and polished heads with a bigger cam.

 

My usual approach is letting the engine breath first. So headers and ported stuff... However, I have a fleet of cars here and I pulled the engine in this car on a whim- got tired of fighting the tight spaces and figured with all the miles it could use a refresh. I did not anticipate everything costing as much as it does. (should have known - it's a BMW product). Trying to keep to some sort of budget.

Anyway, the current plan is clean, reseal and upgrade where I can. The stock struts and springs were original so I've upgraded. Last night I sourced a set of Koni Yellow's with adjustable dampening and some H&R springs. I'll be adding Lemforder tophats, and some powerflex bushings as well as new Lemforder ball joints and end links.

I did the rear seat delete on my04 MSC and we love it so this one will be getting that treatment. Since this car as the s-lites R84, they do the trick for me right now. I have the Holeys on the other car and LOVE them but they're too small for big brakes but that car feels sooooo much more nimble. So I'll see about new wheels later. For now these stockers are alright- and my tires are relatively new, so there's that. We drive this car as a DD, etc so no interest in gutting and making a noisy rattletrap. It's gotta be quiet, somewhat refined and quick.

As for the exhaust, it's not dead yet. It's a good candidate for the one ball. or a complete swap. I did notice that ECS has a "half" of a milltek for around $480 (has the back end of the exhaust). I'd like to do the headers back but those things are crazy expensive. I could see if it was a pair of V8 headers, but these things are tiny and still pricey. You all have a source for a decent header that isn't insane?

Really trying to focus on doing things that are simply easier with the engine, trans and sub frame removed...

 

https://www.waymotorworks.com/millte...0-r52-r53.html

Milltek header for $500 just dont have a cat, but I didnt want one anyway.

 

There's this from ECS: https://www.ecstuning.com/b-racing-d....08.53.550~rd/

 

They have them way cheaper here.

https://www.outmotoring.com/header-c...08.53.360.html

 

That's our RD catted vs their catless. We dont sell catless downpipes or headers due to EPA.

 

^^ building most of my list of parts using ECS and a few bits from FCP... Happy to see some decent prices and excellent customer service! I was on the chat with ECS at 9pm last night and they took great care of me and pulled some cash from my wallet.

 

Now, since I have part of the suspension sorted and I'm prone to jump around, I am looking at the LSD's

I've been leaning toward Quaife at $990 shipped (+tax) from WMW but there are also more affordable options from ECS (e,g, the Team M factory at $700 (+tax) or the Wavetrack for $975.50 (+tax). I've been reading old threads on the comparisons, but it's been several years so I am wondering if there are any updates or considerations I should be looking at.

Kinda liking that Team M unit for $300 less than the others.. I can use that money on other parts.

Thoughts?

 

I have the MFactory in my R55 Clubman. I like it. Purely mechanical, so little to no maintenance, other than regular gearbox oil changes. It will spin both wheel of the line, and you can feel it pull the car through the corners when dry. In the wet, need to be careful, because it will spin both front tires and cause the front to push out. But, I guess that would be the same for all LSDs.

 

I think the M Factory LSD will be the winner for me. I need to go look at my budget. I'm probably spending too much.

 

For the header, look for OBX or one of the OBX clones. Good quality and fairly inexpensive. Two collectors is the way to go - avoild 4-into-1 designs. When I bought my OBX header, I paid less than 300 for it. Now they're up there. There are some decent quality clones out there though for around 300 - at least there were last time I looked.

 

Below is a link to the currently sold ($220) clone of the original SuperSprint which is around $850. Not sure on the quality and it could possibly be the exact same header as the OBX, just with different branding.

https://www.summitracing.com/parts/xfo-hsmini01

 

Interesting. I wonder if anyone has posted results on fitment, etc. I do not have a lift so I'm on my back with jack stands and I need to keep things easy. Poor fitment would be something I'd want to avoid. Nothing worse that fighting with parts that don't fit properly.

 

Fitment will be an issue installing at least a 4-2-1 header unless you remove the engine first - they are wider further back than a 4-1 I think. Fishing the OBX header behind the engine was... um... fun. Yeah, fun. That's the word I was after.

 

Way ahead of you.

 

The fitment issues I’ve seen on the clones were getting it past the sway bar and firewall when installing from the bottom with the subframe an engine in place, and the tubes being in the way of one or two bolts on the head flange.

Since your motor and subframe is out you shouldn’t have any issues getting the header in place. For the bolt issue, some used a stud and nut in those locations.

For differences between a SuperSprint and the knockoffs, getting a SuperSprint in place from the bottom with everything in place should have the same issues, but I haven’t seen too much regarding bolt interference. Also, the SuperSprint has D shaped ports like the OEM original while the knockoffs have oval ports. The OBX also had a small step added at the flange after it was originally released, I think to reduce the bolt interference issue with the primaries. The XForce doesn’t appear to have that step so I’m not sure if the pipes are smaller overall or if they still have the clearance issue with the flange bolts.

For S installs with Aisin autos, the engine is shifted towards the passenger side about an inch which might cause interference issues with an aftermarket header. Not sure if this is the case with the CVT.

 

On with the project:
For the last few days a few things have been trickling in- like the struts and springs

 

While still ordering odds and ends I have been slowly taking things apart, cleaning, painting or ordering other bits that I need.

Things like this dirty old oil filter housing and cooler. (BTW, my plunger was there but the tiny retaining tabs were broken. I found 2 of them while cleaning and also discovered that the old cooler gaskets were relatively hard and needed replacing)

 

While some of the paint was drying I got sidetracked trying out my new 8mm socket (since I had lost my other one). I went to try and loosen the wreck that used to be bolts on the valve cover. Most were 8mm. Three were so rotten that they turned 7mm and one in the back ended up being a 6mm- all from rust!!

 

Since I had those pieces broken loose I was feelin' lucky so I went to try and tackle the sub frame bolts that had been soaking in cree oil for a few days. Broke it all loose and soaked in degreaser- I hate working on dirty greasy parts. It's just too messy. Also pulled the control arms to prep for the powerflex bushings that are in the mail. The OE rubber ones did not indicate that they were worn, but when I took them off they were pretty rough. I saw a few people trying to use a pry bar to pull these off. Quick tip, if you don't already know - place control arm on bench; hold with non-dominant hand. Take long screwdriver and place in one of the carrier's holes and twist. This effectively tore the worn rubber in two pieces. Then it was just a matter of using the sawzall to cut it off.

 

+1 ^^ very common. They rust down to nothing. Water sets in their and over time they go down a couple MM.

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...er-screws.html



We have the bolts in aftermarket as the Genuine MINI ones are $$$

 

Next steps: (as I tend to be all over the place)- is to continue to degrease the subframe- hopefully my fancy Eastwood/POR type paint will be here soon and that subframe will get all prettied up and then I'll put it all back together with the new Lemforder ball joints, powerflex busing, stock rubber sway bar mounts and a nice clean rack and PS pump.

Before all that I am thinking I might as well drop the rear subframe and clean, rustproof and update that stuff down there as well. So it will be powerflex bushings, a larger sway bar- leaning toward that H&R 25mm but it looks like special order so we'll see.... Then, while the underside is mostly bare, I will degrease and clean and then spray down with some heavy duty protectant that should keep the car rust free for quite a while.

Then it's on to cracking the trans off the block. Putting the block on a stand to clean and paint. The trans will be cleaned and the new LSD will be installed as well as new shaft seals and new shafts.

Lots of work ahead of me...

If you all have any ideas or think f somthing I might have missed, please let me know. I'm trying to do this only once.

 

Already ordered them from you the other day However, I just checked earlier and it said my order isn't expected to ship until mid-July???

 

Just ran out of stock on the URO part and more on order. Reached out to vendor to speed it along, we should have a eta update soon.

Some things sell so fast that we run out of stock and then vendor runs out at their depo.