The JCW air filter revisited

Posted on by Ian C.

Regular readers will remember, GBMINI had the JCW air filter installed last year (as part of the “step-up” kit that takes the original JCW kit) from a claimed 200hp to 210hp.

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This is one of my most favourite mods to GBMINI – I love the way that the supercharger sounds gets loud when you are heard on the throttle and revving over 4500, but remains quiet when driving “normally”. There is an obvious drop in MPG since the upgrade, which I attribute to my changed driving style – I “drive for the whine” often now!
If you have an MCS with no JCW upgrade, you can still get this air filter – I recommend it 🙂
There was a thread on MINI2 a while back where someone had the new air filter installed but the dealership was not ready to reprogram the engine computer. However, the air filter worked properly anyway, opening the extra air intake valve at 4500 rpm.
At the time, this seemed surprising … but I have recently learned that the extra intake valve is not controlled by the engine computer at all, but by some special electronics developed for and installed with the air intake:

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The electronics is in the little box center of the pic, mounted on the back of the new cowl which is installed to provide the opening for the extra air intake. The electronics determines when 4500 rpm is reached, and powers the extra valve to allow more air flow; there is some hysteresis so that the valve is not closed again until revs drop below 4000.
What I don’t know is if there is any feedback signal sent to the engine computer to indicate when the valve is opened – but I would guess “no”. The existing sensors allow the engine computer to determine air/fuel mixes, and presumably they will provide all necessary indications of how much air is flowing into the engine.

The engine computer still needs to be reprogrammed for the “step-up” kit, to take account of the bigger fuel injectors which are also installed – I don’t know if reprogramming is needed when the JCW air filter is installed “standalone” on a non-JCW MCS.

Aftermarket Appraisal

Posted on by Ian C.

“Good Tires, Bad Wipers, Great Stereo”
Todays weather started with light snow and progressed to heavy rain; when I headed north into New Hampshire to visit a supplier, I met freezing rain (and two cars spun off).
In todays rain I found that the Trico Innovision wipers (see here) are not much use at speed in heavy rain! Unlike the factory wipers, the Trico’s have a tendency to lift off the windshield at speed, significantly reducing visibility 😦
My old stock wipers will be re-fitted in the morning – I will just deal with ice on the frames like I used to.

Happily, the Pirelli PZero Nero tires (see here) performed very well in todays wet weather, with no hint of loss of traction.
They are not perfect in snow – I had to take a run up my road when it was snow covered recently – but I think they are a great all season compromise.

The other thing I enjoyed during the trip today was my Kenwood stereo & Keg (see here and here; being able to drive for hours while only ever hearing music that I like, with no need to change CDs, radio stations, etc, is excellent!

Between the downtubes …

Posted on by Ian C.

Recently, from a thread on MINI2, I bought a toggle switch panel with properly chromed rings. Today, encouraged by a visit from Jared, I got round to removing my old toggle switch panel (which I installed in Jareds MINI in place of his which was missing the rear fog toggle) and installing the chromed one. At the same time I did some other long-pending changes to the “between downtubes” area of GBMINI, including installing the latest official storage solution:

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This newest storage option also comes with a piece that fits in front of the hand brake which fits tight against the seats; I am not yet sure how practical it is …
Previously I had put in the storage which comes with ’05 MINIs, but I did not find it very useful for storing stuff. Of course it is better than the nothing you get with pre-’05 MINIs!

Also today, I removed the useless Kenwood / Sirius satellite radio tuner; I had it installed last summer but it always dropped out if I drove near trees which I do a lot on my way to/from work – trying a different antenna, different mounting position, etc, all made no improvement. There are just too many trees in Essex county!

When Jared arrived, we replaced his brake light mod with a soldered diode mod, so that he can have the rear fog lights activated – then we installed my old toggle switch panel so that he has the needed rear fog toggle switch.