Mini Cooper S R53 Supercharged Top 10 MUST Have Mods For Your W11 Engine

in this video we go over the mods that I believe can unlock true power and potential out of your Mini Cooper R53 W11 ENGINE as such I have upgraded a few mods myself and YES you are correct this car is ready for stage 1 BUT I want to take it further and go to STAGE 2 which we will be doing on this channel the full process the car is hopefully going to be booked in and all work done and recorded before and after speed test and the outcome and fate of this engine and car let me say these mods already make this car pure fun and a pleasure to drive and puts a smile on your face like no other and I can only recommend these cars HIGHLY

with all that being said it comes at a cost if your willing to work on these yourself then these cars can be great cars BUT if your not willing to do that then you can expect this car to cost you thousands in maintenance and repairs constantly

[cspreach]

I got my 2004 Mini Cooper S with 45k miles on it, it's in 11/10 condition. 2 previous owners, first owner shipped it everywhere he went, second owner was my cousin and he put a 15% pulley on it for me right before I bought it from him. I've been looking into cold intake filters and what not, car currently has 51k miles on it and i've been loving it.

[bignck]

I got a stock R53 s with pilot sport 4 s and it's the most fun car to drive, could never sell it, ridiculously fun to drive.

[allseeing]

I think 15% pulley, colder plugs, stealth intake and a decent cat R56 MCS front brakes are the sweetspot for a standard R53. On a facelift you're probably looking at late JCW power for probably no more than 1k spend which is excellent bang per buck.

General consensus is 15% pulley with stock IC is just fine...any more you need a bigger (note I wont say better) IC. The interesting thing with the stock IC is whilst they struggle with the inlet heat generated on a pullied SC, they recover from heat soak more quickly because they are inherently smaller and less dense (the GP intercooler included) so updating the IC can have its downsides too. Also the more air you push in, the more fuel you need so you need to watch with the stock map that you dont start leaning it out particularly at higher rpms. The cars do run a little rich so they can deal with it to some extent but push too hard you'll detonate and blow the motor.

Agreed a manifold is one of the better means of gaining power as the stock one is very restrictive, though the stock cat doesnt hurt power (the engine is designed to run with the back pressure) so a tomcat manifold (where the stock cat is grafted to the upgrade manifold) is a good way to go. If you keep the cat in place (rather than decat it as is the option with a tomcat) I dont think it needs a remap either, but probably benefits from one at that point

[Tryingmybestsince]

I would put also a 40mm thick radiator just to keep the engine fresh and healthy

[russjam]

Thank you. The amount of people that tried arguing saying that all coil packs are the same and makes no difference. I kept telling them the performance ones have higher spark rate and it was like talking to a brick wall so thank you for backing up my argument.

[tombosma]

Just got myself a R53 like a month ago. Your video's helped me a lot buying one. I've put an milltek exhaust on it and damn does it sounds good🔥. I'm think of going to stage 2 .

[zokusharuuku]

Only mod I don’t agree with is that air filter, you can tell the sides don’t seal with the hood or they would be the sane height as the intercooler and seal along the back. You can modify the stock box to have a bigger opening which does draw in cold air and just switch out the piping to smooth the flow better.

[bernardbarbour]

I have a Stage 2 Dinan Kit on my JCW MCS. Nice mods Sir.

[Petrolhead_usa]

Stock coil pack is the best for tuning
Stock coil + MSD cables + brisk spark plugs 1 step colder = more power baby

[josht]

Literally buying mine in the next few months the timing of your r53 vids are perfect 👌 I’m a bmw apprentice but still like to watch the mods 👍nice videos mate

[Kingste]

A good addition is having a metal coolant reservoir helps a lot with how hot the engine gets reduces the risk a bit

[aaronhahn]

Pretty standard mods on this video post. I see tonnes of talk about IC and when it's required etc (sigh), but there are alternatives that I don't hear about - water-methanol injection.

I've got lots of experience designing supercharger kits and I just picked up a lil' r53 write-off for fun... first thing I did is drop a 15% pulley, did my own complete access tuning, and dropped methanol injection. Yep, methanol injection. Sound complicated?, nope. Everybody uses this... but for some reason, mini cooper owners/modders don't seem to use this much. WAY more power, WAY lower IATs/EGTs, no need for IC (cools WAY better). Oh... forgot to mention.. cheaper!

For those who don't want to spend much money, you can probably do a very safe 17% pulley install and install just a simple boost-switch operated water/methanol injection kit running 50:50... so that's just -35degC windshield washer fluid for those who don't know (I know people say you can run stock tune/injectors but I'm pretty sure they don't track em'). This will give extra fuel in boost only (methanol is ~130 octane fuel) and will add huge knock protection and cooling. Just my .02$.


Cheers.

[angeloweaver]

I have my first car. It’s a 04 manual Cooper s mc40. It’s in a little bit of rough shape but I’d love to get it fixed up

[davethomas]

Great videos about the R53 Mini. My brother retired in July and gave me his 02 Cooper S that he had since new. It's rapidly approaching 200, 000 miles and was wondering what you would recommend I look at for its BIG service. It's running fairly well for it's age but has a slight misfire when cold which throws up a cylinder 1 misfire code some times. Some cooling/ heating issues I have yet to investigate. I've been working on my own cars for the last 36 years but always appreciate any advice on new cars from experienced people like yourself.
Really looking forward to more videos on the R53 and the advice you can give.
👍👍👍😁😁

[dakotaa]

Great video excellent details and very accurate!

[minimanadam]

I did a 15% pulley, wrapped long tube catless headers, pacesetter exhaust, full intake, larger intercooler and upgraded boots, jcw injectors, fuel pump, light crank, jcw 210 ecu flash and gauges o yes msd wires, coilpack and ngk colder plugs . I have a launch controller n pedal commander yet to install and as it sits it is a fucking lil monster and surprised every car it's ran against
AND HOLLOW OUT THE WALL BEHIND THE INTAKE SO IT GET REAL COLD AIR FROM IN FRONT OF WINDSHEILD

[LewReviews]

Before you do any mods you should be having sc service. New water pump.

[backseatcovers]

I'm blue dah bah dee dah bee daah... 😉💙

[stephenblakey]

What bhp and torque was this running with the larger intercooler, pod filter, and pulley with stage 1? May i ask.

[Lukksia]

would it be a bad idea to do these mods on my nearly 200k mile engine? it runs good and seems healthy