I'm confused now

I popped in to Playmini today and although looking at exhausts got chatting about Pulleys

He said he could supply a 13% Pulley with a JCW belt for £70. BUT! Thats as small as you wanna go or the heat build up will cancel out the power once hot. While if you dont get a remap you will burn out the exhaust valves very quickly!


I kinda wanna believe this, as the guy tunes a few challenge cars but you get a different story everywhere else!

Anyone got any ideas?

Wrong!

Sorry, but I have a feeling he is generalising.

There is no point remapping a R53 until you swap injectors/heads/cams

The std ECU adapts very well to the pulley changes. After a couple of hundred miles the ECU quickens up according to your driving too. I have a 17% and have no problems and know many others the same.

If I were you I would jump straight to a 15% pulley just remember to change the Sparkplugs to Iridium ones and maybe change your airbox

Not sure about the removal tool, but KMT Pulleys from Mini Torque are supposed to be the best. Think he will do belt and pulley for £65, or if you want the pulley in black (like me ) £90

I'm sure you can borrow the tool off someone. Get a dave.f airbox while your there for increased WHINEEEEEEEEE

The only silver £50 ones KMT has left are 16% Otherwise it's black only at £65

Will check it out, Have been told by many the KMT is good. Just got tho make the leap I guess and see the results

How about you skip all the problems, get a 17% and a GRS intercool and be done with it

When are you about and I will take you for a 17% spin

What was it like at PlayMini??!! We should try and get them on the site!!

Oh you are not helping Moley! I'll be bankrupt if you have your way!

I am ordering the 15% right now! I only use the car at weekends really and drive it like i stole it as a result. Am thinking caution will make my engine last a little longer!

Playmini was ok, Small unit on estate near Horsham/Crawley Just off the A264 Faygate. Workshop full of projects so fitting not an option at the moment.

Had Pulleys and exhausts in stock, and very helpfull!

Suggested their exhaust is not too loud But has the best power gains But then they all say that!

If I go back I will see if they want to get on SNM. They are local after all!

Great shout mate! surreynewmini@live.co.uk if they want to contact us

I think Playmini might now be concentrating on classic Mini's rather than New Mini's... They sold their show car a while back.

Its the MINIless man! You not off to Yank-town yet mate?

By that rationale if you run anything other than an OEM pulley it's the same story, and you must always need to uprate your intercooler - anything smaller than OEM is going to increase air temps. Prob why GP has an uprated intercooler.

But conversely, it probably depends how hard you are running the supercharger after the reduction - if you are only using it for a bit of extra low end torque and hanging around the 3-4k rev mark you are probably working the supercharger no harder than you were before when you were having to rev harder to get same results.

If, however, you are constantly bouncing off the rev limiter, I would imagine a better intercooler is a must

I agree with everything you are saying - I wasn't implying one would deliberately limit oneself to 3-4k revs, but that there are a lot of drivers who do work mostly within that rev range most of the time, and who feel a natural urge to change up as soon as they get to 4k revs. For example, my friend has spent the last few years in diesel cars, and tends to change gear as soon as he gets to 3k revs.

I was suggesting that working an engine with a reduced pulley at that level probably creates no more excess heat than running a MINI without a reduced pulley at 5-7k revs a lot of the time.

However, since you have evidence that even in traffic at low revs the addition of a reduced pulley massively increases heat soak, that does make my point moot