Alta CAI upgrade
My MINI is such a lovely car. After the first couple weeks of ownership, I had already watched Jeff mod his MINI in several different ways – including a different supercharger pulley, some bolt-on suspension bits, and a short-shift kit. At first I was convinced I’d keep my car stock for a while to get used to it, and enjoy the honeymoon period. That period is over. Alta Performance had a lovely after-Thanksgiving sale that included 40% off their cold air induction units (at the moment they are still on sale). It didn’t take a lot of convincing for me to jump on this great deal, so I ordered their Cold Air Intake System, and also the Turbo Inlet Hose. Living so close to Alta, ground shipping took only 2 business days and my new parts were in my garage on Tuesday this past week - tempting with each passing day that they weren’t on my car. Yesterday, I finally got to work and spent a few hours under the hood of my car.
Earlier in the week as I planned for the install, I had read about a modification to increase airflow through the stock hood scoop opening. It’s actually something Alta recommend as well with their CAI. It’s a nice budget mod that cost under $10 in parts. I replaced the stock hood scoop opening with a piece of gutter mesh from my local home-improvement-mega-store, cut and shaped to the opening then spray painted black. The stock scoop grill has only about 50% of the holes open. My new grill is much more free-flowing and was a cinch to install. Here is the before/after:
Then was the harder bit: pull out the stock airbox and turbo inlet hose and put in the Alta parts. Install took a bit of time as I was being very careful not to screw up my first mod. Alta’s instructions were generally good, and after about 1.5 hours of careful work the new parts are in. Naturally, this being Seattle, it started to rain just as I was finishing up, so I can’t comment on any performance difference yet. What I can say is that the noise of the new intake system is awesome. Before the mod, the blow-off valve made a petite whistling noise when letting off the gas after accelerating. It was a high-pitch whistle that went from the high-pitch of the turbo under load, to a lower note. That noise is more like a muscular exhale now. More mechanical sounding, and fantastic. Here are the before/after pictures of the install.
