I just put on a new exhaust depot (FLA) down pipe on the MINI. This job was a total PITA. It was such much easier to take the suspension apart than it was to get the OEM downipe off the freaking car! It took me about 4 hours to get it done. I guess I could do it in under 2 hours now. Let's pray that I won't have to get back in there again!
I went with exhaust depot because his pipe doesn't cause a CEL (like other brands ). The power gain from the DP was immediate. The car responds in non-sport mode as if the sport button was on. When the sport button is on, the power is tremendous. The MINI pulls much harder and it continues to pull all to the redline.
Overall, I am very happy with the DP even though it was a PITA.
Hehehe try 6-8 hours for an R53 header install. The reason for taking forever was the lack of height being on jackstands and using a jack that doesn't go very high.
Seth, this is basically the head pipe, right? The one right off the exhaust manifold? Doesn't it have the pre-cat in it? Does the replacement?
So what's the difference? Just less back pressure? Where do you see the biggest gain on the butt dyno?
I've noticed these turbo motors run out of breath at about 6 - 6500 rpm - an effect of using a small turbo wheel for quick boost and no lag, does this help offset that at all?
After studying the diagrams on Realoem, this has to be one of the more convoluted piping systems I've seen for a turbo motor, probably because of the lack of space, but there's no question the flow characteristics can be improved, but at what cost? Increased noise? Higher underhood temps and corresponding loss of effficiency in the intercooler?
Hi! My name's Dave!
'09 LB/LB Clubman S - "Max"
89 Mini "Racing Green"
94 SPi Project (The Hot Rod)
The downpipe is the pipe that is between the turbo hot side outlet and the exhaust.
The factory wastegate is shut for fast spool off the line then as the rpms get to 5500rpm's the internal wastegate is about 3/4 of the way open so and then is fully open at redline. Now if you had a stiffer wastegate spring for a higher boost setting and then tuned with a higher redline you would have just as much kick off the line as up top because the stiffer spring and ability to hold the boost.
Turbo motors are pretty interesting as far as how they work.
Punk is right. It goes from the Turbo down to the exhaust. It has a cat and 2 O2 sensors on it (one above and one below the cat). The stock DP has some sharp bends and it actually crimped at the top. I assume this reduces airflow down to the exhaust. I already replaced the exhaust with the Milltek design which is catless (yes the exhaust has another cat sans 02 sensors). My exhaust is 2.5in stainless steel. I noticed an immediate difference in low-end pick-up with just the exhaust. With the DP, I noticed an even bigger difference. For one, I thought I was driving in sport mode when I was not. I put the MINI in 3rd and just pulled it to redline. There didn't seem to be the noticeable drop in power that normally occurs. It certainly pulls harder through all of the gears. The butt dyno gives it a thumbs-up.
I got my DP from exhaust depot. He posts quite a bit in the drivetrain portion on NAM for GEN 2 MINIs. What I like about his DP is that it does not trigger a CEL like all of the other DPs on the market. I called him personally and he explained how he was able to accomplish this. He is very knowledgeable on turbos and such. The only fitment issue that I am having is that the lower heat shield does not fit with this DP. The new DP is ceramic coated so it should absorb some of the heat. Exhaust DP told me that it wouldn't cause any problems, but I may take it off and wrap it in some turbo wrap.
It does make the entire exhaust louder. For now it is manageable, but if it was much louder I would have to take it off.
Hey Seth if you were still in Kansas I would give you a listen to how loud my exhaust is. From the clips of the Exh.Depot catted DP and the miltek that is actually not too loud. Are you just worried about the drone or overall sound?
I have done some research along with giving my input on a R56-esque straight through exhaust for the R53 and DrPhil on NAM made like 4 iterations of it and each one was SUPER loud and drone. So he and I figured out that since the MINI is a very short vehicle and the length of tubing is short compared to a lot of cars. We found that the drone is not so much sound its the vibration of the tubing itself transferring to the unibody causing the drone syndrome. Along with that we looked at why MINI did what they did with the factory exhaust and what other aftermarket manufactures did and they understood that with the lack of length in pipe allowed the frequency of resonance to be more pronounced at the average highway rpm range of 3-4k rpm's. So I did a little research into the subject and found that the solution is what is called a Helmholtz resonator is just length of pipe with a closed end resonator welded perpendicular to the exhaust. Here is a picture of what we come up with as a good manageable solution. I also think something like this applied to the R56 will eliminate the drone all together without causing any performance loss.
Wow. That is very interesting. I really don't think that it is drone per say. If you just cruising, it sounds awesome. However, when you get on it, the sound is very deep and almost vibrating to me. Very weird. With the addition of the DP, it has increased. Your idea may be the ticket to eliminated the issue.
I think I have an exhaust leak somewhere. I can't visibly see or smell anything but my eyes are getting irritated after I drive it. I am going to let the exhaust get warmed up then I am going to through it on a lift with it running. The only thing I can think of doing is spraying some soapy water at all of the joints to see if they bubble. Any suggestions?
Yes you could also have a exhaust leak and soap water is a great thing for finding all kinds of leaks.
Your feeling the drone where most of the time you hear it. Drone goes both ways and sometimes can do both at the same time which is what DrPhil was feeling and hearing with his first 4 iterations of the straight through exhaust. There is the big debate about 2.5 vs. 3" tubing for turbocharged cars which I think is stupid and with this 3" pipe you have more area for the resonance that is caused by the exhaust pulse the good thing about it other then what the turbo'd cars love the least amount of backpressure and the larger tubing actually shifts the frequency at which your ears hear the drone. Here is an interesting fact if you look at a resonator what do you see its body is a larger tubing size with and internal perforated tube of the same size of the rest of the exhaust system.
Frequency- is the the point in the RPM range that drone/resonance is audible. ie. My R53 with a catless header and borla race exhaust has moderate drone at 3500-4k rpm's then increases to the loudest drone/resonance at 4500rpm which is the proper 1000rpm's of resonance 3500-4500rpm's. After that the frequency is out of what the human ear can hear.
Same here I love driving my MINI. I have only had one exhaust (M7 exhaust) that had the DRONE from HELL. I have had 4 exhaust systems (one-ball, m7, Alta, and now borla). The alta's resonator pretty much melted on me from sub-par quality stainless. I am looking to do the straight-through exhaust like Dr.Phil's.
). The power gain from the DP was immediate. The car responds in non-sport mode as if the sport button was on. When the sport button is on, the power is tremendous. The MINI pulls much harder and it continues to pull all to the redline. 
