Newbie and need help

[woody1988]

Well here is a little run down on what I need help on and I am new to going down the supercharged root, basicly I have got a fiesta mk4 with a ford puma engine in 1.7l with VCR and running 130bhp and want to put a mini cooper s super charger on it and was wondering if I would be able to run standard internals as want to push 200-250bhp and not 100% on if I can run standard and also what I will full need for the conversion , eg like intercooler I know and piping aswel as the belt for supercharger but thing like oil return do they have on ect ....
Cheers for any advice

[Michael]

Hi there and welcome to SCH! Glad to have you aboard.

This sounds like a very interesting project you're proposing, installing a Mini Copper S supercharger on a Ford Puma 1.7l engine. I'm not too familiar with either the Cooper S' supercharger nor the Ford Puma 1.7l engine, but I don't doubt you have a fair bit of fabrication work ahead of you.

But to try and answer some of your questions, I don't think you'll have too many mechanical issues with the engine at the 200bhp-250bhp mark. Of course, that's assuming the piston's and cylinders are in good shape and won't allow too much blow-by. My biggest concern would be with the connecting rods, but even at the 250bhp level, you should be fine (if you were asking about a Honda 1.6l, I'd be very skeptical whether that engine would last more than a few hundred miles).

As for the intercooler, piping, etc... I'd think anything that came off the Mini Cooper S would be fair game to reuse. If the good folks at BMW installed an intercooler on the Cooper S, then I'd definitely install one if I were embarking on a similar project.

I think the biggest issues you'll be facing will be the physical mounting of the Cooper S supercharger (I've never seen one outside of the car, so I don't know what it looks like or how it mounts). And the other issue will be the fuel system. You never mentioned if you're going to reuse the 1.7l fuel system or if you're going to use the Mini Cooper's fuel system (ie. fuel injectors, rails, ECM, etc...).

Of course, none of these are issues that can't be overcome. Retrofitting a supercharger from one car to another isn't impossible; lots of people on here have done it. Modifying a fuel system is also possible, but that will take more knowhow than I've got... especially on a vehicle I've never worked on.

[Cali]

If you have even a small amount of fabrication skill, I would venture to say that getting it hooked up physically would only take time. The air/fuel/spark parameters would be the most difficult part.
I know the Mark IV is 99-02, so it "should" be compatible with aftermarket ECM controllers (like the twEECer or moates Quarterhorse). You may have poor support for that computer's configuration, but if that's the case, a common computer (like a mustang's) could easily be configured for your application.