K03 turbo - K04 Turbo

[futureal33]

Hi,

Firstly let me say that I am not a VAg owner, I have a Mini cooper S turbo... however my mini I believe uses the same turbo that Mk iV golfs use (the K03)

I am looking to upgrade the turbo, and was hoping that I could bolt on a K04 turbo... I am just wondering if anyone on these forums has done it, can point me in the right direction etc. I would be the first UK mini to do this and need as much help as I can get.
From pictures I have seen, the K03 and K04 look identical, all apart from the downpipe outlet connection which is a triangular 3 bolt pattern on the K03 and a sort of oval 5bolt pattern on the K04 - please can someone confirm that I am looking at the correct K04?

Does anyone know if it can just be as simple as a direct bolt on replacement turbo?

I appreciate any help you are able to give me at all
Thank you
Nick

[topher]

There are many different types of k04, and even more types of k03. Now I've never worked on or even been up close to a Cooper S (only the older supercharged ones) so with guessing I'd imagine you're looking at a custom manifold and downpipe, and custom boost hoses. When you're at that level of turbo swapping I'd dump the k04 idea altogether and get something off a jap car with ceramic bearings.

[futureal33]

Thanks for the reply... wouldn't the manifold connection be the same between the K03 and K04 turbo though?
I havent even taken my turbo off to inspect what the connection looks like, but does the K03 turbo and K04 have a similar/identical manifold inlet?

As you can see from this picture our turbo's are right at the front of the engine bay so working on them (in theory) should be easy

[K666PDP]

u thought bout looking into a uprated hybrid K03 or a K03/04 hybrid from the likes of turbodynamics will prob bolt straight on aswell? worth looking into mate.......putting a K04 will open a can of worms mate ur better of talking to a specialist who deal with mini's as said before you dont want to be getting advice from us VAG folk assuming the turbos are the same and find that all your research is worthless when if you find out the turbos are different down the line  good luck with the conversion mate 

[ben1.8T]

Dont peeps on the mini forums know?

[topher]

Thanks for the reply... wouldn't the manifold connection be the same between the K03 and K04 turbo though?

The flanges are the same, but the housings not necessarily so. Like I said there are lots of different types of k03 and k04, so without knowing exactly which model you have and which you'll replace it with, it's impossible to say it'll be a direct fit. On mk4 Golfs for example you have to use the original k04 manifold (or a custom one) from whichever car you took the turbo from, because the intercooler piping comes out at a different angle and won't physically fit on the original manifold. The thing that tells me it isn't a direct fit.. is the fact that noone else has done it on a mini yet

[Ben]

there are a couple of diffrent models of ko4 turbo,1 has a bigger housing with ko3s internals.and1 is a bigger housing with larger internals,as this is the 1 to go for you would need the manifold aswell.oil feed lines.then you would need custom down pipe to fit the mini.ill get the part number for you later today.think of the top ofr my head its 028r turbo you would want but ill find out for certain.

      regards r-tech ben