Soliciting thoughts & opinions - power upgrades to a 998

[94touring]

Couple different ways to do it. Russell and maybe Calvert sell some very oversized pistons to make a 1225cc or thereabouts.  Otherwise maybe there are specific height pin small bore pistons to make it work out for 0 deck height and the gasket for proper quench and piston to head clearance without machine work or specific rods.  We'd have to research it a bit.  All a 1098 is really is a stroked 998.  The Russell pistons are just one avenue to take a small bore and basically turn it into a large bore.  It would be a really nice motor.   

[MPlayle]

I had found that VMAXSCART was still around and making their A-Series supercharger kit.  I have been researching both as I had more/less decided after my talk with MiniDave to go with some form of "forced induction".

I am actually leaning more towrds the Turbo kit as it was designed by Jet Motors (US based, so more convenient support) who have sold a significant number of the kits and their kits are also being sold by some of the UK Mini parts suppliers.

I have spoken extensively this week with Jeremy about his kit and compatibility with my current engine specs.  I am likely to order the kit later this week.  I already ordered the parts to sort the drop-gear issue from Mini Spares and will in fact be changing from the current square-cut 1.04xx ratio set to the "economy" 0.958 ratio set - resulting in something closer to a 2.95 final.

[94touring]

He estimate what power it will make?

[MPlayle]

I have not heard from Stuart at VMAXSCART with numbers for the supercharger route.  Jereemy at Jet Motors indicated I should see about double my current hp and torque figures with 8-10 lbs of boost with the turbo kit.  Based on the conversations with Dave as well as Jeremy, that would mean between 80-90 for hp and 90-100 for torque (based on 39 hp and 52 lbft for a stock 998 and allowing for a bit more with my current head configuration).

Granted, those may be "optimistic" numbers.  If reality is more like 60-70 hp and 70-80 lbft, then I will have the power gains to easily support the results of the gearing change.

I plan to add a boost/afr gauge for tuning.

[MiniDave]

Good idea on the AFR gauge.

I'm excited to see you do this, it will be the first turbo installation in our little group. However, I thought the point of going with the turbo was not having to pull the motor?

[cstudep]

Cool, sounds like you have a plan. I have always been intrigued by the turbo kits and it's surely got to be the easiest route to go for what you want to do.

[MPlayle]

Dave,

To solve the gearing issue caused by the non-standard drop gears, I knew I would be pulling the motor to either change the final drive again or change the drop gears.  I did not want to dig into the block itself.  I decided to go with changing the drop gears and the turbo kit for the power boosts.

[skmini]

Following.

[MPlayle]

I will start another thread in the Maintenance/Modifications category when I get started on the project.  Right now, I am collecting the necessary parts for the power upgrade and a couple other details.

[MPlayle]

New thread in the "Maintenance and Modifications" group is here:

Turbocharging thread

[ve9aa]

You're thinking about this all wrong.  For $0.00 you can rip out ALL OF the interior (except the drivers seat) and only run 1/2 tank of fuel, 1/2 JUG OF W/W FLUID etc..  Remove anything that weighs anything(even the headliner) Helium in the tires. Sand it down to primer - heck cut off the roof even.

BOOM, you're 500 lbs lighter.

Car runs like it has a turbo!

You're welcome.

[Jims5543]

You're thinking about this all wrong.  For $0.00 you can rip out ALL OF the interior (except the drivers seat) and only run 1/2 tank of fuel, 1/2 JUG OF W/W FLUID etc..  Remove anything that weighs anything(even the headliner) Helium in the tires. Sand it down to primer - heck cut off the roof even.

BOOM, you're 500 lbs lighter.

Car runs like it has a turbo!

You're welcome.

Reading this makes me appreciate Dans build with Blue.  Not only did he squeeze that 1275 to 96 hp he got the weight stupid low at 1100 lbs.

I have nothing to add except after owning a couple of turbo cars one heavily tuned, adding that heat to the engine bay has to be taken into consideration. Better radiator, oil cooler, inter-cooler would also be a consideration, or H20 injection. I would also consider EFI and stand alone, like a Wolf 3D or something like that just so you can tune the timing and fuel to get the most out of the Turbo.

Interested to see how this turns out.