Then I broke down (74 mini mild refurb)

[MiniDave]

and........as you saw......torque, especially in the mid range where everyone except a racer do most of their driving.

Styers put a 276 or 286 in his car and it's tough to drive in town.

[94touring]

Looks like my tach came in.  Might be Thursday night job before the dyno. 

Yes Vikram the idea for a street car is to size up the components for street rpms.  So a cam that puts down power from say 2k to 6500rpms.  I had Calver customize the head to match my goals and that's why I say it's a 3-4 stage.  I recall him saying closer to a 4.  The maniflow intake manifold in conjunction with the longer velocity stacks are also sized for midrange power.  Short stacks are for high rpms.  You'd size a turbo the same way.  Wouldn't want a huge turbo that is powered outside the normal use of the car.  Then of course I put a lot of time reducing weight, focusing on rotational weight.  The less mass the engine has to turn, be it internally or external like wheels, the less the engine has to work.   This is where the light flywheel comes into play, but also things like light weight timing chain, plastic fan vs the heavy metal fan, alloy wheel flanges, wheels and tires that both weigh less, and I suspect even the rear disc contribute.   On the to do list is an under tray to help aerodynanically. 

I think the turbo mini clutch setup was the way to go.  Very easy to drive and should hold up to the power.  Options are limited regarding flywheels and pressure plates, so hopefully it last awhile.

[Vikram]

Very interesting, thanks for this.

The only thing I heard was that Kent cams were a bit outdated? Heard Swiftune makes some good products as well.

I'm sure the dyno will show the strong performance though, looking forward to seeing those figures.

[94touring]

The mg metro and kent 266 are by many considered the best fast road cam for a mini.  Very similar but the 266 has more overlap and duration.

[94touring]

Looked up my emails to Keith.  I started the order back in December of 2016!  The head was matched to the pistons and block to produce 10:3:1 compression.  Head specs as follows:

Super sport spec cylinder head - 

Inlet valves: 35.7mm, single groove collet EN214N plasma-nitrided

Exhaust valves: 29.5mm, single groove collet EN214N plasma-nitrided 

Guides: Manganese bronze

Stem seals: A+ sprung on all 8, Viton material on inlets

Valve springs: 220lb nominal dual coil, shimmed to correct fitted length

Top caps: Standard

Collets: Standard single groove 

Chamber cap: Tailored to suit application.



Developed to give optimised performance potential for very fast street and track day use with sport and race type cams. Port and valve throat work makes this head an entry-level race head for the weekend warrior or enthusiast racer as well as blistering performance for the street.

performance for the street.

[Vikram]

Thanks for this. Would it have been possible to give the head to a local machine/engine shop and ask them to do the valve work? I'm curious if this would have saved money, or is this something best left to mini experts?

Did you change any final drive ratios or anything in the gearbox? I also remember something about an x pin for the diff and central oil pick up? Maybe I'm imagining things.

[94touring]

I had it done by one of the more experienced mini tech guys in the world.  Mainly cause I knew he wouldn't screw it up and for the amount of money I dumped into the engine, I wanted it done right.  Anyone can do valves but I wanted his porting expertise.

I had a single pin and 3.1 gears with stock oil pickup intially.  Then I drove 4 hours back to Daves and put in the x-pin, centre oil pickup, and 3.44 gears. 3.1 would be better for cruising or freeway driving, in fact it's great.  But my build started leaning more toward fast road build so I just fine tuned my specs to get the most out of it.  Still does at least 91mph, granted it's way up in rpms.  Though it's probably geared just right for when the cam comes on.  You wouldn't want to lug around in a 2.76 gearing with a 286 cam for example.  You'd never have power!

[MiniDave]

The porting is what makes it work, all the extra HP in one of these engines is found in the head. Anyone can do a decent valve job, but that's just a small part of it.

[94touring]

Short clip Vikram of noise. 

[Vikram]

Sounds great! Not sure about the choice of footwear 4.gif

[94touring]

It was flip flops day at the shop.  Here's a breakdown one guy gave on cams for you. Another thing he notes using a cam that require 6500+rpms to make power is engine rebuilds are frequent.  I know one of his cars has nearly identical specs as mine with a 266 and made 84bhp.  Also somewhere in my reading found math on the 3.44 vs speed and rpms.  The 91mph run I did would have put me at 5500rpms.  6k rpms should top me out right at 100mph. 


A 266 will give max power at 5700 rpm, so you'll be using around 6000 rpm when making it go at its best, so full balancing is not essential.

A 276 peaks at 6100 rpm, so use 6400 rpm as change-up revs when using max power.

A 286 peaks at 6400 rpm so use 6800 rpm when using the engine fully. This will require full balancing plus a centre main bearing strap, etc.

[Vikram]

Dan, slightly unrelated but what's the shop truck you refer to?

[94touring]

I bought a Toyota Tundra.  Good for hauling the trailer and keeping miles off my cars.

[Vikram]

Great! For a second I thought you bought Justin's truck!

[94touring]

Parts of it are at my shop but he keeps having kids so the project is on hold for about 18 years.

[94touring]

Also non related but we sold the 06 JCW and bought a 2015 bmw 328i.

[MiniGene]

Parts of it are at my shop but he keeps having kids so the project is on hold for about 18 years.

I'm flashing back to parts of my life!! LOL

Dan, this build is wicked!  It's great to see the fruits of your labor--I'm enjoying the updates.

[94touring]

All I've wanted to do is go home all week and drive it.  It would also be nice to color sand and buff.  The car has come a long way!

[94touring]

Bought this cool little digital tach.  Had a couple hours this morning before jet setting to and from work to install it.  Problem is it reads double.  Quadruple checked wiring and went through 4,6, and 8 cylinder settings on the tach with no luck.  11.gif

[MiniDave]

You do have the trigger wire connected to the dist. side of the coil?

[94touring]

Trigger to the negative side of the coil.  Black to ground and red to power.

[MiniDave]

Yeah, they're pretty hard to get wrong.....must just be a bad tacho....does it have a 2 cyl setting?  ;D

[94touring]

Yeah it's so simple even I understand it lol.  Just 8-6-4.  It's a cheap Chinese thing off ebay.

[94touring]

Ordered an autometer tach, 2-5/8" so it's still small, and have a wideband on the way to fine tune needles and fuel.  I will adjust my exhaust piping at the same time to get it off the ground.

[MiniDave]

Be interesting to hook the digital one up to your truck set it for 8 cyl and see what it does.....