Was feeling good about redoing some seats on the mini. Weather was great and took a drive. 7 blocks from the condo and the car shut off as I was coming to a light. Had enough momentum to swing into a drive. Verified the usual suspects and found I had no spark. Got the other car and made the drive across town to steal a coil. Hooked up the coil and fired right up. Sweet. No sooner as I secure the other car to drive the mini, it dies. Fried the new coil. Still scratching my head, but hopefully it just didn't like the ballast style coil and the right coil will work just fine. Now to order 2 new coils. :-[
Pic
Try one more time
I have only broken down once in a car before owning my Mini.
It sucks I feel your pain.
The excitement of mini ownership. I need to see if I can get a coil that will work otherwise I'm going to have to aaa this thing. I had planned to freshen up the dizzy and coil anyways, wishing I would have sooner now.
What is it with these cars and coils? I had a friend with a similar problem, after finding he had electronic ign, he replaced his coil and all is good again. I also had to replace Buzz's coil - now I carry a spare on road trips.
I made a post on MM looking for some answers. I really need to find a condenser to test out.
Have a true 74 998cc mini. It sat for years, I acquired it, got it running and it's been doing great till last night. Driving home it shut off instantly as I was coming to a stop. Pull over, check fuel, check ignition. No spark. Get my other car, drive across town and get a coil from my other mini. Plug it in and it fires right up. A few minutes later it dies. Has a lumpy idle for a few moments before it totally shuts off. Coil is excessively hot. Thought maybe it didn't like a later year coil. Today grabbed another coil, actually have about 4 old ones sitting around and a new one I grabbed from the autozone for the heck of it. Nothing got it to fire up. Took the original coil and the coil I borrowed from the other mini and they both work on the other mini. I thought surely I fried both of them but apparently not. So, opened up the dizzy, looks like a 25d. The cap, rotor, and points all look practically brand new. No wear or corrosion, I was actually surprised at their condition. The condenser I would assume is new, but I'm wondering if that's my culprit. I don't have any to swap out and not sure if there is something locally that I can use as an alternate. I'm confused at why when I put in the 2nd coil it fired up and ran great, albeit for only a few minutes. What else can I be looking for here?
I had a similar thing happen with Buzz, new condenser fixed it and I haven't had to change it since - probably 3K miles now.
Where is the car now, still in OK? I get parts locally from Victoria British here in Lenexa.
I would think pretty much any 12V condenser that fits would work in a pinch.
Yeah in Tulsa. Just tried a random condenser from the pep boys. Didn't work. I have power to the coil for sure though.
OK, you need several things for the ignition to work, one of which is a good ground - there should be a fine ground strap between the base plate and the body of the distributor - sometimes those break and can cause an intermittent ground. You also need a good ground between the engine and the chassis or body of the car.
If that looks OK, start from scratch - do you have 12V to the + side of the coil?
12V on the - side of the coil when the points are open?
12V to the points?
Are the points breaking? Are the points grounded?
If all that is good, is there a good rotor?
Is the button still in the top of the dist. cap?
If all that's good and the points are adjusted correctly, it should get spark to the plugs, and if that's good it should run.
Good luck Jim, and should you or any of your IM team be caught, the secretary will disavow all knowledge. ;D
Well just got back from screwing with it. I checked a few other things, including the actual gap on the points. They were never opening. Duh :-[ Back on the road.
Ah H A!
I'm always glad when it turns out to be something simple. 4.gif
It's still acting up. Didn't fire up yesterday morning, opened up the dizzy, checked everything again, and fired up. This morning it was dead again.
Not sure if you're at this point yet, but I do have a nearly new 123 Dizzy for sale. It has like 200 miles on it. A+ model with vac adv.
Well I said to hell with this and bought an electronic 25d from minispares. For the price it seems hard to beat. Is your 123 for a or a+?
Err nvm I didn't read lol
Having owned and Daily driving 60's Mustangs, as soon as I realized these Mini's had points / condensers my first order of business was to get that off and get a 123 on.
It was my very first mod to my Mini.
When I had my 1980 Porsche with a 1990 motor in it, I was amazed Porsche was still running dizzies in the late 80's early 90's. A pedigree company like them and my 1987 Mazda RX7 was more technologically advanced than a 1990 Porsche.
My 911 had duel plugs, so it had 2 dizzies 12 spark plugs and this little baby timing belt that ran from one dizzy to the other to keep them synced up. That belt was prone to breaking so you had to keep a a spare in your glove box. As I said I was amazed how un-technological they were.
This electronic 25d was only $100. The conversion kit was the same price. I think I can even toss the points and condenser back in if I manage to fry the module.
Sorry. I missed your question, but yeah. Your option is definitely the less expensive one. If you do find a need for it, let me know. I'm not letting this one go for dirt cheap like most of my parts. Of course I can be persuaded to make deals for friends. Lol
I like the 123 on the maroon car a lot. I can only think of one other mini I've owned, and I've owned a lot, where I had to fiddle with points and bad condensers. I was happy to see an affordable solution. I just don't feel like chasing a 3 dollar problem around that I can't pinpoint.
That was a PITA. Finally got the old dizzy out. Thought I forgot how to do it the bastard was so stuck. All new ignition components installed, fired right up. Hopefully this solves my problem.
That's such a nice looking car...
Please keep the hood closed.
:(
I think I used to say that same thing about a girl I dated in high school, actually. :-X
Hope you solved it!
Let me put my college automotive Professor's hat on for a moment......
People, a claw hammer is used to drive and pull nails, it is not to be used on cars. The proper hammer to use on a car is a ball peen hammer!
One of these.....(http://www.daviddarling.info/images/ball_peen_hammer.jpg)
Keep your claw hammers away from the car and in the wood working shed where it belongs.
Quote from: MiniDave on June 09, 2015, 07:56:54 AM
Let me put my college automotive Professor's hat on for a moment......
People, a claw hammer is used to drive and pull nails, it is not to be used on cars. The proper hammer to use on a car is a ball peen hammer!
One of these.....(http://www.daviddarling.info/images/ball_peen_hammer.jpg)
Keep your claw hammers away from the car and in the wood working shed where it belongs.
Tough to slide that ball peen hammer in a small space to pry something out...and better to use the claw of a claw hammer that is a prying tool than to do it with a screwdriver, which I'm sure you'll complain isn't a prying tool. Now put that hat away! 19.gif
The claw was required!
+1 on a claw used to pry, used them many times even when I have a pry bar handy.
Got this little guy ordered.
Quote from: 94touring on June 09, 2015, 02:50:25 PM
Got this little guy ordered.
Have you ever ordered a radiator to find out that the over flow tube is pointing the wrong way?
I just got my new aluminum radiator in today and its pointing towards the front of the mini. :-[
Is there another British car with a radiator made this way or did I just get one that was welded wrong?
Quote from: gasmini on June 10, 2015, 03:28:20 PM
Quote from: 94touring on June 09, 2015, 02:50:25 PM
Got this little guy ordered.
Have you ever ordered a radiator to find out that the over flow tube is pointing the wrong way?
I just got my new aluminum radiator in today and its pointing towards the front of the mini. :-[
Is there another British car with a radiator made this way or did I just get one that was welded wrong?
The one I got a few back was made that way. Still fit, just looks a bit odd.
I haven't ran into that yet. Today it got up to 96 and the car barely makes it without overheating. Ac sure would be a nice addition right about now.
Quote from: gasmini on June 10, 2015, 03:28:20 PM
Quote from: 94touring on June 09, 2015, 02:50:25 PM
Got this little guy ordered.
Have you ever ordered a radiator to find out that the over flow tube is pointing the wrong way?
I just got my new aluminum radiator in today and its pointing towards the front of the mini. :-[
Is there another British car with a radiator made this way or did I just get one that was welded wrong?
Happy to move that for you if you're local. Not a professional by any stretch but have a TIG welder. 77.gif
Once again Dan creates peer pressure, even emailing me taunting me to buy one too.
I do not think mine overheats but I decided to play it safe and order one too, at a price like that hard to turn down a little extra insurance.
Lol you did the right thing. That was too good of a deal.
Took old blue to the shop and swapped it for the Mini, drove the Mini hope so I can wash it and get it ready for the AC reinstall.
I put a piece of cardboard under it (because British) and go in the house.
I come back out and there are some green spots on the cardboard right below where the water pump would be.
Super!!
Lol you remember 3 hours ago when I emailed and said nows a good time to do the water pump cause they go bad every handful of years...Yeah gbcarparts.com has several big bores for 36 doll hairs. Get on it.
Yes, and I responded that I was just going to replace the water pump with the engine. Since the engine will not die, I guess I am changing the water pump now.
It probably won't ever die
Quote from: gasmini on June 10, 2015, 03:28:20 PM
Quote from: 94touring on June 09, 2015, 02:50:25 PM
Got this little guy ordered.
Have you ever ordered a radiator to find out that the over flow tube is pointing the wrong way?
I just got my new aluminum radiator in today and its pointing towards the front of the mini. :-[
Is there another British car with a radiator made this way or did I just get one that was welded wrong?
just stumbled across this...
Rad and fan ready but still waiting on the new pump.
Wow, that's a big fan - if that combination doesn't cool it I don't know what will!
It's a 50mm 2 core rad and the fan is 10 inches with the thermoswitch kit. Looks like everything will fit without a problem, albeit fairly tight against the inner wing.
Aside from this today I tried to figure out what the deal with my wiper motor is. Completely disassembled it but can't get it to work. I suspect the plug on the motor. It was pretty rusty and ratty looking. Plugged it in the other mini to see if it was wiring on my car but it's definitely the motor. Was pretty close to buying new bushes, plug, and wire harness section to rebuild it, but I might as well just buy a new motor and call it a day. Except new motors are currently out of stock. Rain X till then I suppose.
Not sure if I mentioned earlier but I have new door cards coming in, new headliner, and putting in a new carpet set. Engine bay is getting dressed up too. Also been in talks about doing a stage 3 or 4 head at some point along with putting together a dual carb setup and exhaust.
Yea, or you could rob parts from the one that is in my garage that I allocated to you ages ago.
Build the engine and let me steal that, lol. Do you have a wiper motor, is that what you're saying?
Yes. Its a single speed, but if you need the switch, its in working order.
Yeah I only have a single speed switch actually. We'll take a look tomorrow perhaps.
Putting in this radiator. Just did a volume comparison between the stock rad and the new one. 36oz compared to 66oz. Nearly double!
Where can one purchse / order one of these monsters?
The E of Bays. 50mm. It was $80 shipped. Got it fitted. I did a little modifying to fit the fan. It was about a half inch too thick on the front. Rather than slide the fan back I cut a few grates and pulled the metal back the small amount I needed. I also cut out a section of the lower rad on the front to give direct entry air to the radiator. The thermoswitch keeps leaking on me hence the atv everywhere.
Well my parts supplier has new wiper motors in stock. At $45 I decided to buy a new unit.
Smart move....
Does this car have single or two speed wipers?
My 1980 Clubby has two speeds, but still no park feature, let alone intermittent....I'm going to find an aftermarket intermittent set up I think. I should get to that right after I install the cruise control I bought last year! ::)
I have a single speed switch but can throw in a two speed one. It hasn't worked since I got the car so not sure about park.
Quote from: 94touring on June 13, 2015, 09:57:22 AM
Quote from: gasmini on June 10, 2015, 03:28:20 PM
Quote from: 94touring on June 09, 2015, 02:50:25 PM
Got this little guy ordered.
Have you ever ordered a radiator to find out that the over flow tube is pointing the wrong way?
I just got my new aluminum radiator in today and its pointing towards the front of the mini. :-[
Is there another British car with a radiator made this way or did I just get one that was welded wrong?
just stumbled across this...
I had found the same information on the Mini Spares website stating this.
Side mounted for 1990 to 1996 side mounted radiator.UK made
This is a super cool lightweight alloy radiator for 1990 on cars with a 1275 engine which has the overflow pipe facing forward for the expansion tanks which were fitted as standard. this has a screw in type switch which is not supplied but available as C-ARA4445. Many people fit the earlier type c-ARA4441 with overflow hose facing backwards--this is the only difference, 1992 on cars will require a C-ARA4445 switch. Made by Radtec in the UK.
I was going to ask if you and Jim had problems with installing the radiator and also had the radiator cowl. By looking at the pictures you posted I see you don't have the cowl like I do on my pickup. So I'm debating how much of it I should cut off to add the radiator.
If you have the earlier style with the cowl it might not fit, or you'd have to trim some cowl away.
Finally getting back around to fixing odds and ends on this guy. Note the bulge on the end of the old clutch hose.
Got the new wiper motor installed and have wipers again. As luck would have it the wiper switch busted as soon as I hit the switch. Luckily had another to swap out. Also did my stub stack and filter mod. Dual carbs coming soon...
One of the things I did to Buzz that I've been really happy with was replacing the switches with left drive components - even tho Buzz is right drive, at least the turn signal switch is now in the "right place - same as all my other cars - on the left side of the column.
Got to play today. Started in on new door cards. The dash and carpet will be tomorrow. My headliner also arrived but not sure when I'll get around to it. Not previously mentioned was a clunking noise which I've pinpointed to the internals of the steering rack. Looks like I get to pull this one soon.
Ordered a number of things this morning. New steering rack, twin carb rebuild kit for the twins that will go on, Cooper freeflow maniflow header, rc 40 twin box exhaust, and a few other bits and pieces to tidy things up. Steve the previous owner has an old rookie style dash that needs fixing up I may through in so holding off on the dash for now till I get my hands on that and decide if I want to put it in.
Moving along on interior improvements. The old speakers and board they were in were trash. Made a new one and also eliminated the crappy cassette player. Instead I bought a input to rca cable to plug my phone directly into the amp. I used the old amp that came with the car for now but will probably upgrade it to something more than 50 watts. All in all sounds good, plus I'm adding 4" speakers in the dash area. New carpet is in.
Almost have the new rack in.
Got the rack in. Pain in the ass. All my clunking issues are solved. Built these carbs and put on the headers. Still need to find a more suitable blanking plug for the manifold and I'd like to soda blast them eventually. Did the best I could for now. Definitely gained some oomp. Any suggestions on needles? Ran lean down low but to make it run good it idles rich.
Oh almost forgot.
What did you have to do to get the rack in that was so hard? Was it having to drop the subframe or????
Carbs came out great, no thoughts on needles but I'll look in my books and see if I can learn anything - which engine do you have? Looks like a 998?
Yeah, can you write up how you replaced the rack?
So the steering rack... ok unhooking everything wasn't the problem. Though it does take time and is somewhat tedious and if you're not familiar with all the points that need unhooked I can see it being a handful. I dropped the subby just enough to get the rack out. The problem was getting the damn U bolts back in. The passenger side is doable, but you need to be able to get a hand on them to put pressure to squeeze the ends, since the rack tends to flare them out to the point they don't line up well enough to just slide in. I found on the pax side that getting the side toward the front of the car in first made it easy to put pressure on the back side to line it up and then shove it the whole way in. The drivers side however has the box on the rack, and there simple is no way to get a hand in there to squeeze the bolts, or even see what you're doing. I use to think the lower rad hose was a pain, this won by a landslide. I ended up unhooking the rest of the things on the engine/subframe and dropped it several more inches, which still wasn't enough really. Got a second pair of hands to push from the bottom while I came at it from the top to align the bolt end on my side. Then the bottom person hit it with a hammer and it went in. I don't want to admit how much time it took me. Very frustrating considering it takes all of 3 minutes when I'm doing it on a bare frame. There was a lot of swearing and some light sobbing. But, the rack sure is better than the old one. I need to do ball joints in a bad way, as they are sloppy too I noticed. Prior to this rack being replaced the car would clunk something fierce, and I'd get wheel judder on braking occasionally. Now there's no clunking and no wheel judder. I still need to do a better job at aligning my steering wheel, which I was way off on. Eye balling wheels straight is harder than you think. I'd say best practice would be to drive in a straight line in the driveway, then set the wheel.
Yeah it's a 998. Had low end hesitation, but cruised good, pulled the plugs and they were way lean looking. Richened it up to rid the low end hesitation and it drives great from low end to wide open throttle at 75mph, but idles rich. The hs4's were easier to adjust. These hs2's I had to remove the filter and take out a bolt on the lower plate to rotate it to get my hands in there to adjust the mixture. After 7 or 8 times tweaking and test driving I got good at it though.
Diy carb synchronization.
OK, you'll have to explain that one to me.....I use a Unisyn that I've had since the 60's, works a treat......
(https://porsche356registry.org/article/images/tech/solex/unisyn.jpg)
Looks like if the carbs are out of sync it will pull the fluid from one bottle to the other depending on which side has more vacuum.
Correct. 4.gif
Cool, is this better or just another way than two vacuum gauges?
I didn't have 2 vacuum gauges. Works just as good. I happen to have a port on each carb to hook into.
Another mod I did that's not shown was add a lower stabilizer bracket that goes from the rear of the tranny and bolts to the subframe. Requires drilling a hole on the subframe. It made a world of difference! I had new bushings on the upper stabilizer but this really eliminates movement. Zero clunk sounds if you blip the throttle.
Didn't later cars come with this from the factory? I know Buzz has one.....
Yeah but not sure when they started using them. Mine certainly didn't have one on it, but I have the old 2 bolt style subby too.
The factory lower stabilizer on later Minis went from the transmission near the oil plug and went forward to the front edge of the subframe.
There are two lower stabilizer kits to go from the transmission back to the rear arms of the subframe - a right and a left. One goes from under the timing chain cover where the speedometer drive housing is and the other mounts on the clutch side, bottom of the flywheel/drop-gear cover. Both of these are "aftermarket" kits.
Had a few extra minutes today to fine tune. Top end was dying off. If I pulled the choke it would gain power, so a couple flats on each carb and top end is good now. I feel like it idles rich, but not much I can do there right now. I had initially setup static timing by setting it to 2k rpms, turning the dizzy till it increases, then back off 250rpms. Well I picked up a timing gun the other day and went to set things today, but low and behold I have no timing marks. I found tdc and made marks on the pulley and adjacent on the cover. My static timing was actually set to 0 so I increased it my guestimate to 10 degrees. It's not pinging and running great so I guess this will suffice. Minidave I think you asked somewhere what I cruise at. It cruises at 80 indicated now on a flat grade. Maintains 70+ on moderate inclines and will do 90 going down the moderate inclines. I feel pretty happy with how it's running. Ball joints are on the to do list.
Cool! I think mine idles rich too.....I'm at 8* static
Today I reinstalled my Miata seat, it is SO much more comfortable than the Mini seat.....mostly because I can move it back further and straighten my knee and ankle some.....
You should still have timing marks on the flywheel. You'll have to swing the little oval cover off the viewing hole and use a mirror to reflect in to see them. There is also a stationary pointer in there for TDC. The timing marks on the flywheel are valid for #1 and #4 cylinders.
Here is what to look for:
(http://miniownersoftexas.com/forum/MGalleryItem.php?id=612)
The car about left me stuck the other morning. It would appear the starter is gummed up. Needs to be pulled and gone through. I was able to push start myself in the parking lot 4.gif
Yeah, those early starters will do that, it's fairly easy to clean them up and get them working again. I used PTFE to lube them up once clean
It tries to turn but can't quite get it. Almost symptomatic of a dead battery but it's new with lots of juice.
Might have a worn out bushing making the armature drag on the side of the coil, fairly easy to replace.
Let me look I might have an old spare......
I'll try to look at it next week. I've gotten bogged down with projects so it's in que.
Eventually I'll get this battery sorted but till then I ordered hi-los for the saggy/rubbing suspension and the ball joints needed replacing in a bad way as well.
Ball joints - is that why it was so darty? Don said it was scary at speed, it took a light touch on the wheel to keep it from changing lanes......
It's very responsive compared to his truck and say your clubby. The vtec handles pretty heavy. The ball joints will just tighten it up a bit more.
I should add it doesn't dart left or right on it's own, it simply takes very little input to make moves. I did notice taking turns hard that hard braking leading into the turn the rear end would get wish washy on me as I began the turn. Some of that is probably my old drums not being exactly the same and some other is probably camber related.
Yep, that's what I meant.....
Had time to add hi los to the front today. With my cousin and girlfriend in the back this morning we could barely drive it rubbed so bad. In it right now testing the fronts and no more rubbing in sharp turns or bumps with a passenger. Also added a pair of mini fins I had sitting around to the front.
Side note: cutting the front trumpets was quick and easy to add the hi los.
Just how cold is it there? You're dressed like you live in SK
I think low 20s that day.
I'm guessing you mean the old F scale.....that's only like -6....you're overdress...lol
Lol yes F scale. That's my cousin driving.
Front left wheel bearing died. I've noticed some extra noise coming from the wheel area. Pulled the wheel off and found a pile of grease sitting on the drum...bearing heats up and grease squirts out. And of course there's excess play in the assembly. I suppose my disc conversion gets expedited now.
I am going to put disks on the front of mine also....Minispares sells a few kits I have been eyeing. Do you think that going with their in house calipers and disks would be a bad idea or maybe best to spring for the AP original items ?
I've always bought their in house brand with no issues. Definitely less expensive!
Where did you order your hi/los from? I'm looking at some on minisport called adjusta ride. Are these the same thing as hi/los? After reading a thread about who people order from I'm not sure who to order through except I know not to trust mm.
The "Adjusta-Ride" kit is the same as Hi-Lo's. The one thing to check is which size shank the knuckle joints need to be with those. I seem to recall the "Adjusta-Ride" brand uses a knuckles joint with a thicker shank than the standard knuckle joints.
It looks like the full kit comes with the matched knuckle joints.
I ordered from minispares and used their knockoff hi los with standard knuckles.
Have you considered going to the spring setup in place of the rubber cones? Just wondering if you or anybody on here has done that and what their thoughts on it are? Doing hi los in the next two weeks (probably not this week since it is Holy Week and I'm a pastor).
I've considered it but they don't seem to offer a comparable handling.
I did it on Buzz and I really thought they improved the ride considerably - that said, my understanding was that you could only get either the "hard" (red) springs, which were too stiff, or the "soft" (Blue) springs that were too mushy - I found black springs at Huddersfield that were advertised as medium softness and bought those - they come complete with a hi lo kit made for them.
However, I was not as impressed with the hi lo - specifically the adjustable bolts on the fronts, after so many miles I found the left one bent. They offered to send me new ones (for £25!) but I thought they were low grade bolts, so I bought some high grade ones from McMaster Carr and made my own. End of problem.
I think my next Mini I'll either go back to the original rubber springs or go with a set of coilovers.....
Dan and Dave - thanks for the advice. I think I will stick with the rubber cones I have for now and just order the hi Los. Getting excited.
Actually had time yesterday to tend to a bad wheel bearing and sloppy ball joints. What I found was a very broken ball bearing assembly and one ball joint that was a pita to replace. Got them in and actually drove the car after a couple months of being off the road. The initial plan was to do my disc conversion sooner rather than later but I think what I'll do is wait till the 1275 is built and ready to drop in. I have a feeling iI'll tend to bad cills and door skins at that time...do I hear respray. I'll use these hubs on the clubby which are shot when I get that far. I've gone ahead and ordered new pre assembled twin shoe assemblies since the back plates are siezed up and everything else is crap, aside from the new cylinders I replaced after first buying it.
...
Non frozen back plates with all new everything.
Added a new steering wheel that matches my shift knob, thanks to Vikram for ordering the wrong wheel on his car lol. Need to balance my front wheels in a bad way. After my last wheel bearing fix I apparently knocked the toe out about a 1/4" and burnt through some rubber. Put it back to a 1/6th out, drives a bit more steady too. Also ordered a ridiculous amount of suspension parts to begin rebuilding all these subframes I have laying around. The plan is to built this cars frames up in preparation for the built up 1275 that's going in.
The 74 is about to get a major overhaul, as I have time obviously. The new fast road 1275 dave built is ready for paint to drop in, but also building up suspension to match the performance and painting the car. Needs new door skins and sills too. Will be going with a deeper blue and going with black accents. Interior will also go all black. Basically making it look mean! It's in the shop and on the wheel dollies, which in conjunction with the front wheels makes it a whiz to move around. Way easier than dollies on all 4 surprisingly.
A smooth floor is a must for those rollers!
Another rotary on the engine stand?
Poor Rusty, moved to the back of the line (along with the Pup) yet again! ;D
It's the one that I have all the parts to build but haven't actually slapped it together. I'm in no rush with it since I want to try a few things on the engine currently in the car. That way if I blow up it's not on new housings. Going with a bored out intake system a company makes and different fuel rail/injectors. I'd rather tune on the bad engine. Plus it's still insanely fast as is.
Too many projects. The blue 74 shouldn't take long though.
Darker Blue sounds great. I've seen a nice dark blue on VW products - is that what it will be? Or something else?
I'm looking at this one. Saw one parked at my complex and liked it.
Yup. I think that's the one I was thinking of.
Kinda want this look.
77.gif
Put the carbs completely together. Did a test fit in the engine bay with the shielding. Pretty tight fit but works.
Hey, that's a great looking engine, all it needs is a spot of paint! ;D
Wheels and wheel weights! I have done some research this week. Already know I want 10x6 wheels for the performance and handling, and the lightest I can find but without spending a small fortune. Up first is your standard 10x6 minilite wheel, weighing in at 8.25lbs and good as a base comparison. The next wheel is the all black Kad 10x6 weighing in at 4.85lbs. A huge difference but at a price tag of 400£ EACH! Pricey! Third wheel are Force Racing in the UK. They have a variety to choose from. I sent them an email regarding the v5 style and modular 3 piece in 10x6. The weights being 5.25lbs and roughly 600£ for a complete set of 4. A very good compromise in weight and price in my opinion. Now what does a difference of 3lbs per wheel actually do? From seat of pants experience in my rx7s, going from a heavy 18" wheel down to a lightweight 17" wheel was very noticeable. For every pound you take off a wheel and it's rotational mass, you effectively shave 6-7lbs off the car. Some people say as high as 10lbs but I'll be conservative at 6lbs. So 3lbs per wheel is like taking 72lbs off the car. What does 72lbs mean to a mini? Assuming a 1400lb car with a hotrod engine making 100hp your power to weight ratio is 14:1. The new ratio becomes 13.28:1. Take the old weight of 1400 and divide it by 13.28 to get 105.42. With the various mods and rotational items I intend to do, have calculated a new ratio of 11.25 based off a starting weight of 1400lbs. Assuming my engine will produce 100hp crank, that's now equivalent to about 125hp. At some point I should weigh and dyno the car to see what it's actual doing.
Are you going to paint or powdercoat that steel intake manifold?
I just can't justify the price of those KAD parts for a street driven car, people seem genuinely happy with the Force wheels....but saving 2 lbs, I don't know as that will be noticeable - again on a street driven car...I can see it for a track day monster, but street?
Wasn't planning on doing anything to the manifolds.
3lbs per wheel on a mini is actually pretty significant given the car weight. It will be comparable to a light flywheel, which I also have! Having done these type mods on other cars, the gains are there and noticeable.
If it's plain steel, it will rust.....I know that's a trend right now, rusty parts covered in clearcoat but.....
That black KAD wheel is really thick at the mounting points, just look at the length of the wheel nuts.
Rotational mass on wheels is a big issue just look at all these full size trucks running 18 inch plus wheels that weigh a ton it's no wonder their gas/diesel mileage suffers. Look at Toyota Prius's running maybe 15 inch wheels that look tiny by today's standards but get great fuel mileage.
Just compare the weight of a 13x6 Rover Sportpack wheel with a stock Rover 12x4.5, there is a reason the sportpack was slower than a stock wheeled Rover Mini, of course the wider sportpack flares did nothing to help either.
Years ago Mamba's were the choice of lightweight wheels to go with.
Quote from: MiniDave on January 15, 2018, 09:33:25 AM
If it's plain steel, it will rust.....I know that's a trend right now, rusty parts covered in clearcoat but.....
Good point. Easy enough to spray with the block too.
Quote from: Jimini II on January 15, 2018, 10:24:15 AM
Rotational mass on wheels is a big issue...
Definetly so. One way to look at it is flip a bike upside down and turn the pedal. Then take the tire off and see how much less force it takes to spin it.
The look you're going for is dead sexy! I'm intrigued by the discussion of how shaving the weight of the wheels will make the mini feel lighter--can't wait to see what you end up doing.
Also, on the subject of lightened flywheels, how practical are they for a road car?
Depends on the flywheel. Personally I won't do anything race flywheel and clutch related. Too much of a pita to drive. I've always gone with sprung puck clutches with heavy duty pressure plates capable of keeping up and the lightest "street" flywheel to match. It's very noticeable yet easy enough to drive without hopping and stalling at red lights.
Interesting article.
https://mbworld.org/forums/c63-amg-w204/432257-dyno-runs-effects-wheel-tire-weights-wheel-horsepower.html#ixzz3RDEtUMI7
Quote from: 94touring on January 15, 2018, 10:22:31 PM
Interesting article.
https://mbworld.org/forums/c63-amg-w204/432257-dyno-runs-effects-wheel-tire-weights-wheel-horsepower.html#ixzz3RDEtUMI7
There used to be a chart, I cannot find it, it related to E30 BMW's and the M20 engine and showed how much HP the lightened flywheel freed up.
Those are the key words "Freed Up Horsepower" and it will vary with which gear you are in. IIRC when we did my sons E30 years ago, it freed up 60HP in 1st gear, 35 in 2nd and it went down from there. I will say this, driving the car before and after that flywheel install you felt the difference with your ass dyno. The throttle response was much better and acceleration in the low gears was vastly improved.
When I had my 2003 R53 Mini, I swapped out the heavy ass 17" Mini "Lights" rims and run flats for a set of 16" Kosai K1's with Falken Azenis tires, the transformation of the car was remarkable, it braked better and accelerated much quicker it was like I added another 30 HP to the car, because I freed up power wasted on rotating heavy rims and tires and was able to use it for acceleration. After I felt that revelation I preached that gospel to any Mini owner that would listen.
Lightened Flywheel + Light rims = a big change in any car.
Had to order a few odds and ends for the 66 S build, so tossed im some things for the 74. I've been running around on twin leading drums since I've owned the car. Aside from disliking adjusting them every so often I need to upgrade to disc regardless with the new engine. I have a brand new set of 7.5 calipers but since I'm going the extreme performance route on this car now, I opted for some minisport 4 pot calipers. Also went with high carbon disc as well as their lightened drive flanges. The goal here being less unsprung weight in both the calipers and flanges, as well as a bit less rotational weight with the flanges. Plus better and more even braking action. I do intend to use scales to compare my findings.
I've been thinking about other various ways to reduce weight affordably. Obviously spare wheel and speakers will be tossed out. Not going crazy and stripping the carpet and seats, but found some nicely priced polycarbonate windows. I have a slider window door conversion I'm mulling over and this would compliment that. The door conversion cuts off 60lbs! Plus I can get these tinted/greyed as an option at the same time.
http://www.acwmotorsportplastics.co.uk/mini-classic-mk3-up.html
I have a set of fiberglass skinned regular metal frame doors. As thick as the glass is I don't think is any weight savings there though.
Quote from: Willie_B on January 22, 2018, 08:29:39 AM
I have a set of fiberglass skinned regular metal frame doors. As thick as the glass is I don't think is any weight savings there though.
I'm looking at this, except doing it myself. I have been reading where people have done it themselves with good results. I have a spare trash door to test with before I go hacking into mine. As much as I dislike sliders, I think I'm making the jump. I may just make them easy to remove and toss them in the back seat when I want to have my arm out the window.
http://www.minidoor.co.uk/streetfighter.html
Some of my lightweight parts came in, the minisport alloy 4 pots and alloy drive flanges. Tossed them on the scale to confirm claimed weights and to compare to stock. I'm keeping a record of total weight loss, plus unsprung and rotation weight loss. What we have is stock 7.5 calipers weighing in at 11.74lbs for the pair and drive flanges at 6.5lbs per pair. The alloy units are 5lbs for the pair of 4 pots and 1.78lbs for the pair of drive flanges. A total loss of approximately 11.5lbs unsprung weight for the front suspension. The goal being unsprung weight making the car handle and react better. Adding in the race tires and wheels, that would bump it up to about 20lbs of unsprung weight loss just on the front, with 11.25 being rotational weight loss. The tires and wheels being more of a factor as the weight is further from the center than the drive flanges. My flywheel is 4lbs lighter than stock. Minispares has a formula and explanation of flywheel effect on a cars performance. After showing their math they go on to say for every 1lb removed from the flywheel, the engine sees 11.22lbs less. This is on a 3.44 gear set. I searched the entire world wide intrawebs looking for wheel and tire formulas based on width and diameter but came up empty handed. General consensus on the conservative end was in the 3-4lb neighborhood for wheels and tires, less for disc, less for drive flanges, and even less for axles and drive shafts. So what I think I have so far then would be 44.88 less weight on the engine for the flywheels, and 26lbs less on the engine for the wheel and tire combo (at a factor of 3lbs and skipped drive flange) on the front, with another 11.5lbs of just dead weight gone. So roughly 82lbs of less weight on the car thus far, front end only.
I should start building subframes for the moke. What is the cost difference between the lighter parts and something closer to stock? Gotta make the moke more sporty!
Quote from: Willie_B on February 03, 2018, 12:11:35 PM
I should start building subframes for the moke. What is the cost difference between the lighter parts and something closer to stock? Gotta make the moke more sporty!
This has been my dilemma. Cost vs stock vs is it really worth it. I think the key is doing several items to actually feel a difference. One pair of drive flanges wouldn't be noticeable. Combine it with several items and you're onto something. I have brand new 7.5 calipers on the shelf along with disc and drive flanges, which are now destined to the pickup suspension build. The kad 4 pots were too expensive for my blood. The minisport 4 pots however while expensive, were worth it to me since I'm turning this into a pure fast road car at this point. More even braking in combination with less unsprung weight. The drive flanges I needed eventually for one of my builds, so spent the extra for the light pair, which is a 2fer since you lose unsprung weight and the rotational weight, while not as much as say the wheels, does have an impact. For the rear suspension I sold off my stock pair of radius arms to the 66 restore since he went wet to dry. A new pair of dry arms aren't exactly cheap. I can always search around and find a used pair for cheap, but decided for a little extra I can buy those fancy kad rear alloy arms and shave off a lot of unsprung weight. Then I started thinking...well I need all new rear brakes since what I have is rusted and total crap. A pair of new everything on the rear is a bit pricey but not horrible, so what if I just spent extra for kad rear disc. You can see where this gets out of hand. Now I'll have shaved 30lbs straight up between the rear arms and disc, not to mention that drums have a ton of rotation weight and the kad disc have about 0lbs to factor in. Surely a good performance gain, but a lot of money... $1400 after the exchange rate right now?? As far as braking goes, rear disc are kind of "dumb" to do, since the rear of a mini doesn't need to brake much at all. In fact you can't or you'll spin out! But since I'm having to buy all new anyways, what's a little more if you gain a lot overall? You could do alloy rear hubs and minifins however. I also like the fact that disc are zero maintenance aside from changing pads once in a blue moon. I've had to adjust my front and rear drums so many times on this car it's insane. Couldn't justify the alloy front hubs. If they rotated, then maybe for the price minisport wanted. Though they do come with bearings and metro ball joints. I need wheels for something too. So I could spend 400 pounds or so on a set of 4 wheels and tires, or splurge and spend 600 pounds on the ultra light wheels from force racing. 12lbs total unsprung times 3lbs rotational factor for 36lbs total engine weight loss. Plus they look cool. Other wheels go on the truck or back on this car for a long non sporty drive. My main goal is knocking off 250-300lbs from the car "affordably". As light as a mini or your moke is, that is a significant gain in performance. I have several more items not suspension related I haven't even gotten to yet.
While I'm thinking about it, I've decided to take out the 3.1 final drive and put in the 3.44. I will need to get my blowed up 998 out and yank the gears. I was a bit thoughtless when I had Dave building the engine and let the centra oil pickup escape by me, and I am thinking it's probably best to tear back into it and add that. Interesting tid bit on the tires: Aside from being a small amount less in weight, they are also approximately .7 inches less in diameter. This will of course effect the final drive gearing. Take 19.3 diameter of an 008, divide by 18.6 for the race tires, then multiply by 3.44. You get a new final drive of 3.57.
Add the cross pin diff for strength because with the lower gears, hot cam and head and stickier tires you're gonna generate a lot more torque.....do it all at once. I have a set of 3:44's I'm not using, they came out of Buzz so you don't have to tear down the 998 box first, just saying....I still think that's what broke in the 998 gearbox - the spyder gears.
Quote from: MiniDave on February 03, 2018, 01:35:46 PM
Add the cross pin diff for strength because with the lower gears, hot cam and head and stickier tires you're gonna generate a lot more torque.....do it all at once. I have a set of 3:44's I'm not using, they came out of Buzz so you don't have to tear down the 998 box first, just saying....I still think that's what broke in the 998 gearbox - the spyder gears.
I'm almost dead positive of that too. We'll plan on that then, much easier! Need to get to the shop and see if I have a x pin in that one parts bin.
Onto more weight savings. Taking out the spare tire, wooden boot panel covered in carpet that sits over the spare, and the factory jack. Total weight was 29.5lbs. I've found some light weight batteries, both in Braille and Deka. Leaning towards some of the Dekas since cca's are adequate and price is $100 give or take. Old battery weighed in at 30lbs, while what I'm looking into is 14lbs. They have some as low as 6lbs but then you risk having reliability issues. Anyhow, 45.5lb reduction in those items.
That's significant weight savings.....about 100lbs now?
That's getting the "junk" out of the trunk ;D or in this case the boot.
Quote from: MiniDave on February 05, 2018, 11:29:14 AM
That's significant weight savings.....about 100lbs now?
Factoring in rotational values, 127lbs. 30lbs yet to go on rear suspension, 60lbs on the door conversion, and then whatever the glass comes out to be. Plus speakers and a few other odds and ends.
20.4lbs.
Have you considered perhaps putting the Mini on a truck scale when finished to compare against your weight saving tally?
Quote from: BruceK on February 05, 2018, 02:14:56 PM
Have you considered perhaps putting the Mini on a truck scale when finished to compare against your weight saving tally?
I plan to weigh it after. Of course not a before and after, but an after.
I've begun to organize and tally up parts for the build. The subframes that are being pulled off the car will be cleaned up and built for the pickup. In fact the truinions on this rear subby go to the truck as well. Hopefully placing a big order in a couple weeks. 77.gif
I'm excited to see you working on one of your own cars for a change! That has to be fun!
Quote from: MiniDave on February 06, 2018, 03:06:32 PM
I'm excited to see you working on one of your own cars for a change! That has to be fun!
Lol yeah it's a nice change of pace! I've had so much practice working on everyone else for the past decade that I've gotten good at this lol.
Minispares has a universal heater for about $170. Reading some writeups it's very compact and puts out a ton of heat. Also 7lbs lighter. Considering mine rattles and spits out rust, may be worthwhile.
Have you thought of looking at the products on DSN Classics? http://www.dsnclassics.co.uk/retrosport-shop/
They have rear subframe mounting trunnions that are alloy and lighter than original. They have lots of nice looking stuff.
I have! In fact I saw some of their engine bay bling items on Stan's car and have a few on my wishlist. I also needed more trunions and since theirs are affordably priced I have some in my basket when I am ready to place an order. I didn't buy any of these small items for weight reduction though. I intend to buy their handbrake quandrants just because the last set of "original" ones were crap and one fell apart, requiring me to weld it back together. They're not exactly cheap for what they are either! For an extra 5-10 bucks I can buy the fancy ones, albeit you'll never see once on the car anyways. Maybe all these things shave a pound lol.
I remember needing a front rear trunnion for the mini I have in storage years back and the price was crazy. Rick (Canadian gent on Mini Mania) sent me one for free--super nice guy. Anyway, those ones from DSN look sweet and they're way cheaper than the originals.
Are you going to reach the point where you start cutting holes in the sheet metal to save weight? What about carbon fiber body panels?
No hole cutting or anything drastic like gutting interior. I will convert the doors to slider and ditch the glass, that's the biggest body mod I plan to do. It also shaves the most weight in one shot, 75lbs give or take between doors and glass. I have read where people cut holes in the front subframe and then seam weld certain areas. Apparantly the front subby is way over designed to begin with. I have a spare frame to do this on but I'm not sure if shaving 10-15lbs off the subframe by cutting and drilling out 100 holes is worth countless hours and presumably bits and cutting attachments. Still more research to do there. I didn't do a rear beam because I didn't want to alter the suspension characteristics and plus the stock subframe provides crash impact protection as well. It's really not that heavy of an item, but the arms and brake assemblies sure are! I am planning to do a carbon fibre boot and bonnet from arc angels. I believe that's another 15lbs.
Quote from: 94touring on February 07, 2018, 09:15:16 AM
Minispares has a universal heater for about $170. Reading some writeups it's very compact and puts out a ton of heat. Also 7lbs lighter. Considering mine rattles and spits out rust, may be worthwhile.
I have that exact heater for mine to go in when I put it back together. It is nice and tiny.
The install looks clean and easy to do. Definetly frees up room.
Is that a four channel speaker amp? Trying to offload it? It looks like you are paying to lose weight and I am trying to buy weight!
Ha it is and it worked wonders! I ran an input right to my phone. It will go in my clubman or pickup one of these days. Till then sits on the shelf!
75lbs to be cut from the doors and glass? That's nuts, I would have never thought that.
I have to admit, this is an exiting build. I can't wait until you're done and have a final report, to include arse dyno stats.
Roll up doors are heavy as hell. I'm doing alloy skins (6-7lb loss) and slider conversion, so a lot of door gets cut away. If you've ever held a gutted door you know just how light they are with nothing on them. The polycarbonate windows weigh virtually nothing.
This is what happens when I read and obsess about setups. I end up buying an MED light verto flywheel. I'll just stick the minispares light one on the 1098 build for the pickup. This particular flywheel is 4.82lbs lighter than stock vs 3lbs for the minispares one. I misspoke earlier in here cause my math was bad thinking the minispares item was 4lbs lighter. In retrospect a pre verto setup would have given more options, but the turbo verto setup on a heavy duty pressure plate, 190mm disc, and lighter wheel giving more clamp force, is more than up to the task of my setup. Also the turbo disc are non sprung which after reading gives a better feel allegedly on a mini, much like pre verto? Anyhow 4.82 times 11.22 for 54lbs of rotational weight loss effect. Should be fun comparing the two flywheels as well.
Interesting that the ring-gear is being held in place by that series of what look like allen head bolts.
I noticed that as well. From reading it sounds as though MED modified this verto flywheel as the earlier design had some problems with the ring gear staying within tolerance, perhaps this was part of the solution.
Also worth noting that a super light verto flywheel is comparable to a street lightened pre verto, as a verto is just plain heavier all around. Though should give better pedal feel in comparison to say a stiffer orange diaphragm pre verto or the extra stiff grey. There are only 2 options I've come across for verto, the spares and MED style.
Found some mirrors I like.
Spun aluminum? Cool.
Yeah spun aluminun. Found them on MED. They sell brackets too but for the price I'd just make my own.
Well this came in quick. I forget how tiny mini flywheels really are. Edit: on the scale is 4.5lbs lighter than stock.
Engine is out.
Also 4.85lbs shaved by removing the washer bottle, electric fan, metal fan with plastic fan (1lb rotational), and steel trunions with alloy. Every time I remove something I set it on the scale.
Pull the diff and see what broke!
Once I yank subframes off tomorrow I'll open the engine up.
How much weight did you save by pulling the motor? ;D
Quote from: gr8kornholio on February 12, 2018, 07:08:59 PM
How much weight did you save by pulling the motor? ;D
Had to be 300lbs!
I think the thread title has become a bit inaccurate. It is going far past a "mild refurb" at this point.
Quote from: MPlayle on February 12, 2018, 09:29:59 PM
I think the thread title has become a bit inaccurate. It is going far past a "mild refurb" at this point.
I read through the entire thread the other night. It was a fun journey of fixing things as I drove it, then suddenly it evolved into major rebuild. ;D
Subframes are off. A bit grungy and seen better days but both will clean up well for the pickup. Found one small spot in the rear that needs a patch and the overcills have created some rot, but I knew that already.
Weight items today: boot and bonnet weighed against the carbon fiber on the way should yield 17.5lbs. Will confirm once they arrive. Took off the front plate, brakets, and all vent hoses and affiliated parts for 8.45lbs. Total of 26lbs rounding up.
Time to dig into the tranny now...
So what is the running total of weight loss so far?
I need to sit down and go through my notes but it should be pretty significant. Just yanked the stock heater and drained the sludge. Definetly buying the new and smaller unit. According to the scale that's 7.5lbs saved. I tried weighing a door but it maxed out my shop scale after 33lbs. I believe they weigh about 41lbs but will verify tomorrow. My spare door without glass and the winding unit was right at 25lbs and that was with a ton of bondo on a skin and some other nasty patches. Once I deskin a door and cut the inner section out I'll have a better idea. Rear glass and rear quarter glass weighed in at 22.75lbs. I think the poly only weighs a few pounds.
Differential was fine but appears something lodged itself between the gear and the case.
Looks like a chunk of gear, did you find the broken part?
With the HP increase and weight reduction, you're still going to want to do a cross pin diff, for strength......just a good insurance policy.
No I didn't. I need to open the case.
Weighed the doors. One was 42.6 and the other was 44 even. It also has had some extensive bondo work so probably explains the extra weight. The door conversion can make them as light as 12lbs a piece.
You'll have much fun with a Lighter car == almost contending with 'Moke Weight " as a comparable"
! ~ 1200LBS roughly! Wet!
No doors= 1 glass = no interior No Problem!
I think I've taken out in the neighborhood of 230lbs, plus rotational factor of over 300lbs. I'll tally it at the end.
Today tore apart the subframes to take off parts for rebuild. Also tore apart the tired and very dead 998. Found an array of parts in the gearbox that had caused the carnage. And the head had burnt a valve.
Next week replace the cills and do a patch in the boot and begin prepping for paint. The paint job will go by quickly. Probably going to wait for the door skins to arrive before I spray the exterior. Should have it back togther relatively quickly. Famous last words 4.gif
Never seen a rod change loose its shift linkage like this before......something musta come undone!
That gearbox always had issues too. Much like the rest of the car really lol.
Well massive parts order placed. The KAD purchase was tough hitting the submit button lol.
KAD is some spendy stuff!
Luckily earlier in the day I dragged the old and super heavy rear subby to the parts garage on the side of the shop. They are a handful built up if anyone has ever had to carry one 50 feet or so, then I reminded myself how lightweight it will soon be! 77.gif
What are the KAD bits? Straight cut gears?
Alloy rear arms and rear disc conversion. Purely for weight saving and unsprung weight.
Quote from: 94touring on February 15, 2018, 10:17:11 AM
Alloy rear arms and rear disc conversion. Purely for weight saving and unsprung weight.
Oh man, rear discs sound awesome can't wait to see that come together.
Rear disc on a mini are actually overkill. Good for bragging rights I suppose. I do like not adjusting drums however. Really just a way to save weight, both unsprung and rotational.
I coulda bought a bronze/silver hand blown glass lampstand for that kinda change...
You're doing some serious load shedding on this guy. Curious... how are you drawing the line where you are drawing it?
Well basically the line is what's still comfortable for me and what can I afford right now. Maybe adding a glass blown leg lamp hood ornament.
Truly LOL!!!
I should also say that I'm not doing anything so drastic it can't be reversed easily. The metal boot and bonnet can be bolted back on, the glass and doors converted back, ect... This was never a perfect and correct mini from the start so not a big deal to go a little crazy with it.
Quote from: 94touring on February 15, 2018, 06:00:03 PM
This was never a perfect and correct mini from the start so not a big deal to go a little crazy with it.
This. 4.gif
Is there any Mini ever built, anywhere, where the above is not true?
One more area of possible improvement and performance.....
I was driving my Classic across town and into a fierce wind from the south - which made for nice warm temps (my engine temps got up to "normal" for the first time since last Nov!) but also pointed out just how bad the aero is on these old cars.. Made me wonder if some improvements could be done like full underbody panels or front splitters etc to help with airflow over the car?
Whenever I hit a blast it was like a giant hand pushing the car back.....
Based upon the snowplow (or should I say salt plow? ;D ) on this land speed record Mini, it looks like one trick is to manage under body air flow.
Right, which isn't particularly workable on a street driven vehicle, which is why I was leaning towards a splitter of some sort and full underbody cladding........this will be far more workable on my hot rod with the engine in the back and no exhaust running thru the middle of the car.
I also wonder if some small dive planes on the front corners would help - remember Priep's car had one - said it pulled enough extra air out from under the car or thru the fender to drop the engine temps 10-20*
I also wonder if an A panel vent of some sort would help draw air out from under the wheel wells/fenders? I dunno if any of this would make any difference, just exercising some thoughts.
I've seen aero studies done on the Mini, but they were are concerned with removing the seams and such......basically made almost no difference in the aero efficiency, but apparently did quiet the car some....which may be why they didn't bother de-seaming the LSR car.
I've thought about this some. Only thing I've done for aerodynamics is remove the front plate and brackets. Perhaps these bullet mirrors help a tad too. Also, may be worth looking into the rear valance and if it acts as a parachute.
I think you just glue some paper plates to the wheels. That should solve it all.
Bullet mirrors came in. Look super cool and feather light, not that stock mirrors weigh anything. Probably have little function but that's ok.
What's behind me, is not important! ;D
Ha, pretty much! Luckily minis are easy enough to peak over your shoulder.
Have an aerodynamic read!
http://www.carbonweezel.co.uk/testing/testing_mini.html
Looks like I was on the right track, a front splitter, a sealed flat floor and the addition of a diffuser in the back showed great increases, then attention to airflow into the radiator and grill will be the final steps.....I don't see me adding an above the roof rear spoiler.
Dan is this something like what you're headed for (absent the color of course)
Mmm well not really. Though now I'm contemplating that under floor sheet to smooth and speed up air and blocking off most of the grill. No wonder vikrams car was a rocket ship with the front and rear screen removed. We're driving around with thrust reversers deployed!
Yeah, you could really save some weight by removing ALL the glass! Just wear a helmet or goggles... 77.gif
I learned a hard lesson about weight reduction racing go karts - I came in third behind two Asian guys that together didn't weigh as much as I did!
.38lbs lighter between both mirrors, but more aerodynamic!
Edit: add 2.5lbs removed in sound deadening.
Cills upon cills. This should be worth a few pounds taking out the multiple layers. :-[
Re: that pink-ish Mini from Japan. Seems a lot of Japanese Mini enthusiasts love to do that modification to the wipers.
I get that it looks cool from the outside, but what driver wants to have to look past two vertical and stationary wiper blades right in the field of vision when it's not raining?
Yeah, I don't get that either - John McGee put a set on his customer's car that he did a Vtec on, the guy waited a year and a half for John to finish the car, and put it up for sale a month after it was done.
Lots of dirt, rust flakes, an unnecessary metal. Few areas to tidy up before putting the new cill on.
Doesn't it feel good to remove nasty, rusty bits and weld in solid new metal? 77.gif
Well that and the other thing I discovered was rather than trim the flares to fit over the body seams, they cut the seams! So I have 6 points with no seam. That's no bueno for body rigidity.
One side done. Saw where they had put new inner cills in spots but then other spots were a bit rotten still. Did a little rear subframe mount reconstruction as well. I didn't have a pair of mk3 cills, well had one but not the other. So it got mk1 style on both sides. The floors are pretty ugly at this point with the overcill, their removal, and everything else going on down there. But at least it's solid metal now looks aside.
Solid metal is what's important........looking better!
Yeah where the cross member meets the inner cill there wasn't any metal period. It did make it easy to vacuum out tons of sand that was under the cross member before welding it shut. They have some heavy duty welds under the floor that are staying put from where I cut, air chiseled, and ripped out. I'll need to apply some adhesive to fill in some of the jagged voids.
One door is stripped down to basic frame. It weighs in at 11lbs with the hinges, so at this point I'm guessing 20lbs fully built. We shall see.
Got home to a box of minispares. Alloy skins were part of the order and weigh in just under 3lbs. The heater box is TINY and didn't bother to weigh it, but way lighter than stock as advertised.
My box of kad parts were signed for by our front office yesterday. Unfortunately they left early for the ice storm and didn't bother to put them in the mail room to be checked out by security. Well since Jen is president of the HOA she has a key to the main office. Lucky me! But then the key she has didn't work. Unlucky me. At 415am I was up and off to fly for 4 days so no touching my kad parts. Sad times. I did however order some protech adjustable shocks to ease the pain. Everything I read about them on the internets shows positive reviews. Also apparantly very rebuildable. Though shipping on them was stupid and they almost lost a sale. If I get hit with customs fees I'll be kind of pissed. The adjustable gaz I have been running will go to the truck. Got these protech in the lower version which was the main reason and they offer them in aluminum. Lighter maybe? Hopefully the dsn trunions arrive this week so I can slap these subframes together and be ready to bolt on soon.
I love getting boxes of new parts, it's like I'm a kid on Xmas morning!
My DHL guy and I are on a first name basis..... ;D
Best part of being an adult right? The security guys at our condo are always going..oh hey you got more car parts back there to grab
More on aerodynamics:
(http://www.restorationmini.com/forum/MGalleryItem.php?id=2508)
(http://www.restorationmini.com/forum/MGalleryItem.php?id=2509)
(http://www.restorationmini.com/forum/MGalleryItem.php?id=2510)
(http://www.restorationmini.com/forum/MGalleryItem.php?id=2511)
Cool. I was thinking that the area all around the rear subframe probably created a lot of drag.
I will be interesting to do a before and after on the same day to see if any differences are felt at speed. I'd probably need some kind of acceleration reader though.
I'll bet there's an ap for that! ;D
Time to get crackin on the subframe build.
Also, engine steady saved .37lbs. Rear brake conversion saves a total of 10.5lbs compared to standard non spaced drums and 8lbs total rotational weight.
I like it.
I am gathering parts for my moke build. No word on delivery but if I can have the subframes done by then would be nice. The engine will be a large bore 998 with a 4 syncro magic wand.
Wow, that's a bunch o parts for one tiny little car!
Are the metal brake lines a kit or do you order them individually?
2 different sizes of cones?
More like 1 set of dirty red dot cones and 1 set of not dirty red dot cones.
All brake lines I make myself. I buy a 25' roll and then the fittings.
These ended up being 10lbs lighter each than non spaced drums. 20lbs total for the arms and brakes.
Dude, that rear arm looks super cool.
They are pure suspension sex appeal. I was able to weigh a spaced drum and it's a total of 26lbs lighter than those. Dave got to check them out and feel the difference when I was dropping off the engine. Sounds like my protech shocks arrived but I'm sitting at the airport drinking coffee. :(
The entire arm assembly is 26lbs lighter? I can't wait to hear how this thing accelerates and handles.
13 each side. Basically half the weight of the stock setup.
They're made out of unicorn farts - lighter than air! ;D
Doesn't hurt that it's all aluminium and shiny red bits and the other one is a rusty hulk!
Even if the performance isn't noticeable, they sure do look good!
Protech shocks are 1.25lbs lighter each. 5lbs total there!
Half a subframe together. Figured out no hard lines required on the arms. The braided lines that came with the kit go there and my braided kit fills in the rest.
That looks great. I'll bet with all the weight saving you'll be able to mount that on the car with one hand. Haha
I bought a complete rear subframe, with all the suspension and brakes on it. When I went to load it in the truck, the guy I bought it from picked it up like it was made of paper and set it in the back of the truck! He was no giant either, about the same size as me although clearly one of us is in better shape than the other! Those suckers are friggin heavy!
All done with this guy. Mark's old subframe to compare. While it's not light enough to lift with one hand when re attaching, it's noticeably lighter picking it up vs the old one.
That pic brings up a question, what made you decide to go with the rubber suspension vs coil spring?
I wanted to keep the stock handling characteristics. Basically you never see race minis running springs. I put in red dots to upgrade the stock rubber however.
Doing things a little out of order than how I normally do it. Should have the disc assemblies together soon enough though.
If everything goes smoothly you can plan to pick up the motor on Sat. Then all the mechanicals will be ready once the body is painted.
I work all weekends the rest of the month, so we'll have to find another time.
One side done. Should have the other side knocked out tomorrow. I even cleaned up and repainted the upper arm, steering arm, and hub.
Quote from: 94touring on March 04, 2018, 05:05:35 PM
I work all weekends the rest of the month, so we'll have to find another time.
I'll let you know when it's done, then we can plan from there.
Front is done. I removed so much rust flake and grime from the hub, it may as well be lightweight now.
those rear arms are sexy, super light weight
how much did the stock rear arms weigh?
I have tubular dom tube arms on my car, my arms with billet hubs are 13lbs each,
I didn't weight my set up with the rotors and calipers on the arms
Im using rear Honda del sol disc brakes, solid 9.4 inch rotors in the back
A stock bare rear arm comes in around 12lbs. The kads are about 6.5lbs. The whole assembly of kad vs stock rear with spaced drums was about 27.5lbs lighter total for both sides. Then the shocks I picked out are 1.25lbs lighter each than the gaz I'd normally use. Wheel tire combo I think will be somewhere between 3 and 5lbs lighter each vs my standard 10x6 with 008s mounted. The rear subframe is noticeably lighter when lugging it around. I could sling it up on the bench with relative ease. The front subframe is still a beast but I did shave several pounds each side with the alloy drive flanges and 4 pots.
Edit: looking over my math. Stock rears are about 27.5lbs each fully built with spaced drums. The kad setup is almost exactly half the weight.
Quote from: 94touring on March 09, 2018, 08:48:54 AM
A stock bare rear arm comes in around 12lbs. The kads are about 6.5lbs. The whole assembly of kad vs stock rear with spaced drums was about 27.5lbs lighter total for both sides. Then the shocks I picked out are 1.25lbs lighter each than the gaz I'd normally use. Wheel tire combo I think will be somewhere between 3 and 5lbs lighter each vs my standard 10x6 with 008s mounted. The rear subframe is noticeably lighter when lugging it around. I could sling it up on the bench with relative ease. The front subframe is still a beast but I did shave several pounds each side with the alloy drive flanges and 4 pots.
Edit: looking over my math. Stock rears are about 27.5lbs each fully built with spaced drums. The kad setup is almost exactly half the weight.
I guess since I know how much my arms and hubs weigh, I could probably weigh the rotor and caliper and add those up
seems like mine are going to be lighter then stock even with me making them wider and adding the extra metal to them
before I go my rear set up, I almost went with the twincam rear billet arms
https://www.specialist-components.co.uk/index.php/shop/classic-mini-performance-parts/classic-mini-suspension-components/billet-alloy-radius-arms.html
So long as you keep it under 27.5lbs each side you're ahead of stock weight.
I had considered the specialist component rear arms but I didn't want to run coilovers. Love those uppers on the front, but they're way overpriced on those unfortunately.
Quote from: 94touring on March 09, 2018, 09:24:51 AM
So long as you keep it under 27.5lbs each side you're ahead of stock weight.
I had considered the specialist component rear arms but I didn't want to run coilovers. Love those uppers on the front, but they're way overpriced on those unfortunately.
yeah those upper arms are sexy but way to pricey
Overcill madness on the other side.
Hey, more holes means less weight, right? ;D
Well definetly lots of extra layers of metal removed that are worth something in the weight reduction area. This side was pretty bad.
Holy Moley! Does discovering stuff like that even phase you anymore?
Lol not really. Just finishing up welding the pan in.
Almost done with this side. Took awhile to undo double layers.
Last big parts order from minispares was placed. Fiberglass boot and bonnet on the way along with a ton of small things. Also will have a new headerliner and all the parts to finish the door conversion. I think I've decided on going with por-15 to do the underside of the car. I'll likely put in on the rotissier and give the underside a good cleaning along with the chemical prep. Right now it's a mix of undercoat, white paint, blue paint, surface rust, and oil.
All the metal work is done on the body. Have one alloy door done. Still tweaking custom brackets for the mirrors. Can't wait to weigh the doors vs stock. I fitted as many items as I could to test fit and it weighs virtually nothing compared to stock. These alloy skins are really easy to crimp the lip too.
How far are you going to strip the body, all the way down to metal or just give the existing paint a good key?
Just stripping the underside which is undercoat, paint, and various areas of surface rust. Otherwise the new blue will spray over the old blue nicely. If it ever warms up I can finish blasting Mark's mini then do my underside.
It's also amazing how much rust flake and dirt I swept up that came off during the floor and cill repairs. That combined with double layer metal and bulky overcills had to be 50lbs worth of crap. And mounting doors that don't weigh 45lbs each is a piece of cake!
After a few test runs, I have brackets that fit the mirrors as snug as possible without hitting anything. Even installed the seat to make sure the position was right.
Those door skins look pretty sweet. Too bad you have to paint them.
Indeed. I want an all alloy mini.
On the skins to snug up the upper section in the middle to the glass, I made a couple L brackets out of 20 gauge, then riveted into place on the skin lip and to the rail lip. The outter trim piece covers this up and should provide a snug fit against the one slider it will come in contact with. Any additional water that makes it way to the bottom of the doors will drain like the factory intended. Plus it's been sealed with adhesive and any steel will be painted as well.
Mirror brackets are nice.. Im sure you'll embelish them with some Race Car style Speed Holes for Lightening of course!
The thought had crossed my mind lol.
Other door...
Just ordered a bunch of por-15 products. Engine enamal for both myself and Marks Aussie mini. He's going black (you don't go back) and I am going with red on the block. Also ordered aluminum high temp manifold paint and a gallon of gloss chassis black for both my underside and future subframes due for painting.
My understanding is you have to topcoat the chassis black or it turns chalky over time, especially any parts exposed to sunlight - just what I heard......
We'll find out. This is their topcoat black, which will be on the underside out of light. Nearly ordered the rust preventative coat, but it was meant for rusty surfaces, which I won't have any after the quick blast. I'll still use an expoxy sealer on the floor even though this black is direct to metal capable.
Out here playing with new parts today. I can't figure out these lights. How do these h4 bulbs stay in place?? The new assemblies are about 2.2lbs lighter for the pair than my old rusted out crap ones.
Boot and bonnet weight saving in fiberglass form is 17lbs.
I believe there is a wire clip that holds them in.....sort of an omega shape. These are different but it kinda shows how it works
Ah ha!
So that's what that is for. 8.gif
All righty then, Dan had a long day,.....he got Stan's Mini all loaded on the new trailer and made it to my house by 10:30 Am. We fired up the motor for the blue car and ran it for a bit, then realized it was going to have to cool off before we could disassemble it from the engine stand, so we ran a few other errands and had lunch at a local BBQ place then headed back to the house. We got the engine out of the stand and loaded in the back of his truck, reattached the trailer to the truck and he's headed south and home.
Once I get back from the CMU event I'm ready for the next engine build!
An afternoon of brushing on por-15. Turned out nice. Will be putting a new water pump on without the bypass. Then I can fit the rest.
Looking good. 4.gif
Looks kinda Chevy orange in that pic.......I like it!
It reminds me of the cover photo of David Vizard's old Mini book.
Ha yeah it does Bruce.
Very much red. The aluminum paint on the gearbox and clutch cover turned out very slick looking.
Looking good. Excited to see one in black ;D
Black paint is ready to go on it! I think next week spring will stay consistently warm to finally finish off all the blasting too.
Yea all I've got done here is cleaning off the frames. Need to get them painted.
Back to the air filter situation. I was initially concerned with airflow with sock filters on my ram pipes, then Dave confirmed it with the guy running the dyno day. So that won't work. Finding a filter that works with my setup is nill. Custom work it is. Thought perhaps going with my stub stack mod setup but fitting a taller filter. My ram pipes are 2.5 inches tall, so ideally a filter in the 4 inch height range. Not being home or even having an engine installed in any minis at the moment makes calculations tricky. I know a standard pancake filter base and lid are 5.37 inches in diameter. This 4 inches tall will surely not fit just eye balling pictures. What I've come up with is buying alloy plate disc 3.5 inches in diameter, which I can shift accordingly before cutting out the hs4 openings. Then clamping a filter to the disc base. Found a k&n filter with some specs that I'm thinking will work. I really need to test fit and finalise measurements before dropping money on $90 worth of filters though. Couple pics as references to my thinking. The socks are about 4 inches tall, so maybe 6 inches mounted on the bell. They just barely brush up against the body.
Test fit the carbs on my clubman and verified the cone filters will fit. The round disc came in and I promptly cut them to match up to an hs4. However, I got carried away with the offset for extra clearance and didn't consider the bell of the velocity stacks being in the way of the filter where it tapers to the top. So need to cut a couple new disc. Luckily they're only a few bucks each.
what discs?
The disc for the air filters to mount to. I need something round a hose clamp will clamp to. The carb is as you know a funky shape. I'll get pics once it's all done and official to show it off.
Ok, have a winner. Though the inner diameter of the filters were a tad narrow, so I reshaped the filters a bit so the inside clears the bell of the velocity stacks.
That's pretty slick. Looks good too.
The main thing is he'll have filters....not running them means another overhaul in very short order. These should let his velocity stacks work properly too. According to the Prather Racing boys, you need clearance around the sides of the bells as well as over the top.
Took it a step further and cut the inner section of the rubber tops off and adhered the foam tops from the socks.
Now that Mark is blasted it's time to blast my floors.
Rear seat belt and hardware removal. -4 pounds.
There had to be 10lbs of undercoat removed. Found a few areas of swiss cheese but nothing too crazy. The previous overcill job, while ugly, will at least be sealed off good and tight now.
Floors are sealed and sealed. Rust has no chance at these floors. Por-15 is a little tedious with a brush but really does the job.
Looking good, those my doors in the background of the second pic?
Yep. 3 sets sitting there ready for work.
It's back off the rotisserie and floor masked off. Degreased the body and began prepping for paint. Won't be much longer and ot will be rolling on the subframes.
Looks like I'm ready for paint. Hoping to find time next week to get it sprayed. Need to prep my doors, boot, and bonnet, but not a whole lot to them to be done luckily.
I'm really looking forward to seeing this done. Especially some performance figures after all this work...
Once it's broke in I'll hit the dyno. Suppose I need to weigh it too.
A bit more sanding on these spots and the new color goes on. Hoping this week.
Quote from: 94touring on June 19, 2018, 01:42:19 PM
A bit more sanding on these spots and the new color goes on. Hoping this week.
Still going with that Audi deep blue color?
Yep, and a black roof. Need to go buy it actually. Loaded up with primers and clear but out of black and never did mix up the blue.
Paint day! Here's a teaser showing the color change. We couldn't find that moonlight blue in the chip book so I went with scuba blue for an A5.
Almost looks satin/matte. Can't wait to see it done
Oh man, don't tease us with just the tip!
That didn't have clear, this has clear.
Wow, you goterdone already! Cool...
You should easily make our October dyno date!
Ha, right...
Few more pics. Snuck my truck tailgate in too.
Looking very good. Love the color.
I don't think you mentioned you are doing a complete 180 on the roof color. Does black paint weigh less than white? ;D
It's more aerodynamic!
I figured white would be as it reflects light. The black absorbing all the light may slow it down. 77.gif
So the look I'm going for is this. Need to order my rims to see if the current flares will work.
That's my favorite style of wheels too. 4.gif Clean and crisp.
I'm doing Force wheels, this style with black centers. Extra lightweight.
Looks epic, that combo works really well. Spotlights?
No on the spotlights. Keeping it pretty minimal.
He's trying to add lightness not lights, remember? ;D
Subbies, brake, and fuel lines go on today while I prep doors, boot, and bonnet for paint.
And now that you have it all light, you're just gonna go and heavy it up again with things like engines and suspensions and stuff! ;D ;D
That rear disc brake setup looks sweet!
Looking very nice!
Moving right along...
Wow, it's been 2 1/2 years since that motor hit my shop! Glad to see it finally in a car. 77.gif
It's been 10+ years since it's been in a car!
Front end sitting a bit high with these red dot cones. Threw in 240lbs of sand in hopes it settles. Otherwise I'll have to take the locking washer off the hi-los, which I'd like to avoid.
Give it a few days....
Quote from: BruceK on June 27, 2018, 11:21:54 AM
That rear disc brake setup looks sweet!
One thing I instantly like about it, aside from cool factor and the fact the rear subframe is dramatically lighter...no drag associated with drum brakes now.
I think you need to change the thread title, this is hardly a mild refurb! ;D
Quote from: MiniDave on June 28, 2018, 07:34:46 AM
I think you need to change the thread title, this is hardly a mild refurb! ;D
Ha, I know. I think Playle said the same thing several pages back. It's been a 3 year documentation on the evolution of a daily driver to a full on build.
Wrapped up paint today, minus flares. In fact one quart of this new lessanol paint I've been spraying mixed 2:1 was nats ass the amount that was required for this job. I'll have to mix an 1/8th for the flares, though considering black. Mininal color sanding required which is always nice. Did miss a minor ding on the one door, but it's in a spot I'm betting my dolly set can push back straight. I fixed a couple dents on the body pre-spray that came out flawless. Also finished up hard lines for haudralics, got the headers and carb in.
Doors are on and everything matches up, except the bottom of the right rear quarter panel I went light on the paint. So will have to hit that area again. Didn't notice till everything was on and the garage door was open.
Amateur.......
;D ;D ;D ;D
Ha, yeah it's wierd cause it's as if I painted the whole car but completely missed a 6x12 inch section. Standing above or to either side you'd never know. Stand back 10 feet and it's like what happened. I may respray the one door now to sand out a couple minor ripples left over from pushing out a ding. Need touchup paint anyways since I'm flat out.
You're so close on this one, you should just go ahead and finish it, one car out of the way in the shop? Plus then you get to start driving it and breaking it in so you can make the dyno day.
Getting there. Been pretty busy with 66 and 65. Wanted to get out there today but I'm under the weather.
Putting the new headliner in.
Tried a new adhesive. My 3m 88 ran out so I took it up a notch with industrial strength. This is where it's at, even has an adjustable nozzle and with the spray pattern easier to hit the lip. Headliner came out flawless.
Made a lot of progress the past couple days. After a bit of fiddling, misinformation online, and a phone call to Dave, I have power to the starter. Having an old style harness and then installing the pre engaged starter with new engine made that a small annoyance. I have spark and everything inside pretty much wired up. Need to finish off lights to verify it all actually works, then induce some fuel and see how it sounds!
Take a vid of it, at least of the first run up the block!
We have noise! Blew a coil so don't think that I run two at a time.
Ha, so true.
Also... come to find out it needed cut for the new headers but still.
Starting to look like a car.
That's looking good!
Nice 77.gif
Color looks good. What's your best guess on how much it is going to weigh?
I think he said he's taken about 400lbs out?
Nah, I think it's about 275lbs. Have to look a my notes. Some of that may be rotational values. Might be closer to 200 actual. Fiddling with lights. Have driving, skips regular beams, goes straight to high. Turn signals work. Have a burnt out bulb in the dash and one bad ground to the oil gauge light. Haven't checked brake lights yet but calling it a day.
That is huge. Means the car will weigh about 1,000 to 1,100 lbs, right?
I'm shooting for 1100lbs. I know the rear subby is 30lbs less and the doors around 60. Then tons of little things. Plus it should make tons O power. Adding the aerodynamic under trays as well to reduce drag. It will haul ass I'm sure.
A highly productive week. Working on my own car was rather nice. I have officially hit the pavement with it! I have a list of small odds and ends to accomplish but it drives! My master cylinder is mushy after countless bleeding. Everything is new but it and since it was mushy before, new one is on the way. I'm taking it easy while I break it in but I will say partial throttle (10-20%) is faster than the old 998. Blip the throttle barely and it rockets off. Considering I only have roughly 50lbs of weight to toss back in, it's going to scream.
My Moke's brakes are still a bit mushy on the first push after countless bleeding and adjusting as well. Let us know if another new master cylinder solves the problem. (Mine is the older style single line master with the plastic reservoir. It is a new master purchased this past spring as part of the Moke's restoration.)
Yep first pump soft, then firms up. No leaks and everything is adjusted properly. These rear disc are very easy to setup. This master never did work properly. I thought it was old drums causing it before but now there's nothing old to blame it on.
How exciting to see it in the car and running! Can't wait to see the numbers it makes on the dyno next month!
Dan,
Keep me informed as to your results in changing master cylinders. The soft first push and firming up is exactly what mine does and my system is also totally new.
Seems to be a common theme with mini brake masters when the first pump is soft, it's time to replace the master. At least what my reading has uncovered.
Back to job #1 today but before I left my Deka 8AMU1R Miata battery arrived for the mini. I read conflicting info on battery weight ranging from 17-25lbs. It weighed in right at 25lbs. Dimensionally it's tiny, 5x8x7 inches.$106 shipped which wasn't bad. The battery I had been using was relatively small for a car battery and weighed 30lbs. The other mini batteries I have in the shop were normal sized and 35lbs. Opted to stay away from the super light weight race batteries for reliability purposes.
Quote from: 94touring on September 15, 2018, 06:39:34 AM
Seems to be a common theme with mini brake masters when the first pump is soft, it's time to replace the master. At least what my reading has uncovered.
Seems pretty sad when a brand new master cylinder already has to be replaced. Speaks to poor production quality.
Yeah it was brand new to the car after I bought it. Dunno if it sat on the shelf so long the rubber hardened or just faulty from poor production.
Tallied up weights from my notes. Once the Force wheels arrive and the regular glass comes out for poly (minus windscreen) I will have taken about 230lbs off the car. Going by minispares/mania on rotational values of the flywheel and deducting a lesser amount for lighter wheels, flanges, disc, ect... I should have a seat of the pants feel of roughly 300lbs less. A lot of weight has been reduced high on the body as well, yielding a lower cg. Plus, a ton of unsprung weight taken off. The final touches as I find time will be some aerodynamic shielding under the car using some extra thin poly. I'm not entirely happy with how my exhaust is hanging, plus it has a few leaks, so I will modify and tuck it closer to the body. A shield behind the grill blocking all but the rad area will also asist in aero drag. I of course took off the front plate and will have the aluminum race style bullet mirrors mounted on my slider windows.
Miata battery on the left and regular mini battery far right.
Got a fair amount done today. One door is assembled and ready for the poly to be cut, just as soon as I get the poly. Bought a small piece to test fit mirrors on the windows rather than door skins. It will work perfectly. Turns out taking the glass out saves 27lbs opposed to the 15lbs or so I was expecting. Fiddled with the hand brake for a bit but finally got it. Low beams work, and fabbed up the switch plate since I took the lower dash rail out. Need to fiddle with seat belts tomorrow and sun visors. Boot lid is on and rear plate and badge. Bonnet is on with leather straps since all the latch pieces aren't used with the fiberglass bonnet. Tomorrow plan to paint flares and redo the one door. More to come...
Time to drive!
95% done. Done enough for pics.
You wound up doing a total restoration......well done! 77.gif
I know the feeling. 77.gif
I can officially get insurance on it and update the tag. Will be nice moving it out of the shop since it's getting crowded in there. Set up toe and camber on the front. The alignment tool really makes it easy. Will tackle rears next week. Need to adjust spring tension on the throttle, it's stiff!
It turned out really good. So much better than the poor 998 car with low (or) no compression that you drove down to the Texas Hill Country 18 months ago!
And you've got 2 weeks to get some miles on it..... 77.gif
Does OK have a state inspection?
No inspections. I put a black tag on it while it was off the road. In the process of getting a quote from Grundy. Will toss in the new master when I get home next week and hit the road to break it in.
Looks great! You're still waiting on the force racing rims right?
I am. Hopefully doesn't take too long, but they are custom made.
A few more pics. Brake master showed up about 30 minutes ago. May start in on some color sanding next week depending on my mood.
Color looks great under the fluorescents, how does lit look in sunshine?
Really good, maybe better! 4.gif I am very happy with my color choice. I will need to redo the right quarter at some point to get the light spot I missed down low. But for now, just want it running and touch ups can come later. I have a small running list of parts on order as I think or find items. Like all builds I placed about 6 orders over the past month in the completion phase.
Put Grundy insurance on it. Agreed value of 25k and yearly payment of $193. Headed home from work today and driving tomorrow! Master cylinder first of course.
Agreed value of 25k and yearly $193????
That is a great insurance package! I guess you have a good history with them of no claims?
I paid $1300 a year with geico, and no agreed value. First car and first insurance...glad nothing happened to it!
Not looking forward to what the premium will be in the UK. But I have some work planned for it, so hopefully it will have a fair agreed value.
Your car looks great as I said, how are you finding the rear discs? Do you have adjustable front/rear bias?
Sounds about right on the insurance. You have to go with a collector car type insurance not just regular auto policy. My agreed value is $20K and think my premium is $120 a year. Only "restrictions" are not to always commute in it and 5K mile a year.
Yep collector insurance. Can't use as a comutter but can drive it as much as I want really. I selected 5-7500 miles a year which is more than I realistically do. Must stay garaged and I listed both garages it lives in.
Vikram, just running stock brake bias on the rear subframe. I'll know more tomorrow if it's braking too much in the rear.
Did they ask for an odometer reading? Mine didn't and I even brought it up and she said don't worry about it. 77.gif
No they did not!
Now I know about the insurance!
Looking forward to hearing about your test run. If you could manage a video, I'm sure many of us would watch it...
Most of the classic/collector car insurance outfits require you to have another regular car with a normal insurance policy on it as well.
There may be some that will do a stated value policy on your primary car, but then you would be up against the "non-commuter" requirement.
Exactly. Buying my work truck effectively lowered my monthly bills by being able to put the other cars on classic insurance.
My Jag and my Mini together are just over $300/year with Grundy - not bad. My MINI and Audi are over $300/year each!
Spent most of the day tweeking suspension and getting carb springs setup. The return springs were stiff and making the throttle a bit on-off sorta speak. I ended up stretching them too much and it wouldn't return properly, and idle high. Grabbed the springs off my hs2's and it's much better, though still a bit ON initially, but that's ok for now. Took it out for a few miles test run and everything is in tact and running well. Exhaust hangs too low and needs adjusted. Did some 50% throttle runs through the gears and it pulls nicely. Shifts smooth and sounds aggressive but not obnoxious.
Oh and the new master solved the mushy brakes. I had the old oit and new in with cotter pin in 10 minutes flat, possibly a new world record. Took a fair amount of bleeding and I may do it again after some miles. Rears are balanced nice with the fronts and don't lock up.
Did 1.25 negative camber in the front and negative .5 on the rear, though one side needs some dremeling to get it all the way to .5, it's maxed out at 1.0 for whatever reason. Set shocks mid stiffness on the front and a couple clicks softer on the rear. Isn't bouncy and feels smooth, even with red dot cones.
Need gas before I can really go driving.
Edit: also after some reading and just observation on the adjustable rear camber brackets, added a bolt to make double sure they don't dedide to slide loose and go full negative mid drive. The adjusting screw that slides the bracket up and down actually begins to bend the bracket about where the bolt is I added. This keep it all snug and together.
Did a few drives today, racking up about 100 miles. My method of break in is basically various throttle positions with no steady state rpms for any length of time. Discovered some new roads while I was out. On the 3rd drive I began to open it up full throttle for a few runs. It's fast! Really burst through the gears. If it's tuned poorly now, still "tight", and the dyno provides a few more ponies it will just be icing on the cake. Drove it hard on some curvey sections. This new setup is REALLY sweet. The unsprung weight in conjunction with having things adjusted properly has transformed the car. My race wheels are being made and will ship out soon, which should further improve handling and acceleration.
Breather hole off the clutch housing spewed oil everywhere so I fabbed up a breather. Problem solved.
Perfect weather for cruising.
Max speed 91 and plenty more there.
4.gif Bet it felt much faster! How does the light flywheel feel, is it a noticeable difference?
Good question, I forgot to ask about that too!
91 mph at what RPM?
so fast it drove 2 months into the future! ;D
Quote from: MiniDave on September 28, 2018, 10:36:54 AM
so fast it drove 2 months into the future! ;D
Dude. Once you go past 88mph that's when time travel happens. Ive seen it in a movie so I know it's real.
1.41 jigawatts of power.
Regarding the flywheel, it's very easy to drive so you don't even think about it. The other thing is the old 998 was so slow in comparison I can't begin to compare. My tach doesn't arrive till the 3rd I believe so not sure where I was rpm wise. I'm probably shifting early is my guess. It doesn't even sound the same as before, especially with the velocity pipes howling. It's got a lot of pull in the midrange area, it's noticeable in the pants. Punching it out of turns is a lot of fun, whereas before I'd just be full throttle all the time on our spirited drives.
Is your full engine spec anywhere on the forum? I'd like to read through it if possible.
40 over 10:1 compression pistons, 266* cam, light flywheel and clutch, KC head - stage 2 (?) twin HS4's and a lot of careful assembly and tweeks.
Stage 3 going on 4 head. 1.4 lifters, lightening duplex chain, electric dizzy with 16 settings, flamethrower coil, maniflow headers and fancy intake manifold to compliment carbs and velocity pipes.
Great thanks. Is that 266 Kent, Swiftune or something else?
Kent 266. Better for street rpms.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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!
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.
Short clip Vikram of noise.
Sounds great! Not sure about the choice of footwear 4.gif
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.
Dan, slightly unrelated but what's the shop truck you refer to?
I bought a Toyota Tundra. Good for hauling the trailer and keeping miles off my cars.
Great! For a second I thought you bought Justin's truck!
Parts of it are at my shop but he keeps having kids so the project is on hold for about 18 years.
Also non related but we sold the 06 JCW and bought a 2015 bmw 328i.
Quote from: 94touring on September 30, 2018, 02:08:57 PM
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.
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!
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
You do have the trigger wire connected to the dist. side of the coil?
Trigger to the negative side of the coil. Black to ground and red to power.
Yeah, they're pretty hard to get wrong.....must just be a bad tacho....does it have a 2 cyl setting? ;D
Yeah it's so simple even I understand it lol. Just 8-6-4. It's a cheap Chinese thing off ebay.
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.
Be interesting to hook the digital one up to your truck set it for 8 cyl and see what it does.....
Ha, yeah true. Probably going in the trash. It was only 20 bucks. Bonus though is the gauge holder will work with the wideband gauge. So not a total loss.
How do you hook up a wide band to a mini? Might be a noob question...
Well it will have a power and ground wire, then probably some aux wires for hooking up dataloggers, narrow band/ecu info, and extra inputs. Bosch wideband 02 sensors have a harness that connect to the gauge. Should be fairly straight forward. Initial setup requires calibration, and it's done through the gauge.
What is it reading from? Where does it get an input from? Do you have to put an o2 sensor on the exhaust manifold or something? Slightly confused
So I'll weld a bung downstream from the Y pipe, probably just beside the gear shift box since there's some room there for the actual sensor. Then I'll run the wires up under the shift boot to the dash area. The 02 sensor has a harness which clips into the gauge harness. Then it's simply a matter of getting 12v to it and the ground. The aux wires I won't use since they're for hooking up computers ect... The gauge itself is how you program it on setup to calibrate the sensor. My h20 system on the rx7 is also alll programmed through the gauge. They make the gauges smart sorta speak.
Understood now, thanks. That sounds like a really useful mod, definitely going to do that.
Couple additions to note. Another mini guy with a built motor and a 276 cam much preferred my 266 for street driving. "Blown away" was his exact response when he drove it. He has 3.10 gears on the 276, which compounds the problem. 3.10 would work great with the 266 depending on your goals. Another thing he mentioned I hadn't given any thought to was he noted it braked better than his car. I wasn't expecting rear disc to make a bit of difference but maybe it does. Though the 4 pots up front may have a lot to do with it. Then again the car is lighter and easier to stop.
And it continues. Hopefully what I have in mind works.
The results are in, I'm cruising very lean. Super lean. We had leaned it out on the dyno for WOT runs, which worked but not at cruise, so time for a needle change. Also I had an exhaust leak off the Y pipe and my WOT runs are now, after fixing the leak actually a bit richer than we saw on the dyno. Hanging in the 11.5-12 range till the very top at 6k rpms where it begins to creep to 13. So there's a lot of tuning and a few horses left to snag.
Pic of o2 sensor install.
I have no shame in saying that I will be copying this O2 wideband setup for my car. Along with your MED flywheel and possibly your clutch setup too. I'm trying to do a cost sheet for engine work,and even for cars that have relatively cheap parts it is startling how quickly parts add up...!
A wideband would do wonders for my tuning and I am excited to see what happens.
Today I'll be experimenting with filing down needles. Stations 1 and 2 are idle and shouldn't need adjusting, 3-6 are normal cruise (roughly), the next few being high cruise, followed by WOT. The last few stations on a needle aren't used. I might also try different dashpot oils and record video of the wideband to see how it effects pickup.
Picture of an hs2 profile. I have hs4 swinging needles with 16 stations.
Dan, not sure what your part-throttle cruising rpms are, but did this lean condition show up at all on the dyno graph from last week? It is it just something that can't be shown with that tool?
On the dyno we didn't tune for cruise, only WOT. I had tuned cruise by feel prior to the dyno and richened till the flat spots were gone. On the dyno WOT was rich, so we leaned it, effectively leaning my cruise. Currently filing needles. Here is where I started...
After the 4th filing session on the needles I have it! 14:7 being perfect stoichometric, but anything from 13.5 to 15 works good, and it fluctuates up and down slightly dependant on throttle and load. High cruise in the 70mph-80 range is hanging mid 15s, so time to move down a station. To adjust my needles I'm simply putting them side by side, measuring which station I want to trim, then filing both simultaneously to get even results. Then using some 320 grit wet to smooth them out.
Whoot! High cruise dialed in. I was hanging in the upper 15s to low 16s here at first but after many small tweaks to the needles got it down into the 14s at cruise. WOT is nicely in the upper 12s from 3-6k rpms. I still have a pig rich spot WOT from real low rpms to 2800rpms. Doesn't seem to be anything I can do for this. Partial throttle in that area to 3/4 throttle is perfect, so maybe I just don't floor it bogged down sub 3k rpms. All in all couldn't be happier. I think filing needles is the way to go to get the perfect tune, in conjunction with the wideband. Vizard does it the same way when he talks of needles. Start with a lean needle and work it down.
Fun! now it's just drive it and enjoy it! Wait till the wheels get here and you get your sticky tires on - just in time for cold weather where they're totally unsuited. <sighs> ;D
Curious what my gas mileage will be. Ashamed you didn't get to drive the final results after the needle work. It's a world of difference going from 16-18 air/fuel back down to 14s in cruise where it's at peak performance.
Well, worst case I'll drive it in the spring at our RM spring fling get together - it will be good and broken in by then, hope the sticky tires aren't just slicks by then! ;D ;D
Traction guaranteed! They look pretty beefy in person don't they?
I forgot to ask, how accurate is your speedo, compared to say your phone GPS?
I'll get some readings next week. Not expecting it to match but you never know!
Still researching and kicking ideas around. No where on the world wide intrawebs did I find any mini data or talk on the pertronix flamethrower 60k volt 3ohm coil. Stumbled across it on YouTube when Jet Motors who do minis out west talked about pairing it with a pertronix dizzy. They seem to like it. I started with a sport coil, which I believe is 25k volts, strapped on the 40k flamethrower for the dyno, and will give this guy a try. Will report back if any or no difference is felt.
I wish that coil looked more like a traditional coil and less 1980s sci-fi. But I guess form follows function.
I'm going ludicrous speed Bruce.
I'm betting on plaid.
:D
Sweet baby Jesus
Slick!
Awesome.
Weight results tomorrow. I think the bag of lugnuts weigh more than a wheel.
They look fantastic. 10 X 6 ?
10x6. The American racer tires will fit perfectly.
They weight almost nothing. 3lbs 7.5oz
What is the brown band around the middle?
The silicon beed that joins the two halves. It's a 3 piece rim. I can change out the center to different styles and colors.
It seals the halves so you can run tubeless
I was unsuccessful yesterday getting tires mounted. Turns out these have a special valve stem that no one carries. Force sent lug nuts but no valve stems, so a quick email later got the particulars on what is needed. The UK version of race stems were rather expensive, like $50 for 4 valves. I found some race valves off jegs for $28 shipped for a pack of 5. Basically need a hole diameter just shy of 7.5mm. Maybe next week...
Thousand dollar wheels don't include valve stems? And they require a special type too? sheesh
Gotta pay to play I guess. ::)
That would be my only gripe. It would have been nice to include the valves or at least give me a heads up what size I need. I wasted half a day trying to find a place that could do it.
Yea 10" wheels and special sized valve stems. That's a tough find. There is only one place on the north end of the Dallas metro area I found that can handle 10" tires/wheels. If I remember I'll weigh mine when I get home cause they feel light.
My car has these really nice metal ones - I wonder where you get them?
The style I ordered is similar to that. They are "high pressure metal clamp" style that fit a 7.5mm hole. Most standard wheels are nearly twice the diameter hole. I learned a lot about valve stems today lol.
Yeah, 7.5mm (less than 5/16") is really small, almost bicycle sized......probably weigh less too ;D
Space invaders coil came in. Here it is for size.
Is it wrong I want to blast that with a laser?
Sharks with fricken laser beams on their fricken heads.
That coil would look so much better if you mounted where you couldn't see it! ;D
So don't mount it on the bonnet as a hood ornament?
Well, if you are looking to make a theme car...
Quote from: 94touring on October 18, 2018, 05:54:08 AM
I was unsuccessful yesterday getting tires mounted. Turns out these have a special valve stem that no one carries. Force sent lug nuts but no valve stems, so a quick email later got the particulars on what is needed. The UK version of race stems were rather expensive, like $50 for 4 valves. I found some race valves off jegs for $28 shipped for a pack of 5. Basically need a hole diameter just shy of 7.5mm. Maybe next week...
I had same issue with my MB racing 3 piece rims....just found the right size on Amazon and they are stubby. Just measure and get some off Amazon. Also, make sure you CHECK all those hex nuts on your rims before mounting for correct torque before using. Uber important.
What torque setting are you using?
Ok this fits. Barely.
Played with needles today. The AAM was perfect at any cruise speed, but WOT is about 1:5 too rich for max power. Slapped in the AAA and it was slightly lean at high cruise and also 1:5 too rich at WOT. Will use this data to narrow down another needle combo.
Valve stems came in and work!
How involved is the process to replace/adjust needles? Can you do it with the carbs in place, or do they have to come out?
Quote from: MiniGene on October 25, 2018, 09:46:19 PM
How involved is the process to replace/adjust needles? Can you do it with the carbs in place, or do they have to come out?
It's easy, takes a few minutes. All you're doing is unscrewung 3 bolts that hold the dashpot housing on. You pull it off the piston, I cap the tube on the piston that holds the dashpot oil, set the carb sprng aside, pull piston out loosen the sceew that holds the needle to swap in a new needle, then reverse order to reassemble.
The needle has to go back in till the boss is flush, even with the dashpot piston surface.
Ok Bruce, coil as hidden as it gets.
Here's something interesting.. I am adjusting everything on the carbs since I'm fabbing up this new air filter setup. My throttles have been opening 90-95% instead of full open. Whether or not that effects power a lot I don't know, but can't help. Opening 100% now.
Wrapping up the ITG filter. It's tight tight tight. Couple things I had to do to make this work. You can't get the filter on over the ram pipes with the carbs on the engine. You can't pre assemble and put it all on at once either. Also can't adjust the jets with the filter on. So what I did was line everything up, put studs in the ram pipes using tension pin which is tight on the ram pipes and filter base to hold them together. I also used some strong adhesive to make double sure the ram pipes and pins stay together on the base plate. I drilled out the carb slightly larger for the pins to line things up. Now that the ram pipes and filter assembly are one big piece, it simply slides on the carb and is bolted down through the ram pipes like normal. I have allen head bolts to bolt down since getting a wrench in there is impossible also. Can't utilize this space more than this!
Where does your oil pressure line attach to the block? You seem to be running a braided line back to the filter where the typical oil pressure line attaches right?
Edit: ugh never mind, I'm blind. What is that braided line for then?
Quote from: Vikram on October 26, 2018, 02:44:24 PM
Where does your oil pressure line attach to the block? You seem to be running a braided line back to the filter where the typical oil pressure line attaches right?
Edit: ugh never mind, I'm blind. What is that braided line for then?
Braided line replaced the hard line to the oil filter.
But that looks great, and it looks big enough that it will flow well around the bells of the ram pipes. Is that the 15" base plate?What's that loop between the carbs in the first pic?
12" base plate. The 15 got sent back. That loop is the choke cable. Lots of breathing room!
Quote from: 94touring on October 26, 2018, 04:42:25 AM
Quote from: MiniGene on October 25, 2018, 09:46:19 PM
How involved is the process to replace/adjust needles? Can you do it with the carbs in place, or do they have to come out?
It's easy, takes a few minutes. All you're doing is unscrewung 3 bolts that hold the dashpot housing on. You pull it off the piston, I cap the tube on the piston that holds the dashpot oil, set the carb sprng aside, pull piston out loosen the sceew that holds the needle to swap in a new needle, then reverse order to reassemble.
Interesting. I had never replaced a needle before and always thought you had to pull the entire carb out.
Yah wheels and tires! Smaller diameter, wider, and 2lbs and a hand full of oz lighter each after it was all said and done. The less diameter opens up some fender gap, but they sure as heck can't rub now. Probably an equation to see how the diameter effects gearing too. 3.44 to a 3.54?
OMG, raised white letters - haven't seen those since the 70's.....but then this car is a 70's child too, isn't it?
Should've painted them blue, that's the rage right now. Lol.
Took it for a test drive on both the new wheels and 60k volt coil. Thing zings right along smoother than snot. Roads were kind of wet so didn't push it but it feels really good cruising along. In fact could probably stiffen the shocks up a click if I wanted. Speedo read 5 off prior and now reads 10 off according to the gps.
looks really good with those wheels and tires!
Looks awesome, those lower profile tyres are slick too...
They work good at cleaning the shop floors.
It decided to dry up outside so I adjusted the height, tweaked tire pressure and went for a drive. According to my GPS and some rough math using online calculators, my gear ratio is around 3.65 with these tires. Tops at at 90mph at 6k rpms anyways. Accelerates like a bat out of hell and sticks to the road. I pushed it as hard as I feel comfortable and not so much a squel from the tires or wiggle in the ass end. I actually could use seats with side supports if I'm being honest. These tires soften the ride a good amount but it doesn't feel sloppy at all.
That's one thing I love about my cobra classic buckets, but they are for narrow people only and the wife isn't fond of them, but she's also not as fond of taking intersection corners approaching 45 either 71.gif 9.gif
Bikewiz had sent some car covers to me. I'm just now getting around to opening the box. This is fricken snazzy. Will work great downtown under my patio/garage where dust and dirt plaster my cars.
About to test the gapless plugs.
Edit: zoomed in on the vid from my phone and I see these spark multiple spots at once.
They work and they work good! I base this solely off of my rear view mirror not bouncing around at cruise now. The 60k volt spaceship coil and spaceship plugs really did make a difference as far as how smooth the car is. It's noticeable. Once I dial in the needles better I'll see what the difference on the dyno is.
Quote from: 94touring on October 12, 2018, 03:30:22 PM
Whoot! High cruise dialed in. I was hanging in the upper 15s to low 16s here at first but after many small tweaks to the needles got it down into the 14s at cruise. WOT is nicely in the upper 12s from 3-6k rpms. I still have a pig rich spot WOT from real low rpms to 2800rpms. Doesn't seem to be anything I can do for this. Partial throttle in that area to 3/4 throttle is perfect, so maybe I just don't floor it bogged down sub 3k rpms. All in all couldn't be happier. I think filing needles is the way to go to get the perfect tune, in conjunction with the wideband. Vizard does it the same way when he talks of needles. Start with a lean needle and work it down.
I don't know what dashpot oil you're using, but if you're using the 20W SU damper oil, try going down to 15W or even 10W synthetic motorcycle fork oil.
KC wrote a dandy article once upon a time ago, including cool info on SU dampers. Back in the day, I 'highlighted' certain paragraphs in red for my own edification.
By the way, where did you get those tires? 77.gif
Tires came from American Racer. You have to call and place the order. They're affordable too!
Cool - I'll check 'em out. I wonder how they compare to the Yoko's and if they're up to the rigors of racing...
Edit - holy cow - which ones are those???
I had downloaded their catalog from the website and found them under mini. The part number they used to find them was the same as the sticker on the tire. They are for race and boy oh boy do they stick to the road. They're wider and as sticky if not more than an 032R.
Edit: mounted side by side to 008s.
Ah, ok - I didn't download the catalogue, only looked at tarmac, street etc... I'll give it another shot - the race shop might be interested in 'something different'.
I ordered myself an inno style sump guard. Much lighter than the standard guard. My sump only sits about 4 inches off the ground so I figured I better protect it.
Sump cover on and finally got around to putting my lower engine stabilizer back on. Also hooked up the wipers and heater box electricals. Almost fully functioning again.
Where did you get the sump guard? Going to need that heater. Getting any white stuff up there?
Got it from spares. Put it in an order of 66 parts I needed. We missed out on the white stuff today but it's freezing cold out.
Today was the first time using the aftermarket heater box. Since its in the 40s today and I was out making tuning runs with no windows in yet, I needed all the heat I could get. The verdict is in, it pumps out tons of heat! My feet and legs were warm, while my face was battered cold due to no windows. I imagine it will cook me out once the glass/poly is all in.
Took some time to fix up a pair of seats to match my black theme. Came out perfectly.
You are def getting the hang of this - those look great!
FINALLY made time to put windows in the door conversions. Also popped the rear glass and put some plastic back there too. Will try and do the rear quarter windows tomorrow. All part of the weight savings program. I also got around to color sanding and buffing the roof I goofed up with massive orange peel.
Now at least you can drive it without freezing your nads off!
Rear plexi looks great, it will be interesting to see how well it holds up to scratches and such, and whether you get distortion looking thru it, especially at night. Not that we drive these cars much at night!
Top looks smooooooth!
Hang on........the pleats in the back seats are vertical, and the fronts are horizontal? 8.gif
I figured I'll have to replace them every so often due to scratches but maybe not. I went with .093 thickness on them which is rather thin. The section with the side mirror flexes too much at speed, so I'll buy a .22 piece for it.
Rear quarter windows are in. Doing them with thin poly really makes it easy compared to actual glass.
Felt like I went backwards today a bit. I've been battling a high idle for some time now, mainly after I've driven it. It will hang around 1200 to as high as 1500 and no idle screw left to lower it. So off with the filters, got a mirror, and inspected my butterflies. Some time ago I had them off to do vizard mods, which included halfing the spindle the valves sit on. In doing so the beveled screws sit kind of funky on the valves. I remember it being tricky to keep it all aligned due to this. Had I been smarter at the time I would have bought flat top screws. Anyhow my suspicion was correct and the valves weren't sealing as good as they needed to. Also the one carb casting had a pit right where the valve closes, so it got filled too. Carbs out, hardware store trip, valves adjusted. It now can be lowered so much it dies, which is a good problem to have. More updates in the tuning thread to come...
Minor catastrophe. Spit a pad on the rear when the bottom stud that holds the pad on, backed off, allowed the pad to swivel on the top stud, busted off with blunt force trauma, bending the top stud in the process. Luckily wasn't in an emergency braking situation when it happened. Locktight on the studs next go around.
Looks like it scored the rotor pretty heavily as well.
Rotor isn't so bad really but I ordered new anyways. I may just use it the way it is. In the meantime to get myself in and out of the garage I put a piece of wood in as the pad.
Quote from: 94touring on March 15, 2019, 11:36:51 AM
Rotor isn't so bad really but I ordered new anyways. I may just use it the way it is. In the meantime to get myself in and out of the garage I put a piece of wood in as the pad.
Haha. Very clever. The street cars in San Francisco use blocks of wood as a braking medium. If you ride in back, or stand on the rear deck there's a distinctive smell when they brake.
...
Went back to the scene of the crime and found the pad.
Good to have been able to recover the pad.
The face of the brake material on that pad really looks bad - almost like it cooked or blistered instead of the usual smooth surfacing. I've not seen a pad surface looking like that before.
I'm guessing it shattered exiting the hub assembly. Another possibility is traffic drove over it all day. I had to run out into a busy highway to get it.
After some research I've discovered the brake pads used on the kad rear disc kit are the same pads used on a Suzuki RM 80 bike from the early 90s.
Are those even still available?
They are and I bought extras off ebay for cheap too.
Hey I broke down again! Currently dead at a gas station. Haven't driven the car in 3 weeks, fired right up, stopped for gas, then not so much as a click from the ignition. Did the same thing a month ago but at the house and thought I left a light on. Fired up with a jump. Awaiting the wife to answer her phone to come snag me to drive the rest of the way to the shop to try a new battery.
Any chance you could give it a bump start?
Jump start worked last time. Bump start did not. Just swapped in a new battery and fired right up.
R U Sure it's charging?
I suggested he check the alternator output too.....it has a new alternator, but it could be a broken wire at the plug - ask me how I know!
OK, I'll tell you.....when I drove Buzz home from Baltimore to KC every so often the alt light would glow, then go out again. When it came to the night portion of my drive it was glowing steadily, but very faint. When I got home I later found the wires inside the plug broken and burned. It's a wonder I made it home!
Confirmed the alternator is charging. So the deka miata "race" battery that's pretty much new is just garbage.
Is there any warranty on that? Less than a year old.....but "race" generally means no....
Bought it off ebay I think, so I think I'm eating it.
Are you sure you don't have a slight battery drain somewhere as well?
A weakened battery from a slow drain and high summer temperatures can lead to a battery going bad.
Possible but I doubt it. Car has sat for lengthy periods and cranks strong, followed by stone cold dead. Even if the alternator was intermittent I'd expect it to crank slow, dim lights, ect, instead of full juice then zero juice 10 minutes into a drive. Battery wouldn't so much as spark touching the negative to the positive.
A dead cell in a battery can do that. Live one minute, then totally dead. Even "dead", the battery may show as much as 12V with no load; but as soon as a load hits it shoots down to nothing.
Drove it to and from the shop this week a couple days, took it across town to drop Jen off at work, and used it as my airport car this week since Jens car is in the shop and she needs my truck while I'm at work. Zips all around and knock on wood no other battery related issues.
Glad to see it's being driven, it's not good on them to leave them sit. I try and drive the green one anytime I need to run an errand.
Haven't touched the mini since my last post in here, so sat for about a month and a half. Took a break from baby sitting my niece who's non stop talking finally wore me out. Washed up the mini, aired up the tires, and drove to the shop to fiddle with a vernier choke cable I bought probably two months ago but haven't had a chance to install. What is a vernier choke cable you ask? If anyone has ever flown a small piston airplane the fuel control is set by an adjustable vernier knob and cable. Our mini choke pulls in and out, may or may not stay in place, but a vernier cable you can also pull in and out, or twist the knob and fine tune. It always stays where you set it. Why did I want one? It's been a real bitch to put it mildly to get a perfect fuel curve at all styles of driving with my setup according to the air fuel gauge which doesn't lie. Butt dyno doesn't either. High cruise being an area that I can't get rich enough to have your standard 13:5-14:7 air fuel ratio, at least not without screwing up my full throttle or low end performance. I've tried about every needle and spring weight combination you can think of. Shaved needles too. Finally converted to fixed needle (13 station vs 16 a bias has), got a needle that makes all daily driving perfect, but full throttle runs it pig rich and kills performance, also creates a low down rich spot off idle at full throttle that bogs and bucks the car. Having tried several fixed needles determined they don't work with my carbs as the needle length just gives me full pig rich at full throttle regardless what I go with. Mintylambs website is back up so using all my needle knowledge ran some comparisons and picked a few bias needles that get me in the ballpark. Fabbed up a bracket to hold the vernier cable, tossed in my needles, and did some test. Got my WOT air fuel back to 12:5-13:0, which significantly increases power and fun factor. Normal around town driving is still normal, not too rich and boggy, not too lean with flat spots. Get on the highway going above 65-70 and as the air fuel goes lean ( talking 18:1) causing power loss, flat spots, and probably not too good on the valves, a few twist with the vernier cable moves the jets, and I'm back to a peppy cruise air fuel. You can feel it come back to life. Get back into town, give it a few twist in and it's back to town driving. If I'm in race mode leaving it set for high cruise doesn't effect my air fuel in the 5k rpm and above range I run it at. On the drive home during rush hour down hwy 75 doing 70mph turning 4600rpms had a rice burner and some girl in a convertible trying to get all racey with me. I blasted away and through traffic leaving them in my dust.
That looks pretty slick! Nice to know you can finally get it into the right range across all conditions - at last! Now we need to get it onto the dyno again and see what the final numbers are - now that it's all broken in and you have the fueling right!
If I had to do it again I'd have gone fuel injection. Who knew my setup would be so temperamental. The carb pistons still require a lot of spring force to keep it happy around town. Yellow springs with a 0.7 oz weight added. No way it gets around on blue springs or even reds unless I add 2oz of additional weight. Engine sucks a lot of air with the ram pipes and manifold I guess. Yeah the dyno figures will be good to know with the vizard mods done and the port matching to the head.
Lol on the nonstop chatter. Glad to know it's not just our 8 yr old that does it.
As I was reading this I was thinking man wouldn't that be simpler with fuel injection. All over power I think is just a limitation of carb technology. Growing up around v8 carb cars they were always set up for low end or top end or a happy middle with no fun at either end. It's cool you've found a way to technically have two carb setups at once and be able to adjust between them. 71.gif
Two days of ginger bread house making, scone baking, pumpkin carving, bouncy house carnival going, and Disney movies is much more than I anticipated. My normal routine is watching something rated M and having drinks.
Or just go with a single HIF44? Vizard says they make as much power as the twins and SO much easier to set up.
Hif44 may work but I wouldn't be surprised if I'd still have problem areas in the fueling. At some point I'll be buying that 7 port head and injection kit for the next monster build and debating putting it on this motor just to see what it does.
Oh... the problems with manual fuel controls. May have to work on altitude compensation now LOL.
Part airplane part mini.
Quote from: 94touring on September 21, 2019, 09:40:52 AM
Part airplane part mini.
I had a pickup that would ice the carb. so I rigged up a pipe to above the exhaust manifold and controlled the heat to the carb with a flap operated by a cable.
Back in the day when tuning an SU by the seat of your pants on a Mini or any SU for that matter to save buying endless needles we used to move the needle up inside the piston to make it run richer through the range or out to weaken it.
Also the collar can be removed on the non fixed needles so they can be used as a fixed needle and vice versa.
I will move the needle up and down as well. Saves me having to remove my huge filter box assemble to make small adjustments.
Making a few alterations. Haven't been incredibly happy with the fiberglass bonnet so acquired a steel skin. The other thing on the other bonnet is the leather straps basically suck, so have some steel clips and some other hood buttons to secure it all down so it's not flopping around. Also have a hif44 on the way to do some testing with.
Well, you've been busy in the shop today! 77.gif
Hoping to have some things painted next week.
Test fitment. No more sloppy rattling bonnet.
Those look pretty slick!
Getting the studs for the push buttons lined up perfectly is imperative. Otherwise they put to much pressure across the bonnet and it binds up when you go to unbutton them. To help aid in releasing the bonnet I added springs that sit over the studs so when you push the buttons the bonnet comes up and is easy to grab and sit to the side. I added a rubber trim piece to the edges of the bonnet and can just sit it on the roof.
No more warped and wobbly looking bonnet.
Got the rest of the hardware on so I can actually drive it again.
So, how dies it run with the single carb?
I've yet to really drive it. Maybe tomorrow if I have time.
Where are those push buttons and latches from Dan? Looks really good!
Push buttons are from ebay and spares sells the latches.
Looks like a good spot for a turbo.
Because 100hp is just not enough! ;D
Good place to take the oil drain line is to tap the flat plate where the fuel pump used to go, then put a fitting in it - drains right into the sump. Or into the breather base on the drop gears housing...
When did you get the DSN engine steady?
You do nice work, Dan -
Oh I've had the engine steady since building the car.
I know it has the Dsn rear arms, they now have front upper arms.
The rear radius arms are KAD along with their disc brake conversion.
While y'all discuss hi-tech stuff, I'm just loving the color and the bonnet with those air vents...
So, what are you going to build the intake and exhaust manifolds out of? Start with a regular header and build from there or just go all in and start from scratch?
You'll want a laser or water jet cut flange plate for the head end, and I was thinking rather than having two separate manifolds, just weld it all up as one thing to bolt onto the head? An intake gasket would work fine for the template for the flange plate....just need to find a local shop that can cut it out for you.
Intake manifold will just be the standard hif44 hi flow style I currently have on there. Exhaust manifold I have one to chop up, so I can use the flanges and it will be one piece manifold. I have looked at several custom made and the one that jetmotors has. Jetmotors I'd just buy and slap on except the one runner basically flows backwards...dumb. I could buy it and modify it, but if I'm going to do that I'll make my own. Then I need to do a downpipe.
Some examples. Mine will be cleaner like the jetmotors.
Those pics illustrate my point exactly - why not make an intake manifold in the same tubular weld up? Especially if you're using FI it should be easy to do and a simpler final package. I understand it you're just going to use the std HIF44 might as well use the manifold too....
Those all look like they're going to use the SU in the original position and simply blow thru the carb mouth? I thought you had to pressurize the entire carb, but I guess not with the HIF44 design with the internal float chamber?
In the Jet Motors pic, can't you rotate the outlet side of the intake on the turbo to point pretty much anywhere? If so, I would eliminate the U-bend and make a simple 90 to the tube coming off the turbo going to the carb.
I won't be doing fuel injection, but water/meth. The water/meth will be pre turbo direct shot from the air filter, eliminating the need for an intercooler and allowing me to run this smaller turbo but yield better performance. I need to buy the plenum for the carb and either convert the carb to turbo or buy a turbo hif44. The turbo can't exactly be rotated unless I make a special bracket for the actuator, which I may very well do.
I should add, just like my water/meth setup on my rotary it's handy for tuning air fuel ratios by altering the percentage of meth or the volume sprayed. It also allows a huge room for error as detonation is virtually eliminated unless you're really screwing things up.
What do you have to do to convert the carb?
I forgot about the integrated boost controllers, but why can't you rotate the entire turbo then, even have the outlet pointing up?
Then the exhaust inlet would point to the back side of the motor, right? Hard to tell in your pic.....
Edit: nope, I see the exhaust inlet now.....
The actuator is basically fixed position so you can't rotate it, unless you make a bracket to allow the actuator to move along with the housing. Easy enough to do. The carb needs hi pressure seals and some holes drilled for fuel or something but I haven't investigated that far yet.
Created a manifold. Test fitment on the clubman and using dimensions of my round nose show that it fits without issue.
Here is the mappable ignition that I will be using, or rather a picture of the interface of the software. They have 2 versions, one for naturally aspirated and one for boosted engines. Although you could really buy the boosted version and accomplish the same thing. Where the values for negative boost are is where you'd enter in values for vacuum advance, whereas the naturally aspirated version has a vacuum column to enter the same values. It would be slick if they had a phone application to be able to see what it's doing while you drive instead of having a laptop to lug around. I'll be able to setup a rev limiter now too. Haven't decided to mount the box that controls the ignition in the engine bay or under my dash somewhere.
I've fitted a couple of flat horizontal bars between some of the large 'holes' under the dash using threaded rivets/nutserts which are really useful when looking to tie cables in place or hang something.
I have a tool for rivnuts. Hadn't thought about putting a panel under there to mount various items. Other thing I'm contemplating is where to mount the water injection. I could start stuffing the engine bay full of crap, but I may mount the water bottle and pump in the boot and run the water lines to the engine bay from the back. Rivnuts and some kind of slick alloy plate in the boot for mounting might be something I consider. I have a spoolgun for my welder to weld alloy sitting at the shop ready for me to start fabricating things.
I've never seen one, but the late-model minis had a washer bottle and pump located in the boot.
http://www.minispares.com/product/classic/GWW935.aspx (http://www.minispares.com/product/classic/GWW935.aspx)
http://www.minispares.com/product/classic/GWW940.aspx (http://www.minispares.com/product/classic/GWW940.aspx)
http://www.minispares.com/product/classic/GWW975.aspx (http://www.minispares.com/product/classic/GWW975.aspx)
http://www.minispares.com/product/Classic/Grilles_Brightwork/Wipers/Bottles_pumps/GWW1116.aspx?160503&ReturnUrl=/product/classic/GWW935.aspx|Back to (http://www.minispares.com/product/Classic/Grilles_Brightwork/Wipers/Bottles_pumps/GWW1116.aspx?160503&ReturnUrl=/product/classic/GWW935.aspx%7CBack%20to)
What I don't like about the boot-mounted mini bottles is the potential for leaking:
http://www.minispares.com/product/Classic/Grilles_Brightwork/Wipers/Bottles_pumps/BAU2043A.aspx?160503&ReturnUrl=/product/classic/GWW935.aspx|Back to (http://www.minispares.com/product/Classic/Grilles_Brightwork/Wipers/Bottles_pumps/BAU2043A.aspx?160503&ReturnUrl=/product/classic/GWW935.aspx%7CBack%20to)
The water bottle and pump I speak of for the boot is the water injection kit for the turbo. Not doing an intercooler so doing water injection.
You'll post pictures, right?
Yes! Pictures or it didn't happen is the "rule".
Adding some info on ignition maps. Mainly to remind myself when I get that far. Took some scratch paper and started comparing various maps to make something that I feel will work safely for my setup. The standard metro turbo dizzy curve is posted first. It's somewhat conservative but also most set timing at 1k rpms with the vacuum disconnected at 7 degrees, which adds a few degrees to the graph under load or giving a max total advance of 21ish degrees under boost. Stock it ran 7 or 8 psi which is the equivalent to about 160kpa on the graph. From reading some people will lock a distributor at 25 degrees and run a turbo safely, however you loose economy as you lack advance available at cruise. Next is a modified advance curve from a megajolt ecu. Less conservative but also not as wild as a few others I've seen. For reference 190kpa is 13psi, 230kpa is 19psi, while 100kpa is 0 and 20kpa is full vacuum. I looked over my CSI dizzy at curves and selected the next one down from what I currently use which is actually very comparable to the metro turbo dizzy off boost, with maybe a degree or two more advance in various parts and a degree or two less in parts as the megajolt map. I haven't looked yet, but I think the Aldon yellow curve would be comparable to this particular map as well. (edit looked and at 10 degrees base timing the Aldon is a few degrees less down low and a few degrees more up high) Next was deciding what to shoot for under boost and vacuum.
I went with:
-0.5 bar @+10*
-0.25 @ +5*
0 @ 0
+0.25 @ -4*
+0.5 @ -6*
+0.75 @ -7*
+1.0 @ -9*
Centrifugal curve of:
500rpms 10*
1000 10*
1500 17*
2000 21*
2500 25*
3000 26*
3500 27*
4000 28*
4500 29*
5000 30*
5500 30*
6000 30*
This gives me a curve under boost, as it spools up, and then maxes out at 13psi a curve within a degree or two of the megajolt but a bit more than the standard metro turbo curve. Max advance being about 22 degrees at 13psi vs his 23 degrees. Under vacuum at cruise I will see a max of 40 degrees, and I may bump that up a couple degrees yet.
Came home to the ignition system.
Does that use a crank sensor?
Quote from: MiniDave on July 20, 2020, 07:50:57 AM
Does that use a crank sensor?
It uses a stock dizzy. I bought one of minispares affordable stock electric dizzies and will put my expensive CSI dizzy on the parts shelf. You lock the advance at full on the dizzy and then the amethyst software controls the timing. I'll mount it inside and run vacuum line to it and T into the boost gauge. The boost gauge in my case will be the water injection gauge/controller.
What value do those ignition maps use for load?
I am trying to compare my SC map to yours. I know I posted one awhile back and you(Dan) said it was similar to something, but I dont remember what.
The SC maps display % TPS, so not easy to compare to.
They use kpa as load. 100kpa is 0 psi or wide open throttle on an NA setup. 20 or 30kpa would be full vacuum foot off the gas at speed.
So Manifold Absolute Pressure or MAP. Even the early Ford EDIS setups allowed the use of either MAP or TPS.
The Rovers MEMS uses both MAP and TPS. I am going to resurrect my Microsquirt project and I believe it has a provision for both.
It would be interesting to add a MAP sensor to the SC sensor just to see what it is doing.
Yes it uses a map sensor to clarify. You may be able to see on the amethyst unit the vacuum port for the map sensor.
Hi Dan,
Looks like I've missed a lot, turbo sounds exciting! Have you thought of using the specialist components throttle body?
https://www.specialist-components.co.uk/index.php/shop/engine-management/engine-managemennt-accessories/generic-injection-su-throttle-body.html
Its pricey, but might be a nice upgrade?
Got the amethyst installed although there were some hurdles. 1st the package came in the mail with a USB drive containing software and instructions, but the USB drive was empty. An email later they pointed me where to download the needed files. Followed the installation and used some diagrams I found from another guys installation online which made it easy. Except it didn't really work. Once you have the dizzy advance locked (which was fiddly), the unit grounded, power wire hooked into my fuse box, you then connect a green wire to a black dizzy wire and turn the key to power the unit, at which point you turn the dizzy to get the amethyst led to light up red. But no red light. Tore the dizzy down, put in my old dizzy. Nothing. Finally said the hell with it and tried to fire the car up. VRRoooom and it was alive. Apparently the red led timing thing was just for 2 hours of fun. Hooked up my laptop and the software appeared and you get to watch rpms and timing in real time. Kind of fun to watch. Then I noticed my unit appears to be the vacuum version and not the boost version. Another email sent and hopefully hear back tomorrow. The setup is pretty slick but Aldon really seems to be slacking. I'd take it for a drive but I undid my locked timing on the dizzy and don't want to risk it till I pull it back apart and locked it down again. I also need to put a timing light on it to verify it's doing what it says it's doing since the red led setup never worked.
Anyways, ended up installing it in the engine bay as there were 3 pre drilled holes that lined up perfectly for it to screw into. Ran the USB cable for the computer through the grommet for the wideband and tach. Once I actually get boost the boost line will run there too.
And no Vikram I didn't consider that. My carburetor will do just fine for now.
Guy who works at Aldon who's been answering emails is out of the office till Monday. The lady who responded for him thinks there's something in the software to set it to boost, but I'm doubtful. At least I don't need it for some time.
Got it sorted out this morning and used a timing gun to verify my base setting. Drives damn good! Feels smoother but maybe it's the fresh dizzy cap, or 1.5ohm setup, or the vacuum advance at cruise is just more accurate. Dunno but I'll take it. Crappy vid to analyze the settings...
Sure sounds good! 77.gif
Now that the ignition phase of this project is setup, moving onto fuel. Have a malpassi metro turbo fuel pressure regulator on the way and an MPI fuel pump to swap into the SPI tank I have installed in the car. The SPI fuel pump from researching doesn't have enough pressure for 13psi that the turbo is preset for. The nice thing about already having an SPI tank is it has the hardware ready for a fuel return line. I will need to pull the carb off and use the turbo rebuild kit for it.
Just got off the phone with Aldon. They are emailing me the correct software version so I can toggle between vacuum and boost. Would have gone smoother if they just had it on their website or the USB drive to begin with. :-[
Yeah, that empty USB drive is a puzzler......they must have a bunch of nephews working there now...... ;D
Email didn't work. Files bounced back. So they decided to mail them. But then decided not to do that either. :-[ Upon further online research I wish I had found a similar product by cbperformance. Essentially the same thing, probably better looking at the mapping, less expensive, and in the US. I was able to easily and quickly download their software and tutorials and have it figured out within minutes. The Amethyst is really slick and it for sure works good, but this has been pretty disappointing customer service.
Wow. That's pretty poor. There are lots of ways to send large files other than by email. They could put them in Dropbox, send them by an FTP, share them on google drive, or use any one of numerous free or cheap online file transfer apps. They must be real amateurs.
It's been annoying to say the least. And after the email bounced back to him, he didn't even bother to reach out and tell me. I had to get on the phone a day later and he said...oh yeah that didn't work.
Well I'm almost surprised but they put the correct software application on their website for all to download and it appears as though it will work. I will need the car connected to a laptop to toggle from NA to Boost and I'm out of town till the 16th, but the option shows up which is a good sign. Uploaded the file to this post just for the hell of it.
I am pretty disappointed with SC support as they seem to lose interest in resolving issues.
But I did have them connect remotely to the ECU once to make some adjustments. One would think that a few thousand of purchases would get a timely response.
Terry
Yeah you'd think!
Spares shipment arrived with the MPI fuel pump to drop in the tank. Waiting on the fuel pressure regulator which was out of stock and coming from a seller on ebay.
Also in the shipment were some hs4 gaskets and some new springs and odds and ends to clean up my dual carbs which will be for sale. If anyone is needing twin hs4's these are basically brand new.
Finally back home and at the shop to test the new software. It works and toggles to boost 77.gif. Test drive says it still runs great too.
Where did you mount the unit?
One page back I have a picture of it on the firewall.
Took a moment to pull the SPI pump to swap in an MPI pump that has the required PSI to run the turbo. Except someone hacked up the SPI pump piping. A little measuring and fab work later I got it sorted. I flared the new hard line slightly so it would slide over the existing hard line to make it fixed in position rather than flex around. I'm going to see how 1/4" feed line does and run 3/8" return line. Researching online the turbo mini people recommend a larger return line from the fuel pressure regulator.
Right, you don't want any pressure in the return line, 5lbs max - 0 is better.
Had to pull the tank to fit the sucker in there. Opened up the sender hole and verified it sits nice and snug at the lowest point in the tank. Went ahead and capped off my gravity feed line to the low pressure pump since it was all out.
All the ones I've seen take the return line to the bottom of the tank......just FYI.
I can add a length of pipe. Though only thing I can think of that's a big deal by not is getting air bubbles in the fuel.
Extended the return line to the bottom of the tank. Went ahead and removed my 1/4" feed line and added 5/16". Return line is 3/8". Added a beefy fuel filter. Rebuilt the carb with fresh seals and got the FPR mounted. The return line is on the bottom and not visible in the picture, the top feed that's open is the pressure line from the plenum. I can probably leave that open for now. The fuel line to the carb is routed nicely behind the heat shield. I also added a proper 6mm spacer to the carb with a vacuum/boost port and plugged the one on the carb. It's supposed to be more accurate off the spacer. Need to wire up the fuel pump and add a fuel pressure gauge temporarily to set base pressure, but that will be next week.
Wow, that's pretty cool how you could flip the car over to work on the bottom, sure makes it easier! :D
Makes changing the oil easy too!
Got it running and driving again. Set base fuel pressure to 3.5psi and fired right up. All the new carb seals and turbo gasket for the dashpot must have created more vacuum or something, because it idled high and richer. Ended up going from a yellow spring down to a red and leaned it out a few flats worth. No fuel leaks or issues and drives great. Now that I know fuel is setup I can move onto adding the turbo.
Also a little extra NA to turbo carb knowledge. The float vent that's normally open needs plugged on a turbo conversion. Sorta. It needs pressure from the plenum sent to the float under boost. If you simply plug it the car won't run at idle. Drew some lines on the carb to illustrate that these are all connected internally. However the NA carb needs drilled out on the mouth face which I've circled. This opening matches up with a hole in the plenum that provides pressure to the float under boost. Of course you could just run a line from a port off the plenum to #3 in the diagram, but most pictures I'm finding have #3 tied into the carb vacuum port. I'm sure there's some reasoning behind that. My 6mm spacer has a port for sending vacuum and boost pressure to the amethyst. I took it for a test drive like this and as suggested in the one diagram it's a lean off line. The car runs leaner, particularly as load increases even in NA form. High cruise doing 70mph I went from 14:5 to as lean as 16:1. This really won't matter since I have to add a turbo needle and retune anyways.
Digging around the turbo mini forums trying to get an idea what kind of power I can expect. Found a guy with a nearly identical setup. Fast road 1293 with a 266 cam and a gt1548 turbo, which have been discontinued but this 1549 I'm running has nearly identical turbo specs. On 10lbs of boost he made 107hp to the wheels and 115lbs of torques. Comparing his dyno plot to mine starting at 3000rpms he made 25 more hp and 40 more torque.
Didn't come on strong till 3K?
They didn't start the dyno run till 3k. It was an instant 115tq and 75hp.
Also they stopped at 6k as I did on mine. 105hp vs my 80 at 6k and 90 ft lbs vs my 70 ft lbs.
Well some more Aldon gremlins. 1st one I figured out, but if you look at my boost column you'll see in vacuum advance figures and boost it shows numbers like 255. When I build up that column it should be -2, -4, -6 and so forth to retard timing under boost. Load it into the box and after rebooting the car it showed up with the 250 numbers, which would be one hell of an advance curve. The guy who works at Aldon on this thing is out of the office till next week sometime to answer questions. So I decided to blow into the vacuum line going to the unit to simulate boost while the car was idling and sure enough it takes out timing. Why it shows those huge numbers is anyone's guess.
2nd problem however is an ignition cut sorta speak when i'm cruising at high rpms above 4k. Doesn't do it driving slow and hasn't done it on any hard pulls up to 6k. Cruising back and forth to the shop doing 65-75mph above 4k rpms about every 6 miles it will momentarily drop 2k rpms for about 2 seconds, and then back to life again. Looked over all the wiring and even swapped in another coil just to see if this new 60k volt 1.5ohm monster was faulty.
Plenum I'm going with vs the stock unit.
Turbo air filter has arrived. The water injection nozzle will tap into the end of it nicely.
Does that plenum have a bell mouth on the inside like a stub stack?
No need for stub stack on a turbo setup. However plenums require a (can't think of the name) structure by the carb inlet inside the plenum that reduces pressure by a few psi so fuel flow works out properly.
...
Is that a water cooled turbo, or oil only? If only oil, are you going to add an oil cooler?
I have several if you need one.
Where did you get the metal intake gasket?
Oil only. I didn't want oil and water. Simple is better. I might add an oil cooler at some point. I'm more likely to add an aux radiator. Gaskets came with the turbo. I bought an extra set off ebay for cheap too. Plenum should be in today looks like.
CB Performance black box was back in stock....bought one. I can use this Aldon on the bus if I decide or vice versa.
Also had been contemplating a 5 speed. However the general consensus after doing a fair amount of research, and even reading what Minispares says on their products, I'll make too much torque for the 5th gear overdrive to reliably work. I may swap my 3.10 gears back in.
Got here quick.
Does that only control the ignition?
Yes, it's basically the distributor.
Software included with the black box lol. Has wiring diagrams and other useful information on the disc. Loads right up and they have some base maps, designed for vw bugs/busses, but pretty close to what the mini needs and gives me something to work with. This is a screenshot of a 10psi base map. Top of the map is vaccum to full boost, rpms down the left side. Very easy.
Intercooler piping, downpipe pipes for custom fitting, and the water injection kit ordered. That finishes off the rest of what I needed to buy. Got the black box installed under the dash but ran out of time yesterday on finishing up the wiring.
The cbperformance black box was a success. No more funky ignition cutting randomly.
Almost a success lol. I did eventually get it to work but here's a big mystery solved in the ignition box world... The black box didn't have the random ignition cut like the amethyst did which was lovely for driving. However, after setting it up, verifying timing, and taking it for a spin, I found I was getting ignition kickback on start. Also, with the laptop disconnected it wouldn't start every time. Maybe half the time. Cbperformance actually answers emails and helps diagnose problems unlike Aldon. Spent yesterday troubleshooting with the guru over there. We concluded probably some hf interference. I'm willing to bet that's why the amethyst didn't work also. Ordered a cheapo 59d points dizzy last night as a final hail Mary attempt. I have a 59d electronic spares dizzy I've been using. Needed to move the mini when I got to the shop to get the bus out. Well the fuggin starter broke!! The kickback kicked it into oblivion. Luckily for me I have this spool gun for aluminum, granted I can't weld for shit with it but the welds are strong. Fixed that. Then decided to go digging in the parts swamp out back. Found a 59d dizzy! Filled with dirt, grease, and looked to be 100 years old. Took it apart, cleaned it up, and damned if the car didn't fire right up, half assed starter and all. Then I took the dizzy back out and locked it out per these fancy ignition boxes. Wired it up for the black box and voila, fired up and with no kick back or without the use for the laptop! Since the Blackbox is superior in mapping compared to the amethyst it's staying in the mini and the bus will get the amethyst once it's new dizzy arrives...which happens to be electronic so I may be doing points on it if it gives me fits.
I'll dig into my old spares and see if I have a bad starter like that, if so all you have to change is the nose.....
That would be great cause I couldn't find another housing.
According to what I can find, this is the right one.....
Someone else had a similar thing happen:
http://www.theminiforum.co.uk/forums/topic/349510-broken-nose-cone-in-low-miles-starter-motor/
Mine was for sure due to the ignition kicking back. High compression motor and the weak point was the end of the starter. I'm just glad I didn't loose flywheel teeth!
According to that post on TMF, several have had issues with the new starters, all breaking the same exact way as yours did. When you get it you should compare this one that is a genuine Rover starter to yours to see if your copy is made differently somehow.
Got the manifold painted.
Quote from: MiniDave on October 15, 2020, 11:59:19 AM
According to that post on TMF, several have had issues with the new starters, all breaking the same exact way as yours did. When you get it you should compare this one that is a genuine Rover starter to yours to see if your copy is made differently somehow.
Yeah looks a lot like internal damage similar to Propeller sudden stopppage and (reverse) overtorque. Engine inertia reversing direction due kickback.
How are you going to run the oil drainback line from the turbo to the sump?
The turbo sits over the breather and it looks like everyone just feeds into that.
Since we're talking about boost, we should probably talk about lag too.....
I picked a smallish turbo to minimize lag. In fact this gt1549 turbo has a few different wheel trims that are more suitable for small bore engines. I took that same platform and went with the biggest wheels available for that size turbo that are better paired for a large bore. You don't want a turbo capable of 250hp when you are shooting for 120hp. Another thing I'll be doing is injecting my water/meth combo directly into the turbo compressor. This effectively changes the turbo map creating a more efficient output due to the reduction in compressed heat. You can run a smaller turbo but more boost this way that would normally stop producing power at the same boost levels. As well as it eliminates detonation should you accidentally run lean.
Just stumbled onto this site. They have some cool stuff like how to convert a A engine to 5 groove serpentine belt. They also some nice bits for supercharging or turbo. Plate for raising thermostat housing so can use a GM temp sender in the gap. The easiest way to see what they have is click on the Purchase tab. Pic shows temp sender and serp. belt.
https://www.creativespridgets.com/
Putting the mini to work today. Have this 998 auto I needed pulled into the shop to haul up to Dave.
Someone was asking about auto shift cables...
If that's going in the Pup, won't he need the subframe too? In fact, he'll need a two bolt automatic subby, right?
Are you going to build the subframe up for him? Disc brakes and such?
That auto shifter looks the same as the one I dug out of a box o' junk maybe I will hold onto it in case someone needs one some day. Thanks for the pic.
Quote from: MiniDave on November 18, 2020, 11:09:04 AM
If that's going in the Pup, won't he need the subframe too? In fact, he'll need a two bolt automatic subby, right?
Are you going to build the subframe up for him? Disc brakes and such?
Yeah I'm building subframes for him. But this auto subframe is a 1 bolt so I have to fabricate a little on the pickup bulkhead to support it.
Gave the car a wash today and got the new 59D timing locked and setup with the black box and verified with timing gun. Took it for a spirited drive. After driving the bus for the past week the mini felt like a formula car.
I see your Mini makes a good tow vehicle as well ;D
A little update to the amethyst. It doesn't work! I tried every combo I could think of with wires, plugs, shielding, coils, and nothing. Put my csi back in and runs rock steady. I'll eventually buy another cb performance blackbox that did work fantastic and what I have on the bus.
This morning I went outside to drive my truck to the shop and noticed a nearly flat rear tire. Went a couple blocks over to the gas station for air. Discovered the valve stem was leaking. Was able to get it to the shop to top it off with air to go to my tire guy. Tossed air in the other rear tire that looked low also to discover that valve stem was leaking too. What the hell!? Anyways I grabbed a set of the Advan 032R's to swap onto the mini on the way to the tire shop. Got all fixed up and decided I'd tend to a few things on the mini that I keep pushing off. For starters the rc40 exhaust was starting to come apart and had been dragged enough times it needed some love. I have a maniflow center exit exhaust on the shelf for when I go turbo so decided to just put it on. Old exhaust was stuck to the Y pipe after being on a few years and an air chisel later got it off, but knackered it all up. Fast forward to cutting the end of the Y pipe off that was all mangled up. Grabbed some exhaust pipe off the shelf and found a section that fit over the Y pipe end and inside the maniflow exhaust. Welded that on and slipped it all together. Fits nice and has more clearance to the ground for that matter. Other thing I noticed was my left rear disc brake pad was worn down pretty low. Took it apart to swap pads but discovered it was dragging, which explains why that side was worn down and the other side wasn't. After more fiddling and inspection realized the return spring on the caliper to the hand brake needed moved to a different slot to create a firmer return. The way the mechanism works if that return doesn't pull back completely it creates just enough drag on the pads it eats them up over time. So with those items fixed up next on the to do list is add the working speedo Bruce sent up. I may need to adjust the hi los with the new tires as they're a fair amount taller than the race tires. I'll have to test drive it aggressively to see if it rubs. Oh and it's due for an oil change!
It's always sumthin, huh?
Time to fix up this bonnet that had an ouchy during our Arkansas drive.
Are you gonna finish Rob's car this next week or so?
Yeah paint scheduled for Monday. I want to do this hood at the same time.
All fixed up.
Very pretty, now you can send those pics off to AC insurance.
I used up the rest of my paint too. Next time I'll need to order more.