1102 replies to this topic

[cptkirk]

Just read the whole thread again, as I have been looking for inspiration for what I should do to my mini, reading the bit where you said you've spent over £35,000 was an eye opener.

 

 

It can be done cheaper, frankly I was financially raped along the way by people who took advantage of me being a newbie to the whole car building scene.

 

My advice is to put together a budget and then get someone that's been through it to have a look for you as they might spot things that are missing that you hadn't considered.

 

I have attached my budget sheet from 2008, you can see how it all starts to add up. Consider the total on the budget doesnt include the rapings, travel/transport, all of my labour hours, the later upgrade to intercooled and then re-dyno'd.

Attached Files

•  Andy kirk - Mini budget - 02-Apr-2008.pdf   69.7K   64 downloads

Edited by cptkirk, 04 February 2015 - 08:29 AM.

[BronkoMini]

Many thanks, for that.

[RED HOT]

Has anybody building one of these done it to budget? I had a budget, but this doubled; mainly because my tastes changed and I added additions as I went, but as Andy said there's a lot of little bits I missed that soon added to the costs. All that said, I think I've build a better car for it and would do the same again and if you ever get the chance to see Andy's you'll agree his is a machine build to a very high standard.

[minithekid]

Has anybody building one of these done it to budget? I had a budget, but this doubled; mainly because my tastes changed and I added additions as I went, but as Andy said there's a lot of little bits I missed that soon added to the costs. All that said, I think I've build a better car for it and would do the same again and if you ever get the chance to see Andy's you'll agree his is a machine build to a very high standard.

 I have done all the work myself apart from paint /electrics/wheel setup and I am up to £20.000 ..if you don't have that sort of ready cash I wouldn't even think about it  its been a hard expensive two year build for me I almost thought about selling it at times but I am nearly there now my good advice to you is buy one ready done!...and save your self lots of money and pain and you could enjoy it now.... you could get a lot of other cars for that sort of money...hope this helps you

[cptkirk]

I am up to my normal winter tinkering now.....

 

Got a couple of things on the go, one of them being fitting my 2x Flowmaster DBX silencers. I am undecided as to go with a similar in series setup as I had with the two absorption cans or to split the gasses and go parallel with the new cans?? and then that led me to thinking if I have split the flow of gasses and effectively slowed them down this means there is less back pressure as the gasses flow through the two cans, now do I send the gases back together or do I keep them separate and have two exits pipes???

 

 

Here's what I've come up with so far:

 

Into one exit pipe

 

 

 

 

 

 

or into two exit pipes...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And for those looking at the Y conenction thinking it'd just flow past into the bottom can here's how I will over come that:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I received a new part from Clockwise Motion today - however you'll have to wait for more info on that as I am waiting on other parts - lets just say its a replacement for a cheap piece of sh!!t I bought earlier in the project.

 

 

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[cptkirk]

OK, so did a bit more design work tonight and decided that splitting the flow and keeping it split makes sense but rather than try to get both out one side I decided to build on the success of the series setup and use one of the series bits of exhaust.

 

Remember this???:

 

 

 

 

So the bit on the left hand side that runs forward before coming aft, is the bit I am on about re-using.

 

So the aim is to get twin exit pipes either side of the diffuser. I had a fair amount of success with a cheeky down turned tip (with peforated pipe on the underside) to get my db's down last year so if this is still too loud I can get another one made and fit two - that'll fix it but it'll feel choked.

 

 

So here are this evenings renders of the latest design:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For those that missed what cans I am using here is a link to the bumpf:

 

http://www.carid.com...technology.html

 

 

 

,.

Edited by cptkirk, 05 February 2015 - 08:41 PM.

[MotorinFool]

Looks amazing!

[minithekid]

great skills there Andy looks the business! and hopefully no more black flags! 

[cptkirk]

great skills there Andy looks the business! and hopefully no more black flags! 

 

Thanks - Yer, fingers crossed - I even have nightmares about getting black flagged so you can see how much it gets to me.......

 

90deg corners ordered, I have plenty of straight 2.5 so I need to get fettling....waiting on corners from China...

 

I have to say that the only downside to supercharging is the extra noise you get out the ar5e end.........I am seriously thinking of going twin charged but need to find the funds for it as it would mean building the engine to take the power. The beauty being that the turbo will kill a lot of noise and add a feck load of power from 4k onwards. it'll mean the difference between 130mph (currently) and 150+mph down Lavant straight at Goodwood. I am thinking 500hp at the wheels - absolutely lag free right through the rev range....who wouldnt want that??

 

Oh and will be adding aero to help keep it stuck to the ground......

Edited by cptkirk, 06 February 2015 - 10:25 AM.

[cptkirk]

70mm Clockwise Motion Throttle Body

 

Some of you might recall that I had previously bought an OBX 72mm Throttle Body, well - it was a piece of cr4p - and returning home, after getting it dyno'd last (two years ago) I couldn't get it to idle as air was p!ss!ng past the throttle plate. So I had to replace it with the original 62mm TB, this was robbing the motor of power as the supercharger is quite sensitive to restrictions up stream - approx 20hp missing (based on back to back test guys in the US had done).

 

Recently I had decided I want that missing power back and tried to get the throttle plate fitting better. However after much fettling and f-ing around it still leaked like a *******. the problem is that I couldn't do anything about the gaps by the spindle which were 5thousandths of an inch both sides, now this might not sound a lot but when there's 2litres of the vacuum every 2 revolutions you be surprised how much air it can suck through those tiny gaps

 

I had been searching the tinterweb for some time trying to find a suitable 72mm replacement but couldnt. I chanced upon this 70mm Clockwise Motion TB when doing a search, I ordered it from http://r-motion.co.uk/. Great service and very quick to send the part once the order was made. These guys look to only stock top notch parts and Mike, the owner, races, so knows his sh!t...

 

FYI - anyone trying to Google Clockwise Motion wont find any way website, these are the people that make the baffled sump insert that is used in the VTEC Zcars conversion and are very popular in the Honda scene. Years ago I spoke to Ian @ Clockwise and I got the impression that he was getting lots of calls from people asking stupid questions. I know everyone has to start somewhere but if you're constantly plagued with newbie questions your gonna get cheesed of with it. From what I can gather they are still an operating company but only deal with distributors now.

 

Anyhow, I also decided that in an effort to compensate for using a 70mm instead of 72mm that I was going to improve the cold air intake. I am changing from the old 3" up to a 4" intake right up to the throttle body. This is throwing up its own problems, firstly the old setup I had for the throttle cable cant be used as you physically cant fit it on the TB with the new 4" silicone adapter on there. So the old grey matter got out into use, in an ideal world I would have made a 3D model and got it machined out of a single block, buts that expensive and frankly I couldn't be ar53d to get quotes and wait for it to be done. So I whipped up a new cable holder/adapter/turn around a corner thingy majig....

 

So here's a few photo's of the old TB with the old throttle cable holder (Martin AKA Rust and Oil (Minibusa Van build) made the nicely machined part for me) the rest of the ghetto setup I had made myself - in a rush I might add....However what I ended up with saved me having to order a longer cable.....

 

 

 

Old Setup - on new TB:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

New Setup:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For the eagle eyed among you, you might be wondering how I pass the cable through the acetal part of the mount - if you disassemble that part of the mount you can slide the acetal part over the cable and then reassemble, making the hole where the cable end sits much stronger than with a slot in the side of it for the cable to pass through during assembly.

 

I also realize that the air flow, pre throttle body, would be much better if the transition from 4" to 3" was more slight, ho hum.....

 

Now I have to work out how I am going to make a true cold air box and feed it with multiple 3" cold air pipes....

 

 

More to come later - waiting on bits now.....

 

 

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Oh, here's the old TB verses the new: its defo going to be worth swapping them

 

Edited by cptkirk, 16 February 2015 - 12:30 PM.

[minithekid]

nice one Andy! thinking of getting a better throttle body myself mate!

[jimmorris3]

Will I have similar issues with my build , my charger is blowing through the throttle body rather than sucking so I'm thinking it wouldn't make as big of a difference

What's your thoughts ?

[cptkirk]

Will I have similar issues with my build , my charger is blowing through the throttle body rather than sucking so I'm thinking it wouldn't make as big of a difference

What's your thoughts ?

 

 

From what I can gather, from the reading I've done on the US forums for supercharging, once the air is compressed it wont make a massive difference, however restrictions up stream of the SC do. The Rotrex kits tend to keep the OEM throttle body, sometimes they go for an RBC manifold (flows better than original) which can be mated to a 70mm TB but I haven't seen any with crazy big TB's like you get on some of the, TB first, big Whipple/Lysholm Twin Screw or Eaton TVS chargers (sometimes 90mm or big oval TB's). I think in the case of the Rotrex kits they try to keep the piping sized to what the outlet from the charger is and this is similar to the OEM TB.

 

 

The problem with bigger TB's is town driving and light throttle as they let in a hell of a lot more air on very small throttle movements from closed. If its a track car then no worries as you'll either be wide open throttle or braking.

 

One very good thing about DBW TB's is that you can have big TB's and program really small amounts of movement for the first half of the throttle pedal action so town driving isnt really affected.

 

If you only have cable - like me, you could try using a snail cam on the cable to get constantly rising rate of opening or Jenvey utilize a parallelogram arrangement to get the same effect - I am gonna invest in a bionic foot, hey if its good enough for Steve Austin (showing my age now)........

 

I think I got a bit off track there....

 

 

Edited for typo's

Edited by cptkirk, 17 February 2015 - 11:41 AM.

[jimmorris3]

It's a good answer !!!

I was planing on keeping all the inlet piping the same size as what was on the jag
80mm

Even the inlet to the charger routes around the outside the jag charge cooler
I presume to aid cooling further , not sure how well thaT will work but it makes the install look quite tidy !!

Should have the car back in a week or so from body shop and hopefully I can give you some answers to how successful it is

[cptkirk]

NEW EXHAUST SYSTEM

 

The fun has begun. I got all the bits , bar one (the flat plate to do the splitting) cut for the 45degree splitter for the new exhaust system, just need to pin down my mate to get them welded up.

 

As you all know I started out with the 3D model, I then flattened the parts out to make paper templates:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then cut them out and wrap them round the pipe to get the shapes required:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then cut them out - 4" angle grinder with stainless slitting disc works a treat.:

 

 

 

 

Then bring the puzzle together:

 

 

 

Really need to invest in a TIG welder then I can do all of this myself.....

 

 

 

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Edited by cptkirk, 10 March 2015 - 07:58 AM.