1057 replies to this topic

[kmol468]

Today has been been abit of a mixed day.
An early start and a 4hr drive up north only to find out that the car didn't fit on the 4wd rolling road as the wheel base was too short!! I was gutted.
Also to add insult to injury, if it did fit on the rollers the exhaust would have cooked the electronics below the rollers!!
Anyhow all was not lost, a visual inspection, a full electrical test of the engine components was carried out and revealed some faults!
The dump valve doesn't work and leaks.
The boost system has been set up correctly so will boost to 2.3 bar. There was a restrictor in the Amal valve which limited the boost.
The idle was all over the place due to the high capacity inlet chamber and the eeprom in the chip has been changed to accommodate this.
Overall I'm very happy with the service that MSD in Blackpool has given me and have faith that the engine will run sweet as a nut.
Even the mechanic said that when the boost kicks in it will rip your face off!
He's even had mk2 escorts with the same chip I have come back into the workshop to be tuned down as they wheel spin in 3rd gear on boost.
Let's hope the 4wd and tyres do their job.

I'm now honestly scared....
Next Santa pod day is 22 Feb...

[Simples]

Gutted about the rollers man, at least it's progress. It's going to be bad ass when it hits the strip

[Anthony30]

Your car is insane.   MITP 2015?

[kmol468]

Yeah I was abit gutted but at least it's got a good bill of health.
Dump valve has been ordered, should be here for the weekend.
I've set up a extra rev counter, as the stack system is bust, so the weekend should see some boosted runs (obviously on closed roads!)

Once i get the air fuel ratio monitored (if anyone has a wideband gauge for sale, get in touch) then it will be taken up the pod, mitp, shakespeare county raceway, silverstone and driven in anger, that's if I can keep it on the tarmac and the gearbox in one piece.

[Carlos W]

This is absolutely insane. You've done so well

[Brams96]

Does this mean you have to find a Hub Dyno somewhere to test the power if it won't fit on a conventional rolling road?

[kmol468]

Yep! That's if I wanted to know the bhp.
Although the mechanic said it would be 380bhp and if I got an electronic boost gauge it would be 410bhp!

[Alex_B]

Yep! That's if I wanted to know the bhp.
Although the mechanic said it would be 380bhp and if I got an electronic boost gauge it would be 410bhp!

If you're looking for a hub dyno, I recommend Torque developments international down in Essex, they use a hub dyno for all their tests and can do 4x4. Been down there with a Formula Renault single seater and they know their stuff!  

http://www.tdi-plc.c...g-optimisation/

[JonnyAlpha]

I was following this thread before the Santa Pod day last year, nice to see it on the road, you have accomplished an incredible task well done fella and to everyone involved.

 

Was that wheel spinning on every gear change

[kmol468]

Rather unfortunately the dump valve hasn't turned up. :-(
So I haven't driven it today. I'm slightly annoyed but what's a few more days after a few years!

The videos don't have any wheel spin in them. I hope it remains that way aswell and it simply gets the power down cleanly.

[evansisgreat]

I'm just so impressed with all of this. I think you've done everything the right way.
I was watching the new episode of 'project binky'. I don't know if you're familiar with it. The last couple of things they've done I've been thinking 'That's so complicated, it seems unnecessary.'
Not so with this. I think this is the perfect illustration of how to make a mad bad kick ass project.
The right balance of keep it simple, but also go absolutely, positively crazy.

I take my hat off to you and after the years of interest I've had in this thread I hope I can buy you a beer one day.

[kmol468]

Yeah I am familiar with project binky, ironically I strangely like their over engineering, as they seem to think of every possible eventuality and make it once! The opposite of me! Lol

Today, the dump valve was delivered. So with it in hand, I finished work and quickly started to fit it. It took all of 3 minutes to fit with a flat blade! Job done! It's probably the easiest thing to change on the engine.
The old one was inspected and has a rather large tear in the diaphragm!
I connected the battery and put the flip front back on and fired her in to life, eager to drive her on boost.
It was already dark, I hadn't borrowed the go-pro and my friend didn't want a ride, so I set off, harnessed in and tried to prepare myself for what was about to happen.

I took it easy letting the temps build up.... Out of the blue it started to hesitate with trying to maintain speed. I let off the accelator and it cured the issue. I started to build the revs up and it came back at about 2700 revs.
Thoughts were running through my head as to what it could be, only after receiving a clean bill of health a week before!
It got progressiy worse and I came to a halt on a county road in pitch darkness. The problem started to effect the idle... And then it misfired so badly it stalled the engine... I came out without any tools so had to push it across the road to a nearby layby and phone for help.

After a while support arrived and we started diagnosing the engine.... In my haste I hadn't done the jubilee clip on the dump valve.. Amateur mistake!
Tried starting the engine it wasn't habing any of it. Check the earths, for ignition drains, loose leads, coil pack connections, ignition amplifiers and ecu connections....
Nothing seemed to highlight a fault. I was gutted, as this now meant towing it home with no towing eye, in the dark.
During the several starting attempts it drained the battery, so my friend went to get the spare battery and I disconnected the ecu thinking that it had learnt and stored some incorrect base values which would clear.

However this didn't work....
We were stumped as to the problem until I tapped the fuel tank, it gave a definitive hollow sound.
It's often the most simple of problems that are the cause! I'm never going to live it down but in my defence I don't have a fuel gauge fitted!

[kmol468]

So my mate got some petrol and it roared into life.

I harnessed myself in again and set off, again! I built the temps back up and started to apply some boost. The boost picked up nicely and I changed gear to be greeted with a swoosh sound, much to the confusion of a pedestrian wondering why a mini was making that noise.
After abit more driving I pulled onto a dual carriageway and gave it some beans.... Holy Jesus.... The boost is nearly two stage. The first stage was what I was used to before then the second stage kicked in and the car in front of me, came towards me very quickly! I glanced down quickly before I lifted off, it was reading 2.0bar!
During this I hadn't even got near the redline, so it wasn't really stretching its legs.

I cleared the traffic and prepared myself for the acceleration from a rolling second gear... It was like a missile when the boost kicked in, I quickly changed gear and repeated the process again and again and found myself trying to shift into 6th.

It's crazily quick, all of this is happening with about half throttle as I don't want anything to go wrong.

I thought I would try and hold onto the revs abit longer using the horsepower rather than the torque to accelerate. Again rolling in 2nd I accelerated and held onto it for as long as I felt comfortable. I got to around 5000 revs and lost all traction on all 4 wheels.
I bottled it, shifted up and short shifted the rest of the gears, still buzzing from the initial burst of speed.

I called it a night and started the drive home and have realised one thing.
I have made a car where I feel I will never be able to drive it to it's limit. It will always show me as the weak link. The car will be able to out perform the driver hands down.
It's bizarre as I've owned a few quick cars but have felt that I could always handle them at their limits.... With my mini I have so much to learn.
But it's going to be fun finding out.

[RossKnight]

Can't wait for santa pod figures!

[Jared Mk3]

Sounds like a bit of a beast! Great job then!