749 replies to this topic

[lawrence]

All in good time :) I'm on limited funds as well a time here haha :)
Coolent system is basically done just need to order some piping and do a couple of other little bits.

I've made a start on the inlet manifold and have got an update for that but was hanging back with it until the coolent system was done and dusted.
Plus it keeps raining here as you can see in any of the engine bay photos meaning I'm getting soaked walking back and forth

Tommorow in the morning im popping into the garage, I'll only have an hour or so and will do a few bits then make a list of jobs that need sorting and pop it up here
Lawrence

[lawrence]

So we all like a bit more info on the coolent system ;)
Bracket that I made fitted to the bulkhead

Plumbing done.


I'll order the last hoses sometime, I'll finish modifying the heater first tho


Also worked out where I'll pop the tank. Going to put it here. I've bent up the bracket slightly but I'm planning to put a steel rod back along it once I've sorted the tank mounting all out so it will be strong again



Lastly I'm going to mount the coil pack under the throttle bodies.

Out of the way I know but I case anyone has noticed I've got a full wire tuck and tidy on the engine bay here :) need to Order some new HT cables to make them up, thinking copper cored

That's the little bit I got done Saturday
Lawrence

[lawrence]

Good afternoon.

So ive finished faffing around with the coolent system (for now at least)

Time to play with the inlet manifold

 

Last time I talked about it I had given up with making a new backplate and had ground off the old one.

as you can see.

 

So bolted that up to my spare head.

 

I wasn’t having the runner going off all wonky on me this time so tacked some reinforcing bits to them to keep them aligned

 

bracket welded to them and then attached to head.

 

you can see in this one that the holes were drilled a little off and that the mounting plate is slightly wonky!

 

ive matched the plate to the ports, not that itll make a huge difference as im welding round pipes on!

 

So this is where I paused the other week. As you can see in the photo its tight to the bolt which makes it difficult to get weld and the socket to undo the bolt in the same place!

Also the little brackets I welded on wouldn’t work. When I did a mock fit the throttle body hit the rocker cover and the bends on the pipe were too small.

 

see what I mean?

 

So I had a pause and a think.

This was the issue. Too tight

clearance using studs and nuts or bolts

 

so I had a think and came up with the solution of getting some stainless cap head bolts.

now got a lot more clearance for the welds

 

All bolts replaced on the plate

 

Its not a bad solution to the problem however I need to be extra carefull not to thread any of the bolt holes in the head as obviously ali is weaker than stainless and I don’t fancy retapping a head on the car! The mockup head im using this has already happened to on two of the holes therefore im keen to avoid this issue!

 

So today. Was planning to weld up the manifold.

Got attacked by the welding wire first

 

partly welded

close up

nice and smooth flow

 

you can see I cut the two outer ones a bit too much also

 

mockup,

nothing hits the rocker cover anymore and I know there loads of space on the car at the back so not worrying about the brake master cylinder either

 

and mostly welded. Have to do a few bits but I wanted it to cool completely before I took it off the spare head

 

the flow is fine where I had to add metal back, just needs some cleaning up on the inside

 

and fitted to the car

still got some welding left to do but I was getting a bit bored of it to be honest

 

and throttle bodies fitted to the manifold

 

airfilters placed on top. Will be snug with the bonnet! But hopefully the long inlet manifold runner will be torquey

 

On a side not this is almost as busy as the engine bay will be,

Im planning to replace the sound deadening with one new piece that runs the length of the bulkhead. I also need to refit the wiper motor in the usual position and have asked for the Retrosport cover for my birthday to add some flair. Lastly im going to get some brushed stainless to cover the exhaust manifold up, this I will bend round to protect the radiator from heat also. Its weird seeing the bay so empty!

 

Next up a bit of fabrication

 

and fitted

 

It needs a bit of paint but it does the job of holding the throttle cable in place excellently, there is no movement at all and no chance of it falling out due to how ive overengineered it! Just need to adjust it at the pedal end and that’s the throttle sorted!

 

Oh and got a metal bonnet the other day, still undecided with it tho

 

 

So that’s all for now folks.

 

I start placement at university in hospital theatres next week. That means im working a 37 ½ hour week as well as a 12 ½ hour day at work on Sundays when possible. Ive also got a 3000 word essay to do as well as a 7000 word dissertation.

 

I cant see myself doing much work on mini as uni work has to take priority. Im Also over mini budget this month by about 50pounds

 

So keep an eye out for updates people but there may not be many for the next 3 months or so

 

Lawrence

[benm]

Making some good progress there!

[lawrence]

Time for another update :)

 

Got some bearing on the whole situation

 

 

but you will have to bear with me regarding what they are for (somuchpun)

 

done a bit of painting of the bracket I made

I never took one of it painted unfortunately

 

Finished welding up the manifold

 

and remounted it

I bought some smaller bolts, makes a tidier job of it compared to cutting down the other ones and means less chance of damage to the threads too.

 

Time to get my head around the different pipes for the throttle body.

 

So these long squiggly ones got to 4 little brass outlets on the TBs. The outlets come out engine side of the throttle body so it saves me tapping into the inlet manifold. But as you can see they are small

 

cue drilling time

 

So now the holes are bigger they flow a lot better. Now all 4 are drilled it will mean I can attach the other end to the emmisions PCV valve. This will prevent the crankcase from overpressurising and blowing gaskets etc which as my readers may have noticed has happened before!

Attaches here

 

Time for some more bracket fabrication

So this mechanism is attached to the throttle bodies however it’s a bit bulky but needed in order to fit the idle screw wossit I need to make another bracket.

 

Dug through my metal bits. Ooh a handy bracket

 

lets weld a bolt in the middle

 

bit of filing

 

and some paint. Ta da.

 

Ive kept the valve, its vacuum activated. Now I can refit it if I need to if I can work out how to plumb it. Going to look into it. But I would rather have an electrical way of controlling the idle so bare with :)

 

Now to modify the throttle cable, course I can buy one but where the fun in that. Probably would have been easier but ahh well.

 

Eww crusty

 

bit of modifying

 

All ready to fit. It part honda cbf125 speedo cable now! I like recycling

 

and fitted, you can see the little painted bracket that hold the cable securely all painted there too

 

Also dug out another Nissan bracket so this part looks nice and tidy! And the cable runs smooth which will give me a nice progressive throttle just like we all want! Just got to find/make another bracket to keep the cable from rubbing on the valve cover by the filler cap but that’s easy peasy.

 

So whats up next. Not sure. Keep an eye out people

Lawrence

[lawrence]

Thankyou for bearing with me :)

 

hehe,

 

So not sure who reads pollyp’s threads on micra sport but he does a replacement of the plastic bush for bearings, the bearing he used were a different type however mine will cope with better loads side to side. The result will be an extremely slick gear change with no notchyness or play. I’m also intending to remove the shifter assembly from the car so I can dismantle it and attempt to remove more play that end.

 

 

So shifter rod removed, as you can see there is a threaded section on it already, this allows me tweak the placement slightly to get a position I was comfortable with.

 

grinding off the rivet

 

 

 

 

 

 

So as you can see the plastic has now been replaced by the bearings. the joint now moves freely and has zero pay. Essentially all I did was cut down the plastic part on the original joint and then leave clearance for the bearings, fairly simple.

 

Any questions ask.

 

So other bits, im planning to tweak the spare sump that I have, this will be to give clearance around the tie rod that is currently hammered in and to raise part of the sump up that is going to give me grief when the car is lowered.

 

Still need to paint the inlet manifold but I haven’t got time unfortunately.

 

New update sometime next week maybe

 

lawrence

Edited by lawrence, 09 March 2017 - 10:16 AM.

[lawrence]

Painty painty


Ooh shiny.


I'll make a gasket tommorow for it tommorow as I am tight and use gasket paper, no way will I spend £9 on gaskets!
Then I can properly fit the throttle body's!

Also
Cruise control!


How it woks when it's all free
http://rs1111.pbsrc....&h=160&fit=clip
And when electronically locked/unlocked
http://rs1111.pbsrc....&h=160&fit=clip

The cruise cruise control is very rudimentary, it's a electro magnetic lock essentially. It needs a live current to lock the throttle or it will be free. Plan is to use the brake switch to deactivate it and probably a latching relay. Then should the brake switch fail it will prevent the cruise control from being applied. It will not be adaptive, just a simple throttle holder.

That's it guys, I'm busy with dissertation atm so sneaking little bits of mini in as a treat for words written!

[thelegg]

Cruise control such luxury!

[benm]

i got cruise control in my mini, its my right foot 

[lawrence]

It should be fun when it works, I doubt I'll use it much but it's nice to say mini old mini has cruise control haha.

Tiny update,
I should be doing dissertation however snuck out to the garage for a bit today.
I have given up finding the specific connector for the tps, spent a good few hours trying to find one and avoid buying an entire loom!

Soldered some wires and heat shrank them.

And heat shrank over the top to make everything waterresistant


Also working out my coil mounting bracket


Trying to make it simple, almost welded bars to the frame until I realised that would make getting the engine out very difficult!

That's all for now, may finish off the coil parts when I find a gap between uni work!
Lawrence

[lawrence]

Bit more sneaking to the garage this morning. 

Bracket now made to mount the coils too, its very simple however will work a treat. I will add a photo of it fitted tomorrow so it makes sense where it goes.

 

Funds are tight. I've soldered the injectors to the loom for the time being, nothing I can't go back on later however will allow me to get the car running. It does look nice and tidy however. 

 

Also cleaned up the wiper motor for painting but forgot to take a photo unfortunately. 

 

Currently on the lookout for a injection fuel pump for a very cheap price. I want an external inline tank pump however am reluctant to buy a cheap one from eBay and would rather buy a second hand good quality one. I also need to look at the fuel pressure regulator part of the fuel system as I am not sure if my throttle bodies are a non return system or not. Plus not sure if I should go for AN fittings or not ?

 

Keep and eye out for updates, only small ones currently tho.

Lawrence

[lawrence]

Right, I got paid a little money which is nice :) 
 
so I've bought
>Injection fuel pump 
>Fuel pump bracket
>Fuel filter (30micron and washable)
>5m of 8mm fuel hose 
 
I've also had a think about the rest of the fuel system. Plan is to weld the Micra parts to the Honda fuel rail using the micra fuel pressure regulator. That means I can cut costs and not buy a stand alone fuel pressure regulator. I also took a while to look into the standard fuel pump from the cbr600rr engine, it comes with an integral FPR however ill have to somehow include it into the tank which really isn't designed for an internal tank pump. 
 
So now I've got an external fuel pump and ill run the lines under the car with the P clips that Ive had for ages. Plan is to use the standard mini lines as the return as they are already there. Ohh maybe the new pipe will run along where the old starter motor cable? hmm, brainstorming here. 
 
Anyhow thats all for now. Oh and the new pump etc are shiny! woo! updates when they arrive.
 
Lawrence 

Edited by lawrence, 28 March 2017 - 02:21 PM.

[lawrence]

I have been doing a few bits when I can squeeze time in,

 

Sunday morning few hours

 

Fuel tank removed, as you can see I have a water leak in the boot a little

So cleaned it all up, wire brushed the surface rust and gave a coat of rustoleum

 

Nice and tidy to receive the tank back in, new seals on my shopping list for minispares. I may also make some new rubber seals for the lights as not sure where the water is getting in, likely the boot seal however.

 

So Fuel system :0

the top pipe is micra, the lower honda. The Fuel pressure regulator is micra and I need to graft that to the honda!

 

So drill a hole progressively bigger

 

And would you look at that, the FPR stub I cut off fits like a glove!

 

but, in the engine bay it pokes out and looks untidy in my tidy engine bay, therefore a 90deg bend is needed (bit of waterpipe) in addition to this the regulator is on the fuel outlet part so needs to point roughly down towards my fuel return line

 

how I left it the other day

 

The top pipe is the fuel inlet bit on the micra, im not sure where my fuel pipework is running yet so nothing is finalised yet.

 

And now on to todays work (28^th)

I got up early today. Was out in the garage by 8am as I wanted to have after 12 doing uni work

 

So what’s been going on?

FPR fully welded on now and ground back. I need to pressure test the welding but in all honesty I wont be able to until the system is made up, fingers crossed the micra FPR works (I have a spare also which is handy)

 

Bracket made for the coil pack finished, had to cut it about a little but its sorted now

Painted

covered in heatshrink

 

and fitted with the coil pack attached.

 

ive covered it in heatshrink because if not its going to be metal on metal the way ive made the mount and where it goes, I don’t want it reverberating or rubbing the paint off.

 

Where the ht leads are routed through

even made a nice little clip to hold them in pairs.  You can also see the second support bracket for the accelerator cable fitted there too.

 

Stripped the bulkhead wiring and taken the edis unit off, its moving inside the bulkhead this time.

 

look how tidy the bulkhead is now

 

refitted the wiper motor also

also fitted the dsn plate I got for my birthday

 

meanwhile the fuel pump arrived

need to order some smaller outlets for it

 

So that’s the engine stuff pretty much done. Obviously I need to wire everthing up and buy some more plumbing parts for the cooling system but the majority of the thinking is completed. Need to look into how im going to mount the airfilters also.

 

I fancied a little painting today as the sun was out

had to weld up the inner rings where I had cut them to fit the golf lights.

 

Garden sculpture

 

Refitted

 

So next update will be tomorrow afternoon, its going to be lots of little bits and pieces like welding a captive bolt for the expansion tank and making a shopping list of the small bits to buy. I also may adjust the clutch cable again and potentially remake the bracket so it clears the expansion tank. Preferably I would have it arch over the expansion tank however I am contemplating making a bracket that just stops in from rubbing.

 

Watch this space people! And feel free to comment

Hmm red rocker cover again?

Lawrence 

[thelegg]

Fine work so far :) yeah definitely paint the rocker cover as it's letting the car down lol

[lawrence]

Thankyou for the comment. I’m trying to do her better justice such as proper fabricated rad mounts not a bit of bar like before. Hopefully a better quality less rushed install will give better results at the end regarding reliability!

 

Regarding the rocker cover, plan is to paint it the wrinkle paint red again, I may smooth it off like before but will leave the PCV valve on this time!

 

So today, little bits and pieces and then looking at the alternator mount.

 

Welded on a nut for the expansion tank and painted the area

 

Trimmed back the inner wing cleaner and fitted seals round the edge where the rad goes

 

re welded on the rad captive nut

 

swapped all the exhaust nuts for the stainless cap head nuts, also made some decisions about the alternator

 

As you can see it’s a horrible mess currently

 

marked out some steel

 

cut off and rounded edges

 

drilling the mounting holes

 

Its hard to explain my plan for the mounts verbally so I will just make it up, basically im keeping the alternator in exactly the same position as it works well where it is. However its going to be hanging on a bolt that is attached to a flat plate that goes across the current timing chain cover, hopefully that will prevent oil leaks…. Watch this space

 

Oh and the fuel filter arrived. This will be the secondary one in the engine bay, the primary one is going to be a disposable cheaper type. Likely to be the micra one I took off the other day.

 

 

That’s all for now. Maybe some work tomorrow, not sure yet

Lawrence