749 replies to this topic

[panky]

Excellent, sounds very nice too

[lawrence]

Thankyou, she is very vocal curently, silencing not what i hoped it to be!

 

Right guys, time for an update from Sunday.

 

So it was a day of ups and downs. Was getting pretty grumpy towards the end of the day as stuff went wrong

 

Start off good

 

So firstly I moved her to the garage so ive got some hard standing which is useful especially when its raining or windy as it’s a little more sheltered

20180107_160449 by Lawrence Balls, on Flickr

 

Then started to go wrong. I was really struggling with the TPS. For some reason I just couldn’t get it to work. In the end I took the one off my motorbike. It should be the same although I know it’s the wrong direction

20180107_101224 by Lawrence Balls, on Flickr

 

That then allowed me to discover that the TPS on my ITBs is broken. I thought hey ill take it apart, maybe its repairable. Its not.

20180107_102805 by Lawrence Balls, on Flickr

 

somewhere along the way the ITBs have been broken and the TPS has taken a knock. The ceramic was broken meaning the traces were too. It was never going to work.

 

So then I spent a good 3 hours or so making this tps work (the one from the carbs)

20180107_110358 by Lawrence Balls, on Flickr

20180107_112630 by Lawrence Balls, on Flickr

20180107_115850 by Lawrence Balls, on Flickr

20180107_115854 by Lawrence Balls, on Flickr

 

Well what a waste of time that was. I can’t create a bracket that’s strong enough and would need to make an adaptor inside it also and then it would look rubbish in the middle of the engine bay. Stuff you TPS- plus I was very cold by then and easily annoyed.

 

So what have I done.>

Bought another ITB setup that’s fully complete for £40 as to buy a single TPS is about the same. And also bought a wiring plug for it too as opposed to soldering the connections onto it as before.

 And what else is bad

>never did the air test with the wideband or plugged it in and ive been running the engine up to temp and everything, may have buggered the o2 sensor. Will find out on my next day off. – could cost me

 

So after that I did stuff I knew would work

Bit of soldering and some glueing 20180107_165921 by Lawrence Balls, on Flickr

 

Ta da

20180107_174507 by Lawrence Balls, on Flickr

 

headlights bright too

20180107_175016 by Lawrence Balls, on Flickr

 

but as you can see. Numberplate led has gone. Urh

 

So to summarise yesterday

>TPS broken - £45 down for a new one and connector

            >wasted about 3 hrs faffing

>Numberplate light – new one needed

>O2 sensor may be broken - ? another £50, such fun

 

But positives

>New ITBs will supply me with loads of spares!

>new numberplate light comes in pairs. Hey another spare!

>brakes work on car. Spongy but work!

>drivers seat fitted – can make brum brum noises and move car back and forth

>purchased tuner studios autotune software so should make my tune better!

 

That’s all folks

Lawrence

[lawrence]

Right people, a little update from a few evenings/afternoons.

 

ITBs arrived on Tuesday, checked them over and they look ok, my assistant checked also, she said they were mrow mrowok so that’s good

20180109_222832 by Lawrence Balls, on Flickr

stripped to components and stored spares for the future.

 

Then my connector arrived so tested my new crimping dies, well awesome and no solder needed.

20180110_164254 by Lawrence Balls, on Flickr

 

Nice and waterproofed

20180110_165326 by Lawrence Balls, on Flickr

 

So I also needed to refit the waxstat for the ITBs, I took it off because I thought I would get a good idle with megasquirt but I cant. Obviously. I'm an idiot. So need to plumb the waxstat in.

20180110_180404 by Lawrence Balls, on Flickr

 

but there's no plumbing L or is there???? J

20180110_180348 by Lawrence Balls, on Flickr

There's normally an output here for the throttle warming circuit. Its blanked with a sensor now. I have a spare one to fit. So that’s my output from the cylinder head.

 

Inlet is blocked with weld isn’t it (by me of course)

20180110_180321 by Lawrence Balls, on Flickr

 

But wait. Before I have to faff about with drills and flushing coolant etc etc there's another way

20180110_190213 by Lawrence Balls, on Flickr

that’s the inlet on the radiator, now it is currently blocked off with a threaded bolt and some sealant.

 

So, the plan is to fit an output from the cylinder head that isn’t welded up (found it already) and plumb in the inlet to the radiator. It would mean that hot coolant would be flowing from the engine – through the waxstat – to the rad to be then cooled opposed to hot coolent bypassing the rad, which seems to make more sense!

 

Only issues I can see may be bleeding the system as the top will then be the wax stat. Not the end of the world for a better idle.

 

I've also ordered some more hose and adaptors as I don’t have the parts and although I can make some brass 8mm to 5mm adaptors on a brass bar mounted in a drill it's not worth my time to at the moment. Maybe another time

 

That’s all for now, I'm doing a bit of wiring tomorrow evening after work but I won't update as its only bits and pieces.

Lawrence

[l_jonez]

It's been a while since I caught up with you build, congrats on the start up. You will be able to get a good idle with megasquirt, it's just a bit of a pain to get the cold start dialled in, I do believe tunner studio now has a cold start auto tune? It's been a few years since I played with my ITB's.

Oh and the cat scan is a reassurance

[thelegg]

Surprised your assistant didn't say the ITB's looked purrfect ;) those crimps look good to

[lawrence]

Cheers for the comments guys

 

I do agree with you there Lawson about the cold start. I think im getting there gradually with it although it is frustrating at times when the engine catches but then dies repeatedly.

 

There is a warmup auto tune but cold start is down to me to get right

 

At the moment starting wise the engine catches, if I put a puff of easy start down the ITBs the engine jumps to life so I think it’s a little lean still cranking. Ill get there.

 

So ive had a day off today and its been a mini day.

 

In no particular order

>New washer pump fitted, can now use wiper washer for MOT

>Near rear numberplate lights fitted – One broke, have mailed seller for another one

20180113_110729 by Lawrence Balls, on Flickr

>Misc wiring inside sorted.

>New phone mount made and carbon panel trimmed. Buttons will go on the bottom left and right. Left will be horn, right will be sport button (to elaborate on later)

IMG-20180113-WA0003 by Lawrence Balls, on Flickr

 

>TPS wiring checked and uploaded the values to the squirt – will complete soldering connections tomorrow

 

Main update,

Autotune fully used.

 

Ive started the engine up with autotune – its leaned off loads of boxes by about 30% - I re formatted the O2 sensor just to be safe too and its made it run loads better. Only been able to rev it up to 2.5k aprox due to time of day (1900pm) and it needs so runs up and down the road.

 

Nice and responsive when you blip the throttle but it still wants to die (revs drop to 600) when you come off it so it needs to tune those areas more

 

Best money ive spent recently!

Ill put a video up soon also

 

As normal something bad has to happen

 

>Somehow the dihastu charade alternator isn’t charging the engine, im not sure if something has gone in the wiring or something else but I may need a new alternator. Not the end of the world.

 

All for now. More tomorrow night. Got a whole day with her tomorrow not a half day like today! Early start for me!

Lawrence

[lawrence]

So little update from the last few days, there will be more coming up in the next few days or so. Im spending time with the GF tomorrow but Wednesday is a garage day again so means more road testing hopefully.

 

So I have finished off the interior wiring now bar a few things that have yet to arrive. For the time being the wiring is hidden behind the dash so that car looks complete at least.

In all her glory

IMG-20180114-WA0001 by Lawrence Balls, on Flickr

Looking rough as a badger’s arse poor thing. But complete enough to drive

 

More on that shortly

 

Onto the steering wheel mods

20180114_182207 by Lawrence Balls, on Flickr

 

And though the cunning use of heatshrink, a project box, some tubing and grommets ive made something half decent looking

20180114_192623 by Lawrence Balls, on Flickr

 

tidy from the front

20180114_192617 by Lawrence Balls, on Flickr

 

So to thanks for this great idea is Barry from the Nissan mini owners club on Facebook. There are RF transmitters hidden in the project box linked to each switch. Now with a bit of nifty wiring consisting of a step-up circuit, another RF receiver, a rechargeable 9v lithium battery with inbuilt circuit and perhaps a bigger project box I should be able to have those switches lighting up when I turn the side lights on. Wirelessly. With a 200m range. That will be awesome J. I am a sad sad man!

 

And lastly I turned her round

20180114_132952 by Lawrence Balls, on Flickr

 

because I had taken her for a spin

20180114_133049_1 by Lawrence Balls, on Flickr

 

Negatives

>Suspension is low, front tyres are touching the arches when I turn the wheel and im going to have to go down my drive diagonally from now on

>No power on acceleration – need to drive and tune her.

 

Positives

>It moves

            >Clutch – works

            >Exhaust – exhausting (think its leaking a little)

            >Brakes – brakes work (well mini didn’t roll down the drive into the neighbours rockery, bit spongy but meh they had a leak didn’t they. Ill bleed them again)

            >Nothing fell off – happy with that point

            >Suspension is a little bouncy but less crashy compared when she was last on the road

 

that’s all for now. More soon. Oh and ive bought a digi dash – should come soon. Its not the new digi dash 2 is the original but has the same functions just is more rectangular.

 

Lawrence

[lawrence]

Right people,

 

New update.

 

So I said before the exhaust is leaking a little, well I drove her again the other day, its leaking alot!

20180119_110734 by Lawrence Balls, on Flickr

 

nice bit of smoke there

 

hmm, cheeky crack

20180119_110829 by Lawrence Balls, on Flickr

 

cleaned and rewelded

20180119_115459 by Lawrence Balls, on Flickr

 

I can only assume that when I did it up they broke, don’t remember it but meh

 

Also im a little worried about the exhaust seal before the lambda so cleared out the sealent and popped a few tacks on to support the join.

20180119_120728 by Lawrence Balls, on Flickr

 

Sealed up after

20180119_121437 by Lawrence Balls, on Flickr

 

Also got my Bluetooth system to talk to my mobile phone which is pretty cool

Untitled by Lawrence Balls, on Flickr

 

started on my new dash

20180120_131232 by Lawrence Balls, on Flickr

 

20180120_133229 by Lawrence Balls, on Flickr

 

20180120_143428 by Lawrence Balls, on Flickr

 

20180120_145629 by Lawrence Balls, on Flickr

20180120_150954 by Lawrence Balls, on Flickr

 

20180120_154417 by Lawrence Balls, on Flickr

 

20180120_161749 by Lawrence Balls, on Flickr

 

20180120_172450 by Lawrence Balls, on Flickr

 

fitted

20180120_175053 by Lawrence Balls, on Flickr

 

wiring sorted now too. Just the digidash bits left

20180120_122147 by Lawrence Balls, on Flickr

 

new roof light. its remote control!

IMG-20180120-WA0013 by Lawrence Balls, on Flickr

 

Removable wheel

IMG-20180120-WA0000 by Lawrence Balls, on Flickr

 

That’s all for now. More road tuning.

 

To do

>road tunes

>brake bleed

>suspension putting up

 

Lawrence

[miniaddict92]

love the update dash turned out really nice

[lawrence]

Thanks, it looks really good in the daylight too!

 

So since my last update I have rebled the brakes and this morning I have put the suspension up, it drives a bit better now too.

20180123_114855 by Lawrence Balls, on Flickr

 

Rewelding the exhaust has also made her run loads better, she idles better and pulls more consistently, only been up to gear three but then again I'm only driving her around a small area.

 

To do list

>Few bits of wiring, indicators are a bit fast still, need to fit a resistor

>Check the alternator, need to get it working

 

Hopefully booking the mot in the next few weeks

Lawrence

[lawrence]

So one bit from today but it took me a while.

 

I forgot to add in the last post I was getting a clunking sound when driving on harsh acceleration and a lot of vibration on the steering that felt like it was coming from the NS driveshaft area. But only on if I put my foot flat on the floor

 

This morning with assistance from my dad who was rocking the engine violently although it was under harsh acceleration I checked my clearances, at max force from him, the driveshaft gaiter protector that I made was catching ever so slightly on the subframe.

 

I decided to modify the rear engine steady to something more rigid.

 

Micra mount as was next to spare landy mount

20180125_123545 by Lawrence Balls, on Flickr

 

mount hollowed out

20180125_124557 by Lawrence Balls, on Flickr

 

landy mount trimmed just enough, had to use a grinder for the steel and a jigsaw for the rubber. Then finally I could press it in gradually using the vice

20180125_133108 by Lawrence Balls, on Flickr

 

Then I welded some tangs on the side and waterproofed it with some sealant after a bit of paint on the bare steel

20180125_142701 by Lawrence Balls, on Flickr

 

So the mount is back in the car and everything is back together, did the rock test and the engine is so much more solid, clearance upped a little giving 8mm so I'm happy. I also got my dad to do some throttle tests on the drive while I listened out, no noise. hopefully it's fixed. The next road test will confirm or deny

 

Then dad stalled her and the battery didn't have enough charge to start the engine

 

to do

>get that bloody alternator working!

[McMini 22]

I'd keep an eye on it. These landy mounts are supposed to work in compression.
Using it the way you have you are relying on the bond between the rubber and the plate with the the threaded stud.

[thelegg]

I had the same problem using the nissan mount at the back in the end so swapped it out for a polyurethane bush from a honda s2000 it firmed everything up lovely :)

[lawrence]

Cheers for the comments guys, I'm aware the mounts are for compression but basically, for mine at the back of the engine the mount is only acting as a steady. If I do have any issues with it all honestly all probably buy an allspeed frame as that comes with the mounts and won't have the driveshaft clearance issues I've had in the past!

 

So today ive only done a little. Im now saying for a house so getting rid off my excess mini parts so that took a while. Sorted my coil bracket out tho

20180127_115250 by Lawrence Balls, on Flickr

20180127_123018 by Lawrence Balls, on Flickr

20180127_124212 by Lawrence Balls, on Flickr

20180127_133422 by Lawrence Balls, on Flickr

Its now fitted but i didnt get a pic, 

 

then i extended the wiring to the coil and took her for another spin round the block to test the new engine mount

20180127_145151 by Lawrence Balls, on Flickr

 

And that photo was taken when she had her first breakdown! 

 

Megasquirt main relay went open circuit between the low side of the relay and popped a run of fuses, horrible smell of burning from one little relay but took me 20mins to identify the problem. Didn't help I had put a 10amp fuse at the start of the circuit and a 15 between the 10 and the relay meaning the 10amp one behind the bloody dash had to be changed!

 

fixed now and some new relays ordered. 

 

Job added to list

>load test all circuits and buy applicable fuses. May buy some self-resetting ones for the fuse box behind the dash.

 

Lawrence

[lawrence]

Right time for a little update,

Due to wanting to buy a house in the near future I have limited myself to what I can spend on mini by what I can sell from my accumulated parts. So I have sold loads of my random bits off and raised some funds. Sold about £150 I recon, maybe a little more.

And what I have bought
>Front splitter (with permission from Chris1992 to copy his style partly)
>Front tow eye (girlfriends recommendation for styling)
>Halfords vortex sock set
>Alternator regulator

Wiring is now mostly finished. I need to make a bracket for my speedo for the digidash and also link the digidash to megasquirt for the revs so that is my plan for tomorrow

New numberplate lights finally fitted
20180206_170442 by Lawrence Balls, on Flickr