757 replies to this topic

[lawrence]

Thanks Bat, she's nearly a rolling project now haha!

Mot is passed
20180731_153930 by Lawrence Balls, on Flickr

Taxing her tommorow.
He's a video of her on the road
20180730_135251_1 by Lawrence Balls, on Flickr

Note the whining? It's the fuel pump.

Think I've shagged it. Not only should it be ran as a push pump not a lift one but it should also be ran with the filter post pump not pre pump! Plus I ran the tank almost dry the other day!

Well I did buy a cheap pump last year knowing it would be highly likely to break by my hand. Least it wasn't £150!

So I've purchased another cheap Bosch 044 style one today for £15 and some more hose and some spare fuel filters.

The other reason I think the fuel pump is shagged is that she won't happily go over 50without leaning out. Anything more than 1/3 throttle makes her lean and the acceleration enrichment was set to standard settings yesterday. Today I tweaked it to a constant, under medium acceleration she is surging. afr goes to 12 from 14 to then spike up to 20 (lean)

So new pump and some replumbing is planned. I'll hang the pump from the subframe so it'll be gravity fed better and run the filter post pump as recommended

All for now!
Lawrence

[panky]

My eyeballs are still bouncing

Well done, it's been quite a ride

[MattMiniS96]

Well done mate! Long road and you're there. These minis are never quite finished though haha

[lawrence]

Cheers for the comments guys!

 

She is still working. Together I have driven about 25 nerve-wracking miles in her, some with a support car! She gets some weird looks! Especially the lady in the range rover who I pulled up next to in the garage! Though she was having a panic attack when mini backfired!

 

So she has been taxed from the first of august!

 

However we finally got the keys for our new house on the 3rd! Meaning she has taken a back seat (not my choice but lets not anger the partner quite yet!)  

 

Off topic, new garage is pretty small but has rafters, there will be a garage build integrated to this blog  with a roof mounted engine hoist sometime in the future! 

 

So fueling,

Yep I had buggered it

 

Removed from where it was

20180801_161843 by Lawrence Balls, on Flickr

 

holes made in the boot

20180801_161847 by Lawrence Balls, on Flickr

 

new location under the boot floor. 

20180801_161918 by Lawrence Balls, on Flickr

there is good clearance from the exhaust by the way, just hard to photograph

 

original hole that the hose went sealed up

20180801_161931 by Lawrence Balls, on Flickr

 

boot packed with emergency kit

20180802_172625 by Lawrence Balls, on Flickr

 

started work on the roof mirror and light mount

20180802_194040 by Lawrence Balls, on Flickr

20180802_195320 by Lawrence Balls, on Flickr

20180802_202555 by Lawrence Balls, on Flickr

20180802_203354 by Lawrence Balls, on Flickr

20180802_205508 by Lawrence Balls, on Flickr

20180802_205510 by Lawrence Balls, on Flickr

 

and in situ with the new ceiling light mount

20180802_210426 by Lawrence Balls, on Flickr

still need to redo a bit of wiring as the ceiling light doesn’t come on with the door lights yet but its easy to do

 

So shes running very iffy.

 

When I changed the fuel pump and fuel filter was relocated to the bulkhead (and filter changed) she did run ok.

 

Idle and minimal throttle are completely fine.

 

Anything more than minimal and she is still leaning quite a lot. I think ive tuned up to maybe 30% of throttle opening currently, any more than that and she leans to 22.4 on my afrs! 

 

Cooling. Ironically she was fine coolent wise on the way to the mot and even sitting there with high revs for the emmisions didn’t overheat running on just water. But now ive changed the coolent she is overheating. 

 

I think the system has an air lock. Also the way ive plumbed the idle for the ITBs may be interrupting the flow of coolent? Not sure. So this morning im planning to try and bleed the system again. If this doesn’t work ill temporarily clamp the ITB coolent line and see if its turbulent flow in the rad causing issues which I suspect it may be!

 

That’s all for now

 

Heres a photo of us out 20180806_191956 by Lawrence Balls, on Flickr

 

Lawrence

[lawrence]

So people, 

 

Time for an update!

Last update I was doing some tests with the cooling system. The way the itbs were plumbed meant that with driving the coolant bypassed the thermostat before it was fully opened and made the engine start to overheat. 

 

So I clamped the line and did some runs. Solved the problem.

 

Then I moved mini to her new home (and my mattress!)

20180813_105543 by Lawrence Balls, on Flickr

 

Garage build

20180818_102237 by Lawrence Balls, on Flickr

she fits fine.

20180818_102713 by Lawrence Balls, on Flickr

 

All cleared out for some painting

20180818_120346 by Lawrence Balls, on Flickr

 

racking put up

20180818_172147 by Lawrence Balls, on Flickr

 

plenty of room

20180818_184628 by Lawrence Balls, on Flickr

 

not sure what to do with my bike yet tho. May park her outside and get a cover. Push bikes ill hoist up to the ceiling with some rope and eyes. I need to deck more of the rafters out. Planning to keep all my spare spares up there and the used spares down in my roller cab.

 

Keep an eye out for more garage updates!

 

Making my mods to the cooling system

Before

20180820_103130 by Lawrence Balls, on Flickr

20180820_103143 by Lawrence Balls, on Flickr

 

blanked the ITB coolant feed off

20180820_144331 by Lawrence Balls, on Flickr

 

rejigged the radiator fan

20180820_182041 by Lawrence Balls, on Flickr

20180820_182046 by Lawrence Balls, on Flickr

luckily I could spin that top protector bar and use one of the rad mounts to mount the fan on the back. Its not a pull fan as apparently that’s the most efficient way of removing heat for a front mount rad. 

 

Ive also lowered the rad and straightened it up.

 

Plan tomorrow is run it up to temperature and bleed the system, hopefully she will get rid of the heat better. 

 

Today I took her for a 30mile run back to my parents for more garage stuff

15 country roads

15 main roads

 

on the country roads at 40-45 ish she sat happily at 88degrees. Boot it and the temp would rise.

 

But on the way home on the main roads at 45-55 she gradually crept up.

 

Ive also got this gap

20180820_182052 by Lawrence Balls, on Flickr

So ordered a 7inch fan for that space. 

 

Ill update again soon! Thinking about making some aluminium ducting to control air flow in the engine bay but not sure if it is worth while?

 

Lawrence

[lawrence]

Time for a little update.

Shes running pretty well currently. Since i swopped the fan to the other side and adjusted the radiator she is holding a steady 88degrees even when booting it. In traffic she does start to get warm so i will fit that second fan when it arrives but its looking good. Ive also ordered some heat shielding and i will make a better sheild between the exhaust and the rad as well as some ducting to direct air.

Currently im just driving her about town, being a bit yobby with the exhaust in car parks and tuning the acceleration enrichment more. Also doing more of the garage build. Currently decking the loft part but im collecting more parts this week and potentially my bike also.

All for now
Lawrence

[panky]

Great to see the car being used at last

Another fan may cause some flow problems as it will cover some of the radiator and you may find the fans are coming on more often. On my camper I've ditched the mechanical fan and fitted a lekky one but the temp would creep up until the fan cut in. I fitted a small bike rad (KTM 125) in the heater return and now the temp sits happily a few degrees below where the fan cuts in which now only operates in traffic or after a hard run

[lawrence]

Cheer for the comment!

Trouble with just the one fan is that it would cool her if needed but not very fast. Now ive modified her she runs at 84degreess on my post rad sensor. Not sure on the block one as megasquirt wont read it.

 

Decking out the garage roof

IMG-20180825-WA0007 by Lawrence Balls, on Flickr

20180828_114039 by Lawrence Balls, on Flickr

20180828_114120 by Lawrence Balls, on Flickr

20180828_114116 by Lawrence Balls, on Flickr

plenty of space for spares up there!

 

Second rad fan fitted

20180828_173739 by Lawrence Balls, on Flickr

 

high quality braket made

20180828_173727 by Lawrence Balls, on Flickr

 

rad spaced out a lot more now. 

20180828_173722 by Lawrence Balls, on Flickr

 

when I bring my welder over ill make myself a new bracket to support the whole of the bottom of the rad

 

how the garage is now

20180829_181117 by Lawrence Balls, on Flickr

 

plan is to build a great big workbench across the back of the garage using old kitchen worktop that I have. Ive got a nice big vice to fit to it too. Im going to make the bench really sturdy and wall secure it etc. 

 

ive also managed to get my bike in the back garden too. Be interesting to see with the gf says!

 

And a little shot of her in the multistory

20180826_110349 by Lawrence Balls, on Flickr

 

list of broken bits

>edis is intermittently working

>right indicator is too fast

 

all for now

Lawrence

 

[lawrence]

So from before the issues were

>edis not working

>right front indicator not working

 

I took the megasquirt apart and discovered ive no idea what I did to it before, mini was therefore running a fixed level of timing at 10degs

 

So dismantled and correctly wired up

20180903_174832 by Lawrence Balls, on Flickr

20180903_174848 by Lawrence Balls, on Flickr

 

daughter board removed

20180903_175217 by Lawrence Balls, on Flickr

 

ive left the spare drivers on the board as im planning to go to COP in the future and rid myself of EDIS as its just one more thing to go wrong. I also want to upgrade from MS1V3 to either MS2 or MS3 depending on finances. 

 

Meelie had a look inside too

20180904_161747 by Lawrence Balls, on Flickr

 

and the girlfriend took her for a drive to the local tesco too

20180905_193133 by Lawrence Balls, on Flickr

with a look of panic saying “these brakes are rubbish”

 

Also fabricated some restrictors for the ITBs too

20180911_142110 by Lawrence Balls, on Flickr

20180911_142746 by Lawrence Balls, on Flickr

 

I also did a bit of wiring in the garage ready for my workbench to be fabricated

20180830_212528 by Lawrence Balls, on Flickr

 

all for now

Lawrence

[lawrence]

Good afternoon people. 

 

No real updates im afraid on the mini front! As readers of my build will know ive moved house and that means I cant use my parents cars anymore should mini not work.

 

Mini doesn’t work. So ive had to buy a different car. 

 

Bench finally sorted

20180928_171901 by Lawrence Balls, on Flickr

 

new oil leaks

20180925_164847 by Lawrence Balls, on Flickr

 

new battery for mini

20180925_152613 by Lawrence Balls, on Flickr

 

driveshaft gaitor failed

20180925_164902 by Lawrence Balls, on Flickr

 

But

 

Engine rings have not sealed properly and/or my honing was bad and/or trying to tune a newly built engine on ITBs was a bad idea and/or my megasquirt just cant cope with ITBs (ms1)

 

So- I need either

New engine and new megasquirt

Or

New engine and fusion fabs mani and run current megasquirt

Or

Donor car with ecu and fusion fabs mani

 

Either way mini doesn’t work and hasn’t for over a month. Now I have been motorbiking to work which as people will know isn’t practical in the winter. 

 

So ive got a winter run around/ project car ;) bike is going to live at my parents over winter.

 

Mini is currently paused – im looking out for 1.3 engines/ whole car locally. 

 

New ride

received_298301927688293 by Lawrence Balls, on Flickr

 

e46 330ci with all the mod cons! See any other projects for this project and ill update mini when I get the engine 

 

all for now

 

Lawrence

 

[thelegg]

Love the new car :) always wanted a BMW! It's the winter the mini should be hibernating anyway ;)

[lawrence]

Well hello again people.

Its been almost 2 years since I uploaded on here, overall was because I got fed up with trying to find places to host photos that didnt cost the earth and all of my old photos had been deleted.

I was happy to see the other day when I came on here that they were back which is nice. 

 

So let me fill you in on the story since then!

Oct 2018 - e46 330ci bought (the one in the previous post)

She was a great little car, in retrospect should have kept her as she had every option box ticked but had 180K on her and under the sills was rotten. 

 

Kept her till Feb 2019 - By then I was enjoying the BMW RWD life having skidded her about over winter. But I wanted more power but to keep to mod cons like heated seats and cruise ctrl all that jazz.

 

So I replaced her with the e92 in which one of my biggest wallet costs ever started! (During this time mini was waiting snug and cosy in the garage)

 

The e92 is a 335i N54 with a DCT gearbox in alpine white. It had a genuine 82k with full dealer service Hx down to the wiperblades! i got it for a good deal as its cat N with minor OSF damage. Due to its age its a mule with LCI and Pre LCI parts but since my owernership ive only seen 3 other cars for sale in the UK so its pretty rare!

 

300Bhp standard isnt enough so its been tuned up to around 400. As its an n54 its had hours of my time fixing oil leaks and boost issues and cooling problms. Weve done track days and all sorts but as of now everything works!

 

During all this time the mini looked on in hope it would be her turn again!

 

 

Now to mini- as you can see she is alive!

 

She hibernated from Oct 2018 to July 2019 

July - Sourced a 1348cc engine locally (Old engine had HG leak)

 

Some wiring was repaired, Cooling system tweaked and engine mount improved

 

Motd Oct 2019

On the road till Feb 2019

Taken back off just before lockdown -Fully rewired her from ignition upwards to low amp- system from Car builder solutions- took me a few months. (6!)

 

And now shes back on the road again now (ish)

New MOT 6th oct

 

Shes got new dash rails in lovely suede- a new carbon dash is being made for me currently - New seats again in suede are in the pipeline along with carpets etc. shes been decked with soundproofing and a new peashooter exhaust.

 

Overall drives nicely currently :)

 

Plans are

>Seats

>Headlining

>New semi slicks (she isnt a daily anymore and the current tyres are getting old)

>Wheel alignment

 

Thats all folks

lawrence

 

 

 

Edited by lawrence, 29 October 2020 - 08:56 AM.

[thelegg]

Welcome back :)

[lawrence]

Update coming soon. She is still alive! Need to sort photo hosting first 

[riktanius]

Keep them coming!