1065 replies to this topic

[Matt]

Dooooo it!!

you know you want to!!

ive read this from start to finish.. and its nice to see some of the potential problems we're going to hit too!!

[benb12]

Will it be going to SMD? I would love to see this in the flesh!

[Kam]

Will it be going to SMD? I would love to see this in the flesh!

Hey Ben, was good to meet you the other day I can't make SMD now, somethings come up

I've also booked it in for the rollers but the earliest they can do is ONE week before our 'ring trip which means everything has to go right on the day no room for error.........and no time to test it on a track over here........great!

Depending on the outcome worst case scenaRIO I'll still take it but can't boot it round, so it will just be a normal holiday, sounds good either way

Edited by Kam, 24 July 2010 - 12:09 AM.

[Kam]

Right, well basically I have spent a good few hours in the car today on the road as this is really the first time since it passed its MOT that I've had a chance to drive it, I need to know where all the squeaks and rattles are?????I decided to try and cook the engine today aswell......to check my cooling system was working! I managed to find a nice traffic jam on the M25 (not exactly difficult eh?) during rush hour so stuck it in that! and it was fine fan kicks in about 3/4 up the standard mini gauge

Also I needed to test out my standard mini speedo after I somehow managed to weld the cable to the speed gear housing on the honda gearbox and made it work I took my sat nav aswell and headed to a local private airfield where I know the owner and he let me stretch me legs

When the sat nav shows 20 mph the speedo shows 22ish, when the sat nav shows 40mph my speedo shows 45ish but when the sat nav shows 90 mph my speedo shows 90 on the nose???? Hmm its sort of there then??? I need to check again where the revs sit at 70 mph in fifth???

My gearstick mod is, well, quite something! its a mahoooooosive throw for the gears, does take some getting used to, and I still need to try second with a passenger in as I think I'll still be touching there leg.....

All in all it drives pretty mad but it is a challenge, I'm only going upto 5k aswell as the rolling road guys capped it there, so I really cant wait for the guys to finish off the map and unleash the VTEC! Its a bloody handful though even without vtec so to use as a daily driver I'd say no point, you really dont need all the power, I can see why people chuck in the D series engines though, plentiful for a daily runner My final drive is definately a whiner! Its more so on deceleration but does have an "a-series" character to the sound so unless your a mini nut you aint gonna be suspicious of anything.....steel wheels rock!

Did a quick vid aswell, don't get too excited though its only around 40 secs long, trying out a new camera more than anything



The above was mounted in the grill and was sort of pointing up for some reason......tomorrow I'll get another vid done and as I've got access to a local exhaust testing tunnel it should hopefully be better

Also my back, legs, arms and every other part of my body is aching after today, god I love being back in a mini!!!

[GreaseMonkey]

Sounds good Kam

[george91]

Nice well done getting it on the road, its looking great i like the sleeper look with the steelies on, it should suprise a few people. Also a new video will be good, can't wait to hear it with the new map and all those revs! not sure you'll be able to keep it on the road though with 4.5" wide wheels lol.

Edited by george91, 31 July 2010 - 12:00 AM.

[The Matt]

I don't think I'll be booting mine too much at the ring either Kam. It'll be more a case of fault-finding on the trip and the holiday experience.

Glad you got chance for a good drive out. My "road test" is due later today on the way to the MOT station.

One thing I'm glad I've got is my Pacet adjustable fan controller. They're ideal for getting the fan to kick in exactly when you want it to.

Anyway, keep on testing. I also agree about the power thing! Mine is like a rocket off the line. It's all I need.....until phase two!

[Kam]

Sounds good Kam

i like the sleeper look with the steelies on, it should suprise a few people

Cheers guys, but like george said I do really need a new vid when the mappings been done, as for the steel wheels George, dont worry, they should hopefully hold out as I've got a surprise for them that should help them on the track seeing as they are only 4.5's will reveal later

I don't think I'll be booting mine too much at the ring either Kam. It'll be more a case of fault-finding on the trip and the holiday experience

Yeah I'm with you on that one, theres nothing wrong with pootling round the 'ring. I'm all for thrashing it round but I'm going more for the banter than the track itself And make sure you update your thread with the MOT/test drive results........

I've done around 300 miles so far and even managed to find the mother-of-all traffic jam on the M25 and threw it in that! Gauge went the highest so far at just over 3/4 and fan was on pretty much constant but it held Ok, I was bricking it a bit but it held! Also car is going into the bodyshop soon so I wont have it for a couple of weeks and should get it back a few days before mapping.......its gotta look good for its mapping!!!

[tom1234177]

A brilliant build diary, thanks for the detailed report, will help me when I come round to do my conversion.

Good luck with the rest of the car, and to its successful future.

[Kam]

Cheers tom1234177 Believe it or not but this far from how I wanted to update it! It was meant to be VERY detailed showing pretty much all the things that you don't think off or weren't sure about but needed to see a picture of?

Why? Because there are alot of build topics everyone updates with the same thing everytime unless they are adding something different which is fair enough but I dont think anyone has updated pics with some silly little things as they probably think we will already know how to tackle it and you can find it on a search?

I decided in the end not to go too mad as I originally planned incase I get a warning for waffling too much!

Quick update (quick?)

Car is in the bodyshop now so no mini for me for maybe a couple of weeks.....its been here with me since the build started and this is the first time its gone somewhere overnight to get something done that I can't do.......garage feels empty

Only have one issue with the car at the moment, HT lead pops off the coil pack if you hit a speedhump......starts misfiring, pull over, bonnet up, pop lead back on, away I go, gets a bit tedious after a while especially if you got one or two speedhumps where you live

I'm using honda crx magnecor leads which is fine block end but not on the coil end as I'm not using a honda distributor, with the DTA you use a ford mondeo DistributorlessIgnitionSystem so it needs the fittings with the clips to secure it in place.

Found some info over on 16v and called magnecor up, they said send them here and we will chop off the honda coil ends and add some ford (1st generation) ones, for about £20

Magnecor clicky link around page three

My ford coil pack



Will get that sorted asap, bought a couple of bits for it aswell but will wait untill its back from the bodyshop to reveal them

Took my first passenger out (my cousin) just before I had to drop it off at the bodyshop, he was very impressed, said the grip was good and that included a 2nd gear wheelspin he's got his own audi trackday car and does the 'ring in 8.40's so I took that as a compliment, he feels as its not gonna be a trackday car and just a sunday drive its got more than enough at the moment as its very quiet and civil around town which he didnt expect. He thinks when its mapped and fully unleashed its gonna be borderline silly with my wheels Told him I'm using the standard throttle pedal so its a bit sensitive and also I got a lightened flywheel, he weren't buying it! He has a point though, I don't know what I want from the car?

Also noticed when going into second its very close to the passengers leg still, on a track I will have to remind people......

Slowest two weeks of my life now.......

[The Matt]

Also noticed when going into second its very close to the passengers leg still, on a track I will have to remind people......

Just an excuse to touch my leg when I'm riding shotgun!

With the leads, Halfords do a set of kit ones that I used when I did my Megajolt conversion. You can buy the ends to suit the Ford EDIS coilpack for the leads from them. I think it's hotwires "kit X" from memory. But if Magnecor will do them for £20, it's worth getting them to sort it to be honest.

Carry on! 4 weeks!!!

[Prawn]

Kam, forgive me if I've missed something, but why are you running the steel wheels?

You had a set of nice 6x12's didn't you, why arn't you running them still?

[Kam]

You had a set of nice 6x12's didn't you, why arn't you running them still?

Hey Prawn

My 6x12's never looked right with my standard black plastic arches as the tread was showing too much even with 1.5 neg camber and I didn't want any other arch, I just wanted it looking nice and subtle and standard(ish). So I decided to ditch the alloys and stick with steels but only when I found out the steels fitted over my alloy 4 pots. Then I found out I can get a 165 tyre on the steel rather than the usual 145 so put my A539's on there to up the speed and load rating aswell. This is by far the only tyre I have tried on a mini and have confidence in.

It needs to look normal and understated and it does inside and out, unless a mini nut looks at it from the outside everyone else on the road wont know squat and wonder why a clubman has a 90's L plate on it? Someone quoted something like "Never underestimate a mini as this car might make you look silly?"

Its all about demoralising people out on the road who underestimate it

[minimad01]

It needs to look normal and understated and it does inside and out, unless a mini nut looks at it from the outside everyone else on the road wont know squat and wonder why a clubman has a 90's L plate on it? Someone quoted something like "Never underestimate a mini as this car might make you look silly?"

Its all about demoralising people out on the road who underestimate it
[/quote]
i like this little method of madness all these other minis with bigger engins have wide arches an wheels full roll cages an everything

[Kam]

Right, another little update

I decided to chuck my sub and amp back in the car but I wanted it so I can remove it as and when easily, so picked up a 'fast plug'. I'll put the sub in a few days time, not that important at the moment!



Yes yes, I know, I have vtec so why use a radio etc well I don't want to be driving around everywhere pedal to the metal, sometimes I want to chill besides, my car is actually quiet round town....

I've got a couple of clubman indicators but one was cracked and the other a bit dull, phoned around a few places to get a new set but no joy but managed to find one only, so I chucked the better one of the original two I had in the dishwasher.....came up alright!



I needed a solution to my HT leads situation aswell, I couldn't send my old ones back to magnecor for them to change the coil end as the car was in the bodyshop but found a company thanks to a link over on 16v, will chuck them on tomorrow morning and see how they fare?





I picked up the car from the bodyshop this morning (monday) colour looks fantastic and its quite weird seeing a clubby front on there We came to an agreement I would get the car back monday morning as I was working till late tonight and needed to sort a couple of things on the car before it goes to the rollers, all he's got left to do is the final polish (G4 compound or something??) but we said I would drop the car back off to him after the rollers so he can finish it off as there is no rush then

I've decided to ditch the Mpi pump and get an uprated one, the mpi pump is adequate enough for a standard B16 but who knows what we have planned for it? So I picked up a Walbro 255lph, its got more than enough flow rate which is weird considering its size???? Mpi on left



Picked up a tank sender aswell and dropped them both off to the bodyshop guy beforehand so he can put them both in if he had time, when I ordered the pump the guy asked what car it was for, so I just said toyota supra twin turbo Not sure why he asked as they are pretty much universal and a straight replacement for the mini ones, either way, it sounds good for the fast n furious crowd

Other change was the oil, I was using mobil 1 engine and standard honda mtf transmission, but decided to try some millers oils, always heard good things about them. Spoke to there tech department and they said honda engines around my year actually used engine oil in the transmission aswell???? Blimey! its like owning an a-series again!

Got some XSS 10-40



Chucked it in earlier in both the engine and gearbox, it was gone 1am so couldn't really start it up!!! Will have to do that in a few hours, then take it for quick spin, check tyre pressure and head to the rollers.....again

I really hope all goes well this time round, I've got steel cable ties round the driveshaft gaitors done up mutha effin tight so I'm confident they wont come off like the plastic ones did last time, also hopefully this new fuel pump should help....hopefully. The mapping session has to pretty much go all ok now as TMF 'ring trip is next wednesday!

Fingers crossed, and everything else!