1065 replies to this topic

[Kam]

Is it sad i've been waiting for this update?

Whats wrong with that Ben? I'm guessing you mean to see what its like going round a corner as everyone says its only gonna spin up etc etc

I'm pretty sure there is more than one person here thats wanting to know what a hybrid swap is like on anything but massive wheels? Maybe they want it to fail and laugh and say I told you so to get bigger wheels, maybe they honestly want to keep there setup and don't want silly big wheels as it wont match the rest of the cars look? I only know of one person that has used 12' steel wheels with there honda and his car was basically my inspiration to go with a standardish look, its Hermans car from over on 16v, clubman with honda vtec, steel wheels and a roof rack to die for!





This above by far is the best looking sleeper mini I've seen and my inspiration when I needed a wheel to put on mine as my alloys were away at the time and I had just fitted the 4 pots and a spare steel wheel was sitting closeby and I was told they don't fit over 4 pots, it fitted and I remembered the car above and so it began........demoralisation!

People use 10' wheels which at the end of the day are the best size wheels on a mini - PERIOD but this engine aint, nor is any engine bar an A-series so it don't matter what size wheels you use?

If you want traction control your right foot, if you can't get traction, look at your setup? And this is coming from a numpty!!!

Go with what you want

[Kam]

There was a newer seat something behind me and on one of the straights I started to pull away but there was two of us in mine and two in his

My mate has just told me that seat was an ibiza bocanegra, I just wanted to give an insight for people here as just saying new seat don't really help

Car is back home with me now, yesterday they couldn't recover and deliver it home and said they would store it overnight and deliver today, just got it back earlier this evening



I always feel better when its here and not somewhere else overnight

[Kam]

Right, I've just re-read through my replies above since I got back from the trackday and just wanted to point out I'm not trying to boast or show off with I beat this or I beat that kind of thing, porkas mx5 elises, this on the straight, this on that etc etc.....yes I was in demoralisation mood but thats purely the roof rack/hub cap combo and not me trying to be some big time charlie, I don't have time for people like that, people on here that know me personally know that

I'm trying to give people here an insight as best as I can what using this engine with steel wheels, full interior and roof rack is like up against whatever is out there on track for comparison, I'm not gonna do loads of on the road vids as thats just silly and dangerous, but at least on a track you know where people are going for it full out

The other guys at the track were top notch they honestly didn't care if they couldn't get past me on a straight but were sitting on my bumper through a corner, apart from saying to me you need to push the car more they said its actually quite funny seeing it from there cars as it don't look like it can give anything out there

Has anyone else used a 1.6 vtec on 12" steelies apart from me and Herman??? I don't know???? Maybe its unpopular, maybe its silly, but I can honestly say hand on heart I'm having fun, if I wasn't I'd be running big wheels by now

Sorry for waffling in the above replies and more than likely this one, I can't type what I want to say in a few words, especially when I'm having fun with this car

All fun

[mini_mad69]

I was just realy wanting to see what any hybrid mini was like on circuit. I would have thought that your steelies would be good on track.

Loads of people are running 165 width tyres, but with a huge offset, your going to get alot of torque steer, you running small offset steelies would surely make it more driveable? and controlable?


Either way, I love your car, love the demoralisation.



Ben

[Kam]

I was just realy wanting to see what any hybrid mini was like on circuit. I would have thought that your steelies would be good on track.

Loads of people are running 165 width tyres, but with a huge offset, your going to get alot of torque steer, you running small offset steelies would surely make it more driveable? and controlable?


Either way, I love your car, love the demoralisation.



Ben

Cheers Ben

Anyone can pax in my car, front or back or all at the same time, it don't matter to me how they get there insight, but driving it is only for me, I won't let anyone else drive it but unfortunately unless someone else does then my feedback will have to do as I'm not clued up on this kind of stuff

Watch the vids and see where I power down out of a corner and if its spins/torque steers, there is only two corners I think where I drop it into second for a corner to spin up for the camera as I know its on and want to show how much the 048's spin before gripping as the 539's would spin alot longer, so I'm taking them ones in third as it still picks up whereas second would be smokes and noise and a quick change, third gear is so tall with the final drive that on a track with something behind you (no overtaking on corners) you can nail it on the exit at low revs and not get bogged down and wait a helluva long time before changing into fourth while they are more than likely in second on the exit in a normal car

[Artstu]

Right, I've just re-read through my replies above since I got back from the trackday and just wanted to point out I'm not trying to boast or show off with I beat this or I beat that kind of thing, porkas mx5 elises, this on the straight, this on that etc etc.....yes I was in demoralisation mood but thats purely the roof rack/hub cap combo and not me trying to be some big time charlie, I don't have time for people like that, people on here that know me personally know that

I don't think for one second anyone could view you in the way you think you're being viewed. You're the nice guy slightly upsetting the people who might think in the way you describe and that for me is one of the attractions of a hybrid like yours.

I do hope it wasn't my post that made you feel the need for that post, and if it was, it really wasn't meant in the way you've read it, you big poseur

[Kam]

I do hope it wasn't my post that made you feel the need for that post, and if it was, it really wasn't meant in the way you've read it, you big poseur

No, nothing was aimed at you mate or anyone else on here, your post made me laugh as it was funny watching people after walk over smiling and laughing, they didn't expect it and now wanted to know how and why and what the hell was in it?

My post was aimed at myself, maybe its the way I read it back but it seemed like to me as chav talk

Just trying to share my excitement

[Kam]

I'm gonna set myself a deadline now to get this car back on the road for june so I can take it to Le Mans this time! I'm still a bit pee'd off I missed out this year so will make sure that don't happen again

Would like to take it to Brooklands in march but I don't think my wallet can handle it, so a more relaxed june may be ideal

Apart from getting some throttle bodies and making the changes to the bulkhead box I'm might (still not sure yet) attempt to change the head gasket, nothing wrong with it just I didn't before as my skills are limited and the engine had only done 63k, if I can find a good numpty guide online then I might go for it, if I do then as the cams have to come out I may get some type-r cams aswell? Also I'll change the engine mounts, I think some from an integra dc2 are the ones to get

Will comply a shopping list together now and go find a corner to cry in

[GreaseMonkey]

June? That's aaages away!!

[bakker110]

Kam!

The rio-tech is in mini magazine December edition page 18 at the Malvern show! Dunno if anyone has already posted I didn't look! Hope you're going Germany next year!
And

[jinjrich]

Mate, your car is great- dont go changing a thing!

[Kam]

June? That's aaages away!!

Its about right for normal people with a normal approach to things, so want to have a go at this normal stuff now rather than crazy deadline late night finishes, we'll see how long it lasts though.......

Kam!

The rio-tech is in mini magazine December edition page 18 at the Malvern show! Dunno if anyone has already posted I didn't look! Hope you're going Germany next year!
And

Nice one Andy, I'll add this to my ever expanding shopping list, I hope its got the bonnet down as its still work in progress! And I think Germini is still a 50/50 but we'll see, its one I don't like to miss though

Mate, your car is great- dont go changing a thing!

Cheers Rich, any changes will just be under the bonnet and out of sight, otherwise the car is staying the same internally and externally until I go back to roundnose which I can't see happening for a good year or two, maybe more maybe less, who knows, it all becomes about money and headache at that point

Edited by Kam, 18 November 2010 - 09:10 AM.

[Kam]

Time to get back on it, the car has been sitting here since the recent trackday when I lost all drive after changing down into 3rd and couldn't engage any gears with the engine running but creeps forward slowly if you try and 'push' the stick into gear, with the engine off it goes into gears fine.....

My clutch pedal travel (with the stopper bolt underneath) is only half of the full travel, it seemed the clutch was still engaged and not releasing so maybe its still overthrowing and so I need to limit the pedal travel further

First up I took off the slave cylinder and the boot gaitor for it to see what the release bearing was upto, the release bearing moves along nice and rests against the 'fingers' of the pressure plate - vid below



Put the slave cylinder back in and the release bearing was sitting nicely against the 'fingers' and setup the camera (not easy to do on your own!) and adjusted the stopper bolt to limit the pedal more but it didn't seem like the pressure plate was releasing enough? So I adjusted the bolt further down (to give me a bit more travel than the start) and checked it again



Now to me it seems the pressure plate is working ok and the clutch is moving away from the engine? Correct?

I was checking to see the 'tab' below in the picture (of an old clutch) was moving, which it was in the above vid



Now I'm proper confused???? the back of my mini pedal rests against the bodywork when released fully as in the vid below........



.....which means my clutch pedal height is right at the top just a bit higher than the brake pedal in its normal resting position? Is that correct? I can't remember how its meant to be sitting on a normal mini?

I'm also not sure if I adjust the length shorter under my clutch master cylinder if this will lower the pedal? Or don't it work like that????

[Kam]

I haven't bothered with the car over the last couple of weeks, couldn't drive it even if I wanted to what with all the snow fiasco so I've been taking it easy and trying out a new approach of doing a very little bit every other day, not something I'm used to!

Either way, the engines gotta come out (oh joy) again (oh more joy)





Its been ages since I last took the engine out and I've seen this view.......



ok its only been 7 weeks but still

Split the transmission



Had a quick check of the 'fingers' yep marks on them as I was expecting as the clutch was obviously still overthrowing





So time to take the clutch pressure plate off and see why I couldn't engage any gears with the engine running, bit of string as usual to hold the flywheel in place still works a treat



Then I found the problem as I pulled the pressure plate away, a spring fell out.........



Now I'm no auto technician but I reckon as a guess the spring may have come from the friction plate?



Inside the pressure plate I found a small bit of casing that I don't think is meant to be in there?



Which may have come from here?



Looks like its neighbouring spring was almost as eager at trying to get out, casing had started to crack



So release bearing may have been pushing a bit toooooo far

Will be limiting the clutch pedal even more now, won't find out if it all works untill the engine is back in, no rush, still got to order another clutch kit anyway, hopefully as I've been a good boy this year I might get one for xmas?

As for the engine itself, I put it on the stand



If your wondering why its on the stand its because I've bought a few goodies for it, nothing super major, just normal goodies, but still waiting for them....

Hmmm future project?



Only joking

I'm glad anyway there was an obvious problem when I took the clutch off as I would be ultra peed off if nothing obvious was showing as it is a PITA to take an engine out of a car! At the moment my clutch pedal is limited to half movement, it moves around 4ins, this is obviously still way too much, so we'll see

All fun (just)

Edited by Kam, 08 December 2010 - 07:58 PM.

[Kam]

Sorry, just tried to reload pics but at a smaller size, looks like that didn't work......really hating photobucket at the moment