1065 replies to this topic

[ministar]

Congrats mate, think a well earned pint is what you need :)

I heard Kam doesnt drink

[The Matt]

Non-alcoholic beer in Germany mate!

[Kam]

Well done mate. Germany is one step closer....Le Mans first though

yep yep Le Mans is the one I'm aiming for, problem is the rolling road is next week to break in the engine then the following week a 650 mile round trip to Le Mans.........hmmm hardly ideal

Congrats mate, think a well earned pint is what you need :)

I heard Kam doesnt drink

Non-alcoholic beer in Germany mate!

I do actually drink, alot infact! its just as Matt says out in germini I drink the alcohol free stuff, just incase your wondering......well....it goes a little something like this....

On my first trip to the 'ring in july 2009 I went out there in the mini with a VW crowd, we had beer, we had tents, we had campfires, all the usual stuff. When I went back out there in sept 2009 on my first retro run I popped into the local supermarket (rewe) and tried to find the same beer again as I loved it, but I couldn't remember its name, so I picked up what I thought it was and that night I had a good time round the campfire, next morning I found 10+ empty bottles outside my tent, and I thought I feel good this morning, no headache no bellyache no probs, I've gotta get more of this stuff so as I picked up the bottles I found it had written on it - alkoholfrei....

Thing was I had a really good night that night, so basically you don't need alcohol to enjoy yourself (are you listening children) but it does help sometimes

[Kam]

Thanks for the kind words peeps its dam good to be driving it again but at the moment I'm driving it side to side as I've got an excited foot and it still needs the wheel alignment done, trying to take it to my usual wheel place but fitting it in around work is hassle at the mo'

Car was fine at the MOT, only thing he mentioned was to put a battery strap on (I left it off as the battery is from a pug 306 td so its a tight fit anyway) so I'll chuck that on tomorrow

He also took it out for a little drive (about 4 miles!) and he liked it, he said first gear was very willing and eager and he's right, it does just pick up and go. I don't know the exact thing thats doing that so its just gotta be a combination of the lightweight flywheel, stage 4 paddle and the final drive. The only issue I got is getting my head round the short shifter as I've never had one before, I'm used to a long throw like a mini! but its hard to think it don't need much throw to get in gear as my mind keeps thinking its not enough, hopefully I'll get used to it, if not I'll revert it back to standard throw but we'll see

[Kam]

Wahoo I had my first breakdown today! such joy! I've christened the new build, I feel so proud of it!

Actually I've been pulling over every few mins and checking everything is fine under the bonnet and under the car and carry on etc

Found a fuel leak by the fuel rail, time to investigate, straightaway you can see fuel coming out from under the rail and I got a nice little fuel trail behind me - awesome!

Whipped off the fuel rail and saw what the problem was, the OEM rail spacers are meant to sit under the rail but with the skunk2 inlet this very slightly raises the rail which in turn doesn't seat the injectors well, so then put the rail direct on the skunk2 inlet and put the OEM spacers ontop so it could clamp it down with the nuts done up, problem was the OEM spacers don't fit well in the AEM rail recess so just made up the gap with some washers



With the rail on you can notice the injectors sitting now more within the rail and inlet gap, prime up and start up all done

Only half the alignment got done due to time, most of my day got wasted messing about with the fuel rail so gotta take it back tomorrow to finish off, the difference already is like night and day, hit some good speeds on the way back on the motorway, by good speeds officer I mean cruising at 50 and wanting to overtake, half throttle down in fifth took 3 seconds to get to 70, still got to degree the cams in and the rolling road session to go so good good

Life sucks limited to 5k! I clipped vtec once in my excitement and it was alot more aggressive when it kicked in than the map I had before with the b16, definitely could feel the difference as the car lurched forward, exciting times.....

First gear already I can tell is fine with half throttle, but banging into second and flooring it is just asking for trouble so I think I'll wait for the alignment to be finished first before I try that one again!

Definitely need a middle silencer, off throttle it fire crackles away like a Le Mans car! which is good but gets tiresome after a while, and probably scares other cars and pedestrians - like I care

Little teaser in the tunnel, its only 10secs long so don't get a semi



Verdict so far? Impressed but looking over my shoulder all the time....

[thelegg]

think im gonna have to start saving and start a Vtec conversion as your is just great :) hmmm maybe the logical step would be a 1275 from a 998 though :L

[Kam]

think im gonna have to start saving and start a Vtec conversion as your is just great :) hmmm maybe the logical step would be a 1275 from a 998 though :L

Thanks for the kind words and theres nothing wrong with that, I bolted on a stage 3 kit on my 1275 engine, car never missed a beat all year round and was alot more fun than I thought it would be going from 54 to 70hp, its just I only bought a mini to do an engine swap myself from the word go. I had no intention of playing around with the a-series but the problem was the engine was huge fun and I ended up doing just over 10k in eleven months with no problems, most people go hybrid engine because of problems with the a-series but thats not the thing in my case, I still got alot of respect for the a-series

Its like they say, look after it and it will look after you. If you treat it like something on the bottom of your shoe then suck it up when its repaying the favour

[Kam]

Its been one of those days, them days where you just spend all day driving around in your mini, my legs hurt, my arms hurt and I've got a huge frickin headache - god its good to be driving a mini again!

Started off with getting the wheel alignment finished off this morning as the guys ran out of time last night, running 1 neg camber front, half neg camber rear, zero toe front and 1 degree rear and have 4.5 castor, will take it back after a couple of weeks to let the red dot donuts settle down but so far......wow

Then onto a honda place to pick up some transmission oil, the ever faithful main dealer stuff. I've currently got land rover fluid in as monkey had some going for nothing so thought I'd try it out



Not liking the way the gearbox is talking to me, the last time I put some Millers in the box it was choppy and town driving was dire, its the exact same now with the land rover oil as when I had the millers in, regardless of what engine is bolted on the gearbox will behave the same and I know what my y21 box is like, so picked up some honda mtf

Then back onto the M25 to minspares to pick up some carpets and soundproofing and some brightwork, and got a yoko a539





As I was at minispares I popped in to see Darrell (DC minis) to show him the car and pick his brains, I think he liked the car? I know he liked the hub caps!

Then back on the M25 to more places, finally got home and checked over the car. One problem I found on hard changes is the engine mounts, they are meant to be polyurethane filled but I think the guy used polyfilla instead as they are bad, real bad, I think he has shafted me on these......

I know I got 5mm clearances around the bay so first thought its just everything is packed in tight but you can move the engine with a pry bar and it moves a bit more than 5mm....

Will source some mounts now as the combination of the mounts and the gearbox oil is ruining my driving pleasure round town and with my clearances in the bay I need those mounts on top of there game

Anyways, at home I got bored quickly so went back out for another drive!

Took some vid footage but they all came out poo so just stuck with this one, I clipped vtec in third just after I set off at 2m11, I'm still limited to 5k max revs and it sucks big balls! The car is so willing to go its hard not to floor it to hit 8k but needs must!



Done about 30 miles yesterday and around 170 today, squeaks rattles knocks and bangs all still there

Next job - get all the yoko a539's on, these a048's are giving me too much cocky confidence out on the road

[Sleepy Stu]

Good stuff Kam! Let me know how you get one with the red dots as I've 4 brand new ones ready to go on!!!

[thelegg]

hope you were keeping to all those speed limits ;) car sounds ace by the way

[Kam]

Car is currently getting its 200 mile break-in service.......



Which is also known as check and recheck everything due to mass paranoia!

I've adjusted the engine position a bit and will see how it is then on the road, if its just as bad with all the low speed knocking then I know these mounts are pooh, the clearance gap for the steering rack to diff is meant to be about 5mm and when I lowered the car weeks ago it was at 5mm, yesterday it was at -1mm! Maybe the engine has settled into its mounts now its been out on the road who knows? Hopefully I'll find out in a couple of days when I get to drive it again

[Spud_133]

On the plus side with it moving backwards, it add room to near that shiney exhaust


That really is stunning though Kam!

[Kam]

Good stuff Kam! Let me know how you get one with the red dots as I've 4 brand new ones ready to go on!!!

They seem fine but they are still settling in, I don't think you can go wrong with them as coilovers are a bit too much for a humans backbone and teeth on our roads and mini coil spring replacements are working outside there parameter with a heavier engine, so red dots seem the ones....

hope you were keeping to all those speed limits ;) car sounds ace by the way

Of course sir, remember its a mini, you always appear to go faster than you actually are

[johny:)]

said it befor Kam but this is amazing i love that engine bay sounds realy good on that video v Tec is realy loud when it kicks in realy cant wate to get mine running now top marks on your build any way

[thelegg]

Theres nothing wrong with re checking everything as you never know, it only takes one bolt to get loose and bad things could happen