374 replies to this topic

[t@z]

With Jonny and Simon... turbo is the way forward :)

[Joe250]

Thank you all for your thoughts. I have continued my research and reached a decision. All I can say is Domneon is onto something. More details soon.....

 

Anyone want to buy a MinieXvo kit?

[brivinci]

I really LOVED this build and the idea behind it but TOTALLY get what you are saying. In then end, its all about what you want to do and where you want to use the car. I recently went through the same thing. Having a track prepped Mini is no fun when you cant get to the track and the no one in the family will dare take a ride with you:-)

 

I have been looking into Specialty Components (http://www.specialis...mponents.co.uk/) That have a very nice looking injection product. Part it with the right bits, and 100 should be easy. 1330 is a good idea for future rebuild. I'm sure you can recoup some of the costs from selling the bike stuff off as well. As I said, I love the idea of a bike engine Mini but as years go on, there is something so sweet about a highly tuned A-series.

 

Oh, SC also champion the BMW 16v head conversions. I say one being worked on recently. Impressive but $$$

[Joe250]

I really LOVED this build and the idea behind it but TOTALLY get what you are saying. In then end, its all about what you want to do and where you want to use the car. I recently went through the same thing. Having a track prepped Mini is no fun when you cant get to the track and the no one in the family will dare take a ride with you:-)

 

I have been looking into Specialty Components (http://www.specialis...mponents.co.uk/) That have a very nice looking injection product. Part it with the right bits, and 100 should be easy. 1330 is a good idea for future rebuild. I'm sure you can recoup some of the costs from selling the bike stuff off as well. As I said, I love the idea of a bike engine Mini but as years go on, there is something so sweet about a highly tuned A-series.

 

Oh, SC also champion the BMW 16v head conversions. I say one being worked on recently. Impressive but $$$

"Loved?" That's past tense! Actually, there hasn't been much of a build for coming up on a year, so I guess I can't knock your comment.

 

Funny you mention SC and their 16v conversion. That's exactly who is building my engine at the moment. You ruined my surprise but few come to this desert of a thread anymore so no worries. I hope to have some actual photos up here in a couple months.

 

You'll notice that I definitely didn't listen to T@z, Johnny and Simon! They were trying to lead me down the dark path of unnatural aspiration. You know what the Good Book says about that, right? It's against it.

Edited by Joe250, 08 April 2016 - 10:57 PM.

[Mini Manannán]

I'm subscribed to this thread Joe. Keep at it, I prefer the A series plan.

[jonny f]

I wrote it all in vain!

The good book as in vizard? Thats pretty outdated now. Turbo's have come a long way since then.

[Joe250]

I wrote it all in vain!

The good book as in vizard? Thats pretty outdated now. Turbo's have come a long way since then.

 

No, you didn't write it in vain. I appreciate your input and I'm glad your car is running nicely. I've owned a few turbo-charged cars but I still prefer NA. The better car marques can make a turbo car feel almost 100% NA but I'm not confident that I can get nearly that close if I did a turbo A-series. The other issue was one of packaging. The Mini engine bay is tight (no surprise there) so trying to add an intercooler, turbo, BOV, and all the plumbing didn't sound like fun. Again, I know it can be done but I just spent many years working on making the BEC thing work. That took a lot of head-scratching, fabricating, and do-overs. At this point, I'd prefer something a lot closer to "plug-and-play". Besides, the SC TwinKam setup I decided on is going to be perfectly streetable and still produce plenty of power. We'll see how it all turns out.

 

The "Good Book" reference was from the movie King Pin, by the way.

Edited by Joe250, 09 April 2016 - 05:46 PM.

[StefanPieter]

Hey Joe

This question goes back to some of your first posts.

I am looking for a copy of the blue print dimensions of the mini. Where did you manage to get hold of your?

[Joe250]

Hey Joe

This question goes back to some of your first posts.

I am looking for a copy of the blue print dimensions of the mini. Where did you manage to get hold of your?

I just used a search engine and purchased a set online. Click on the photo here for a copy that you can save to your computer:

 

http://joe250.com/cars/mini/mini.html

[jonny f]

With reasonable compression and low boost turbo would feel lovely. You've made a good decision though, twin cams do make a great engine :).

They are hard to package but not as hard as you would think. I did it with 3 inches less body height :).

[brivinci]

HAHA!! I meant to say, I loved following this thread up to this point...and I REALLY look forward to seeing the end result.

 

The SC stuff look amazing. The one I saw had me drooling. What kind of power are you looking to get and is it 8v or 16v?

 

I have a later Rover SPi mini and have been thinking about their injection kit more and more. My car runs great but I am pretty much maxed out, power-wise, at around 85bhp. The Rover ECU just can't handle more. The SC unit will allow for unlimited tuning. Maybe one day.

[Joe250]

3 inches less body height? Ok, Jonny, now you're just showing off. How is that even possible?

[Joe250]

I went for the 16V but road spec. So LT cams instead of the RS ones. I had to resist my normal tendency to go for the race-spec stuff. I think power at the crank should be 130-ish, which will be sufficient for how I will use the car. Time will tell.

 

Yes, SC does make some impressive stuff. My good friend here in Los Angeles has a '65 Mini-Minor 850 that he bought back in '79. He is finally restoring it and I encouraged him to buy SC's FI kit. He is very particular about driveability and I think their FI kit could equal or out-perform the standard carb setup in that regard. He was very tempted but passed on it. It would be great if a drive in my car convinces him to reconsider.

 

For your SPI, rather than upgrading, why not drop an R1 engine in there? I might know a guy with one for sale soon.

[jonny f]

3 inches less body height? Ok, Jonny, now you're just showing off. How is that even possible?

I'm not sure, in fact i don't know if it is lots of stuff rubs!

[Joe250]

johnny f,

 

I just read your entire thread on TurboMini's. Great stuff! It sounds like I may end up with about as much power as your current setup but sadly, my car will weigh quite a bit more.