374 replies to this topic

[bodgeit]

Excellent! Create a new thread in the Motorbike Engine Conversions forum. I'd like to see your car and I'm sure others would as well.

I have a thread on 16vminiclub, haven't got around to getting one on here yet though!

I look forward to watching your progress, no doubt you'll be done well before i am done!

Matt

[benno1275]

is there anything you cant do? that is amazing well done

[BadgerBaiter]

Fantastic work Keep it up!

[Joe250]

This update is only about 3 months overdue!

Time to finish the throttle pedal. The design:


The finished product installed:


The ProShift solenoid mounting bracket fabricated and installed:


More goodies have arrived. Remote oil filter parts:


More photos soon. I promise! I want to get this car finished and on the road!!!

Joe

Edited by Joe250, 14 April 2010 - 07:11 AM.

[george91]

very nice, i really like the pedal set up.

[Joe250]

My new goal is to have the car running and able to be driven around the block by June 10th of this year. (My last goal was to have it completely finished by Dec 21, 2008! :rolling on the floor laughing ) I think I can make it, but only if I work on the car non-stop between now and then. There are 5 sub-systems remaining:

-Exhaust system
-Cooling system
-Remote oil filter
-Transfer box cooling
-Electical

I'm having a fab shop handle the first 2 items. I dropped the car off there the other day and should have it back in a week. As soon as a couple parts come in I can wrap up the remote oil filter and and get started on the xfer box cooling. The electrical system is going to take several weeks to really sort out but I think I can cobble together a working temporary setup much quicker, just to get the car rolling.



Here is a detail shot of the MINIeXvo countershaft gear.



And here is the xfer box itself. Mark upgraded my cush drive bushing from 'normal' to the green 'race spec'. The Quaife LSD is tucked away inside.


I installed some SS screen to protect the cooling fan and radiator.


I fabricated a tray to hold the radiator. It is bolted directly into the subframe.


I hope it is big enough to do the job. This is the oil cooler for the xfer box oil.


With so little room in the engine bay, everything had to go in this tiny space - the cooling system header tank, the remote oil filter housing behind it with oil temp and oil pressure sensors mounted onto it, and the xfer box cooling system pump at the bottom. Oil changes are going to be fun!

Edited by Joe250, 15 April 2010 - 01:11 PM.

[bigcaddy]

Kick ass. love the project.

[Willy_sa]

I love this project, I was wondering what happend cause i follow it on your site every week and nothing happend for so long. Cant wait to see the next few steps!

Good Luck!

[Joe250]

I've been very busy with the Mini, working on it 7 days a week. I am starting to doubt I can make my self-imposed deadline but I'm happy to be making such rapid progress, so I don't care. Here's where I'm at:



Back into the holding pen. Actually, she was off to a custom fabrication shop (and Noble specialists) to handle the car's cooling and exhaust systems. These were areas where I found it was going to be much easier to pay someone than learn how to do the work and purchase the special tools required to get the job done.



And after 3 weeks of waiting, here's what I got back. This is the Maniflow Mini exhaust but with a bypass valve added.


I wanted a single exhaust tip but that would have been way more work than it was worth. This turned out pretty well I think. The exhaust is now at a nearby shop getting ceramic coated. Hopefully I'll have that back in a couple weekends.



Some of the cooling system components installed.



I think I finally have a nice working solution for the clutch. More on this soon.



And just to remind me that I'm not the only one in my town with an unusual old car, a neighbor stopped by in his Saab Sonnet. Interesting.



And now I'm working on a custom front subframe attachment method. This is what happens when you have an early car with a late subframe and your rollcage covers up some of the normal bolt holes. More on this soon.

Joe

[george91]

What an awesome project some very nice parts, love some of the custom bits too, that exhaust will sound pretty tastey with that bipass, first one i've seen on a mini. keep up the good work.

[irishdude]

Looking good dude!! Can't wait to see it run under its own steam in june, keep up the good work!

[Joe250]

I have been working 7 days a week on the Mini, trying to get it ready to start up by June 5th. For every item I complete, I seem to be adding 4 new things to my to-do list. All I can do is just keep going.


The way I had the roll cage tie into the front suspension means the normal early Mini twin subframe bolts won't work. Here you can see the plates I've made top and bottom. Sandwiched in-between is a heavy-duty spacer to prevent the bulkhead from being crushed.I haven't finished the upper plates cosmetically but they do work. I'm relying on one large central bolt with the two outer bolts being inserted upside down from the subframe going upwards.




I removed the pedal cage to install the hydraulic clutch's master cylinder. I wasn't sure exactly which size to buy and I didn't want to think about it - hurts too much. So I ordered the largest diameter one Tilton makes. Notice the diameter compared to the other two? Worst case, I'll swap it out with another size later.


I re-installed the front subframe and found room for both the fuel lines and the main battery cable inbetween the subframe and firewall. I then routed the power cable straight up into the passenger area. This is where I'm going to mount all the electrical systems.


This is where the cable comes out - exactly where I need it. More on all that soon.


I did take a few minutes to lay out and mark the rest of the R1 wiring harness. I used copies of the Yamaha service manual wiring diagram, the Haynes manual's diagram, and this site. Once you spend a few hours with the harness, it all starts to make sense. I know the electrical system is going to give me fits but I'm sort of looking forward to it. Should be only a couple weeks away.


With all the wires and connectors on the engine labeled, it was time to drop it back into the car.


Woops. Forgot something - the front brake lines. The left and right front brake lines need to connect together with the line coming from the master cylinder. I also wanted to install a brake pressure sensor here to activate the brake lights. This 4-way union will do the trick if I can find a place to mount it as well as an orientation that make good sense. I think I finally have the spot, but I won't know until I fit the engine back in..


Here it is tucked under the front crossmember....


...with the pressure sensor mounted on top and the mc line running through the firewall.


And here's another thing I decided to handle before installing the engine. These are a couple of the coolant lines. Thanks to some more reading and talking things over with my friend, I've re-designed part of the cooling system. We were able to determine that the radiator will in fact be the highest point in the system, eliminating the need for a header tank. That means ditching the one I previously purchased and buying an overflow tank instead.

Cooling System Diagram
Here is a link to the diagram of my cooling system. Save it to your computer to view it full-sized. It helped tremendously to read another guide by the guys at Pirate 4x4 forums. I wish I found it earlier. It would have saved me a lot of trouble.


If I'm going to be test driving the car around the block, I supposed I should have working brakes. Time to finally install the front brake pads.


Here I start to make lines for the transfer box' cooling system.


First line fitted.

Edited by Joe250, 25 May 2010 - 01:47 AM.

[Joe250]

After destroying the first remote oil filter take-off, I was a bit more careful with this second one. You can just see on the top where I ground away a tiny bit of material to clear protruding areas of the R1's engine block. I also had to machine down the R1's oil filter bolt head some.


Now it's really time to install the engine.


A tight fit in back. Here you can also see the engine ground strap I installed.


Don't ever paint parts before test-installing them. Total waste of time. The drive shafts I painted black a month ago look even worse now than they do in the photo. It won't be a problem though as you'll see at a later date.


The rear engine steady mount is now installed.


The photo is out of focus, but you can see that the engine did clear the location I picked out for the brake union 4-way. I finished installing the lines coming back from the left and right front wheels.


I jacked the car up to gain access to this fitting on the underside of the transfer box. This line routes around to the righthand side of the engine bay and thru a thermostat switch and oil filter before connected onto the oil pump.


After WAY too much work, the driveshafts are installed.


Time to fill and bleed the hydraulic clutch system. Result? It works great. Bad news is the clutch itself does not. The '02-'03 R1 clutch mechanism is notoriously easy to screw up on installation. I suspected I did it wrong but wasn't able to test it easily outside the car. Guess I'll be pulling the motor one more time before startup.


Here is the transfer box oil cooler sans lefthand mounting ears. This is one of the smallest oil coolers offered and in the Mini engine bay it is still too big. With some more trimming and a custom mount, it should work.


Speaking of custom mounts, here is what I came up with. I start with a bolt, washer, and a couple nuts. I then weld the nut to the washer, and then weld the washer to a short length of steel pipe.




End result? A removeable column to support the oil cooler bracket.


This is the oil cooler mount I quickly fabbed up.


I'm not finished but it looks like it will work. I can finish it once I get the exhaust back from the ceramic coaters.


Here is another line I made for the transfer box cooling system. This is looking down the righthand side of the engine bay at the Tilton oil pump. The blue canister is an in-line oil filter. The device below that is a temperature-activated switch, which will only turn the pump on when oil temperature exceeds 180F.


My first attempts at fabricating a bracket for the clutch and brake fluid reservoirs did not go well. In fact, it turned out awful. I really need a few additional tools to do it right but these would be quite expensive and take up too much space. I also didn't feel like running to Techshop to make what I needed. I decided to try and work with something I had already in the garage. That is when I spotted the two Setrab oil cooler mounts. I purchased these with the cooler but I could not use them, despite my best efforts. Shame to waste them though. So with a few modifications they work quite well.



This is how she looks at the moment. Of the 5 systems I have to finish ( the cooling system, remote oil filter system, transfer box cooling system, exhaust system, and electrical system) I have now completed.....none. However, I have made progress on every item. Check back soon for another update.


More soon...

Edited by Joe250, 25 May 2010 - 01:50 AM.

[tedmcedd]

OH MY OH MY! this simply cant get any better!!?? please say it does!! fabulous as always!

Ed

[lewis]

wow wow wow! as a design student im am just salivating over every inch of this mini!

also is that solidworks your designing on?

cant wait for another update and please get this in one of the minimags when its done