776 replies to this topic

[Turbo Nick]

I came to the same conclusion, my only other option was to skim my 18's down and the block but didn't want to weaken them.

[mini93]

Working hard? or hardly working?

 

Definitely the latter.

 

The only work I've done since the last update was making a start on the diffuser. But I haven't finished it off, the sides need working on, the tunnel walls will have an extra piece bonded onto each bit to make them double thickness so they're less flexible. That's not to say they move a lot, especially being a compound curve (which is also the reason I didn't make it out of thicker material to start with as I still needed to bend the flange onto them) But thicker tunnel walls will still be better.

 

 

And something I did one evening after work. (hey, I've gotta pad out this thread with what little work I've done!)

Light weight boot lid tether, matches the internal door pulls... so ya...

 

 

But today I've got another piece for the puzzle...

 

It's of course a GT20 side mount set up from Matt at Fusion Fabricaions, ace looking bit of kit. Lovely looking, better flowing, power producing  and umm, better weight distrubution in the engine bay?.... sure...

So then I of course set straight to putting it in place, housed nicely in the engine bay.

I had to time the housing round a bit more so as to not have the outlet pointing at the bonnet. It now sits in a nice position to have only short pipe work to the front mount cooler (that i've still to buy)

Down side here being that the actuator will need to have a custom bracket as it no longer sits on the as-cast mount. Shouldn't be too tasking!

 

 

Here it is on Matt's trial engine so you can see the work that went into it.

 

Another issue which I had already thought arise, the top engine steady... hardly the biggest issue as I was always going to be re making the mounts with the rod-ends. It'll just have to come off at a funny angle to reach the bulkhead, unless I find another position for it anyhow.

 

I've also pretty much decided I want fuel injection on the engine... little point doing all this work and using the ol' carrot and bucket fueling method.

Asked a while back on Turbo Minis about fuel injection, one of the guys prompted me onto going megasquirt.... and its completly baffled me, but I have like 9 tabs open in another brouser for me to read over and work out how to go about it... I'm no whizz so I'll be leaching off other peoples findings and clamering my way through it at some point.

There's a few things I hope the system is capable of, but will have to see when I read through.

 

Anyway, thats enough for now, hopefully I can get on with doing some work on the thing soon.

 

 

Dave.

 

[mini93]

Been finishing off my diffuser, getting back to working on it as I haven't done anything really since October.

Main reason for the diffuser is because I've lightened the rear of the car so much, I wanted to gain back a bit of higher speed stability whilst still keeping light weight.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Still a bit of trimming and shaping to do on the fences, will most likely bond a 2nd bit to each one to increase the rigidity, although its not too bad already.

 

[mini93]

I've got it back on the floor. The diffuser sits at quite a nice height... however, even pushing it off the drive means i scrape the front section (before the rear wheels) And thats before the front end is lowered, which'll mean it'll catch more when at the right height.

The rear of the car (suspension height wise) is about right, but the wheel isn't centred in the arch- this is an issue with the mini spares beam. I'll be looking for an extrusion of aluminium (I think it pushes it back circa 22mm back in the arch, the KAD unit pushes back around 16mm) the box section needs to be narrower to bring it inline with the original dimensions of a full subframe. In essence the design is good, so will use the same idea of the aluminium blocks inside the extrusion, may even use is as template for the hole positions, but it's just not right, I'm loosing suspension travel as the tyre could touch on bump towards the rear of the wheel well.

 

 

The rear of the diffuser, doesn't protrude too much- certainly wouldnt want it sticking out much more than it is.

As I said, still needs a little bit of shape work, the top edge looks a bit wavey, so will likely bond a bit more material to give it rigidity.

 

Anyways... With that done.

 

I've started positioning the handbrake- no photos, it's just some brackets! But I'm going to need a custom cable making up, the handbrake has had to be moved back and of course now doesn't fit.

 

But I have also been buying goodies.

 

 

Trip to MED saw me pick up a light weight Verto flywheel, to which i'll bolt an RTS style clutch when I've done it.

All alloy vernia pulley,

Roller Rockers,

Turbo oil pump,

Dry deck kit with the steel cometic headgasket.

Race followers,

4 bolt main bearing.

ARP 11 stud kit and also crank main cap bolts.

 

Then my Widebands turned up, got X3 Innovate LC-2 Widebands to speak to the ECU (which is STILL sat in customs!)

 

And today my DSN parts turned up.

Water pump blanking plate

Oil filter housing with hole for oil temp

Thermostat housing

and also the timing chain housing.

 

Something I'll add incase anyone comes across it.

MED sell 2 types of pulley for the mangment- DSN list the sensor bracket as suiting the MED pulley- sods law I end up grabbing the wrong one!

I needed to get the pulley with the teeth inside of the pulley. No problem, they will exchange it, but thought I'd note it down FYI.

 

On top of that bunch of stuff! I've still got on order

the Megasquirt

Under crown oil cooling jets from BMW

and 2nd hand, a 55mm AT power shaftless throttle body.

 

 

Oh... and my engine is now at Southam mini metro centre for machining. Aweh YISSS!

 

 

 

[Tupers]

That diffuser looks the business! It'd be right at home in a time attack paddock.

[Baldspeed Racing]

Looks badass mate and hope the wait at smmc isnt tooooo long knowing how they can be

[mini93]

Thanks guys.

 

Yeah Rod asked me when I wanted this doing by, I said I wasn't in a particular rush.

 

I think however its turned out my pistons aren't going to be any good for me, and won't allow me to lower the compression far enough. Even though I hoped to run the pistons down the bore, it wont lower far enough.

 

Way around this is to get pistons with a shorter compression height- the height from the gudgion pin the the crown. (or bigger dish)

Will Phone Rod end of next week when he's calculated the best route to take and if the crown height to change, what I want....Sounds expensive to me... Sounds custom piston territory

[Tupers]

I think the only readily available low crown pistons would be the omegas that med and the like use with their long rods.

They're a fair deal lower than a standard piston though so might be too far the other way.

[mini93]

Yeah, I gets you there. SMMC had some 73.5mm ones sat on a shelf when I went to visit (to go in a stroker motor), however they wouldnt be fit for me either.

I really don't want to go upto 1380 and I'd hazzard a guess that the dish wasn't suitable? I dont know, I didnt look into it.

 

If they did some +20's I'd have to ask how far a block can be decked to make it suitable.. then I might run into trouble at valve train geometry.

[Baldspeed Racing]

Bad times on the pistons, hope you sort something between Rod and you.

[mini93]

I went back over to MED to swap over the pulley.


As you can see, it fits a little better, although this isnt fitted to the engine.

Also picked up some steel push rods while I was there. Think thats the majority of the engine components required.


And I got the last of the ordered bits.
The squirter jets first. Thanks to whoever put the P/N up on here a while back.


Have a question, do these need to be run with copper washers under the banjo?



55mm shaftless AT throttle body. Need to get an inlet and plenum made up, which this'll bolt onto. Also came with a foam pod filter, not sure that i'll use as I'd prefer a K&N type.

And finally-

The new box of tricks... Going to be quite some questions about this I'm sure!


Anyway, enough waffling...

[Archived4]

Updates at all? Not looked at this project for ages. Such a mega car!