8 replies to this topic

[minisilverbullet]

I am considering a stage 1 kit for my standard spi. Minispares and minisport do these as im sure you know and teh kits are reletively the same, cost etc.

I would quite like a new exhaust anyway, buthave been put of by high postage charges to Sweden, but as i will have the car in blighty over the summer a new exhaust is on the shopping list.

So the golden question are the stage 1 kits really up to anything, do you notice any difference or is it a bit of a "placebo" effect.

I also had a look at the stage 3 spi kit at minisport, anyone have this? Although if i got that id need to distract my girlfriend, when it came to pay at the checkout!!!

Any opinons, much appreciated.

Cheers

Craig

[Blatherskite]

Hi Craig

We took our SPI to Minisport last summer just before the IMM for Stage 3 fitting, and it made a big difference - 53 to 74 bhp. Sounds tremendous, goes like the proverbial off a shovel, and much more fun to drive. Can thoroughly recommend them at Minisport - helpful, friendly, seem to know what they are doing; we also had new sills fitted, and upgrade to front suspension (camber, bushes etc). Just recently, my eldest said he nearly fell out of the window it corners so quick. I'm dead chuffed, me.

It costs a bit, but with the pound down just now, you would get a bit more for your krona. Don't recall what ferries go to the UK now, but there is a truck ferry from Göteborg to Immingham goes 2-3 times a week - DFDS Lys Line (dfdslysline.com) - and its cheap, clean and a bit dull but gets you close-ish to Minisport.

[Spannerhead]

A Stage 1 kit will sound better and make a slight difference, but not much. I've had a Stage 3 done on my MPi, plus a new cam, went from 60-81bhp, and reduced the final drive to 3.14, and now goes just like I want it to, and sounds absolutely fantastic.

Can't comment really on the Stage 1, I wanted more power so Stage 3 was the only option.

Just don't use Minispeed !!!

[RayBoogs]

Just don't use Minispeed !!!

well said!!

yeah if you want power improvements to be noticeable go for a stage 3, and stage 1 will help with smoother driving etc but don't expect miracles when it come to more power.

oh and spannerhead are you using 1.5 ratio rockers or standard rockers, sorry to go off topic.

[minisilverbullet]

Blatherskite - cheers for that.

Did you have them fit it? How feasible does that sound for me, are we speaking a couple of hours days etc.

According to the original specs of the car it was 63 BHP as standard (Special edition silver bullet 400 made) so perhaps the increase wouldnt be as vast an improvment as yours!?! I dont know the engine specs of the silverbullet mini though as standard, but maybe 800 (plus fitting) for the stage 3 isnt so much bang for buck: if i were to achieve the 74bhp you did.

Oh the truck ferry - i looked into that, and to be honest i couldnt handle it (i think it was over 20 hours. We are in the south of sweden Malmö about 30 km from copenhagen so the ferry from east denamrk to harwich was our original plan, it was a wee bit dear though - 750 quid return, so instead we will dirve to calais, (13 hours aparently) but we will stop maybe in Amsterdam or something over night. Then teh idea was to spend time in London, manchester/liverpool, Edinburgh, york Birmingham and have the final nights at the Gaydon show. Then home +1 miss behaving 15 year old brother!

Spannerhead i followed your minispeed thread closely!!! interesting.

Edited by minisilverbullet, 28 May 2010 - 01:34 PM.

[Spannerhead]

I used 1.5 roller rockers, heated treated crank, warm cam, Stage 3 head, air filter, new fuel pressure regulator, lcb, RC40 exhaust, reduced final drive to 3.14, cross pinned diff etc. Went from 60bhp (from dyno) to 81 bhp on dyno.

Craig, you won't get this sort of performance for £800. Remember, that is for just the basic Stage 3 kits, add onto that all the bits of an engine rebuild which it might need and really add up, is the gearbox ok? Do you need a cross pinned diff? Or lower final ratio? And if the engines coming out, then do you want to heat treat the crank, and put a warmer cam on? And don't believe the 90bhp claims of the basic kit, mine had the warmer cam and it still only made 81bhp.

And you will need a rolling road session to get the fuelling set up correctly. I spent near on £2800 in total with Minispeed to get that performance, but as we know they are not cheap and not that good! Have to say though, the engine itself has been performing very well and I'm pleased with it.

End of the day, if the engine is a bit tired and done a few miles, do you want to greatly increase the power of the engine just by bolting new bits on without a complete rebuild with all new internal bits? Mine didn't need new pistons as the bores were perfect, but if they hadn't been then I would have gone for that as well.

[Blatherskite]

Yup, Minisport did the job, although its not so difficult, being a spanner job. We left the car with them for a week as there was welding as well (sills & the effects of some jerk jacking under the floor pans). It made it \easier to return the old head against the deposit as well, since DHL would have cost a fortune from Norway for that.

Spannerhead wrote a lot of sense as well - our gearbox is almost synchro-free, so sporty gearchanges when going for it are a whole new skill in themselves, but as you can read all over the site, cams are a whole new ballgame - we are quite happy with the approx 50% increase in bhp with the new head, exhaust, rockers, and matching that with negative camber and serious brakes makes for a magical little street car with an exhaust note you can hear coming all the way up the valley. Guess it depends on how far you want to go in prformance improvement. Incidentally, the ECU should take care of all the timing, fuelling etc changes (the Rover ECU is non-programmable) so the rolling road our car was on was just for a before & after power check.

If you are planning to drive from Malmö to Padiham, I hope you have leather buttocks - its quite a way! Ferries may be boring (take own wine), but a good book or 3 solves that, plus truckers are good company... Enjoy the journey!

[minisilverbullet]

So I got the stage 1 kit fitted, and then on the rolling road at minisport:

BHP: 72
Torque: 74

Was pleasently surprised and i felt a notable difference in the car also! Can reccomend!

[RayBoogs]

thats awesome man more than i would of expected!