193 replies to this topic

[Skortchio]

And that's about it for now, just arches and MoT to go and I'm back on the road.

Next on the list is the new LCB and cylinder head once I've tidied it up a bit, then to get the fueling and dizzy set up to match.

Upgraded ICE is on the list, just collecting the right parts before installing.

Oh bugger, forgot about the dashboard... Should fit that too at some point.

May need to adjsut the ride height once the suspension settles back down but the beauty of the Miggy's is they slightly over arch the rear so I can retain full travel while giving a pleasing gap.

Edited by Skortchio, 03 October 2012 - 10:37 AM.

[Skortchio]

A quick check of my messages lead to the realisation that I had a Chunky attachment for my Rivnut tool and as such by about 8pm tonight (yeah while it was raining) the holes and rivnuts were fitted ready for the aches.
Paint arrived for them too, so tomorrow I'll endeavour to get them painted up ready for the final fit.
Like this, in black.

[Skortchio]

Well would you believe it!
The car is whole again for the first time in a while, okay apart from the top dash rail but that's not going back in anyway!
Short version; arches painted and fitted, clear coat didn't cure properly so while fitting them I made a total mess of the finish.
Managed to polish most of it out and managed to resist the urge to pull them off and start again. It's a job for later.
So tomorrow comes the MoT, hopefully successful and I can make the show on Sunday. Tyres are a bit low on the outer edges but I've got 10's going on soon so don't really want to pay out for 12" tyres.
Anyway, on with the pics!






In other news, parts are arriving for stage 2 of the ICE install. Old install, along with the many many parts left over from the project thus far are going to be for sale soon ;)

[Skortchio]

Nothing much to report for today, except the car is back on the road and rolled through it's MoT without a fault.

Do need to tweak the suspension height a little though.





Now onto phase 2! More ICE and power!

Edited by Skortchio, 11 October 2012 - 08:38 PM.

[Shifty]

Looks good and well done with the ticket!!

(maybe a smooth bootlid??)

[Skortchio]

Cheers dude,

Have a smoothie in the garage as it happens. But after some consideration I wasn't too concerned as I haven't figured a way to internalise (sip) the hinges while retaining the boot lining.

Might swap it over later... Once phases 2 and 3 are done

[Skortchio]

After a successful MoT and trip to a motor show, it's time to crack on with phases 2 & 3!
But first:


Phase 2 - some subtle tuning mods followed by a rolling road.
In addition to the current HIF44 and RC40, I've just finished porting a big valve head plus alloy inlet to match along with some pressed rockers of a GT which give near 1:3 ratio but at a fraction of the cost. On the end of the carb is going to be an MED stub stack for smoother air flow in.
A new rotor arm and coil for the 65DM4 takes care of the electrics.



Phase 3 - a better listening enviroment, courtesy of a mean ICE install.
The line up is going to include:
A Genesis Profile 4 amp feeding a set of Genesis Audiofile A16 6.25" comps up front.
A Genesis sub amp sending over 560wrms to a JL Audio 10w6v2-D4 sub.
A big 3 upgrade using gold terminals and 0 gauge cable
Plus a head unit that I haven't quite picked yet.

[miniBrain]

Really excellent job mate, well done. If I could get a paint finish half as good as yours, I might never use the spray gun again. Grateful if you could show more photos of the paint finish in next few posts, if possible,
Thanks,
Bob

[Skortchio]

Cheers man!
I can't say I'll be hanging up my spray gun just yet, it's so convenient

Given the turning of the weather I may hold off on flatting and polishing until the new year, if I bring the finish right up just means I have to clean it more over winter!

But, today I got on with phase 2... In between being interrupted by Mini Magazine for a photo shoot - life of a rockstar, eh

Did manage to make some 'head' way in getting things fitted, aside from a small issue of siezed rocker adjusters and a pillar stud that just didn't want to stay done up, it was fairly problem free.

Of course I say that now, I might retract it tomorrow when I start the car and oil and water pour out the head !
Obligatory pics:

Seems the fueling wasn't exactly spot on...


But everything cleaned up nicely


Suddenly I'd been in the garage 8 hours and it was dark, time for home. No I didn't paint it red, but it actually looks okay. Plus I heard it's good for 5bhp!

[Skortchio]

Well at least I got the photoshoot out the way before anything happened.
Which of course means, something has happened!

New head on: new rockers on, nothing pouring out anywhere - good start!
Compression check: 180 across the board - happy with that!
Identified coolant leak as an errant jubilee clip on the top hose that I forgot to do up (Thanks Scott).

Waited for Dan to come over to tail me on the test drive. Left house, bottom of hill, round roundabout, stop for next roundabout, waiting for traffic...

THUD! Suddenly a Fiesta is trying to getin my boot.


Marvelous.

So in consolation today I took the car to Mowatts to be dyno'd, they didn't change the needle which was a bit ponderous but maybe I'm just that good at profiling them
Ogy came out with an initially crappy sounding 52bhp at the wheel, but after finding out that the auto transmission is taking up 25% at least then it wasn't such a bad 65bhp at the fly.
Not bad considering it has the most rubbish of all the cams in it currently and my total upgrade cost to date is £125.

So... New cam it is!

Oh and a bootlid

[orangeboy]

Well impressed with this thread mate, well done,shame about the boot lid tho!

[Jasonc]

Love the updates,

Shame about the boot - you got a spare tho!

[Skortchio]

Not much to report and given the temperature outside may not be much more this year (unless I actually go and install the new stack of ICE, finish the dash and boot liner and fix the boot...
Ogy has, just for fun blown his gearbox. Given the astronomical cost of repairing it and refreshing the engine it's hard to justify for the money to get back a measly 70ish bhp back with a limited lifespan, so the decision is looking distinctly 16v at the moment.
Obviously given my situation that's going to be a bit tricky in a lot of respects, but I has some monies and I'm willing to part with them for services rendered. If anyone can suggest a place that could do the job for me whom I can talk too about it (I'm picky).
On the upside, I did get into Mini mag before Ogy blew himself up! So here's some more artsy shots than you're used too from me!

[Minidarren83]

I got this months mag and was going to pm you in congratulations on the feature and to see how ogy was getting on but buy your last post the gearbox issue has got worse and you are right about the cost of an auto box fix vs engine swap its sad to think you could probably do a full conversion for the price of the auto repair. If you need any help with anything when I'm not working then ill be happy to lend a hand, I'm not much use but make a cracking coffee lol

Darren

[Skortchio]

Coffee you say?!

Yeah the quote was roughly what I expected, £1100 add in the cost of an engine refresh and you're barrelling towards 2k easy. The guy said he'd modify the box and use metty parts which improve it a long way but it still would get hammered with 85+bhp on it and the lifespan wasn't optimistic over 40k.

For the cost it's just not appealing, compared to around 200bhp I can get out of a K series for £50 on top of the conversion cost.

The conversion is going to take some planning, I know the criteria I want to stick too but it's finding the comprimise and essentially someone who can do the bulk of the heavy work to my rather fantastic expectations

Although you're welcome to come and make me a coffe and talk about the wonders of Mini's, fella