Everyone loves a mini!

In reply to Trent (Generally supportive dude) :

Trent

What brand and style of cover did you use?

Thanks

minihaha

That's beyond cool! 

minihaha said:

In reply to Trent (Generally supportive dude) :

Trent

What brand and style of cover did you use?

Thanks

minihaha

It was this one

Ebay link

The 3.1 gear set. The reason for all this silliness. 

I believe I have everything here to do the swap and subframe bushings.  It will now be a matter of finding the time. 

One more item off the list. Ford VR sensor mount made and the crankshaft pulley machined to be a 36-1 trigger wheel.  The wacky shape is intended to fit under the radiator fan and snake through the alternator belt. This way I will only have to disconnect the sensor wire to change the belt.  

This was actually the 3rd version.  The first ones did their best to occupy space already taken by hoses and motor mounts and what have you.  It's made from 6061 aluminum.  I might add some simple trusses to stiffen it up since the tubes are only 0.053" wall. It is remarkably rigid as is.

Next step is mount the Honda CBR1000 fuel pump in the tank.

It is sadly much larger than the available space I have for it.

Shouldn't be too difficult and the bump out I have to add will at least reclaim the amount of fuel volume I would have lost by the displacement of the pump internals.

I see that I did not do an update with the throttle body setup. Lots of late night ebay browsing, a few purchases of things that seemed promising yet weren't and I ended up with a set of throttle bodies off of an Arctic cat m1000 snowmobile. 

But a pair of 52mm TBs is vastly overkill.  That's ok. I only plan on using one

Luckily the unit with the tps was also the one with the linkage. A junk HS6 sacrificed its base flange to the cause

Which was machined and then welded in situ

Leaving me with a single large bore throttle body with a 2jz tps and 850cc injector and a cable linkage setup. 

The fuel rail was cut down and I added a pulsation damper since every returnless fuel system I have experience with seems to use them

Looks like I still need to replace the inlet nipple with the type that fits OEM quick disconnect fittings. 

I also checked all the megasquirt boxes I have and they all still seem to function. I should probably use the MS1 V2.2 for this since it is just a wasted spark TBI build but one of the MS2V3 units is already modded for EDIS and that seems super easy.

Finding a place to safely mount and hide the ecu and relay board is going to be challenging. 

Excellent work on the crank position sensor mount, but good lord that sensor!  Did you need to use one with a 4" long snout to clear the belts or is that just what you had? 

Mezzanine said:

Excellent work on the crank position sensor mount, but good lord that sensor!  Did you need to use one with a 4" long snout to clear the belts or is that just what you had? 

This is where the issue of scale comes in. That sensor is about 2" long. Normal car parts suddenly become absolutely huge in relation to a mini.

Nick B would be proud. 

I was exaggerating when I said 4"...but VR sensors come in much smaller packages than the 2" option you're using, which is why I asked if it was needed for clearance. Bosch has some smaller form factor sensors. I've often wondered about trying some of the industrial sensors on the market...like these from Mouser.

And totally not criticism. I love what you're doing here. 

Jumper K Balls said:

 

 

I just read through your build, very nice fabrication work and attention to detail.

If you don’t mind I have a small, hopefully, favor to ask. I have a race car (Fiat 850) that I am looking to put a Mini radiator into (small car long story). The pic here shows some of the Mini mounting brackets but how does the radiator attach to what is in the picture? A picture would be great if you have one. Thank you

Boy did you ask the right person

Give me a minute to transfer some photos

Ok first thing first. A mini radiator is mounted by the shroud which mounts via captured nuts on the sides. Super easy to mount things to.

I just laid a Fiat 850 radiator next to a mini radiator so you can see how much smaller the mini radiator is

It would not cool an 850 in the stock location.  It is 3 inches shorter, an inch narrower and half an inch thinner in the core. 

It would most likely do the job mounted up front in the airflow but if you are going that far I would choose something else more commonly available with a bit more cooling capability .

What are the chances you would ask one of the few people in the world who has both a mini and a Fiat 850?

In reply to Trent (Generally supportive dude) :

And both are apart.....

In reply to TurnerX19 :

Woah now. Did you come in here to pick a fight or something? 

In reply to Mezzanine :

Once upon a time I owned 11 cars....And non of them ran. I may be a slow learner, but I did learn. Both of my cars now run, and one is an X1/9.

To be fair the mini was running and in semi daily use up until sunday when I pulled the tank to do the fuel pump mods. I will reinstall it and drive it until I can do the major work.

I have always been amazed that a Mini could cool with that little radiator, and been surprised that the left front tire doesn't overheat in traffic. The rads also seem to last forever.

Tank is modified and sealed

I had some Por15 tank sealer sitting around so that is what I used. I feel a bit remiss that I didn't slice the tank in half and widen the whole thing instead of just bumping out the area of the pump. A bit more volume would have been welcome. 

Clearance between the pump and level sender is tight

It all fits and works though. I managed to keep the stock pickup so I can continue  to drive with the carb for the time being. The sealant needs to cure for 96 hours so I will reinstall Tuesday. 

In reply to Trent (Generally supportive dude) :

How many gallons does that hold?

It is the smaller five and a half gallon tank.

Help me find a fuel filter!

What I am looking for. A filter with 5/16" /8mm quick disconnect ends that either has a 180 on one end or both inlet and outlet on the same side of the case.

If this cbr filter had the QD ends it would be the winner 

And if this one wasn't 3/8" ends it would work too

And of course being grm I thought "someone is gonna say Miata" and lookie there. Almost spot on!

Problem is,  it is almost 6 inches long and 3 inches around. I could probably make room for that but that is awfully large for the space I have. 

So dig back into your memories and try and remember a car/motorcycle/atv/whatever that had something similar,  but smaller. 

Edit: nevermind.  I just remembered that the big white plastic bit on the CBR pump is the filter. It is a replaceable unit and one less item to cram into the car

After finishing up the fuel rail I realized I had overlooked the fuel inlet port.  I just assumed  it was a quick release style but alas it was a hose barb. 

So into the acid bath to remove the zinc plating I had just done

New barb made and decided on the location 

Welded and pressure tested then zinc plated for corrosion resistance 

And then onto the wiring harnesses.  First the ignition side

Then the injection half

Because space is so limited and every millimeter is precious I noticed some dead space on the relay board that could be deleted 

Why does that exist? 

Well,  it doesn't anymore 

Wired to a terminal strip for simplicity 

And since I had all that done, this afternoon I hooked the relay board up, supplied 12v and then fired up tuner studio. 

IAT and CLT read room temperature. I even got the TPS wiring correct first time. VE, Timing and AFR target tables are set with base maps. I think I am a fuel line away from starting the engine swap. 

Perhaps when the west coast isn't doing it's best impression of Mordor I can get it scheduled.  

In case anyone is wondering. The loom I am using is this PET mesh 

I like it. It seems durable. You have to use sharp scissors to get through it.  I do recommend using 3:1 glue lined heat shrink with it. Standard heat shrink tubing allows it to slip around some. 

If the heat shrink pants were at all affordable I would definitely have sprung for them. 

A YEAR AND A HALF!

That is how long it took to get to the next step.... and that was just scope creep.

One of my body guys needed some side work so he polished what's left of the paint up for me

Then while it was in the shop I FINALLY made the brackets and installed the Fiat 124 seats .

Then I noticed that the interior was looking really tatty so out it all came. I removed the foam knee pad on the lower rail which meant I had to remake the "dashboard" which meant custom stuff.

And I started making alloy panels to backdate the look.

I felt better about that. Much brighter and cleaner. 

But the back half of the car was a mess. The PO removed part of the companion boxes to fit his seats 

So some 18ga sheet, the bead roller and bend that over a pipe that seemed about the rights size

I took it out for the weekend and fell back in love with it. I told myself that I really should do the subframe bushings so I can drive it all the time so.....