Made in Poland
Turbo Mini Forums

Hi guys,

My name is Adam and I've been repairing and rebuilding Mini's for few years now. Usually they were brought to their original or sometimes slightly upgraded condition, but time has come to tackle something more challenging. I hope that with your help and advice I'll be able to build some fast but reliable Minis.

I did quite a lot of research now so instead of just saying "hello" I'm starting this thread to share my thougths.

GOAL: around 120BHP 1,3 A+ engine that can be used as a daily driver.

I'm starting with what you can see in the pictures. It's a Metro turbo engine that has been put in to pieces and kept that way on a shelf for few years now. It seems like there is all there, but some parts will surely need replacing or refurbishment.

The idea is to use GT1549 turbo(easily available unlike the gt1548, faster spool up then on the GT17 or T3, hope to be able to run around 15psi) on a custom manifold to keep the body mods to minumum, reworked head (36mm inlet valves, enlarged chambers to reduce CR), 266 cam (or something simular). I think that this along some other smaller or bigger mods should be enough to get the power output I'm aiming for.

On the other side of the equation we've got the reliability part and probably most of the questions I will have will be about what to do to make it all run smoothly and safely.

So is the mission possible?

Cheers

Adam

Attachments:

93.3kb

Made in Poland build thread:
http://www.turbominis.co.uk/forums/index.p...tid=570363&fr=0

Sounds very realistic and should be easily achievable.

In the 13's at last!.. Just

Czesc,

Don't forget the wideband O2 sensor. That is as essential as anything in your build...

I'm planing on at least having exhaust prepared to plug in this to tune the carb properly:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/INNOVATE-LM-2-DIGI...e_Tools&vxp=mtr

Fitting a wideband and AFR gauge permanently is not my decision to make. I'm only preparing the engine but I will inform my client about the benefits of having it fitted.

Anyway my concerns are now focused on something else...

Attachments:

685.81kb

Made in Poland build thread:
http://www.turbominis.co.uk/forums/index.p...tid=570363&fr=0

MMM, thats a bit fucked

yup. however I found a company here in Poland that claims they can deal with it. They will need a flywheel to sort out cone dimensions, but since they estimated the cost at around 25-30quid I might give it a try.

Made in Poland build thread:
http://www.turbominis.co.uk/forums/index.p...tid=570363&fr=0

Question

could you not fill it with weld and re machine it?

Question

could you not fill it with weld and re machine it?

I guess that's what the machine shop will do more or less.

Anyway I'm slowly preparing my parts order. I wondering about the drivetrain, what can I leave stock and should I buy:
-4 pin diff - must
-SC drop gear - must
-SC gears - necessary with the power I'm aiming for?
-uprated clutch - must

Any advice here? Which parts can I use and should I avoid?

Made in Poland build thread:
http://www.turbominis.co.uk/forums/index.p...tid=570363&fr=0

Avoid minisport x pin.

At your power level, I'd just use a standard box and drops rebuilt with care.

In the 13's at last!.. Just

I prefere to be on a safe side with the drivetrain, so I may drop the idea of SC gears but probably only if the budget will be tight.

Thanks for the link Dave, much appreciated.

I noticed a discusion about the cams in another thread. Someone mentiond Kent KC500 cam, on paper they are quite simular to 266, except for inlet duration and powerband. KC500 should have smaller overlap and that shoul be better with spooling up the turbo or am I wrong about that. I'd like to avoid lag if possible, that's one of the reason I'm going to use GT15 turbo, cam working well from the low revs should be helpful too, So which one should I go for?

In the mean time I started working on the block.



I'm not expecting much of a difference here, but it should be a bit less of a restriction for the oil flow.


And here is something you don't usually find inside your A-series block:

Made in Poland build thread:
http://www.turbominis.co.uk/forums/index.p...tid=570363&fr=0

Weird find!? Whats the plan with the water pump hole?

Water pump hole was enlarged a bit towards the back of the block and the edges were rounded to help water flow.

Weird indeed. I was only able to remove it through the last small water hole in the deck so it's been there as a factory option I guess.

Made in Poland build thread:
http://www.turbominis.co.uk/forums/index.p...tid=570363&fr=0

Ah yes i see now what youve done! I wonder if the drill bit caused a former owner a massive annoyance of a certain rattle that he could never find the problem? Haha

I'm liking the attention to detail and reserch going on here.

IIRC the KC500 is the same as the MG metro cam, so a good choice.


a while back sprocket cut up an old block to look at the water ways and posted the results, try searching under sectioned.

I wouldnt have thought reparing the tail on that crank would be cost effective... but I dont know what the supply of them in poland is like.

D4VE, I don't think there was any noise that you could hear, drill was siting tight inside the water way. I didn't even noticed anything until I took a closer look at it.

Thanks Joe, I believe that details are what makes a difference in the end.

Yup KC500 should be simular ore the same profile as Mg Metro cam, still will there be any noticable difference to go with this one or with any other.

Thanks, I'll take a closer look at the sectioned block thread.

There is absolutly no suply of cranks here so I would have to find one in UK and people usually don't want to ship it to Poland, besides for 30 quid I don't think I'll be able to find one and ship it so I might as well give it a try with the refurb.

Made in Poland build thread:
http://www.turbominis.co.uk/forums/index.p...tid=570363&fr=0

I'm slowly finalizing my parts order, at first I'm going to get all of the things to assemble the short block:

-cam and crank bearings - should I take what Minispares offers or look for something else?
-cam kit - did a bit of reading and decide to take the MD266
-cam gear
-arp nuts&bolts
-other small bits

I will also have to deal with the pistons, stock Items I have are looking Ok but I didn't measure them yet and the cylinder walls have a small ridge on both top and bottom of the bore. +020 over should be fine, but I'm also considering +040. Maybe someone has a set that is a surplus. Let me know I might be interested. If not I guess I'll take the Mega Turbo ones - P22357-40

Made in Poland build thread:
http://www.turbominis.co.uk/forums/index.p...tid=570363&fr=0

Minispares have a selection of bearings - so shoud have what you want. I've bought most of my rebuild parts from them (including bearings and pistons). Luckily, they're only a few miles down the road from me but if I needed stuff posting I'd trust them to get it right.

Edited by PhilR on 1st Oct, 2014.

I should have been more clear. What I mean is whether I should buy standard oversize bearing offered by Minispares and other parts supliers - probably Glyco or Mahle or should i look for something more fancy?

Made in Poland build thread:
http://www.turbominis.co.uk/forums/index.p...tid=570363&fr=0

I think mine were a mix of Mahle and AEM from Minispares, they looked good enough to me, but sorry, I can't advise past that.

btw, It's nice to see the small details like the waterways. If building an engine for someone else, it's easy to imagine that many people would take short-cuts knowing that the buyer may never appreciate the care that you might put into a build.

Not much of an update as I'm waiting for the parts to arrive. Some spare time in the evening also would be nice.

Still, I'm working on some other things that may come handy with this build. Here's a OCT I bought for a supercharged engine fitted to a different customers car. I did upgraded it a bit:



Distributor removed as the car will be using Megajolt so that allowed an additional pick up. Second pick up in the place of fuel pump and third on the flywheel housing, not using original cans spared me some place under the hood. Tank will be bolted to firewall where the fuses box usually is. This is how they look with some copper heating piping to help nice and tight fitting, still need some cleaning and painting:

Made in Poland build thread:
http://www.turbominis.co.uk/forums/index.p...tid=570363&fr=0

I'm not expecting much of a difference here, but it should be a bit less of a restriction for the oil flow.



You are doing it a bit out of Pump axial line, on the fish hole...
Check this one i did some time ago:

https://www.facebook.com/EngineQuestASeries...657047217655769


The Gallery hole you should enlarge it to 14mm, keep going you are doing a nice job.


Regards,
Diogo

Thanks for the tip. I think there is still enough place to correct it. Checked out your site. Awesome stuff.

Made in Poland build thread:
http://www.turbominis.co.uk/forums/index.p...tid=570363&fr=0