Project "Marginal gains..."
Turbo Mini Forums

So I tried to bend the Ally rad, it's a twin core rad and I think the fact that as it has two 'columns' i.e. cores mean that trying to bend it is a no no.

I have bent OEM single core rads but it feels like this rad will rupture if I try any harder and already I can see that any core I try to push against in order to try and bend the rad just results in that specific area of the core becoming dented but no discernible overall bend in the rad.

I think you could bend it along it's vertical axis as you are not trying to bend the core itself but if you do this you will close up the gaps between the cores which can't be good.

Unless anyone has any specific experience of trying to do this

Cheers

Edited by Aubrey_Boy on 26th May, 2014.

If you can get access to a set of rolls then I think you will be able to roll a curve in it. Trying to just bend it around something will just kink it as you say.

Yes that sounds like plan I can access some rollers (as long as they are wide enough) but not for a few weeks now.

A more elegant solution than a 90kg human see-saw on the edge of a step :)

Been trying to sort out another self inflicted issue;

I knew the inboard coilovers meant the gear linkage would have to move, difficult to see but it's buried here:





Somewhere inbetween the bulkhead, coilover, diff casing and starter motor

Moving the whole linkage down gave clearance from the coilover and spring but in certain gears part of the linkage then hits the diff casing, so it's taken the best part of a day and a half to juggle .

I have pretty well remade a mock up linkage having to raise one side of the linkage and lower the other

Moving the whole linkage towards the bulkhead would have solved all of the issues but if possible I want to avoid a bulkhead box for linkage clearance



I am not happy with the lost motion that the standard linkage gives and it's easy to see why when you go through the gears so when I remake it I will use bearings for the main pivot and use a helicopter joint to replace the std UJ.

The springs I am mocking up with are the closest I could get off the shelf to what I think I will need but they are at the soft end of the range



I am having a couple of stiffer pairs of springs made and I am also waiting to see if Protech can make a pair of dampers to the spec I have given them as those used here are just for the mock up as the damping is way out with the revised inboard layout.

Cheers

Edited by Aubrey_Boy on 12th Jul, 2017.

I have decided rather than wasting time trying to reduce all the free play in the vauxhall gear mech pivot / linkage I am going to use either a Mini rod change based system (basically the same as those that have fitted the rod change internally and it's already been done before so should be workable) or a secondhand Quaife type lever - so basically this connects directly to the gearbox turret

Also the Vauxhall gear lever cradle is ugly and its difficult to take any more weight out of it (I've already replaced the main rod with a thin wall tube) and the lever cradle is plastic and the gearbox mounted pivot / linkage things weighs a over 1.0 kg itself.

I've measured the movement ratios of the Vauxhall mechanisms, lever and the travel of the Vauxhall turret and the std Mini rod change will not provide the required motion so I have started to modify it and I think the translational movement is now enough but I need to check the amount of rotation before I start spending any money on UJ's.

At the moment it saves about 1.0 kg over what I currently have so worth doing for this alone and hopefully will be more positive.

Cheers

Edited by Aubrey_Boy on 14th Jun, 2014.

That's one of many things about vauxhall engine conversions, the gear selector looks really out of place in a mini.

HHMS do a shifter too.

http://hh-ms.com/parts-catalogue/?SelCateg...ubCategoryID=22

Would love to change the linkage and shifter cage on mine but the cost is huge!

Hi Spencer

Keep up the good work, it all seems to be coming together now.

Just thought I would post up my radiator size if that helps: 440 x 360 x 50 (single core). Have been out in the car recently in some reasonably hot weather and it seems to be able to cope with the heat Ok. I have added an auxiliary electric water pump in my system which helps drop the temperatures when at tick over, might be worth considering for yours? (Only £70 odd so not a wallet buster).

Where did you get the starter motor from and how much, one of those will help give me some extra clearance to my frame.

Mark

I've got the quaife in mine, used 3 helicopter joints and rod off ebay and a bearing mounted on the bulkhead, I am slowly tweaking it, its very, very finicky for throw to get the gears correctly. I've got 1-5 now but need to tweak it a tiny amount at the gearstick to get reverse, it doesn't quite pop in, the reverse lights come on but it doesn't go into gear.

Here for the craic..

Supercharged Arden powered

Hi Alex,

Yes I've been in touch with HH and still waiting for them to get back to me with some details

One thing I did find out from speaking to them is that even though it looks identical (to my eye anyway) it is NOT a Quaife lever, they were very keen to point this out - it is their own HH lever / mount. No idea who copied who or if they are from the same foundry with just a different name cast into them?

MarkGTT,

Yes from new they are silly money, especially the whole kit from HH £840 Inc VAT! Hence why I am looking to make up my own and maybe using selected bits from the HH / Quaife parts bin.

MarkLD,

My phone and SIM got trashed so I have lost your number along with plenty of others as I was going try and pop over a few weeks ago to catch up. Thanks for the core size info that's useful.

My exact starter motor is: WOSP LMS086 - Vauxhall 2.0ltr XE Reduction Gear Starter Motor - I think you have to specify that you want the adapter to be position adjustable.

I got it from http://www.ccw-tools.com/default.asp? At the time (Might be cheaper elsewhere now?) he was the cheapest I could find even compared to some Motorsport places that I got decent discount from. I spoke to him on the phone and seemed a straight forward nice guy.

The really useful thing is the CNC adapter piece allows you to rotate the starter so you can fine tune it's position. I really had no choice as I couldn't make the inboard suspension work without doing it as I don't really need a high torque starter for a turbo motor.

Rich,

Yeah I have heard a few stories of the Quaife / HH lever being marginal as far as travels / rotation goes for a standard synchro box. It's the reason I have spent a fair chunk of time measuring all the travels and rotations of the Vauxhall lever and mechanism and then trying to see what 'off the shelf' levers like the rod change mini have in comparison.

The message from Quaife / HH seems to be that these levers are for use with the dog boxes they supply and while they are aware of people using them with road car synchro boxes they won't guarantee that they work 100% in this application - I am still waiting for a complete clarification from HH as the specific guy I needed to speak to wasn't available, I've given up getting any sensible answers from Quaife.

The other thing that bothers me is that if we have a lever which only just has enough travel to give the required amount of turret travel then as soon as there is any relative movement of the engine / gearbox to the chassis it will try to pull it out of gear, whereas if the lever has a surplus of travel you can get away with some movement before it tries to deselect.

In a way I think it's why the standard vauxhall linkage system has deliberate lost motion built in because it doesn't have a steady bar and therefore engine / gearbox movement just takes this slack up without pulling out of gear. I'd like to look at building a steady bar in but I think I will see how it goes without.

There was another guy with a Blue Clubman XE that used the Quaife setup? Any idea how he got on with it?

Cheers

Completely irrelevant who copied who really. They're both good units and both do a good job. But... I will say that if I was building a vaux dog box I'd much rather use a HHMS gearset than a quaife one, materials they use are a lot better, I'm not sure how that reflects on their shifters though.

The quaife ones do work with syncro boxes, and the HHMS ones will too. The Vauxhall Vectra Challenge series used them, and they ran F22 6 speed syncros, and then later F18 hewland dogs, but kept the same shifter throughout. Throw is limited by the gearbox anyway, not the lever, in my experience of using them.

I have an XTrac unit but you would have to make a funky linkage engine side like I did on my pug as its works the other way to a quaife... its magnesium though... and XTrac. lol.

My 2 pence... don't put a standard unit in, you'll only change it in the future if you ever feel a proper set up.

Edited by alexcrosse on 17th Jun, 2014.

I have measured and remeasured and now think that the modifications to the standard Mini remote have given enough travel in all directions to work the Vauxhall turret. I also think I can leave it so it still looks like a std Mini internal remote (if I want) other than whatever is required to get it all at the desired height.

I have dug out some Apex helicopter universal joints and now that I think it could all work will position the lever and start to mock up the connecting rods. I am going to use 1/2" joints, not sure why the HH and Quaife stuff uses 5/8" as it's just a gear linkage. I plan on using just 2 helicopter joints as well and no bulkhead bearing in the interests of keeping it as light and simple as possible, I will probably angle the lever slightly towards the turret to help with the UJ angles.

My only reservation still is engine movement as I don't want to make the engine mounts too stiff but still feel it will be liable to pull out of gear being so direct.

Cheers

Edited by Aubrey_Boy on 19th Jun, 2014.

For a change something actually took less time than I thought.

The Mini rod linkage has been modified and lightened, the rod going into the turret modified to take the Apex UJ and the mock up rods cut to length.

This is the Apex joint next to the standard Vauxhall 'UJ':



They weigh just 60 grammes, for some reason nowhere seems to sell Apex joints anymore (other than the US), the only ones I can find in the UK are 'Racetech' which look like a copy of the Apex.

I have removed the inboard coilover to show the linkage better:



It's so tidy in this area now and clearance isn't a problem any more.



Also there is definately no need for a bulkhead box now either.



This shows the gear lever mount is angled slightly to help with the UJ angles. The rods are from the standard Mini remote and cut to length but I will use T45 tube which is about half the weight of the solid rods.



In all it is just over 1.5 kg lighter than what I had before and feels very direct and positive

I may add a guide for the rod near where the floor meets the toeboard, its difficult to tell as I need to replace the DU bushes in the gear lever mount which may mean the rod feels better supported than it does now



Just need to sort the gear lever mount out properly as I did all the mockup with G clamps and box section to hold it place and make the gear lever itself out of tube instead of solid

Cheers

Edited by Aubrey_Boy on 12th Jul, 2017.

yes I agree, deffo one just before the uj.

Edited by robert on 18th Oct, 2017.

Medusa + injection = too much torque for the dyno ..https://youtu.be/qg5o0_tJxYM

It took a few more iterations on the top wishbones before everything cleared the subframe and the bulkhead and still gave the correct wheel rate but I hope these are finished for now:





They had to remain adjustable in order to change the camber setting

Fitted to the subframe:





Just temporary bolts

The damper lower yokes still need to be 'skinned' over, adjustable rod ends allow the ride height to be adjusted and keep the coilover in the middle of its available travel.



I'd describe them as function over form as there didn't seem any simple way to make them any easier on the eye.





They are pretty light still as the S514 skins are only 0.9mm and the additional T45 tubes are 1.2mm







All being well we should start fabricating the sump next week and after that I want to get it on it's wheels for the first time in a while

Cheers

Edited by Aubrey_Boy on 12th Jul, 2017.

Very impressive fabrication, what is the benefit of inboard suspension compared to the conventional setup?

This build is so much like mine its scary lol

On 5th Oct, 2014 Shauna said:
What that's crazy, you go commando hahaha! How heavy is your helmet ?

Medusa + injection = too much torque for the dyno ..https://youtu.be/qg5o0_tJxYM

those arms look soooo strong!

Cheers guys,

Dion, the only reason I did the inboard coilovers was because the coilovers in the standard position gave a falling wheel rate which was especially bad in roll. To keep coilovers in the standard position I would have to have a had a much wider track as the bottom of the coilover mount needed to move outboard quite a bit which is not possible with ET44 wheels.

With the inboard setup you can get whatever you want, falling rate, constant rate or rising rate.

It also helps lower the CofG slightly but not the reason I did it.

Cheers

I have started posting on Instagram also my name on there is turbomk1golf

Nothing is impossible it just costs more and takes longer.

If builds were food, this would be a full 3 course meal at a top michelin star restaurant with live music by Tony Bennett. My build would be a 3 day old half eaten piece of pizza from a bin behind aldi

On 5th Oct, 2014 Shauna said:
What that's crazy, you go commando hahaha! How heavy is your helmet ?

Medusa + injection = too much torque for the dyno ..https://youtu.be/qg5o0_tJxYM

Edited by Aubrey_Boy on 12th Jul, 2017.