Drop gears
Turbo Mini Forums

Hi everyone, my name is Rod
I have in my possession a mini van with a turbo A+. I would really like to take it up a notch in Horsepower, but am faced with needing to go to SC drop gears. Reading has suggested to me that during the ERA mini development experiments were made with positive lubrication to the drop gears. Does anyone know anything about this? I'm looking to reduce the racket from the SC drops as I'd rather listen to the engine singing than the gearbox whining. I have also been trying to find info on what actually fails in the gearbox under increased torque, can anyone enlighten me?
In earlier years I messed around a lot with na 1360cc hot mini's and had so much fun! Thirty years on I can't believe that there is still a full list of parts and bits and pieces available so I'm teaching my sons the joy of a hot cooper (man is not complete as a driver until he has experienced driving a hot mini)

AFAIK the experiments never made it into production, and they just went with a larger bearing on the bottom transfer gear in the transfer housing, ( but most of us dont bother with this larger bearing anyway)

the standard drops are pretty resilient, if you use the later MPI ones and bearings they can take over 200 hp.

straight cut drops are always going to be noisy, I did direct oil to mine my diverting the oil relief outlet out the side of the block and pointing it at the drops, maybe makes a bit of difference, but dont expect miracles.

Ahha, just what I had been thinking, thank you, I won't go there! The extra lube sounded like a good idea at the time! This particular vehicle has only been in my possession for a short while and I definitely need to rebuild to solve a serious oil pressure problem. While it's in pieces I'd like to take it to 125 to 130 hp with a bit of head work, new Pistons and a little more boost!
You guys have a lot of knowledge and exp., I have thought of getting Pistons made to drop the compression, have any of you done this? Also, has anyone used 1.5 roller rockers on a stock head and gained horses? I fully expect to put a haltech engine management system in to take the human factor out. Not like the old days when tuning was done by ear!!!!

130hp wont even trouble helical drop gears.

When I had mine years ago I bust gear casings, stripped teeth off straight cut gears ( always 3rd to be fair ), broke 4 pin diffs....and the A+ drop gears never gave a hint of caring about it all.

9.85 @ 145mph
202mph standing mile
speed didn't kill me, but taxation probably will

You can't use 1.5:1 ratio rockers with a standard head. The valve springs will bind.

In the 13's at last!.. Just

Thank you for the input, it looks like I need to spend a little more on the head than was planned! Is there a set amount that needs to come out of the head to lower the valve springs?

Do you need 1.5? Always under the impression that 1.3 was en ough with a turbo engine.

you can do anything if you set your mind to it...
i rather blow it up winning than keep it together losing.

finish date set for project 1... march 2018

I'm not a fan of 1.5 rockers. If you're binding the springs with them, your cam already has plenty of lift, so not needed IMO.

9.85 @ 145mph
202mph standing mile
speed didn't kill me, but taxation probably will