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any idea what power it was runnin sanchez? still unsure what i want to run this at. after all the gearbox was only meant to take 40hp, i could be possibly runing 3x that through it!

should be able to give the new motor a run for it money .

hmmm, i definatley have a re think on that gear box, the way i see it the car weights sod all, and the old gearboxes on them are tough so it should be ok but have a word with a to b auto s in hoylake about a better gear box, i think that the power from the mini i had was around 80bhp.

don't worry about the box, it can handle a certian ammount of power. only really weak spot is the second sincro. when you start pushing over 100bhp, you need to think about an uprated diff. 120bhp and the drop gears will need to be straight cut, and idealy straight cut the whole box. anything above that and a dog box is called for, some have even seen 200+bhp from a 1.3 aseries! don't think i'll be pushing it that far!

a wee bit of progress, finished the hole in my bulkhead. the box sits in nice and snug now, should hopefully have it welded tomorrow afternoon if the weathers good

before


after


and how it fits

got the turbo box welded in and painted. i know i rushed it, and it would have looked better if i took my time, but most of it will be covered anyway! picture was taken while it was still wet. the colour match won't be perfect as i did this using rattle cans.



thats it for now

looks like you did a good job. Shame about the colour match though, does it look a closer match dry?

can't really check now, the problems with changing engine ideas after you've done the bodywork. the surrounding area is completely covered in dust, i shall clean it off next week, and if it shows and obvious line then i shall re-paint the whole underbonnet area.

do you think it'll be worth it even if it's not going to be much visable?

we shall wait and see!

spent money i didn't have on a new cross pin differential from minispares! built it up today in work, and plan to put it in the box tomorrow.
comparison to standard differential



hmmm i wonder which one i will fit.....

engine went in today, not with ease though! bought some bottom engine mounts of ebay, the ones with nuts welded on the actual mount to make putting your engine in a lot easier, trust me it doesn't! i struggled for an hour with the fubaring things, in the end abuse with a hammer got one side on, and the other i ripped of the welded nut and just put a bolt through!

i should have just got normal mounts, as it would have been a doddle! ah well i know for future now, the paint match on the bulkhead is pretty good, but due to applying too much paint in one go, i have quite bad orange peel on it, but hey at least its blue! the engine should be hopefully staying in now for good, have already fitted the differential, shimmed it up and torqued it up! i did put my turbo box in the right place, thankgod, and i have quite abit of room around it, as to keep the turbo cool. enough chat heres some pics!

not much done over chrimbo. the 13x7 wheels that i got were from a mini supplier but were made by midland wheels, and i can see why mws have such a bad reputation. my wheels have seen no road use at all, just been exposed to abit of water and the laquer has already started to peel and go cloudly! now i could return these and get some others but no doubt they would only do the same. so i have resulted in remove the laquer just on the metal. its hard to see by the pictures, but the one with the laquer removed is now more shiny than the laquered one! i've only done the one, and the laquer was removed crudely by some brake fluid! they have been polished up with autoglym's metal polish, and they should last a month or two with out re-polishing with some belgom alu!

no laquer


laquer


other than that i've just replaced the fuse box with something more reliable! plus i have plenty more spaces for more gadgets!

i've been full of cold this weekend, so couldn't do as much as i wanted. lots of small bit bought, inc gaskets, turbo down pipe, braided oil feed pipe. hopefully i won't be doing this agian too often, fitting the head gasket



and the only other thing was to fit the turbo down pipe, which i struggled with for an hour! but its on now



and a random image of the car in the air

little odds and sod done this weekend. one of them was the heater. now i do want to be warm in winter and with the fitment of a turbo box i needed to re-mount it. so this is my solution. the rear is suspended if you will on 2 long bolts on l brackets at the back. at the front i have 2 more bolts which go into the holes in the bottom dash rail. some people might find it crude and half finished but it is secure and it will do for me!



now we all know the mini shifting mechanism on a mini seems abit loose and well sloppy. i will be getting a kad shifter to help but also i am trying this minispares slick shifter. it certianly makes a difference, for those who don't know what its for it is basically a spring used to center the gear stick in neutral right between 3rd and 4th. it was originally created for 5speed gearboxes to prevent 2nd to 5th shifting. gives it a more modern feeling.