Opinions Please...
Turbo Mini Forums

After the RivRun, i've decided to keep my mini and slap a turbo on it.

I've set myself a target of July to have this done, so the conversion will be done on a budget.

I'm not looking for big power, 100bhp will do me fine atm.

So, should i,

Turbo the lump i have, hoping that running low boost will not melt it. Has anyone on here ever used spacer plates to lower compression?

Wait and pay over the odds for a full metty turbo lump on ebay?

Any other suggestions? Budget is about ?500 so t2 is out.

ric there are many ways to go

if you use the standart lump you could take the beak out of the combustion chamber lowering the C/R to around 8:5:1

this together with an intercooler and say areound 10psi boost should give you a good 100bhpish..................................

providing the engine and box is up to the job!???

decompression plates in my oppinnion is not the way to go !

alternativley you can go the way of obtaining a metro turbo engine and all the anciliries

may be the best !

Edited by BENROSS on 9th May, 2005.

If you 'only' want 100bhp why not go down the NA tuning route for now? A decent flowed head coupled with a cam, decent exhaust and a few other bits will give 90+bhp without touching the rest of it at all.
Make it easier to do by junking the SPi and fitting a HIF44.

I know that is not really in the spirit of the site but if 100bhp is the aim on £500 I would say that the turbo route will be more difficult and cause you more grief and pain in the arse than what I suggest above.
Also not trying to be harsh but not so long ago you were not sure about fitting Hi-Lo's, doing a turbo conversion is not that HARD, but you do need a fair bit of mechanical knowledge and know how, unless you can afford to pay someone else to do the work.

Hope that doesn't sound to down on you but I am just trying to give the best solution I can see on what I know?

Edit- PS I would not use a decompression plate on my lawnmower let alone a car engine......

Edited by Tom Fenton on 9th May, 2005.

its never worth budgeting for a job like this, it has cost me an arm and a leg and my mini is the worst looking motor you'll ever see.
how much do metty turbo motors go for these days guys? i paid £300 for mine from local rag.
by the time a bought fuel pump fuel lines air filter, air pipe, bleed valve , guages, stupid tools like brazing kit for sorting the tank, turbo down pipe, bulk head box, engines steadys, oil pipe, loads of stuff i've missed also your talking way over £500, to be honest i thought it was gonna work out a cheap job boy was i wrong and wished i never started my mrs is working her evil magic over me trying to make me sell it, BUT THE FORCE IS STRONG IN THIS ONE i wont let her get to me i wont turn to the dark side and drive a corsa.

Tom F, I'm afraid I got to disagree!

£500 and a turbo I think is definalty the way to go!

£500 gets you a good spec NA head and thats it! You wont see 100 bhp out a 1275 with just a decent head IMO.

Alex

AlexF

That was my way of thinking too.

Plus NA is boring and common.

Tom, no offence taken at all, and i see where you're coming from. However, I've fitted the hilos and shocks now, and was amazing at how easy it was. I've got no issues with taking an engine out...

Point taken about the spacer plates, avoid like the plague!!

Yea turbo'ing is a lot more expensive then i first thought, in fact- custom building the car as a whole is more expensive then i thought having just spent 400 notes on suspension, i wouldnt go for the turbo route if youve only got 500 quid

THAT £500 hes talking about has gotta pay for the lump also !
a secound hand lump will put a £300 dent in that straight away which leaves £200 to play with.

i think its great some one wants to join our little gang and do a turbo, and good luck to the guy but dont do what i did wade in blind thinking it wont take long and wont cost much think myself and tom are just issueing a word of warning, like i said in an earlier post i wish i never started mine and kept my cooper rsp motor in and spent the money on cosmetic changes ect, good luck if you decide to go for it, myself and every one on here is very helpful and will give you as much guidance as you want

Yes well said Steve, not trying to say do or don't, its your choice at the end of the day.

I have spent over 2 grand on my engine, the gearbox is another grand on top. The potential to spend obscene amounts of money on "just a Mini" is unbelieveable..........just be warned, or else your bank manager may never forgive you.

I would turbo your original engine if in good order, the problem with buying a second hand turbo engine is that most of them have been abused.

500 quid is a fair bit of money for a turbo conversion. they aren't that expensive to do. if you only want a 100 or so bhp. you don't need to spend mega money on new uprated bits standard second hand bits will be fine for the power you want.

You've already got the injection tank and fuel pipes on the car time and money saved there. now all you need to to is modify the combustion chambers on you head and go on the hunt on ebay for carb, turbo fuel reg etc.

Maybe i was lucky i brought a complete 50k miles metro turbo will T&T for 50quid.

A turbo lump can be thrown in a mini for 500 quid if you can get a cheap old doner car.

Thats what I did on my first turbo mini way back....!

But you cant expect to pull a shitty A-series from a dying metro and then run it at 100bhp and expect it to work for very long.

But you will quickly learn about every fault a mini can have, and be come a turbo expert!

With your new found expertise you decide to save a decent budget, and build yourself a decent engine.

Seriously mate, you've got to strip any old a-series, turbo or Nat Asp. and leave nothing to chance if you want any reliability.

But if its only for a weekend car and you don't need to rely on it then go for it lol

turbo steve i bet my mini looks the worst car youll ever see!

if you could get a good runner metro turbo then that would be excellent and cheap but to be honest aint gonna happen.

imho id say turbo is the way to go a standard turbo setup has about as much power as a highly ish tuned 1275, but if your gonna source the parts sepperatly then it will defo cost more than 500 quid unless you are very very lucky. most parts on the market need rebuilding now i rekon some are 20 yrs old.

toms about right with prixces but remember add 50 quid for a carb rebuild kit. add say 200ish quid for a turbo rebuid, knackered valve guides on head etc. dont mean to scare you off but just be aware weve all seen it many mant times before.

if your gonna doit do it the best you can otherwise youll end up spending the next 12 mnths chasing around after silly problems get pissed off then abandon it.

good luck

no longer a series, but still 1.3 turbo.

i made myself a little checklist thing when i turbo'd my car. yours should be a bit cheaper aswell if its an spi seeing as you wont have the fuel tank/pump hassles.

anyway here's what i spent and where.

turbo checklist......

complete engine £250
fuel pump £45
fuel reg £20
bulkhead box: minispares £25
fuel tank : t piece £5
exhaust downpipe : minispares £30
fuel line : motoraids £20
fuel filter : motoraids £2
2x head gasket sets : E&D cylinder heads £42
oil : makro £20
chromed plenum : ebay £21
air filter : avonbar £30
exhaust clamp : avonbar £10
head skim 10thou : E&D cylinder heads £20

total £540


you wont need the second head set or the skim, just that i found mine was warped when i came to run it for the first time.

Edited by Nick on 10th May, 2005.

I did my racers for 500 quid... and its still on the 1st engine I brought!

If you have a good std engine, then the bolt on bits are within reach IMO.

Alex

AlexF

i wouldnt spend £2 on a fuel filter, mine was 40 quid!

40 quid?!

Alex

AlexF

summat like that its one of the motorsport ones from avonbar its all anodised though looks like this

Thanks for all the replies people.

It is only a weekend car and it only does about 1500 miles a year so reliability isn't _that_ important. I fully expect to have to rebuild it, just want to get it done quickly for the time being, then rebuild it 'properly' later.

What do people think of this?

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vie...7972682582&rd=1

£500 for everything, but like he said you then need the bulkhead box and a RR set up (and some other stuff coz nothings ever that staight forward), although you always have your engine to sell...........

thats a bit ott imo

alex

AlexF

ott price-wise, or ott for what i need?

My thinking was that i will have a lot of parts left over. My old engine, ecu, an exhaust, a tank, a fuel pump, etc...

I can ebay these to cover costs.

I think Alex is referring to gav's £40 fuel filter actually.......