16 Valve Turbo
Turbo Mini Forums

Could any one out there tell me if it would be possible to turbo charge the KAD 16 valve cyclinder head, i have been thinking of this option for a while now and think if you can get the gear box to a fairly reliable standard it would truely be a awesome and fun car to drive, the power would be massive, and would fend off the punto brigade with ease. Any advice or even critisim would be much help.

Many thanks barkiboi (Chris Barkas)

hi chris,

if you say.... fitted mega squirt fueling and mapped ignition and had all the good internals exaust etc you would have

what we call a KILLER ENGINE pushing the boundries of
250BHP ISH.....

would cost you a few quid but you only live once!

Thanks for your reply, 250.... why not add a nitrous kit cut boost lag time by using it to cover the time where the turbo is not producing boost, and try to round it up to the 300bhp majic mark now that would be intresting.

a "correctley" sized turbo say of the VATN type there would be no need for the nos

im pretty sure i remeber reading somewhere that the chambers on the 16v head were very small, which would make keeping the compression ratio down very difficult.... doable tho, with enough work i would think!

And on the 7th day........... God created turbochargers!

you can fend off anything in a mini its called going round a corner lol

if only that were true gav lol

Alex

AlexF

I couldn't think of anything more useless. It would last about 1 full throttle before completely destroying the excuse for a gearbox underneath it, and that would be the 10 grand or similar down the drain. If you want a decent 16v turbo engine for you mini stick a cosworth unit or a vauxhall unit in it.

B.

Barney i will have to disagree, yeah true. But if u have the money and the time i say go for it, just because it would be for the entertainment value, so i will have to disagree. It all depends on what u want, Enzo Ferrari once said the engine is the heart of any machine. So if u want a wolf in sheeps clothing go for the 16 valve trans plant and have something which looks like a mini but doesnt sound and handle like one, or stay fathefull to the good old A series and have a car which rearly means something and has the heart and bollox of a true mini, to some people that means a lot more.

all mods awaiting barneys reply!

Team Racing

" but doesnt sound and handle like one"

just a quick post, modern engines are getting ligher and lighter, my "k"series weighs in at less than my "a".

By all meens turbo a kad-headed a-sereis if you want, but thats guna be a £15k+ engine build. if you have the money then play away, but jsut think how much(reliable) power you could get from a more modern lump.

and besides and a-series with a KAD head, is no longer an a-series. IMHO.

turbo 16v k-series 11.9@118.9 :)

Denis O'Brien.

how will it cost 15k?

I think the problem with the xe lump in the mini, is where the weight is, it's too far forward, great off the line, but can have understeer on the track

Team Racing

well, the way i see it, if you rguna spend (and im sure im rught here) 5g+ on a cylinder head, then yourt going to have the bottom end machined to perfection, your going to have a forged crank, for this applicartion your going to have to have custom pistons made, your going to have fancy rods, your probably goin gto need a custom cam(s) grind, your also gonig to use a new (customised to suit) turbo, hideously expensive manifold, whole expensive EFI setup. and thats before you even look at the gearbox. al i was sayign is if your guna spend that much on a cylinder head, your guna be lavishign jsu tas much cash on teh rest of the engine, and it will end in a very expensive build.

im sure i recall danwebster**** on miniclassic quoting over 10k for his kad build, and that was Nat Asp.

turbo 16v k-series 11.9@118.9 :)

Denis O'Brien.

I'm sure you could spend that money, I'd be more than happy to put a 16v head on my bottom end

Team Racing

fair enough :) just a point i was making

p.s. apologies for the apauling typing.

turbo 16v k-series 11.9@118.9 :)

Denis O'Brien.

As a final thought.

Until someone comes up with a clutch for the 'a' which dosen't slip at torques above 160 - 170 lbft there's no point building a more powerful engine.

Wil

Fastest 998 mini in the world? 13.05 1/4 mile 106mph

good point wil!

Team Racing

I wanted to turbo my 8 port, but the potential cost versus the performance gains, reliability issues and my limited engineering skills made me think something like this would be a better option -

http://fastroadandtrack.co.uk/frat/showad.php?adid=2539

I believe there's a supercharger kit available if you could get it to fit :)

I understand the purists opinion that a mini should have an a-series engine, but I'm more 'best tool for the job' minded and if I could spare the cash I'd buy that mini tomorrow.

Edited by Neil8p on 5th Jul, 2005.

Thank you everyone for your replies they are a very good help tp me, I will try to keep u all informed in my choices which way to go, and progress. Even tho i am a purest I like the idea of a k series, and i do also believe that rover produced a turbo charged version.... the possibilities, going back to the a series, thank you alot Will for the information regarding clutches the amount of torque they could handle never crossed my mind a lower spec of tune may be required. As for torque i believe its the torque of the engine which is responsible for destroying gearboxes so would this mean if i could keep the torque down the power will be able to rise therefore gearboxes will be more reliable and clutches won't slip, your views and more information would be helpfull.

Barkiboi

I reckon that you may as well put a BDA engine on a mini box for the price of a KAD or similar. I heard of a complete kit for £3K, and it was a 1600. Only had £1500 at the time though.

Bugger off, I'm getting there.

if you really wanted to have a 16v turbo, ive seen a turbo 16v (gti) 1.3 suzuki swift. loads of people put the n/a version in their minis...dont see why a turbo one wouldnt fit. and those engines are superlight compared to an a-series.

"Turbo's make torque, and torque makes fun"

"did you know you can toast potato waffles?"

Team Racing

Cough,cough Carl/Tom, the Don, cough cough

Oh,,, that`s right i have one too ok ok it`s only a turbo 16v BMC/W

www.miniman.com.au

"""LazyGoodForNothingSmartArseKnowItAllBackYardMiniMechanic"""

I found comments as far back as Feb 2006 where Carl was talking about doing this, so its been in the pipeline for some time before this, but at the time Carl never really had the cash Does any one really have the cash for any of these things