DISASTER STRUCK!
Turbo Mini Forums

Disaster struck!

Well disaster struck driving at only 10 psi boost 3500 RPM & BANG!
The diffs gone iam assuming so

raging the unit out and going to sort this giving minispares a few quid tomorrow with diff drops etc etc......

keep you all posted

I know it was on borrowed time you just get greedy with the power


BEN:


Mod Edit:
Sorry Ben, but it seems people can't stop bickering on this forum. LOCKED.

Edited by AlexB on 5th Sep, 2005.

Ben- email sent

cheers tom

bad luck mate

Team Racing

sorry to hear that mate, hope you get it sorted soon.

-MINI CLUBMAN 1380 TURBO-

Ho hum!

Still - a nice winter project eh?

going to change the diff & drops
this weekend as a put me on to have some fun with,

untill the other projects afoot!

i know it would break!

what the hell ifs all fun!

sorry to hear that mate.

yes keep upgrading untill ican't break

Best 1/4 mile 13.2 seconds @116 mph
First 5 port miniturbo to make over 200 bhp on a carb?
First 5 port miniturbo to make over 200 bhp on Injection?

http://www.mattwoodsphotography.com

Thats actually impossible with mini engines though....

bang on Q , mister vauxhall performance steps in with more uninformed untruthes . i was going to say bollocks but i am trying to be civil'ish.

WWW.FORCE-RACING.CO.UK PLEASE CLICK HERE

yes indeed carl...

benross was on on about mini transmissions....anyway..

Oh i was embarassed to talk to you at Pod the other month "barney", i was just being polite in front of my kids.

Jon.

If you had something to say, why didn't you say it, or if you were embaressed, why didn't you just fuck off and take your kids with you so they didn't have to be near me. I'm a very easy going person, a spade is a spade, if you had annoyed me I would have just asked you politely to fuck off.

Anyway, back on topic, everything has its limits, I do believe the mainshaft is the final weak link in the mini gearbox, they just snap when too much power is exerted through them. I'm not talking for the one time you use the car in anger, I regularly use to abuse my mini turbo, made 130lb/ft of torque at sanspeed, and after 8000 miles the mainshaft just snapped in half. I had a 4 pin diff, rebuilt gearbox by AC Dodd. I rebuilt it and sold it before it cost me anymore money. Everything has its limits, and whatever you do to it you are still basing your modifications on 1940's technology and as everyone knows that definately has its limits.

Rich

Politely told me to Fcuk off?

that would have been interesting !!!!!!!!

WWW.FORCE-RACING.CO.UK PLEASE CLICK HERE

well barney thats a first for me never seen a main shaft snap before, also with only 130 ft lb of torque.

either you had a bad one or gave it contiunuse abuse with slicks of the start line.

saying that AC dodd makes bloody good gearboxes and every thing does have its limits.

mind you ive made loads of gearboxes were the engines are pumping out excess of 150 hp with no probs.

except willie box which was down to layhear bearings which needed replacing and was time expired on them

most sccr boxes pumping out 150 plus should last a few years with some preventive maintance once a year like check over of the bearings and replacing layshaft and layshaft bearings.

always looking for them bigger bunches of bannanas

i feel a little tension in the air lol

i feel like im missing out on something

Hope you get it sorted mate, nice seeing you at Full Ponte's meet. Hope to see you again on the 15th or 30th of the months.

Whens this new project coming into play then??

Cheers

Shane
AKA MiniMadness
www.thefullponte.co.uk

hope you enjoyed looking at the motor but alas i did not give you a ride
next meet for sure shane

project!
over the winter period with the help of one or too Top! guys on here.

top secret

When it did break, the layshaft was shagged as well, as well as second and 3rd gear baulk ring were apparently on their way out. I got adrian to piece it back together with the best bits he could find. I think the main problem with it was it produced it at about 3500 rpm and used to pull well after that. I used it for 8 months, august to april when I sold it. In that time with "only" 130lb/ft it broke once and a month after I sold it to a guy in the states the gearbox went again, and then the engine. I spent ?3000 in total on the engine and box while I had it I thought it had pretty much the best of everything you could get, clearly not. I must have spent a grand alone on the gearbox, alright I didn't build it, but I had to reattach it to the engine and bolt the lot in and out quite a few times. You can see why it pisses me off so much, for ?1000 you would expect it to last a bit. I only ever took it up santapod a few times, other than that it was just normal fast road driving.

I could had just thrown ? after ? at it, if I had put a set of SC drops and gearset in , that would also have lasted 5 minutes, they knock all the case hardening off themselves very quickly with road driving, so there is no real way around it. My idea of something unbreakable and reliable is something you can start up in the morning, give plenty of stick to, and do it all day every day for year on year, and just do regular servicing. My mini wasn't like that which is why It pissed me off so much and I sold it. I'm not an abusive driver, I drive my 16v astra van much harder than I used to drive my mini, and after 105000 miles (and probably more) it still pulling like a train and still 150bhp. I just couldn't get that with the mini day in, day out.

Rich

are rich you were using helical gears didnt know that,

the theory on sc gears i still say are misfounded which a lot of people say dont last long.

my sc drops are years old now and still going strong. they were in willies 1380 for 4 years then 2 years in his mega turbo, i bought them 5 years ok with 4 of them being in my 1380 then 1 year in my turbo.

admittly my sc gear set has a bit of pitting but still doesnt render them U/S.

a sccr box built well should last at least 4 years if under 150 bhp and torque before new bearings are needed.


yes the red top 16v engines are bloody good but i would rather drive a 150 bhp mini than an astra van.

and the wine from the sc drops gets the fanny looking cant say the same with an astra van lol.

always looking for them bigger bunches of bannanas

Barney, if you loathe Minis so much why don't you just fuck off?

Nicely said Vegard !

WWW.TURBO-MINI.COM

There is nothing new in what you say. A mini engine as you point out, is a very old design. Taking a very old design, and then asking it to cope with a power increase to a level many times its design intent, what do you expect?

Everyone on here is fully aware that the A series engine and gearbox in such a state of tune is a fragile piece of kit, but we accept this and accept the need to remove the engine periodically if only to do checks and replace it.

An a series turbo motor, especially at higher power levels is never going to compete on reliability with a modern 16V engine. Better materials, 5 main bearing cranks, larger sizes on journals etc.

If you want something that you can use and just service, then all well and good to your Astramax van or whatever the hell it is, the majority of people on this board have other road cars to use, off the top of my head I can think of people owning Subarus, Audis, Golf GTI's, Peugeot GTI's. All of the above will do the "accept a beating and only need servicing" thing, nothing new there either.
But the people who own the above cars, also decide to have a Mini Turbo as well, either have had one years, or are building one. "Why?" you ask? Well why the hell not, each to their own.

my daily driver is a mini30 people who have seen it will tell you what a wreck it is yet i never really touch it and i rant the shit out of it, dont think ive washed it in the 3 years ive had it yet it goes it stops and has far more cred than a chavs astra

lol at vegard,!.
and yes Ton , this is just covering old ground yet again, ,

but whilst were here ,i have been doing some long term tests for NASA. with regard to an all new propulsion method .i was gived a small single cylinder engine developing 800 hp and @ 33.000 rpm 2000 lbs ft torque@ 2000 rpm.[ a realy clever and compact thought out piece of kit if i say so myself] which i mounted to a standard early mini box ansd over the last 10 years have racked up 500,000 miles with not one problem .OH except the time i broke a finger nail whilst changing the oil @ 400,000 miles.
so there you are , proof once and for all that the mini gearbox is indestructable ,and if anyone is breaking theres it will no doubt be due to the use of far too little power..,
NASA will be making a press release to this effect in the year 2070, or was it 69.

i rest my case.

carl

WWW.FORCE-RACING.CO.UK PLEASE CLICK HERE