The reason things have been abit quiet with the mini. Warning, JDM inside.
Turbo Mini Forums

I went from an 80 banana escort to this, currently stage 3 and about 300 bananas. Like everyone says, so it some respect and you should be ok and just chillax if it's a bit wet cause it can get messy real easy! Have Fun!

You got a flatty gareth

Pictures are on thier way!

I so badly want one of these but they are way out of my price range at the mo !

"So wat we gonna do tonight Brain?"
"Same thing we do evernight Pinky!"
"Try to take over the world!"

Well, i was hoping to be up and running this weekend but ive had some set-backs.

Got my new rods so i built the short motor up. Then found that the spare cranks pulley key is missing after polishing. No problem, I'll pop the one out of the old crank....PING! that hit the roof, lost!

Oh well, at leat i can build the engine up and get it in the car, then get a keyway to fit from the machine shop that polished the crank.

So i finished off porting the head, lapped the valves in, cleaned it all up and got rid of all of the swarf.

Built the head back up to find that i've managed to loose two spring seat washers! So i cant put the head back on! Which means im now as far as i can go with the engine untill i can get hold of nissan and get them to get me some spring seats and a keyway.

Time for the body work! The primer on the bootlid reacted in a small place and there where a few imperfections that i wasn't happy with (its only getting rattle canned but still!) so i dug them out and started again!

All went well this time round, no reactions this time!

Also the R/H headlight cover had some surface rust on it so that was removed, bare metaled, rust treated and resprayed.

The last thing was the big ugly black number plate surround! Plastic primed and painted white.

Just leaves me to flat back the bootlid and the headlight cover then polish them up. Then short of taking the front bumper off and repainting it properly (been rattle canned) im happy with the body work for the moment.

Some in process pictures, i'll take some finished pictures when its all done.























Oh and i checked the ECU to make sure its a stage 3 chip which it is. And checked the part numbers on the turbo to make sure it was what i was told...which it is! GT28R YAY!!!

Oh x2 i didnt choose the cam cover colours! I'll sort that eventually! although they are growing on me!

Oh x3 Advantage, cheers for the offer, this ones already got a RPS paddle clutch and Jun lightweight flywheel.

If it lets go any time soon i'll take it! How much you looking for out of interest? never hurts to have a spare....

Bit of an update on this.

Engine went in and was running by wednesday, (after a very embarrasing pipe work disaster than im not going to talk about) small oil leak from the sump (thye dont run a proper gasket) so a full rubber gasket is on order.

Then on the test run realised it was burning oil :( further inspection showed it was buring through number 4 only. Compression test first off showed low on number 4 (forgot a wet test as it was late). The next day i decided i would re-do the compression test and also do a wet-test....compression on 4 now the same as the rest, yet burning more oil than ever?!

So engine is coming back out!

Onto the bodywork! Sprayed up the bootlid....the paint seperated from itself for some reason?! so that has been sanded back and ive started again! This time ditching the rattlers and using 2k!

So thats been primed, flatted right back again and now has its second coat of primer on.

Front bumper has been taken off to have abit of work done and be resprayed properly.

All in all this is getting me on a right downer! everything is going wrong and nothing seems to be working out very well!

This time its getting stripped back, everything cleaned, painted etc etc, just make everything look proper. Along with a metal Head gasket for abit of reliablity under higher boost, and im ditching the visco fan and going for a nice alloy rad and leccy fan.

theres not much to look at so i wont bother with pictures.

Bad news. Are you just going with rings and a hone? At least it gives you the opportunity to put a decent head gasket on and some reassurance for upping the boost

On 12th Nov, 2009 Paul S said:

I think Gary OS has taken over my role as the forum smart arse

Well the plan is to strip it and see.

I'm thinking its going to be rings and if thats the case and everything else is ok then yes, rings and a hone. Clean paint and rebuild.

We shall see. Bigger, Better, Stronger! We have the technology, we can rebuild him!

Well, for those who are interested, it spat number 4 oil control scraper.

Unsure whether it was me putting in it or what but oh well.

Its marked the bore and the piston has been chewing on something (probably the ring...)

The piston will clean up fine, the marks on the bore arent that bad and hopefully should hone out. Second opinion on that tomorrow.

Front bumper has had the vents smoothed off (well finalising the process) and is getting a prefacelift splitter put on to suck it down to the road abit more. Hopefully will have it all prepped up by the end of the weekend.

The bootlid still needs to be taken back to metal and starting again. I'll do that this weekend also.

Hopefully start rebuilding the engine in the evening next week if it hones up ok. Dare i say that it will be running by wednesday??!

Also got a few other things coming:

Rear seats from the S14 to match the fronts.

Rear seat belts (previous owner lost them)

boot trim kit (again lost by the previous owner)

I would leave the rear seats and trim etc out but this is going to be my road car so i want it to look nice, and it looks nasty all stripped out!

Cheers, James.

It looked ok but went horrible from then on!





Light cover redone. no more rust!



Colour coded the number plate surround and basically how the back end will look once i re-do the bootlid. Just needs the windows tinting to tie the bootlid into the roof!





I just love this look for some reason.


Yet again only for it to react!


Bumper work!

Glassed over


Sanded down the fiberglass


Fiber filler


the fiber filler has been sanded now and the first layer of easy sand filler has been slapped on. The shape is already pretty much there so this layer should just be taking out/identifying the high spots and then it can get top stopped and the rest of the bumper prepped before prime and paint! wohoo (no reactions please!!!!!)

Seriously take a look over on driftworks at the proper importers! DIRT CHEAP!!!!!!!

I was suprised at just how cheap imports are at the moment!

Looking good dude! It'll get there eventually, and be worth it!

Im jealous of the spec haha.

We need to hit up pod and do some of this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SMekNNzCNFg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ooUh8TIxaU&NR=1

Gonna be good

turbo 16v k-series 11.9@118.9 :)

Denis O'Brien.

with all these paint reaction's , are you sure your not cleaning it with silicon?
lol

Rich, YES!

Evo - Indeed it did! embarrasing when you find it isnt it!

Rubicon....not even worth joking about!

Roughly how the front end will look but with the splitter white after paint:





No engine = monster truck ride hieght!

Well, block has been honed, new rings fitted, full rubber sump gasket fitted to stop the leak, metal head gasket in place, head bolted on, and engine basically fully built.

Just cleaned up and painted some engine covers etc to tidy it all up and then it can all be fully built. It will be going in as soon as i can get the car on the ramp to work on.

I have got some new tips to make workon the exhaust (get rid of the 5" dustbin thats poking out the back!) and a small silencer to quieten it down abit as currently its a single box system that wouldnt pass any sort of noise regs even at tickover!

Front bumper is nearly there, just final sanding of the top stop and then keying up the whole bumper ready to have the already prepared splitter fixed in place and then the whole thing primed and painted.

The boot lid is still waiting for my attention but that will get done when the front bumper is ready for paint. That way i can get them both ready to be painted at the same time and not mess around with excessive washing of guns etc.

Hopefully the next update will be saying that its running and all going smoothly!

Maybe finally time to stop spending money on it and start enjoying it!!

Why did i buy this car?!

Just totalled up what it has cost me so far and i should have spent it on the mini.

Majorly regretting this now.

it'll be worth it when you get it sideways dude!

Lightweight racer coming soon.

Nice 200sx btw :)

Lightweight racer coming soon.

Well, its running, 95% sure ive stopped the oil leak (well i know ive sorted the bad one!!) and it seems to be running quite well.

There is a missfire at the top end on full boost but im going to use that to my advantage and make it stop me pushing it toooo far while im running it in. Once ive got some miles on it it will be off to the rollers to be set-up and hopefully cure that missfire.

Even with the missfire though it feels fast! But is wayyyy to loud! even with the second silencer added. Think this is because the back box is about 250mm long and 3.5" dia... so a new back box with a bigger silencer should sort it out.

Oh and the cooling system isnt quite up to the job, it will overheat unless you have the interior heater on full blast. So some tweaking is needed there. Pretty sure this is because some fool has removed the fan cowling and tilted the rad back to try and make it work....it doesnt. Ally rad and leccy fan to sort that.

So just crack on with the bodywork this weekend and get the coilovers on it when they come! Will get some pictures of the finished article when its uhmmm finished?!

Cheers, A slightly happier James!

good work mate, sounds like a good project. Finished pics soon please. :)

excellent, fantastic, superb....now back to the mini please

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

"did you know you can toast potato waffles?"

the misfire on boost could be the coil braking down (i know your running it back in) but if you was to lift sharply as soon as it misses but not enough to go into overrun just enough to take the edge off the boost (yet still staying on the positive side) and the misfire clears, indicates the coil (s)

if that makes any sense im shit at describing, thats what to do on supra's as the coils breaking down is a common problem on these and are 240quid x 6 lmao...

Yes i moved to the darkside

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