Turbo Rookie
Turbo Mini Forums

Greetings to all on the forum. I am a British Car Specialty shop owner (www.littlebritainmotorcompany.com) in Lindsay, Ontario (Canada). I own a number of minis, a Minor, MGB, Midget, Jag, Land Rover, Mini Marcos, 1959 Bristoll Lodekka (the next turbo project??) etc. I race a very quick '64 Cooper S in Vintage/Historic racing with VARAC at interesting places like Mosport (home track 20 minutes away), Mt. Tremblant (Qubec) and Watkins Glen (New York state).

My experience with Minis goes back to the mid-sixties, but I am still learning every day. I'm hoping that I can benefit from the experience and technical knowledge that my brief stroll through the postings has revealed is in good supply here!

My current personal hobby project is to convert a 1969 Austin America (1300) to turbo form for fun road driving. I've never had any real experience with mini turbos as we didn't get any over here. However, I have a good Metro Turbo unit and I'm just formulating ideas prior to installing it in the car.

Obviously, in standard form this is a straight ahead job given that the 1300 has lots of room under the bonnet - enough even for an optional intercooler.

The thing is, I'm looking to do something a little different, yet keep the car reliable and fun on the road. So, if you have any suggestions, pile them on.

My interest was peaked by the post from jacko about his "rotary muffler" install. I would like to solicit opinions as to whether the use of the remote mounting of the turbo is of any benefit to performance considering that it allows for the use of LCB headers. Also, would the long pipe runs assist with termperature reduction of the induction charge and would this result in any performance improvement? Would anyone venture an opinion as to the effect of this configuration on throttle lag?

I'm looking forward to your responses and to being part of this forum.

Cheers!

Welcome Bob,

welcome to the forum mate - there is a wealth of knowledge on here and a lack of BS too

Welcome to turbominis, as stated above all the info you need is here without the BS. Best of luck with the conversion.

Edited by T3Tone on 21st Aug, 2007.

-MINI CLUBMAN 1380 TURBO-

Sound like a handy bloke to have on board. Welcome to TM :)

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1/4mile in 13.2sec @ 111 terminal on 15psi

a warm welcome bob

Welcome to the site mate. Good luck with the 1969 build,

Is mini racing big in canada for spectators?

Edited by Jordan on 8th Sep, 2007.

Back once again like a renegade master

The rear mount turbo is quite common with larger V8's these days, but on a smaller engine, any problems associated will be much lager. ie lag.

Check out Squires Turbo Systems for the V8 stuff.....There are some 8 sec cars using this system, so it cant be all bad.

I guess if you could ceramic coat, or insulate the exhaust pipes leading to a rear mount ( I assume you mean rear mount as opposed to front-remote mount ? ) ) Then that is bound to help matters.
Id also consider using V-bands to seal any joints, as opposed to normal slip joints. These seal 100%, and are also very easy to use.

As for intake temp reduction....I guess its possible, but any drop would be so small, it would be negligable. To use it as a selling point for such a kit, is really clutching at straws.

But The long pipe route back up front could open up other chargecooling options along they way if you could find the room.

9.85 @ 145mph
202mph standing mile
speed didn't kill me, but taxation probably will

Hi mate, welcome to the forum!! Good luck with the build:)

Hi

In the 13's at last!.. Just

If you guys recommend a thermocouple kit that isn't too spendy I'll do the temperature measurement for you. I want to do this anyway to measure the benefit of the next set of upgrades (see below).

I did insulate the pipe back to the turbo, which improved the spool.

Why the skepticism over cooling in the pipe from the turbo? There is a lot of airflow under the car. My pipe also comes around the front of the engine, so it is really in the breeze right behind the grill.

For me I went rear mount for two reasons: 1) No bukhead welding on the Mini. Did the install without removing the engine at all. 2) Second reason was to get that hot object out of the engine compartment. My car runs nice and cool at 8psi with no extra holes in the bonnet or scoops. Looks totally stock.

Next up: multi-spark ignition with boost retard, blow-off valve, water/methanol injection (evil bodge I know, don't bother writing it), electronic boost control. My ProLogger wideband O2 setup can drive a boost solenoid directly and you then program in a boost vs. RPM curve. My plan is to program a boost curve to give me 100lb-ft of torque at the wheels from 4000 to 6300RPM - flat as a table, and about all the clutch can handle. This will require something on the order of 15psi on the top end only, with an appropriate boost curve along the way.

My stock cam and 9:1 compression (50HP Mayfair A+ 1275) give nice torque down low. At higher RPM, I'll need more boost to force the airflow through the stock head. With enough intercooling, this should not hurt anything.

Would I do a remote mount on a car with plenty of room? Probably not. There is extra complication, and the oil pump to get oil out of the turbo and back to the engine makes a noise that bugs some folks. If you have a Metro setup and will bolt right in to your platform, do that.

1275 with Back Door Turbo