my jonspeed super charger ordeal!!
Turbo Mini Forums

Here's my version of events about my so called fantastic supercharger kit from jonspeed. It began at Gaydon (June) of this year, i have always been interested into superchargers and when i saw jonspeed's stall with the kit connected to a engine, i was very intrigued. I went and spoke to the chap on the stall that fits the kits and he said the kit would contain everything i need to put it onto my standard 998 engine. The chap said he had got a 998 supercharger on a car at his work and that i was more than welcome to test drive anytime, so my friend and i went up the following day and we got up their the car was no were to be seen . When i asked him where it was he told me it was down the rolling road and would be back within the hour, so after waiting around for over an hour the car still did not materialized. After being dis heartened with not being able to test drive it i went away and thought about getting the kit. After thinking about it decided to go for it and get one because i was made to believe that it would contain everything and work on a standard engine. (all it would need was to be rolling roaded after set up for fine tunning). I then rang them back the same day to see if they had a kit in stock for a 1 litre, they said 'yes' they have one and it could be collected today. I then got the money and drove back to their workshop, where they took the best part of £1000 pound from me for the kit and a uprated diaphragm and i was reassured that it would be just a 'bolt on' upgrade which would take no longer than four hours. I then left feeling very happy biggrin.gif that i could fit the kit in four hours and have a much improved mini as described by carl. unfortunately my happiness was soon turned to sadness as when it came to fitting of the kit it was not as straight forward as promised. I rented a professional workshop with ramps for the weekend to make my life easier, i started work on the friday night to get the majority of the car stripped (removing of the head etc) ready for the reconstruction along with the kit the following day. I went back to the workshop the following day to start the rebuild and hit problems straight away.
1. when fitting crank shaft pulley to crank the locking washer did not fit through the machined hole int he pulley.
2. when fitting lower engine/gearbox mounting we discovered that it was hard up (preventing engine from turning over)
3. when fitting the intake pipe that had been special designed to fit with no problems didnt fit as well as it said because i ahd to modify using a larger hammer and lots of brute force.
4. space alacated for carb was so inadiquite it was impossible to fit the carburetor plus air filter
5. supercharger belt tensioner fowling engine breather leaving no room for breather pipe
6. exhaust manifold down pipe touching body causing exhaust to out of alignment
7. fan blade following specially designed crank pulley so had to trim (crudely) between 0.5 and 1 inch off blades

Being very out of pocket not only for the workshop but then having to pay for the toeing back to my home address. sunday i sent an email to jonspeed giving them my concerns about the kit and its problems. No sooner had i sent the email they had replied with the best intension's saying they would collect the vehicle and fit the kit free of charge and to ring him monday to arrange the pick up. I rang him monday morning to get a time for him to collect the car and still had not managed to get into contact till the afternoon, when he then told me he had no transport to collect my car but would still fix it free of charge if i could get it delivered up to his workshop. We came to a agreement that i would deliver the car after i had finished work wednesday evening around 7pm. My friend and i loaded the car and went up to jonspeed to find the place completely locked up with nobody around. i managed to get into contact with the 'stig' that then contacted carl directly and was down within 5 mins. When he arrived he was very apologetic and promised to get the job sorted within 24 hours (which i was very pleased about). I then left jonspeed very happy thinking my car would be up and running by the weekend. Friday came and i gave them a call confident that the car would be complete and running ready for pick up. The lady on the phone said the mechanics were waiting for one pipe and would be ready for collection for later in the day. she then said to ring before i left to make sure everything was ok. Later that day i rang back and was told that the car would be ready by the time i got there or possibly have to wait a short period of time (which i was very happy about). I then set out very happy knowing i would be getting my baby back and drive it home. When i got there the car was in the doorway with its bonnet off but then carl told me it was all done and then take it round the compound for a test drive. i drove it a little bit and was happy with the way it ran and sounded. They then placed the bonnet on and then i went on my way home over the moon that i had my baby back. This was short lived, as four miles down the road something went pop and when at half revs the car would make a horrible rattling noise that got worse on the way home but i could not return back to jonspeed, so pressed on home hoping it was something simple and that it would stop.

After getting home i called a friend of mine who is a top mechanic and has many mini's himself. We went down the road and got about half way when the car cut out, it would then not start for love nor money. pushed it up the road very annoyed after it had not done 30 miles and was already playing up. I removed the spark plugs as the engine sounded like it had no compression, to my horror i discovered that one plug was almost shut only open by thou if that, the others were the same. also i noticed that the head gaskets had been changed meaning they had removed the head for what reason? i regretfully rang carl that evening telling him the events that had happened since leaving jonspeed earlier that evening. he said not to worry and he said he would then collect the car first thing tuesday morning which true to his word the recovery man was their to take it away. Tuesday evening i had heard nothing about my car all day and decided to ring them to see what was happening with the car. i spoke to tony who informed me that my head was worped and that it would need machining down and a new starter motor fitting as well. He then said he would ring me the next morning with a price for the work. The next morning came and went and still no communication. I then again rang them and to my shock they wanted £300 + vat for the work to repair. I told him i was not happy with this and was coming to collect my car back on saturday after raising my voice i ended the conversation and the following hour i got my FIRST phone call back from them through out this whole ordeal, demanding they wanted £60 for the collection of the car. I then asked my friend who has more knowledge about cars to contact jonspeed to find out exactly what has happened to my car. During my friends conversation with carl (minisprint) he asked the reasoning for replacing the head gaskets, after this statement carl then became very aggressive on the phone in which he was told the vehicle would be collected on saturday carl then replied and i quote ' you had better bring your mates as i can be nasty' before this he had stated the car would be held untill the £60 for recovery was paid) the conversation then ended promptly and no more contact was made with jonspeed untill saturday.
Saturday then came and when i arrived my mini was no where to be seen, i went inside the shop to find carl in the office behind the desk. I then went up to the desk handed him £60 cash and demanded a receipt which he then placed infront of me. along with the receipt was a technical sheet about my cylinder head which ment nothing to me and i told him i was not interested. He then stated the head was not worped after all. I told him i just wanted my car back and that i would never have anything to do with him or jonspeed ever again.

to be continued

Whereabouts are you? I'm sure that there's a TM member near by that can help you sort out the car.

oh dear....

you never get those problem's with a turbo......lol

Moz

OMG hard to read...

there seems to be a bit of a pattern with these kits!!

I've had my own 'experiencies' with Jonspeed as well as their product, but not to this extent.

Makes you realise why these kits cost what they cost.

never dealt with them, but i assume they took the head off to fit a decompression plate maybe?

no longer a series, but still 1.3 turbo.

Wow thats some ordeal.

Hope everything gets sorted for you

Rick

Thats sucks mate. Especially when you hand over your hard earned cash. For a product that seems not fit for purpose.

Good luck with sorting it out.

Si

I drill holes in everything..!

Piccies over on The Mini Forum

http://www.theminiforum.co.uk/forums/index...showtopic=63325

Scrap the decompression plate and get the CR lowered properly.

Steve (BENROSS) is your man.

In the 13's at last!.. Just

blatant copy of the vmax scart kit. this could be an example of how people try to make money by copying others products without knowing how/why it works

sound like it could still have too much boost for the compression ratio, or could benifit from water injection

To me this sounds like an underdevoloped kit. Th company sounds oh tbh, finishing you work for free and i can understand them wanting the recovery costs.

at the end of the day you get what you pay for. if you wanted to do it yourself you should have brought from http://vmaxscart.brinkster.net/supercharger.html

its tried and tested, but costs sightly more.

Hope you get your problems sorted

Even with getting the CR down by the proper method, such as using a 12G295 head, there are still major isues with using a Bini blower on a 998.

Mainly, it is a bit too big, unless you slow it right down to run at 110% engine speed. Otherwise the pressure ratio will be too high, the blower will be running very inefficiently and you will get very high charge temperatures resulting in detonation.

My guess is that Jonspeed supplied the same crank pulley as on their 1275 kit which would result in the problems experienced.

Edited by Paul S on 12th Nov, 2007.

Saul Bellow - "A great deal of intelligence can be invested in ignorance when the need for illusion is deep."
Stephen Hawking - "The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge."

Staying welllllllllll out of this one.....

Edited by minimole23 on 13th Nov, 2007.

After looking at a few kits around, i think for the extra £250 vmax's is better

i just dont see the point of the bmw super charger conversion. these kits cost alot and have limited power. going turbo is cheaper and has more potential.

I think that the supercharger kits are percieved as simple bolt ons, whereas the turbo is a bit more complicated.

Reality is that the supercharger conversion is far from simple and that's why they get the problems.

Saul Bellow - "A great deal of intelligence can be invested in ignorance when the need for illusion is deep."
Stephen Hawking - "The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge."

all i can say is that if a company said "' you had better bring your mates as i can be nasty' then they aren't worth dealing with as real mini friendly companies are always happy to help and just dont say things like that as it is NEVER good for them!!!

Edited by damian666 on 13th Nov, 2007.

Hi David, when you told me you had bought a Jonspeed kit I thought it was a bad idea, hope you get it sorted and see you soon buddy.

16V project underway

TBH I can't remember ever reading a good thing about the Jonspeed kits?

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Fusion-Fabri..._homepage_panel

www.fusionfabs.co.uk



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

I have had a couple of bits off them as they are local, Got stung for £60 for a hub before avon as i was desperate! sorry to hear about your story never have liked the look of those kits! Where abouts are you from?