998 Turbo Build - Slow Progress
Turbo Mini Forums

you have the worst of luck!!

I was under the car today fitting the fuel lines and noticed all of the rubber I fitted when I overhauled the rear subframe has now gone hard and split. thats the four dust seals on the radius arms and the two boots for the knuckles.

Is there anywhere that sells good quality rubber parts these days? Don't want to have to change them again in another 6 months time...

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Well, a bit of progress to show;

Got the head welded at Harrison-Randal in Nuneaton. They're coded aerospace welders and were unphased by having to weld cast iron. He welded (brazed?) it with a Nickel 61 rod a machined it down in the space of half an hour or so. Can't fault them for service or price either.

The results:


Then repainted the head, lapped the valves in and assembled:




Extra holes drilled and the dash cleaned up:


Couldn't resist a quick 'mock up' of the engine


Also been wire brushing and repainting the engine bay back to car colour. All finished now but this is the only photo:


Getting the subframe built up as well


Got some tube nuts and sleeves to convert the mpi fuel lines to AN fittings, just to make working under the boot of the car easier.


And finally my first batch of plating arrived today so I have everything I need to get the car back on four wheels! Also managed to get the pedal box together. Should be good progress now I have nuts + bolts!

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Nice. It'll be worth the extra effort with the plating etc.

I like the AN fittings too.

In the 13's at last!.. Just

Thanks Gary, It's just nice to have some progress!

Next problem - Turns out I have one 'S' steering arm and one standard one. Could explain why the handling was a bit off. Post up in the wanted section for a standard LH one.


Finished painting the engine bay and de-masked the wiring loom, really need to re-do it as it's been cut and shut so much, but don't have the time or money to sort it out now.


Also got the Hubs built up, ball joints shimmed and torqued.

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After having to take a bit of a break (The MX 5's diff went bang..) Back on track with this now.

Front subframe is finally in, pretty happy with how it's all shaping up. The wiring does need some attention though!






And this is what all the rubber on the rear looks like. I've ordered the most expensive replacements I could find in the hope they'll be better quality. Couldn't find any NOS items.


Hubs on tomorrow and once the replacement rubber comes it'll be back on it's wheels!

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RTS finished and the rotating assembly taken to MED for balancing:


Also got the hubs on, flanges and discs together and the CV nut torqued up.




Brake Callipers and Drums have been painted in stove silver, I've also refurbed the radius arms with new bearings and bushes. the rear end can go back together now then the car's going for some small rust repairs.


I've also drilled and tapped the FPR and carb for 1/8 NPT fittings, so I can run the AN fittings throughout the engine bay.


Once the parts are back from MED I can start building the engine. I'll be way over my unofficial deadline of Combe this year, so it'll just have to be a winter project again!

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Final batch of plating has turned up, so I have everything to build the engine. Should be picking the parts up from MED, no word about the wobbly RTS though!










Also picked up a shoddy £20 compressor which cleaned up nicely, and seems to work a treat! just need some air tools for it.

http://www.turbominis.co.uk/forums/index.p...tid=469104&fr=0

Hi there,

Looking good where did you get your plating done?

Cheers

I used Mercury Electroplating for the first lot and John Street Platers for the second. The batch from Mercury was a better finish, and cost less, but their turnaround time was awful.

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Well, after months of concentrating on university, the third year is finally over. I haven't had the time or motivation, or the money for that matter, to make any serious progress in the past months, but enthusiasm is beginning to pick up.

The main aim now is getting the bodywork sorted, filling the holes from the old arch holes, and as I found out today, that will involve cutting out some rust and welding in some patches. Whilst knocking some dents out of the floor pan from miss-use of a trolley jack, the bitumen sound deadening chipped off revealing some daylight...


and turns out there's one to match on the other side.

So, as well as a generator looks like I'll be buying a welder as well. I figure this is a good an opportunity as any to learn.

Then it'll be a respray, and once i've bought the right size bearings the engine can go together. I'd like it done before September really!

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To cheer me up after finding the rot I went and bought the right main bearings so I could do a dry build of the engine.

It has eluded to a bit of uncertainty as to what compression ratio I should be aiming for.

I plan to run 10/15 psi boost (switchable via a solenoid operated bleed valve, the same switch will operate the option switch in the MJ as well, though to start with I will be at 10psi, using a T2. Camshaft will be a MD274 , and I will be running a ducted intercooler. I am after on the road performance, not pub figures.

This led me initially to aim for a compression ratio of 9.4:1. I've had a search but Paul S's Maximum compression ratio graph is not present. From what I've read on here that would be fine for 10 psi but not 15. Would there be much of a loss in driveability with 0.4 less CR?

In other news I managed to diagnose the wobbly flywheel issue to being a warped pressure plate. Luckily I have one spare from the other clutch so I just have to drill out the rivets and tap it again, then transfer all the gubbins over.

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Here you go.

This is the latest revision, earlier ones being too pessimistic.

For what it's worth, the 998Ti used a T2 with the MD274 cam, 9:1 CR on 13 psi.

Reality is that boost has nothing to do with the maximum CR. It's all to do with the air inlet temperature.

Attachments:

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Edited by Paul S on 29th May, 2015.

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."

Ok, so I think I'll aim for 9:1, run it at 10psi and watch the intake temps and do the first RR tune and running in, then if there's headroom sort out the 15psi option.

Thanks

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Pop in halfords and buy yourself a tin of Silicon Lube its halfords own brand in a red tin £3.99 coat all your bushes and seals with that done mine 3 years ago and no cracking yet just top em up every now and again

Thanks Chalkie, I'll give that a go. If it can help them last more than a year then I'll be happy!!

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That's not a Cooper S arm, that's a Metro arm. Bin it!

I see, and yes, it's now sitting in the spares pile and I have two of the correct [smaller] arms fitted

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What size valves you running in your head?

33/26 if I remember correctly, benross spec'd the head based on the plans I had for the motor, I don't know the reason behind the choice but I trust his judgement!

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So there has been progress!!

Gearbox was collected from Guessworks, who has been true to his reputation and done a lovely job. The block has been to the machine shop to have the deck cleaned up. Just need to tap and fit some oil gallery plugs then it'll be ready for final assembly. Also got the gearbox and transfer case bits painted up.

Alodined Gearbox case masked up for painting:




And with the block sat on it:


Also dry built all the refreshed turbo bits up on the spare engine, everything still fits.


Been ordering lots of bits and pieces for the small fiddly things like AN fittings and hoses for the fuel system, which bar some AN-6 hardline adapters for the MPI tank is complete


There have also been a few additions to the spec, such as a Nippon Alternator and Cinq front mount radiator.

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Well the weekend was the first opportunity to press on with the engine build. Good progess, a quick dry build to double check end float (set to 0.005") and deck height after the block skim (0.010") which gives me a compression ratio of 9.3 : 1. I'll be starting off at 10psi and fitting an intake temperature probe.

Then took the lot apart again, and was reassembled with Lubriplate assembly lube, ARP rod bolts w/ lube and 1/4 NPT brass plugs in the ends of the main oil gallery.






Last thing I managed to achieve was checking the idler gear end float, and got a figure of 0.012", so on the large size. Where's the best place to get larger shims from? Minispares seem rather pricey at £15-18 per shim??

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Probably cheaper to get a thinner gasket than change the shims.

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."

I asked at minispares today Paul and they only stock one thickness gasket according to the guy at the counter.


So after a trip to minispares, there was more progress today.


Got the cam in, lubed and timed:


And finished building up the timing cover.


Also got a refurb kit for the plated clutch master cylinder:


At a bit of a stop now until I can shim up the idler gear and either find a good condition primary gear or find somewhere to replace both bushes in the one I have.

Anyone have a stash of idler shims by any chance? Also nowhere I have spoken too knows anything about changing the front bush in a 998 primary gear.

http://www.turbominis.co.uk/forums/index.p...tid=469104&fr=0

Try Guess Works for the shims http://www.guess-works.com/Shop/Parts/?type=used

Pedro Silva

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