E5TUS - 2023: Some turbo tinkering & Hillclimbing
Turbo Mini Forums

Had the weekend at Wiscombe. Baking hot and dry and on Saturday, started to get the hang of the hill. Today was bloody miserable weather. It rained hard until three then did clear up for the final run. Learnt lots during the dry and wet, can't wait to go back in September.

The car was running very well, since the map was fettled by Slarks it's lost a bit of the "violent" feel and is more, refined is the wrong word, balanced? But definitely improving with each change... Well almost each change...

My newly reinstated mechanical fan shat itself on one of the runs



It happened on a particularly vicious downshift into sawbench hairpin, I can only assume that excessive engine movement allowed a temporary interference fit with something and it didn't take kindly to it. Somehow it didn't puncture the rad or beat the crank sensor, the trigger wheel has a pretty good nibble of what remained in the engine bay.

Will investigate the possibility of reinstating the original bottom rad mount so the fan runs in the shroud as its designed to.

On Saturday in the dry I did suffer from clutch slip again, with August free of events for me I'm going to attempt changing to my lightweight pre-verto setup in the car (yet another winter job I just needed an excuse to do!)



Here's hoping I can get the bastard off in situ. Puller has just been ordered...

Stu

Slarks have that reputation of making cars more driveable, rather than just going for the highest figures they can get

Don't know if this will work, but if you're interested in seeing how an amateur drives Wiscombe... here it is

http://vid154.photobucket.com/albums/s255/...20Timed%201.mp4

Edited by e5tus on 28th Jul, 2015.

I hold you guys accountable for this...



Strangely satisfying! Can't do bugger all else till the puller turns up.

The verto thankfully came off without any grief.



Complete verto setup was 10.6kg (23.4lb) and the pre-verto is 6.8kg (15lb). Now waiting on new oil seal before reassembly.

Anyone know where the hell August disappeared to? With more work abroad last month it seemed to take ages to get the car back together. But I did, just in time!

The cause of the fan failure was indeed contact with the shroud. With the modified lower mound moving the radiator out, the fan and shroud could both still move with the engine, but at slightly different rates.

I messed around with some options, initially trying to reinstate the original setup, however when I got the fan clear of the timing cover breather it wouldn't allow fitment of the radiator without interference. Hence, I assume that the water pump fitted last year is wider than the original?? Anyway, I have a solution, albeit temporary. I'll look to mount the rad solidly to the inner wing over the winter.

New clutch and flywheel are great, I've noticed the difference on the road, looking forward to see how it fairs on the hill this weekend. There's a lot more noise with the Holy Wok, but I quite like it.

Now that I have a clutch that can handle power, I'll probably (read definitely) be turning the boost up. I'd like to have a run or two "as is" this weekend, then see if my old crap tyres will warrant any higher boost, or will it just produce tyre smoke and squealing.

This will be the first event this year that is a repeat venue for me, hoping that I can push harder from the start. If anyone's competing or spectating at Wiscombe this weekend, come and say hi!

Looking ahead, I have two sprints in October then it's time to take it all apart again and fit the SC Box and LSD.

Stu

Have you got a round or squared off breather? the round ones need more spacing out. If its round beat it in a bit, taking care to avoid the timing chain, or I have a spare squared off one somethere.

What diaphram are you running?

It's a round breather, but always had that with my old water pump and fan without any spacers? It seemed to work well this weekend, and temps were stable. But if you have a spare squared off one, that could be good to get rid of the spacers...

I'm using a grey diaphragm.

Fantastic weather on the south coast this weekend, which provided optimum conditions at Wiscombe. Car ran well this weekend, the new clutch is amazing, bordering on violent. Set a new PB in the second practice session on Saturday but couldn’t make everything work during the timed runs.

Happy with the feel of the clutch and curious to see if power would make an improvement, the inevitable bleed valve fiddling happened on Sunday morning.. Beat the new PB from Saturday on the first run of the day on Sunday. Happy to see the car can keep beating the times, unfortunately operator error usually puts a halt to continuous improvement throughout the day!

As good as all the power is, my times are down on all the other minis. Obviously there are several factors to consider but all signs point to lack of traction; I’m still the only one without a LSD and I’m running 11 year old road tyres.

I’m waiting to see what is decided on tyres in the MSA Regulations before I make the plunge. Discussing with several people at the weekend, the consensus seems to be that they’d take extra grip over extra power any day…

Anyways, a good weekend and the car is still operating (always a bonus) just one more event for me to have completed the minimum for the championship. Next event is in three weeks and back to where the season began. Looking to score a better time so that the additional event this year allows me to drop the very low score from my first event.

11 years old!

Bollocks to the tyre regs, I'm going to continue using A048'S

Hi all, been a while.. Firstly, Happy New Year!

Had some technical issues recently, for once not with the car. Killed two phones, a tablet and a laptop over the last few months. I'm finally back online, time for an update…

Completed the remainder of the season without major issue. Finished with two sprints, one at Clay Pigeon and one at Castle Combe. Clay Pigeon is a kart track in Dorset, quite an abrasive surface but a good laugh, was also where I had my first event of the season. It was nice to return having learned quite a bit and with the new clutch setup. I’ve been pushing the car and myself more and more, as such, there has been the occasional squeaky bum moment, but it’s all progress, right? One spin in practice and some borrowed paint from the chicane barrier saw me take 4.88 seconds off my previous best, with plenty more to come if I could just stop spinning the wheels… now where is that diff?

Castle Combe was the 24th October and it pissed it down all weekend. Didn’t really detract from the fun, but it did make Camp Corner particularly interesting! The organising club didn’t give us our own class for the event so I was thrown into the 1400-1800cc Mod Prod Class. Had a handful of 1800 MGF’s and a 1600 Hillman Avenger Tiger to play with, didn’t think I would fare well with my gear ratio and lack of grip.. However, wasn’t far off the pace and took second place in class in the last session with the Avenger Tiger out in front. Happy with that. Turns out that rain is a great leveller!





So first season complete. 10 events under my belt. Plenty of plans for future mods. I won the “novice of the year” award, came first in my class and second in the MCR challenge, that will pay for some much needed tyres for this year.



The straight cut box I had was an early casing with a pre A+ gearset, so although it was a good unit, it wasn't a suitable setup for me. I’ve also decided to go for the Tran X diff over the ATB, so managed to sell the box and diff to generate some funds for a fresh build.

I've been away with work quite a bit and the house has taken up the rest of my time. However, whilst sorting the house I did manage to sneak some new doors and windows on the garage/man cave. Just finished wiring new lights and extra sockets in, replaced the tools that were thieved last year and hoping to actually uncover the car for the first time since October this weekend!

Stu

Great progress :)
Good thread too - I've been reading but always forget to say well done.

Well done on the award!

Congratulations! Do ya get cash award? That old fortech kit brings back memorys, my bro had that kit on his old mini..

Brilliant write up and an equally good season - well done

Well done, and great approach it's good to read about people going from dream to reality.

I run a supercharger and I don't care the TB is on the wrong side.
VEMS + 12 PSI + Liquid Intercooler = Small Bore FUN!

Well done on a great result!

Thanks guys. Hoping that a complete novice having a go might inspire some others to use their cars for what they hoped/dreamed/intended them for!

On the technical side, I know I'm not doing anything remotely as extreme as the majority of builds, but luckily for me, it's all been done before, and is all documented and available on here!

So, I did actually manage to get into the garage, managed to find the car too.. Got some bits and pieces out of the way to allow me to see what I was doing.



And then this came off..



I have never paid much attention to the turbo, the initial engine installation was only supposed to be temporary.. As I don't know the history of the turbo I thought it should probably have some attention. That shitty air pipe has reached the end of it's usable life.. Any ideas on a more robust solution?



The air filter has been sucked in, think I need a less restrictive replacement!



But asides from a cracked exhaust gasket, the old Garrett looks pretty good..



I'm sending it off to have some bits done, looks like the inevitable "Moooore Boooooost!!!" moment has occurred!

So that's all the tinkering done till the new gearbox is finished. Time for a beer methinks.

Stu

I think just putting a new air pipe will do -merlin motorsport sell the stuff. It's cheap and it works.

Not tempted to lob a gt17 on there while its apart? That would probably help at places like wiscombe. That said, its all worked well this season, so maybe don't mess around with it until you break it!

The airfilter does look clogged up.... maybe it needs a good clean...

I run a supercharger and I don't care the TB is on the wrong side.
VEMS + 12 PSI + Liquid Intercooler = Small Bore FUN!