Turbominis revival thread. What’s everybody up to ?
Turbo Mini Forums

It seems plenty of people still visit this site but posting is sporadic, as it seems people often think it’s not worth updating or starting build threads as they’ve only made a small amount of progress.
An idea suggested by Harry was to start a single thread that everybody can contribute to.
So who’s doing what and where ? Etc let’s see who’s still active on here.....

I’ll start us off.
My car’s still the same as it was last year as I spend most of my time on cylinder heads & I’m getting down with the kids and I’ve started a YouTube channel !

Phil.

Attachments:

325.44kb

1.31mb

Edited by Turbo Phil on 13th May, 2020.

WWW.TURBO-MINI.COM

Mine's been sat in the garage for the past 4 years. I keep saying I'm going to get it MOT'd but I never get round to it. Then I said I'm going to get the MOT exemption sorted (it's a '73) but I've not done that either yet. One day...

I think I've only posted once or twice on here, but it's a treasure trove of information.

Currently gathering parts to complete a 998 turbo build I've been planning for a couple of years, based on a little IHI RHF3.

Rebuilt the gearbox and replaced the cam bearings tail end of last year and have just bought bearings and rings to get the block back together, hopefully in the next couple of weeks.

The car currently has an N/A 1275 but I fitted a Megajolt last year just so I could get my head around how to work it in preparation for the 998.

Edit:
14 posts - ok, more than I thought.

Edited by wilsonc001 on 13th May, 2020.

After destroying an engine at Coombe in 2010 (and not having the greatest run of reliability prior to that) it was the last straw.
The mini was kicked to the back of the garage and I purchased a kit car for interim until enthusiasm returned.
Life generally got in the way and I was thrown a few curved balls that sent me on a path Id not expected. Life was doing its best to swallow any free time meaning mini progress was minor.
While the kit car was filling the minis spot admirably for B road blasts and track days I embarked on a K100 turbo build (all be it at glacial pace), I got it near complete and decided three years ago that I'd made an absolute shit job of it and started over again but now in 16v guise.
A change in job/semi retirement has freed up some decent time to commit to making some excellent progress.
At the beginning of April I had my first drive of the car in ten years, and it has given me further motivation to push on.
Im not too far off an MOT now, the plan is to run the engine in and iron out any niggles I may have then tare the car down for its second bare shell rebuild as ten years of being laid up in at times unfavourable storage hasn't been kind to it.

Shane

Attachments:

3.16mb

4.65mb

Hi Guys
I’ve been pretty quiet since 2012 really. But have just/finally kicked of building a K1100 engine for my little old Red Hot.

Spending a few hours on here a day and you tube at the moment refreshing myself on the dos and don’t s.

At the moment I’m in a real quandary about center main straps! Some say do some including Calver say don’t!

Hope every one is keeping well👍👍

Took the quarantine time to change rockers on the 998, something wrong whit Nº4.
And after almost 2 years since last update and for the second time, I'm putting together the K1330RS, now whit a fresh CNC drilled block, took my time cleaning the inside grinding and cleaning and cleaning and more cleaning, check for clearances, plastigauge etc etc. Even got time to clean all the gears on a 33k km CR gearbox found on one Austin 1300GT, best gearbox I ever saw.
And of course, sit my arse in front of the computer and spend money in "mini" parts.

Attachments:

2.63mb

2.16mb

2.21mb

3.15mb

Edited by R.Rodrigues on 13th May, 2020.

I'm literally just starting to get my ass back in gear after blowing my head gasket on mine 2 years ago at nurburgring so parts are now bieng collected in preparation for rebuild in the next month!
Rather sad to see this place soo quiet as it used to be thriving when I went turbo in 2012, I kept looking on here and thought I had a technical issue n wasn't getting everyone's updates 😂😂

I'm currently sorting out wiring and general tidy up. Going to paint my grill and fit fibre glass bumpers, and possibly my wing mirrors 😄

I'm also rebuilding my engine as I was suffering heavy breathing, which has turned out to be a cracked ring land..oops.

I always come on here for searches and stuff. FB has killed most forums now which is a massive shame.

Josh

My build thread..

http://www.turbominis.co.uk/forums/index.php?p=vt&tid=542985

I've been lurking on here off and on for ages - it's a great source of info, especially the vintage megasquirt topics!

I've got a 1962 Mk1 which I finally gave up on restoring the body after 20 years... the shell's been with a bodywork guy for the last year - hoping to have it back soon.
Just stripped my metro turbo engine the last couple of weeks. Stripping two gearboxes at the weekend and going to finish building up lovely freshly painted front and rear subframes...
Still debating whether to build the turbo engine back up with megajolt or megasquirt…
To confuse things it might go back in the car as a N/A (I've got a spare MG metro heads) before getting the turbo on it.

Feeling very excited that things might get going again on here!! This place has always been me respite place when just taking 10min break from work or family etc. It was really sad when the little number next to new topics was always zero! I’ve never been on facefook so fear I may have missed out on quite a bit!!

Slowly building/buying parts for my turbo mini. My main focus at the minute is fitting a front mounted shittycento radiator.

On 18th Nov, 2014 D4VE said:
went down to my local hydraulics place and he gave me a suitable replacement larger nipple

After a very long break I started lurking on here again. I’ve never gone the turbo route but TM has always been one of the best sources of general information and common sense!

I’ve taken advantage of recent time off to work on my mk1. I’ve owned it for 20 years, had the body restored 10 years ago but I’ve never driven it. I have pottered with it as work and kids activities has allowed so there wasn’t a huge amount to do. I wanted to spend as little as possible so I’ve put the original 850 engine back in and refurbished everything I could. I’ve never driven a mini with a magic wand change so hopefully should be fun.

If I decide to keep it I could do a negative earth conversion on it and it could become home for the 8 port engine which is stashed away. I'd prefer the 8 port to be back the mini estate, but that is now in need of major bodywork repairs as it has been stored outside for a long time.

Also still have my wife’s Sportpack that is in need of the usual rust repairs that affect most late minis.

Once life of sorts starts to kick in properly I hope to keep going with getting the sportpack and the estate on the road, but I guess time will tell.

It would be good to see an uptick in activity on here again, with regular project updates. I'm an offender on that front as not updated since last year, but life does seem to get in the way of progress. - Update to follow later.

It seems Facebook, instagram etc. has taken away a lot of potential projects but also it seems that even the most basic myths/questions and misinformation resolved here years ago are resurfacing!

I brought an engine, head gear box off John (literary his user name on here) 4 years ago and have finally found someone who is helping me put it in my car which im super excited about. Im a complete novice when it comes to mechanics and had someone who was going to help me who then moved away from my area but having someone who know his stuff and is teaching me as each thing is installed is great and has got me really excited about getting it on the road where it belongs.
Would love to know if there are any other Minis near me in Northampton??

Will update when the car is running

Hey lads. Lockdown has given me too much time at home and no shows to attend, so the winter plans were brought forward to prevent premature insanity.. or doing DIY.

Took the engine out, stripped and checked tolerance to investigate my sodding misfire. Turns out the SW5 cam was incorrectly timed, but was being replaced anyway, so meh! fitted MS evo helical gears (CNC bault rings, uprated layshaft and KAD mainshaft support), MD266 cam and had the head chambers taken out to 25cc. C/R now 8.7:1 down from 9:1.

Had exhaust manifold, hot side and downpipe ceramic coated, had loads of bits tarted up and powder coated.

Replaced the map from the one attempting to get any sort of power from a timing issue, and replaced with the original base map that EFI parts did at the start of the project. Different C/R, different cam, so took some timing out and road mapped as much as i could, blended and logged. Seems to be running great at 15psi and pulls well! Just gotta wait for EFI to open their doors again so can get it mapped up for more boost

Well this thread is proving the forum is still active.
I think we all need to make a big effort to keep it alive. Keep up the good work so far.

Phil.

WWW.TURBO-MINI.COM

Still plugging away on mine. Made some good progress at the start of lockdown. Im really close to attempting to start the car, but i want to make sure everything is ok before i do.

I bought a chinese turbo to replace my £60 garrett. The new turbo was £77 looks ok bit of a rough casting around the waste gate hole so i filed it a little last night. I fitted it to the manifold last night at work. Need to look at testing the electrics before getting oil pressure. Also made a new oil feed line redcently from AN fittings.

My progress is nomally small but i post bits and pieces on my instagram @h_palmer627

After the hit and run someone done on my mini whilst returning home from London2Brighton 2016 it was stored away from home so working on it was rare..i filled the void with other vehicles.. done a track day or 2.. then brought a home with garage attached so work on the mini was goooood! Then me and the mrs popped out our 1st lil'un.. so then progress slow'd but now in these times its been full on 👍

The spare room is full of tasty mini bits and the minis been stripped to bare metal shell, its been on a much crazier diet then i ever thought.. ive tubbed the rear arches, fitted rear turrets and brace bar, fg boot floor, full roll cage, fitted a new carbon fibre front end that looks a million times better than the last front ever looked. From the new bits down to the tiny bits and pieces- i have on paper lost almost 200kgs so can not wait til its back on the road, which i hope will be end of this year..

Currently waiting for the rolling road to open so we can get the turbo set up, also while waiting, restoring another mini and putting a k series in it, long way from the engine stage yet as struggling to line up the new floor.

Edited by BronkoMini on 15th May, 2020.

Steve,

is that one of those swanky pants minispares evolution gear sets or just an A Plus set?

Shane

On 14th May, 2020 Steve220 said:
Hey lads. Lockdown has given me too much time at home and no shows to attend, so the winter plans were brought forward to prevent premature insanity.. or doing DIY.

Took the engine out, stripped and checked tolerance to investigate my sodding misfire. Turns out the SW5 cam was incorrectly timed, but was being replaced anyway, so meh! fitted MS evo helical gears (CNC bault rings, uprated layshaft and KAD mainshaft support), MD266 cam and had the head chambers taken out to 25cc. C/R now 8.7:1 down from 9:1.

Had exhaust manifold, hot side and downpipe ceramic coated, had loads of bits tarted up and powder coated.

Replaced the map from the one attempting to get any sort of power from a timing issue, and replaced with the original base map that EFI parts did at the start of the project. Different C/R, different cam, so took some timing out and road mapped as much as i could, blended and logged. Seems to be running great at 15psi and pulls well! Just gotta wait for EFI to open their doors again so can get it mapped up for more boost

It's the MS Evo kit

How have you found them, so far how much torque have you put through them?
Im thinking of swaying away from a SC box in favour of a little civility.

Shane

On 15th May, 2020 Steve220 said:
It's the MS Evo kit

On 15th May, 2020 shane said:

Steve,

is that one of those swanky pants minispares evolution gear sets or just an A Plus set?

Shane

Still a work in progress.Fitted a proper roll cage last year, ran 12.1 @ 112 at the Pod. RR check this spring gave 205 bhp at 20 psi, then 275 with the NOS. Sorted some old wheels out and splashed on a pair of Toyo 888s so I can run back to back trials between drag slicks and Toyos. About 8% lower gearing on the latter.

'Where does the engine go?'

Last year, bit of a lairy launch

Attachments:

93.24kb

'Where does the engine go?'