to uprate or not to uprate
Turbo Mini Forums

I am away to rebuild my engine and have my block away at Morspeed getting bored +20, crank reground, ae21253 pistons getting a 13cc dish machined and fitted to balanced rods. I have also bought ARP mains, big end bolts and kent duplex timing kit but noticed my bank balance running awfully low.

So i now have the difficult decision of deciding what to keep standard and what to uprate.

I was going to fit the ph2 cam but now think ill try get a n/a MG cam, but if i fit one of these cams will it cause a problem if i try increase power at a later date? or will it cope fine. (if so does anyone have a MG cam they would like to sell me cheap? )

Secondly is the clutch/backplate/flywheel ok to use or would i be worthwhile uprating? ive seen this one on ebay which looks quite cheap is this one ok?



I plan to reuse the origional head until i can afford another and will need s/c drops and most the gears in the box are stripped from obvious abuse so will need a new box and 4 pin diff.

Has anyone used a rebuilt box from the likes of minisport? Are these any good or are they badly built?

Any views or opinions much appreciated

Daniel

sounds like a similar engine spec to mine dude. If i were you i'd swap out to a pre-verto setup with an AP rally plate. i killed my turbo verto clutch in about 1000 miles.

For a gearbox i'd definately recommend dave yardy over the likes of minisport, never used them myself but haven't heard anything good about their boxes. Daves username on here is 'icklemini'

the cam department

the mg metro N/A engine cam is a sparkling camshaft for turbo application in my book.

if i were to chose it would be the phase 2 cam

ask you dad for a sub to get this

lol, funny how just one word can turn a sentance the other way :)

ok on your advice ben, as you seem to be a mini turbo guru on this forum, ill get the ph2 cam.

as for the clutch this is where i know nothing but its not as if i have to strip the whole engine to change it unlike the cam etc... so would i be safe enough refitting the origional and when t goes changing it then when i have more money? The shell ids in the bodyshop just now getting a flip front welded up and fitted aswell as a respray so access to the engine should be good for chsnging the clutch.

Dan

thats exactly what i did dude, might aswell get the engine up and running on a verto if you've got one then when the engines run in and you've saved up swap it out for a pre-verto.

Nick :)

i would not say iam a guru! DAN

the guru is Turbo Dave. plus a few more peeps following a close second.

this is the Guru! could this be Turbo Dave???

No that's not Dave, that guys got better dress sense ! lol.

WWW.TURBO-MINI.COM

I belived they changed to verto in an attempt to bring the clutches upto standard with other cars around in the 80's. It was designed for user comfort and easy operation - not use on high power engines!

Its not that is particularly weak - it will be fine on most n/a and turob engines upto 120lb/ft torque.

Its just that our turbocharged engines produce buckets and buckets of torque - its what make them so dam quick! It also comes in from quite low down in the rev range - it is this that give the clutch a really hard time.

i just realised my old 99 which was iun teh mini when i bought it has a pre verto clutch, even tho i was told it was an A+ 'gold seal' unit with 30k!!!
Ive started pulling everythin off to fit on the tuebo engien when i get it back but do i need the flywheel/clutch housing aswell off the 998? as i notised the starter motor openings are different or can i use the verto starter on pre verto? I noticed the teeth are a different shape so probably not.

Final question and i apologise if all this has been posted elsewhere but i couldnt find it, is the idler gear in the A series engine not a different size? or will the housing fit right on?

thanks for looking

Dan

You need to use the "outer" flywheel housing off your 998 (known as the "wok").
You then need to use the 1275 turbo transfer gear casing (or "inner" flywheel ally casing), this is because the transfer gear bearings are different as you say.

You also need to use the starter motor to suit the flywheel, so if you are using a pre-verto flywheel you need a pre-verto (known as inertia) starter. If you are using a verto flywheel, you need a verto starter (known as pre-engaged).

ok cheers for that tom i have all the parts i need on my 998 so that will save me some money, does it not mater that the starter motor opening on the verto flywheel housing is a different shape to the non verto housing?

Dan

No it doesn't matter. You will see the main two fixing holes are the same, the only difference is one tapped hole at the front of the starter aperture that I have never seen used for anything anyway.