Engine woes
Turbo Mini Forums

As some of you may of may not know i am building my 16v engine. To begin with it was gonna be on a bog standard 1275 bottom end with all the conversion stuff sorted to run the head. So i went along to Minispeed today with my pistons to try and get some new rings.

Bloke took my piston away, another guy promptly appearred and said the ring lands were goosed. This i could accept but i cannot seem to find the model number of the piston anywhere its a 20142, which the bloke at minispeed said was a turbo piston. So now i am trying to decide whether to take the plunge and buy some +60 high compression pistons (or flat tops) and put valve cut outs in or try and find some rings for a temporary "get it running in time for my college presentation".

And to spoil the project further, a set of twin SUs does not like fitting at the front of the engine, so now looking for a set of yamaha R1 carbs!! Seems like i am gonna have an expensive week!!

Any suggestions would be greatly received!!

Why R1 carbs? is it an R1 head.

http://www.rabdunn.co.uk/

Hi,
Get your piston checked at an engine builders, just to be sure, does it look worn, are the rings a sloppy fit, you should be able to get a rough idea with feeler blades?
Cheers,
Gavin :)

VEMs Authorised Installer / Re-seller. K head kits now available!

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Nah the rings aren't too sloppy TBH i think that they were trying to score a set of pistons out of me!!! The head i am using is a BMW k1100, but the original bike is injection, and although i have the throttle bodies for it, the funds and time won't quite stretch to going whole hog on the injection!!! Will take a proper look at work but i have seen worse being put back into engines!!!

Hi,
That was my thought too!
Cheers,
Gavin :)

VEMs Authorised Installer / Re-seller. K head kits now available!

WB/EGT gauges. Click here for customers write-up

Visit www.doyouneedabrain.co.uk

My Mini build diary

if youve got the original throttle bodies, and your gonna be running megasquirt (at least i think i rember you saying that when i spoke to you ages ago about it) then why go to carbs? surely its extra expense and a step backwards?

just curious.....

also, any photo updates on head fitting?

Pete

And on the 7th day........... God created turbochargers!

Well i have finished my machining on the block now, so there is 10 studs in the rite place, skimmed back to flat as well. Now the engine is mocked up in the front of a cut off mini to make manifolds. The biggest problem i had with using the injection and megasquirt is time and money, the whole thing ideally needs to be finished and running by May 25th for my HND Project presentation. The Throttle bodies are for later on, when i have developed the engine a bit further and feel that the only way i can extract extra power is from mappable injection and ignition.

I shall try and put some pictures on soon, just made a rose jointed engine steady from bits i found kicking around at work which was a bonus!!! And means i can get as much room as possible for the inlet manifold on the front.

Why not make a 'log' shaped intake manifold - a bit like a tubocharged intake with the throttle body on one end, but fit a 1 3/4 where the throttle body would be. Sure - it's farfrom ideal, but it'll run. Pretty well i dare say!

Yeah i could do that but i am trying to get the engine running well enough to get a summers worth of use out of it before i rip it apart and go crazy after the season has finished. I did consider the log manifold with the twin SUs that i had to bolt on but they are so tall that i cannot fit them in under the bonnet without angling them a fair amount!! Am close to winnning a set of R1 carbs on ebay so will have to see how they go!!! 12h25m to go!! At least with the r1 carbs being quite stumpy i don't have any problems on alternator clearnace!! It really is surprising how little room there is once everything is in the engine bay, but i suppose if it was easy everyone would be doing it!!!