This is a Mini Mania custom rebuilt engine for our friend Peter in Hawaii. We rebuilt the engine and transmission that he sent us out of his Mini. This is a 1380 cc engine built as a nice torquey street engine mated to an original Cooper S style remote-shift 3 synchro gear box with Hardy-Spicer outputs. This is going into a Traveller Woody wagon, so the extra power will be really nice.
OK, lets just start somewhere!
My carb's bigger!
I have been dragged into the Blogosphere by my lovely and persistent very internet savvy girlfriend/assistant, who assures me others will find what I’ve been up to interesting. True, I built all of Mini Mania’s Engines for a seven year span, and my Mini history goes back to when I was three (yes, years old!). If some of you that got to know me from MM find your way here, welcome! Why not share some of my knowledge AND opinions(!) about our frivolous pursuits with these little cars. Really not bragging, but there can be rather few people left with as much knowledge and experience with the mechanical side of the Classic Mini.
Enough bla-bla for now? I’m told I need to stick to the subject and bang it out if I’m to keep anyone’s interest. Something about a 30 to 90 second window to hold someone’s attention… I’m going to have problems!!
How about some photos?
The Mark I with the stock column.
Yes, the worst thing about the mini to me has always been the less than sporty driving position. I’ve always been annoyed by the VW Bus style of steering column and the way it does not complement adjusting for more leg room… Moving the seat back just makes the awkward angle worse! Apologies to more practical minds, but who are we kidding with the back “seat” in these things? Two and a little space behind like an extra cab compact pick-up is the best we can hope for IMO (In My Opinion…. I should use that a lot!).
So, I moved the seats back and fabricated a stout but unobtrusive bracket to mount an OTS tilt steering column. Off-the-shelf was important, my mini happens to be a Mark 1, but my “kit” needed to fit just about any of them, including right hand drive. As an added bonus the column is new and it uses the most common steering wheel mount opening up a world of choices. Plus, have you ever taken apart the stock broomstick held by little felt “bushings”, or try to buy said flimsy components? And those lovely plastic shrouds… ’nuff said.
More photos.
An iPad GPS! Early mock-up, see the vise grips
Early gauges and a 10,000 RPM Auto Meter tach
Speaker hole... Let's see how this turns out!
More work to do… new wiring harness as soon as I finish welding the holes in the dash- speaker holes I presume, hacked in by someone without foresight!
I’m going to try to stick to these updates and make regular progress. Looks like you can post comments here… I’m just learning my way around this interface… or try jkat@cooperroadmini.com
More updated photos coming… Oooh, welding shots!
JKat presents a brief description of his Sprite Engine rebuild
https://youtube.com/watch?v=bpXANtUv70M%26hl%3Den_US
Joe writing to JKat:
I have always had mixed opinions about octane boosters and actually never used them.
Portland has a Fed. mandate that we have to do better cleaning the air and as a result we have
“oxygenated fuel” which is gasohol. Makes all cars run terrible in the name of the environment??
Anyway, the BMW just was not running right recently and has not felt up to par for some time.
That car has 10.5 – 1 compression, which I know they did for mid-range cruising economy and not for accelerating.
Anyway, I was reading that the sensor that detects the octane in the fuel, will make full use of the 10.5 compression if octane is high enough.
Unlike a distributor that has a theoretical static advance, the BMW sensors detect the real octane and from that
find the ideal. Anyway, I tried 108 Octane Booster that a friend recommended and wow, what a difference.
The engine sounds much more fierce and performance is like adding 40 HP or so. Someone else said that
Lucas Octane booster is very good, but that one costs about $9.00 for a very small bottle, so i went with the 108.
At about $4.00 per tank, the 108 clearly is giving me better gas mileage and oven an entire tank of gas is paying for itself,
not to mention better acceleration. Even my low first gear is not very noticeable with the higher octane.