its contagious! ? look forward to seeing updates. goodluck guys!

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1963 850 - laid up
1970 Morris mini K van - eating up the kms!

Merry Xmas and happy new year to all. Hope you all had a good break (for those that had holidays) or hope that those that had to work through had a good time to.

Project is still underway, will post some pics of the current stage once my garage has a little less crap in it.

Cant wait to see them Ryan!!

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"Not Speeding Officer..........Qualifying"

Ok guys, as promised here is a pic of my mini.
From the records i have been able to search it is a 1977 Leyland LS.
It came with no doors, but luckily my partner in this project has decided to switch to clubman instead of round nose, so im going to rip the doors off his mini for mine.



Body is in pretty good condition, minimal rust, the front panel is bent up, but is also rusted so i am going to replace it with a new panel from minispares.com

Here is the other mini



Way better condition, came with bonnet, boot and doors.

Looks good Ryan!

_________________
"Not Speeding Officer..........Qualifying"

Another Update

Havent been slack, just dont have alot of funds at the moment as we are nearing the end of buying the house we are in.

However for the moment we are working on a small mini car trailer for the purpose of taking the mini's to and from the LVVTA Certifiers.

Have also dropped a 4efe and 4wd running gear out of a EP85 starlet, have that sitting around waiting to do some measurements on the diff, but to do the measurements i need the brakes that are going to be fitted onto the diff.

Other than that still parting out the stuff we dont require off the clubman and my roundy, if any one in NZ needs some parts feel free to PM me, and ill see if i have what you want.

Just as an idea i have front and rear subframe from Clubman, rear subframe from roundy, Clubman speedo cluster with cable (seems to work fine when it is spun), brake lines and fuel lines from Clubman, Master Cylinders, Steering column from clubman.

Hope all is well with everyone out there

No more real updates as of yet.
We are waiting on some brakes that we purchased (Should be here the weekend after next), we have however decided on a project name, "Micro Machines"

Basically we need to get a few more measurements done so we can supply a plan to the LVVTA Certifier and get this project truly under way. It is great to keep seeing all the other conversion projects underway. You guys are keeping our dream alive !!!!!!!

Hey guys, well havent had any news for sometime, but hoping to change that now.

Have decided to switch my plan from an AWD 4EFTE mini to a purely front wheel drive mini. Recently had my life completely flip upside down so am finding myself something to keep me busy.
I "had" purchased a 91 Starlet GT with a big end knock that i was going to repair and turn into a track car while i progressed the mini build, however because i am the luckiest person in the world, the night before it was to be dropped off i was told that a friend had already sold the starlet, rather irritating. So for now, the project is to start work on the Mini body, clean it up etc etc.

I did want to ask about rear brakes on the mini. I currently have a full set of Honda brakes, has anyone fitted these to the rear of a mini? I have read a few on a few forums that the brakes wont make a huge difference, however for me i am going for the look while hopefully getting a 5-10% brake performance improvement.

Any help will be great.

I am going to drop the rear subframe out of the car, and then discuss options for the front subframe with Tricky .

Cheers guys, glad to catch up with everyones build pages. If anyone knows of a starlet GT going cheap that may have a few issues that the owner cant be bothered fixing. Let me know, very keen to get one as i need the engine anyway.

Surely you still want to do the AWD 4EFTE..... (so we can all TRY to resist following suit!)

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1972 Leyland Clubman, 4EFTE 1330cc Turbo, 220Hp on 17psi
(1/4 mile: 13.8s @108mph @168Hp)

Ditto!!! You owe it to yourself and the rest of us Ryan to go the AWD route - I had the rear axle/suspension all worked out!!

Do it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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"Not Speeding Officer..........Qualifying"

Haha Tricky, didnt realise you had got that far. You may be able to twist my arm with that information haha

Hello world of the AusMini Forums

Not much progress on the mini (Waiting for tricky to tell me how hes going to mount the read diff haha) however i have got ahold of a 1991 Toyota Starlet GT.
The motor in it had seen better days. It had a broken conrod and what looked to be 20 years of running without an oil change. Upon taking the head and intake manifold off the motor we were able to find a medium sized hole in the back of the block, obviously where the rest of the conrod had flown out from. Luckily enough i had a spare block from the 4EFE AWD Motor.

Basically i have stripped the Non-Turbo AWD Motor and sent the block to be honed and cleaned, while it is away i have pulled the screwed turbo motor out of the starlet and stripped it down aswell. Upon taking the pistons out i noticed that not only did the conrod snap it had also left the bottom of the piston in a bad state and had also gouged the crank to crap - time for a trip to the scrap metal dealer haha. I did some research of the main differences between the 4EFE and 4EFTE motors and have found that they run different rods, pistons and cams. Other than that the motors are damn near identical.

So here is my plan. I am taking the 3 usable pistons from the turbo motor (have found a 4th piston from a wrecker in NZ for $30) and fitting them to the conrods out of the 4EFE (They are a bit weaker, but i am not planning on upping the boost for now, just want a car i can take to the track and have some fun in), on the note of removing the pistons from rods, have to go and buy myself a shop press as all 4E pistons are press-fitted to the rods, arrrggghhhh. Once i get the 4EFE block back from being cleaned and honed i wil refit the 4EFE crank which is in perfect condition (4EFE and 4EFTE run the same crank stamped with 4ET) and then fit the turbo pistons and non-turbo rods to the motor, tadah bottom end built. I have purchased a complete gasket kit and new set of bearings, so the motor is basically getting a full rebuild, just not to the same level as some who choose to go forged pistons and rods etc. Once the pistons, rods and crank are fitted and torqued down i will refit the cleaned 4EFTE head as it is perfect aswell. Then i can start refitting all the accessories like the Alternator, Powersteering pump, cams, rocker cover etc etc. Once thats all complete i have to pull through a new loom for the starlet as whoever owned the car before me has hacked 3/4 of the wires and sensors (could be a possible reason the motor broke a rod in the first place). Luckily the CT9 turbo has no play in the shaft etc so will be fitting it back on and then prepping the motor to be "run-in".

Its keeping me busy after a few issues have occured in my life, but am loving finally getting my hands on the inside of an engine.

I will be moving the motor to forged pistons and rods etc once i can find a set that doesnt require me ripping off my testicles and selling them on the black market. If anyone knows where they can be found and are fairly priced, please let me know as ill want to forge the motor before it is dropped into the mini.

Like i said, no progress on the mini, however i do have the car that will be donating its heart to the mini project. If anyone needs any parts from the 4EFE motor i have them all, head, intake and exhaust manifold (which looks to be the same manifold as the turbo) powersteering pump, alternator, airconditioning pump, dizzy, wiring loom, etc etc. Some parts can be used on a 4EFTE however the cams have around 1MM more lift than the turbo. Also the 4EFE pistons are high compression so arent really a viable replacement for turbo pistons. However if anyone wants anything let me know. Will be taking the screwed block to the scrap yard this weekend with the screwed crank and piston. After than i will be clearing out all the parts i dont need to make room so i can clean and paint the parts being refitted to the motor.

Just for fun i thought id atleast show you what was left in the turbo motor

That was all that was left, the rest of the rod has gone, nothing attached to the crank at all. It makes me wonder what they were doing with it before it happened, and makes me laugh that we actually had the turbo motor running about a day or so after i brought it, it ran like a bag of crap, but it still ran, a testament to toyota build quality i guess haha