timmy201 wrote:
Matt Read did a couple of them from memory too?
Matt's still working on his for his broadspeed minis, he's a busy boy.
timmy201 wrote:
I guess in my mind there are a couple of downsides:
Not any more power than a mini 1275 (stock vs stock)
Engineering the whole conversion - not an issue in the UK from what I’ve read?
Lack of “off the shelf” subframes at a reasonable price here
Lack of engines and they are all getting old
I think you've hit the nail on the head with power, a lot of people seem to see the factory Nissan numbers and ask why you'd bother?
I'm pretty skeptical of comparing hp numbers because it doesn't seen to be a good reflection of how good it will be to drive, but also I think you're comparing with a whole heap of people that potentially have some skin in the game, from dyno tuners who get more business from big hp numbers to owners who have invested big and don't want to have backed the wrong horse, to people chasing hp numbers for bragging rights and sacrificing drivabilty on the way.
That said the factory Nissan inlet and especially exhaust manifolds are junk, you gain quite a bit from getting rid of them, mine is a 250,000km engine (unopened) but I haven't had trouble hanging with anyone else but you've no idea how hard they are pushing except perhaps plumes of smoke out the exhaust.
Engines are still easy enough to come by, the last 2 engines and gearboxes I got have been $50 each.
Engineering really wasn't that bad (no where near as bad as I expected), there's a couple of things in it's favour here namely minimal body mods and using the same size engine, a lighter engine helps too, The advantages you listed, also it uses all of the stock mini suspension parts. Funnily most of the weight savings went into beefing up my subframe I think, it's much stronger than it needs to be but I suspect this stiffness also pays dividends in handling...?
timmy201 wrote:
Personally I think if I was going to do an engine conversion (lotto win pending) I’d go for a Honda engine with a bit more grunt, so that you can keep the engine stock for reliability. On the other hand if a modified subframe was a decent price and you could just slap in the CG13 and drive away without engineering I’d reckon more people would do it
There are subframes but they aren't available locally (all in the UK), I think I have been able to do the conversion doing it myself for about the same price as I would have paid for a decent standard engine build, certainly not even close to what Spot is now including dyno tuning and engineering etc.
With the ability you've shown with your engine build I think you could do a Honda or whatever conversion relatively cheaply, engine builds scare me more than the conversion...
