Hi Matt - can't believe the number and variety of great cars you guys have over there - its great!

how are your other crazy rides comming along Matt?

cheers

John

Yeah John, Aust has a huge mini following & certainly some world class examples... & it`s good to see Watto take up the challenge of an Aust mini magazine called the "Mini Experience", have you seen it yet??? It`s top class stuff.

As for my "THings" ->My R1 buggy is a runner but i`m yet to strip it down & paint it all up pretty & also needs some alloy sheeting to fully tub it nice.

The Turbo V8 mini is nearly done, i don`t get much time to work on that one tho, each step i take with it seems to need more than i can give in one hit so i tend to wait till i have a week spare, then i might actually get one or 2 days advancement on the thing. it`s not far off now tho... It`s only been 28 years in the making

The Bimmer Twinkys are all ahead steam now tho, now we have most of the bits programed into the computer, but i`ve allready sold the first 2 & they were supposed to be for me so now i`m trying to build another 2 for myself inbetween times... so many in between times that i don`t get any real time

Can i borrow one of your CNC machines? one of ours is still off line

You must be a busy boy now tho hey? Have you any plans for turbo Bimmer twinky at all??? The big combustion chamber allready lends itself nicely to it , as you know, & Fab is starting to make some decent numbers with his now.

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No offence intended here but--> anyone writing a book about minis 30 years ago may not have experienced such worn or stuffed-with components as we are finding these days.

You should put your heart & soul into everything you do.

time - if only we had lots more of it. Things are very busy this end, which is good news but bad for finishing projects off!

I have an engine in the machine shop being preppared for an "all out" forced induction route - steel crank/rods/forged pistons, 4 bolt caps etc. The head is a 1200RS all flowed out ready for some boost! - undecided wether to supercharge it or turbo it. I have the charger ready so will see which way it goes. Doing a little bit of durability work on a tuners dog box with this motor as well. If anything will break it, it'll be this!

As we've started making our own exhausts we can put this one on the list as well!

I hoping to have it ready for Sep time
cheers

John

Has anyone purchased a kit from england to do the conversion ?

If the conversion was done was it using the 8v or 16v ? Would be good to hear from different people who have used both in order to make a real life comparison because..........

I have spoken to a well known engineer who has worked on mini performance motors for years (no names) and he stated (in engineering jargon that i did not really understand except for the bigger valves bit and the need for four valves ,etc) that the 8 valve version would not produce more talk than the 16v version and it would be basically be a waste of time of time using it.... however madmatt states the opposite and that it is only slightly down on horsepower.

This is important for me because i want to know exactly which head i should be targetting to purchase.

Cheers

16v motors LOVED to be revved!

Depends what you want. Do you want all out power? If so, I'd say 16v, but I reckon the 8v would be good. It'd be a huge improvement over mini 5 port I'd say!

But Matt, or John, your the experts....

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1964 Morris 850, 1330 Supercharged - 81.8hp atws.
1975 Leyland Mini S 1100S powered - Nice and reliable.
1977 Leyland Mini LS - Project LS-T

3 bearing cranks don't though...

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Starlet Conversion:
http://www.ausmini.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=15484

Some do, eg Hillman Imps... race ones go past 10,000 rpm.
Helps that the stroke is about 61mm....

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DrMini- 1970 wasaMatic 1360, Mk1S crank, 86.6HP (ATW) =~125 @ crank, 45 Dellorto (38 chokes), RE282 sprint cam, 1.5 rockers, 11.0:1 C/R.

Hi guys - 8v hemi heads always produce sweet motors (TVR's AJP, yankee iron etc)- efficient ports, good valve sizes produce low down stomp and good top end power. the little 1293cc 8 v (cluuby) motor is sweet as treacle, will potter round like an 850 mini all day long if you want it to, give it some load from low rpm though and it digs in and grunts, great go from zero rpm and you don't need to rev it hard. Though it does produce the goods if you run it out to 7k+. In esssence a really nice fast road motor, i'm sure with some porting the power band will open up and really kick sand in the face of the Ardens of this world (I have a head on the flowbench to see what it will do)

The I'm sure bog stock 16v head would produce similar results just at slightly higher rpm - I haven't run this combo yet

For pure performance though the 16v head ported with a set of cams in it is the absolute business, my 1380 with my spec cams in it will run full throttle in top from 1200 rpm all the way to 8700 rpm (imposed limit for engine life) it produces over 100 lb/ft torque from 3700rpm through to 8500rpm -and isn't exactly tardy below 3000rpm either!

at the end of the day its horses for courses. For information the clubby engine is by far the best fast road engine I have ever driven - no question. Makes all the tuend 5 ports look silly in terms of driveability, throttle response, torque/power.

JK

The extra valves help, but i would imagine the removal of pushrods and the addition of OHC's is what makes it rev that much better..

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Starlet Conversion:
http://www.ausmini.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=15484

Nascars run at 10000rpm, I don't think pushrods are the problem, something more to do with breathing I reckon...

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Videos - Turbocharged A-Series on Dyno & at Wakefield
Mafs waz not my strong subgeckt at skkol

I looked at the inlet valve sizes, did the math, can't remember the exact figures now (can't find the stock valve sizes), but there is a fair bit more valve area on the 16v heads - as you'd expect. That's why a 16v head will usually rev better than an 8v head, it's purely about how much air you can get in and out.
I'd imagine that pushrods are only a disadvantage in terms of extra mass in the valvetrain. Am I right..? And maybe also that pushrods can get bent when under very high load (although not something I've heard of)?
But, as John and Matt both say, an 8v hemi head is no bad thing, and the odds are that you won't be complaining with whichever of those heads you choose!

So can you use the ecu from the BMW bike or do you need a special one

OK so can somebody tell me WHY we are putting a BMW head on the poor old A series then. Won't the BMW K1100 motor and head graft onto a Mini box??
It might actually like to rev hard and stay in one piece....

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DrMini- 1970 wasaMatic 1360, Mk1S crank, 86.6HP (ATW) =~125 @ crank, 45 Dellorto (38 chokes), RE282 sprint cam, 1.5 rockers, 11.0:1 C/R.

matt said the motor bike engine actually turns the wrong way for it to be used in a car, and you can use the bike ecu, but they cant be tuned, also a second hand bmw ecu costs $800 and it cant be tuned, so you may aswell spend $1000 and get a new autronic or other ecu, they are much better then the standard ecu used on the bmw.

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real men race downhill - keiichi tsuchiya

^^^^Yeah what the doc said, why cant we use the whole bmw engine?

Spose you could just buy a bini that comes with a bmw engine(awaiting the hail of comments) hehe

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68 Mini
70 Moke