16v K1380 mini, I just couldn't resist ripping it apart again.

jayme

RMS Regular
OP
jayme
Messages
1,338
Location
omagh
Drives
Mini/ A7
Collected my cover from Brookfab yesterday, really please with the outcome. Pete made me up an infill plate to cover my spark plugs and welded in some an fittings to the end of the cover to act as breathers.

44894401_340737536485845_9132523166327898112_n.jpg
 

jayme

RMS Regular
OP
jayme
Messages
1,338
Location
omagh
Drives
Mini/ A7
More deliveries today from MED and KAD, from med one of their main straps, management pulley, uprated crank bolts and a fancy piston tool to make installation handy. KAD shipped me out one of their race spec pumps that has the internals super finished, tbh its probably overkill for a road engine but @80 that nothing to the 5 figures it would take to fix the engine if anything happens.

med.JPG


This weekend im heading to Ultimate stance with Conor, ive Monday booked off work so im heading down to CC minis to build up the bottom end and put the gearbox and clutch on, hopefully all goes to plan for us.

Cheers for looking

Jayme
 

jayme

RMS Regular
OP
jayme
Messages
1,338
Location
omagh
Drives
Mini/ A7
Well its been a long few months, this thing has nearly broken me to the extent ive felt like sticking it under a cover and forgetting it. The hassle ive had with the engine alone would put anybody off, il not go into details as such as im not one for bad broadcasting.

Fast forward to last weekend and we where able to make some progress turning this crate of 4 years worth of parts into an engine that I used to dream about before i could drive or even had a car.

45205624_295055738007361_7818212317044146176_n.jpg


Ended up buying some of these, purely as the quality of what i was sent twice left alot to be desired to, particularly when you could feel a bur on one bearing.
UNZZ2587.JPG


Rods all cleaned ready for assembly

IMG_7169.JPG


And the block all together with the worked crank, rods, pistons etc

IMG_7174.JPG


Finished that day off by dropping it onto the gearbox we had previously built

IMG_7183.JPG


then some clearance checks on the drop MED drop gears, previously we had spent quite some time checking that the idler gear was correctly shimmed the transfer case all pinched up. The thrust gear also needed to me fitted with the correct end float.

IMG_7264.JPG


From here it was time to drop the head on to inspect the pulleys which as we have come to expect shows more issues in the form of them not aligning.

48360183_944953025705846_128851368227110912_n.jpg


So far Ive already had to have Pete weld on an outer ring on one of the pulleys which is epoxied on with the kit, personally I had little faith on it staying there.

IMG_7272.JPG


Next up I will most likely have to have the rear of the crank pulley machined to pull it in to line up with the top cam and oil pump pulley before shimming out the trigger wheel to line up with the water pump and alternator.

IMG_7273.JPG


Above is the cover Pete tweaked for me and some of the AN fittings supplied by power max engineering. Transfer covers and clutch all fitted up without any hassle thankfully.

And below a wee purchase to keep the spirits up in the form of a billet fuel rail anodized to mach the pulleys, fittings and other billet parts haha


45299014_502541973559885_7295979680086097920_n.jpg
 

jayme

RMS Regular
OP
jayme
Messages
1,338
Location
omagh
Drives
Mini/ A7
And the most recent picture from the painters

45288604_2012025148888303_947364339755515904_n.jpg


Also been working on this for the boot lid, drew it from the original Austin cooper text and tweeked it slightly to cause some confusion with the die hards. Going to have it 3D printed before painting it.

46182285_1927056384009395_7550346614225764352_n.jpg


Cheers for looking

Jayme.
 

johna3

RMS Regular
Messages
2,499
Location
Bangor
Drives
Mk2Golf/defendr
Great progress Jayme(y)

Where's the R&D with these supposedly high end aftermarket parts? Surely you shouldn't have to machine kit parts to get them to fit and since when has epoxy been used to hold crucial components together.... I'd have thrown the toys out by now, fair play for keeping your cool!
 

Simon998

RMS Regular
Messages
11,590
Drives
Cayman S
You're not the first to have issues with the 16v head kit from SC. A couple of guys on TMF have had to re-engineer a few parts also.

It's looking fantastic so far though, keep at it, it'll all be worth it in the end!
 

jayme

RMS Regular
OP
jayme
Messages
1,338
Location
omagh
Drives
Mini/ A7
Im a bit miffed and generally frustrated by it in all honesty, It wasn't as if I done it on the cheap.

I can see how there may be some discrepancies with the likes of the pulleys etc, but from what I can see the lower pulley needs a right bit of the back machined back to bring it in line. It is by all means a faff.

In all honesty If I hadn't worked the engine bay to suit the 16v with the ITB'S and modified the frame to drop it lower I would be parting it out all the 16v bits and starting down another route.

Going to finish building it and time the head etc before taking it to a mate to measure up and machine whatever is needed. This week I will be going to hunt my shell down as I'm stuck to make any progress atm without it.
 

Simon998

RMS Regular
Messages
11,590
Drives
Cayman S
It's something different, which is hard to achieve these days with mini's. It'll be amazing when it's finished.

One of the guys that bought the SC BMW kit was in Canada, it's taken him years to get it all sorted out.
 

jayme

RMS Regular
OP
jayme
Messages
1,338
Location
omagh
Drives
Mini/ A7
Another stage closer, everything is together and timed. Few bits left to do including designing and making an alternator bracket to work with mpi block, rear block breather needs a spacer as the machinist never rectified the clearance issue and lastly resolve the belt tracking issue caused by the pulleys beeeing out of plane (appears to be another parts issue). Was a major learning curve but couldn’t have done it without my buddy Cian at cc minis keeping me right along the build and pushing me to finish it when I was for pulling the plug.

D1965AA4-0116-42A3-AFE1-B0C96669C9D0.jpeg


0D358F0A-1A6C-4922-9C5A-E77DBBE36AA1.jpeg


Have some new cam cover bolts to get to match in with everything else, Pete is getting me some parts waterjet cut to make a neater solution for the itg filtered mounting followed by a breather/fill point to vent the cam conver into over the transfer case. Also considering getting a new manifold made at the same time to allow for better flow and create more of a feature.

Just need to get my shell back now :/
 

S2K-Aaron

RMS Regular
Messages
1,690
Drives
Daily Hack
This is absolutely fantastic! love it, good choice not throwing the towel in, gonna be epic
 

veedubnoodle

RMS Regular
Messages
2,744
Location
Portadown
Drives
her crazy
Unbelievable amount of work going into this Jayme. I'd have given up a long time ago so fair play to you for sticking with it. Its gunna be fantastic when it's all done! (y)
 

jayme

RMS Regular
OP
jayme
Messages
1,338
Location
omagh
Drives
Mini/ A7
Cheers Gents.

I guess time will tell if the right decision has been made, ultimately there will be teething issues in terms of getting it to run nicely which no doubt will cause a strip down after the initial or first year.

In the mean time I'm pushing on to get it finished for next year and the mag shoot, they are keen so that's the motivation these days.
 

Neil_M

RMS Regular
Messages
4,766
That engine looks epic. Would make a great living room ornament.

The project is still a great read!
 

jayme

RMS Regular
OP
jayme
Messages
1,338
Location
omagh
Drives
Mini/ A7
That engine looks epic. Would make a great living room ornament.

The project is still a great read!

Funny you should say that haha, that’s plan b. It would be however a coffee table that would be a very respectful 10% deposit of the house it would be going in :/
 

mcmurray

RMS Regular
Messages
3,924
Drives
M3
What's the story with the shell? Painter taking his time?

Engine looks amazing, stick at it. (y)
 

jayme

RMS Regular
OP
jayme
Messages
1,338
Location
omagh
Drives
Mini/ A7
What's the story with the shell? Painter taking his time?

Engine looks amazing, stick at it. (y)

Think it’s a case that he is getting to busy very quick and Is struggling to hold down the 9-5 on top of his own business. Bumpers pay bills relatively easy aswell.
 

jayme

RMS Regular
OP
jayme
Messages
1,338
Location
omagh
Drives
Mini/ A7
Things are starting to move on nicely with this, called round Saturday to see the progress and was greeted by the following..

50748213_222649208686152_2995727809080459264_n.jpg


50973617_537899620032937_2201785009717641216_n.jpg


Engine wise touch wood im nearing the end of the hassle, spent Thursday night building up a few parts that needed check in the form of the aux belt assembly. Thankfully it all seems to be fine in terms of all lining up, Friday I dropped it up to Powermax to try sort the top pulleys.

50607302_405095586963690_7900530587952218112_n.jpg


47058754_2258359384432860_5064520273168957440_n.jpg


50605808_569458556814637_5638026646318481408_n.jpg


All being well i will have the engine home in a few weeks and the shell home next Thursday night, then its time to drop it in to continue the rest of the build.
 

jayme

RMS Regular
OP
jayme
Messages
1,338
Location
omagh
Drives
Mini/ A7
My big target is the RH show in august, if all goes to plan it will be road by July. If the Gti Ni lads are allowing il bring it to wellan for the day. other than that I dont plan bringing it to much unless im 100% happy with it.

And now that Downroyal meets are no longer that kind of rules them out :/
 

da.murf

RMS Regular
Messages
10,312
Drives
Nissan 350z
My big target is the RH show in august, if all goes to plan it will be road by July. If the Gti Ni lads are allowing il bring it to wellan for the day. other than that I dont plan bringing it to much unless im 100% happy with it.

And now that Downroyal meets are no longer that kind of rules them out :/

Autolifers cars & cof..... oh wait lol
 

FM155

RMS Regular
Messages
8,652
Drives
Alfa 155
This is class, fair play to you for sticking with it, should be awesome. I keep thinking that I should do my a-series with an 8 port head as they were homologated with those so would be eligible for historic events. I know of another chap who has built one of these and there has been no mention of the sort of issues you have had. Ho got his built by a retired engineer though who probably loved all the snags lol.
 

jayme

RMS Regular
OP
jayme
Messages
1,338
Location
omagh
Drives
Mini/ A7
This is class, fair play to you for sticking with it, should be awesome. I keep thinking that I should do my a-series with an 8 port head as they were homologated with those so would be eligible for historic events. I know of another chap who has built one of these and there has been no mention of the sort of issues you have had. Ho got his built by a retired engineer though who probably loved all the snags lol.

Id imagine you aren't far wrong with the assumption that he fixed the issues. Ive a good contact pool via fb and ig and Im struggling to find many that have had any hassle free builds.

Big fan of the 8 port option, but as with all a-series builds it takes wheel barrows of money and even at that they arent without issues.
 

FM155

RMS Regular
Messages
8,652
Drives
Alfa 155
I can imagine there were issues right enough. The old boy that built the one I was talking about previously put a zetec head and home brew injection on a b-series bottom end basically for the craic so he'd have lapped up any issues. Both of those engines are going into Marina's
 

jayme

RMS Regular
OP
jayme
Messages
1,338
Location
omagh
Drives
Mini/ A7
I can imagine there were issues right enough. The old boy that built the one I was talking about previously put a zetec head and home brew injection on a b-series bottom end basically for the craic so he'd have lapped up any issues. Both of those engines are going into Marina's

Would this fella be form ballymena direction?
 

FM155

RMS Regular
Messages
8,652
Drives
Alfa 155
Nope the engine builder is from the North East of England and the customer is from Bedford.
 
Top