Engine Drivetrain 1st Gen Cooper S Most liked posts in thread: GNAT - The Resurrection

This just in!

Machine Shop has completed their portion of the work.

Block is all straight, bores are now round, crank and pistons installed. Head work is complete as well.

We are on track for me to have the MINI back in time for MOTD!

 

Still at DT finalizing the tune.

It has not blown up and will not. As I said it is being tuned for safe and reliable power.

Don't like my choices. Oh well. It's MY car and MY choices. There is no need to keep the rhetoric going.

 

Wow..what a day yesterday.

Up at 5 am to head to Detroit at 6 thanks to a very generous Mid-Ohio MINI person that had also scheduled an alignment with Detroit Tuned. A little rain didn't dampen my mood, I've been waiting for this day since I dropped of the MINI almost two months ago.

Getting off the highway and about to turn the corner on the last street that would lead us to the shop a loud blue streak goes by. Yep, it's Chad out collecting data for tuning. Looking in the passenger side mirror I see my MINI do a U turn. Are they legal in MI, they are not in OH. Chad follows us to the shop. We were about a 1/2 hour early.

I hop out of the MINI that brought us there, talk to Chad for a scant minute to ascertain whats the plan is. After a quick pit stop in the shop I'm strapped in the passenger side of my car for another data logging run.

OMG, it's FAST!

YIKES it's LOUD!

I think I giggled like a schoolgirl a few times too.

We get back to the shop and commence the days activities. Two alignments, one for me, one for Metalman. Lots of data logging and adjusting of the ECU.

I'm a terrible passenger so I opted out of the data logging drives. Metalman went with Chad...once. Heh - His eyes were big as dinner plates after that.

As its wont to do, tuning took some time. In between we went over every bit of the car and discussed what was done, what wasn't done, why, and what is going to need to be watched and worked on soon. There were time and budget constraints here ya know.

I'm thinking that luckily for us the MI group was on a drive, this allowed Chad and later Matt to focus fully on our cars without people stopping in.

12 hours, almost to the minute after we arrived it was time to head back home. Filled the tank at the local Sunoco station. I know the gas was fresh, earlier in the day when we passed the station on the way in they were getting fuel.

The drive home was uneventful, just as I hoped it would be. Being it was mostly highway and know I needed to keep the RPM's varied I used the iPod full of tunes to guide me. At each song change I'd change gears. 3-4 min of driving in 6th, then 3-4 minutes in 5th, all the way home. The only break in that routine was when a set by The Ramones hit the shuffle. Gear changes came a lot faster then.

The exhaust is a real Jekyll & Hyde affair. When cruising in 6th at a decent clip it's down right quiet. Quiet enough that I was able to have a conversation on the phone. But...a shove of the loud pedal is just that. This exhaust screams. Sounds right nice too.

The new suspension feels great. Nowhere near as bone jarring as the coil over setup was, then again the coil overs need a full rebuild too, they are leaking. It is still hard to make more judgments about the suspension though. The drive home was mostly highway, it was cool out too, in the 40's and I'm running summer tires. The best curvy bits on the drive home came near the end on some ramps, but it was almost 1am and I was beat. Did not even try to push it, not one little bit.

There are still a few little things that need to be attended to this week before leaving for MOTD but all can handled locally.

All in all it is like a new but familiar car to me if that makes sense.

On the butt dyno scale of Eh to OMG it sure is in the OMG range now. This is the power I was looking for years ago when I started this journey. Then again, it's still in the break in period so there were no WOT runs on the drive home, just a few 3/4 throttle bursts.

Thanks to all involved in this little adventure:

Chad, Matt and TJ - Detroit Tuned
Kellen and Tristan - Craven Speed
Jan - Revolution Motor Works
Mark and rest of the Mid-Ohio MINI folks
Each of you that bought into this by supporting the build with a Rebuilt Tee Shirt
All of you that have been following along with this rebuild since the first post, almost 2 months ago to the day.

Without this support and encouragement the Rebuild of GNAT would not have been possible. I can't thank you enough.

 

For that JCW Coupe in BRG/Silver with Recaros....Yeah sure :lol:

 

Sorta like so?

MINI[sup]3[/sup]

 

Parts are arriving...

 

Been out for a while today...

This is just to much fun :crazy: :ihih:

 

Update....

Now with a little over 2k miles and things are still perfect. The MINI brings a big smile with every drive. Has lots of power, handles great and just a hoot to drive.

 

It's been about 3.5 months now that I've had the car back and figured it was time for an update. In that time I've driven a little under 3000 miles, mostly to MOTD and the Pittsburgh Vintage Grand Prix.

For the most part everything is honky dory. There are a few oddities thought.

1. After driving across Central Ohio via scenic type roads, hitting some biblical rain and then dryish roads again I got to the hotel ok. Ran up the street a little while later the the DSC shut it's self off, the light came on indicating DSC was off. I could not turn it back on with the switch. Restart reset it and the mile drive back to hotel after I got my stuff was uneventful. Later when going to a PittStop MINI home DSC shut it's self off again when coasting up an offramp. Again, the switch did not work. Checked codes, nothing there but the usual O2 sensor one. Drove back to hotel later. No issue.

The next morning when on an empty highway I turned on the cruise control. Set the speed and it shut down. Tried again, same result. Odd I though. No DSC issue.

On the way back later in the day to the aforementioned PittStop MINI home there was no DSC issue. The cruise control worked. From then on, there has not been a repeat of this issue.

2. It's time for a new laptop, this 7 year old Toshiba can barely run a cobbled together XP is having fits with Bytetronic now. Due to this I can't upload the latest file. It's just small tweaks but it would still be nice to use. All other functions seem to work fine. I may run out the Shop Day Pittstop MINI is having with Chad of Detroit Tuned and at least load the new file.

3. One persistent error code for the O2 sensor. P0030 HO2S Heater Control Circuit Need to get this checked out. Probably need a new O2 sensor. Of course it's not so easy on Gnat. With the race header the bungs are a bit further back meaning the O2 harness needs to be extended. The adage is so true in the long term as well, mods beget mods.

Otherwise it runs great, is a hoot to drive and puts a smile on face almost every time.

 

Need a lot more lifetime members for that...

...Just sayin :ihih:

 

Blue, the color of the fastest gaskets for the fastest MINIs

 

Its Alive​

The video is crappy and is sideways...but NOW I am getting excited.

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nR97QT1-uIM]ItStartsYay.3gp - YouTube[/ame]

 

Off to Detroit...damn, it's early in the morning!