Most liked posts in thread: Rally Mini Cooper

Thanks, yes! came to work today, my boss heard me before I reached the facility, nothing wrong with that engine he said! No snow here..LOL

 

For all you rally fans I was lucky enough to change my rally number from 370 to 37 today.

 

The last week was pretty crazy due to I wanted the Mini tested before I left on Sunday. Just getting all those last minute things done seemed the most difficult. The clutch bleeding was a little bleeder! I just couldn’t get the clutch to work. After Jason left a prayer things looked up as the BMW dealer had one slave cylinder in stock for about $15 more than EMineparts which was acceptable seeing as I go the part the same day. With no monkey to help me I figured how to self bleed the clutch. I made a slave cylinder compressor, then hooked up a pipe to a jar of brake fluid. All I did was open the bleed screw, pushed the pedal down which stayed down, then back to close the bleed screw , pull the pedal up and repeat. I got lots of exercise!

The clutch then worked perfect. I cleaned up the plugs results in 4 cylinders back in action. I had the appointment for 11:45am so I got up at 5:30am, finishing of all the stuff like adding a hand fire extinguisher , warning triangles and first aid kit. In Costa Rica the noise level is 96db so the muffler shops do good business swapping noisy systems for quiet exhaust systems then swapping them back after the test. I had an insert for the Swift so modified this for the Mini but on firing up the engine it was still too loud. It was 11:30 so no chance to change it. The Mini engine has always been temperamental since the rebuild so today it was not playing. I started the engine drove about 30’ then it died and wouldn’t start. I pulled the plugs which seemed dry. So I was frustrated as to what was wrong. Now it was 11:45 and one dead engine….aaaaaaarrrrrrrrrggggggggghhhhhhhh Never give up!

So I turned the key and to my surprise the engine fired up …hoooooooray. Now I was off to the test station which was a 10 minute blast up a sweet twisty road that I know very well. The engine sound was gorgeous as was the exhaust note. Even though I could not rev past 3000rpm due to the exhaust insert the engine was very responsive and the Midland box shifted very well with short distances between each gear due to the 5:1 final drive…The handling was superb even though I set up the alignment by eye sight. I got to the test station with a huge grin on my face which soon changed when the lady behind the counter said I was missing a document! So no test…..aaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrggggggggghhhhhhhhhh Never give up!

I returned home happy but sad about no test…..I think Jason sent another prayer because for some strange reason the missing document was on the floor in the house! Guess what ? off back to the test station! This time the speedo worked , The SES light went out and the engine sounded even better! The test took a agonizing 45minutes as they tested all the components all was well until the noise test. The dear girl had too much growl so failed the test at 99db. Not a worry as I can modify the insert adding some extra fiberglass packing on my return on July 14th. So there have it after 9 months and about 260+ hours the Mini was back and better for it. Sure I made mistakes, wanted to give up and cut my loses/veins but I carried on and with the help and encouragement of members of the Mini community.

A big thanks to Beaner, Modfather , Crashton and the rest who stuck by me. Now the fun times begin. Get the test, get the license plates and then go test driving and hunting for sponsors before the September rally. Based on the small crowd of admirers in the test station I know this car is going to be a big hit in Costa Rica…saying that since starting rallying in 1989 this is the most sexy rally car I’ve built….stay tuned amigo’s.

 

The first job was a full pressure wash to remove a 5 gallon bucket worth of mud! Just when you think you’ve modified everything to cope with the rigors of gravel rallying something else happens to schedule another re-think! I hope the gearbox woes are over so the next issue was the radiator. As we know the radiator is begging to be hit by a big rock so originally I built a metal frame to protect it. This frame last 3 rallies until the on the last rally the ultra-rough conditions highlighted the front protection needed a rethink!

The black center section was completely chewed up from all the rocks so I got to think that I need something similar to what’s fitted to the front of a train..hahaha This weekend I decided to build a front bumper bottom section out of steel. Seeing as I’m cheap I looked around the place I rent in Costa Rica finding some more rusting flat steel bar which I’d used in the past to fabricate the rear strut mounts. First problem was straightening the old frame I made, I did this by dropping from a tree some bench press weighs I found in the shed on the bent area, Hahaha . Once everything was straight I eyed up what I needed to do ( I spend a lot of time just sitting there with a picture in my head of the finished product) then started cutting and welding in the metal bar. This took all day Saturday and part of Sunday morning with some stops due to the heavy rain.

The new bumper adds about 25LBS more but should protect the radiator/engine/gearbox better than the previous frame. While I was at it I had to repair the plastic frame around the radiator with some sheet metal I found. One thing I didn’t realize is a radiator swap requires the front bumper removable so I fabricated some brackets to hold the cooling fan allowing easy removal of the radiator. While on the subject of the front bumper: I thought the whole removal process is time consuming so with the metal bumper I fitted the plastic bumper and aluminum as one piece which require some 1 ¼” holes drilled in the front bumper, not pretty but very functional. Now I can remove the front bumper in one go!

Once I finished all the welding I painted the bare metal matt black and then fitted the bumper. All looked good with the metal sectional looking almost like the original. The next rally is on Oct 19th so we shall see hold the bumper holds up!

The damage



Grass and mud



The bent frame



This shifts the mud



Working in the open has its pleasures



And not so



Bumper fabrication





The bent radiator



The finished product!

 

I sent them a photo of your Mini! this is the final finish...too good to rally! I'm blown away with the work!

 

Back in MA waiting to go to work to pick up all the goodies. I found a good use for the spoiler, I can carry all the trash bags from my house in CR to the trash collection area. LOL



Also here's the spare wheel moved about 10" forward.



Currently I have fitted the super soft worn out 2008 rear dampers which gives me very interesting handling. Soon to be replacing by the Riegers!

 

oh Rieger overnighted the bushes....golly good.

 

and worth 2 seconds a stage.

Wooooooooooooo hoooooooooooo everything arrived today! I have all the gearbox and suspension parts. Looking forward to rebuilding the Midlands this weekend. I hope the Monday commute will be filled with straight cut gear whine!

Wishing all you father's out there a wonderful Sunday.

 

Finally something interesting to write about! I was a little nervous about this build as I was not sure if the Peugeot gear set would work in the Midlands casing and selector forks. Friday night I carefully built up the gear set from a donor Mini gear set. What was interesting was the oil ways were completely blocked with oil sludge. It pays to swap the life time oil!
Saturday I got up at 6am and by 7:15 the box was out, then 45 minutes later the box apart! Seeing as I had to split the LSD to fit the new crown wheel I decided to inspect the internals. All the plates looked good so I rebuilt the LSD with the 4:2 final drive. Then I had the swap all the parts over from bad casing to the good one.
You can see the 2 tubes of gasket goo that didn’t stop the oil leaking out. Dropping in the gear set was routine as before. The only issue was the Peugeot input shaft has a C clip and not a nut. Unfortunately I did not have a washer to fit under the C clip. Lucky for me I found a washer the correct size. Phew!
As always putting the box back in takes longer but I was surprised the box mated to the engine with the first try! I fitted a new ball joint and radiator while I was at it. The radiator swap is easy as now I have the fan attached to the plastic surround. It did not help that most of the day it rained, the joys of working outside. Plus I bitten by the all the bugs flying around.
By around 4pm I was ready for the test drive, I was super excited because I’ve never had a straight cut gear set. I was wise to use a synchro set up instead of a dog engagement as shifting is like a normal box.
Once I got on the street I shift through the gears expecting a loud whine but was surprised to hear only a slight whine, 3rd was pretty loud so I should imagine from outside the whine could be heard. The spread of ratios was really nice making the weedy Cooper engine seem more powerful. This morning I was able to open up on the side road to work confirming the 90mph in 5th at 6000rpm …sweet! So there you have the first Midlands with a straight cut gear set. I hope it will last without regular rebuilds.

 

Well that was a long weekend! I thought Saturday would be enough but it took Saturday and Sunday to fit the Reigers. Mainly due to I had to some changes to the steel cradle to fit the coil overs. They were made for the R50 trailing arm so my R56 arm was not a straight fit. Drivers side was done on Saturday and the Passenger side Sunday. Passenger side was worse because the cradle got bent up after the roll.

First impressions were the springs were to soft but once on the open road this morning it was very clear the rear was planted. The Cadillac float rear end was gone even with 1 1/2" more ride height. Next I need to let the suspension settle and go get the suspension aligned.

 

Maybe reindeers pulling the Mini will work?

 

Yes I'm looking forward to fitting the new kill switch and sorting some other odds and ends. We have an engineer here from MA for the week so I took him for a spin down the local roads at lunch. He was impressed with the short ratio gearbox and how fast 90mph came up! Big smiles all round today.

 

Finally on the road,