Most liked posts in thread: The Phoenix - The GP Roadster Project

What happens in Fontana, stays in Fontana.

 

After two days of trying, motor finally made it on a truck at 8:30 tonight. On the way to meet Jan and his team.

 

Finally received the 5-point torx security bits. Easy swap of the accelerator switch from the side of the pedal assembly. Two screws out, and the switch lifts right off. Now my manual Mini has a manual accelerator pedal with an automatic body harness...

Also... RIP Blimey. Assimilated by GPness.

 

Got it sticker bombed for an extra 50 hp. Bolted the box down and loaded it up. Test drove it around the neighborhood looking like full retard. Backed it into the driveway to prove I could.





Will have my new wheels back, with tires mounted, tomorrow. Can test fit on the car, then load up the trailer and test drive some more. Illegally, of course, until I receive the title paperwork from Harbor Freight.

 

Yep, about $2200 delivered. Complete, except for a couple of jugs of Dexton fluid. Which is about the same as a good portable scissor lift.

In retrospect, I wish I'd done it years ago. I really could have afforded it... cheap, compared to what I've spent on mods and tires. And it would have been pretty nice to have over the past 5 years....

 

Chris, I heard you were running ads locally, something like "I can fix that pecker for ninety nine ninety five!!!!"

 

Reinstalled my X-brace, found and fixed an exhaust squeak, and lubed my rear suspension.

Then got started on the Howerton Aquamist install...

The star of the show for this system is the custom 3 gallon fuel cell. Jeff takes a commodity cell and reworks it significantly: custom stainless top and hardware, aluminum mounting plate for pump, heavy aluminum base plate for mounting. He adds a plastic baffle system to regulate surging within the tank while under extreme G-loads. Adds pickup, level sensor and roll-over valve. I had him build mine with AN type hardware and lines.

I'm installing this in the right rear corner of the car... the lightest corner. This will add about 30 pounds to that corner when full. Which is about what I lost by going with a lightweight battery last year.

Speaking of the battery... I need to retain access to the battery for maintenance, track inspections, pulling the ground when doing work that requires it, etc. But I don't want to remove the tank every time I need to get to the battery. So I devised a plan for that.

Here's the tank/pump in position. I've removed the plastic boot liner, but the rigid floor panel is in place. If the tank is bolted down, this panel will block access to the battery...


So I cut it!


The tank bolts down through both the plastic liner and the right section of the floor panel. I can flip the liner up out of the way, pull the left section of the panel, and VOILA.




I installed nutserts for the tank bolts, and drilled the tank base plate to match.

I need two outlets for AN lines: one to take methanol to the engine bay, and a second for the vent. This connects to the roll-over vent connection on the top of the tank. If I happen to put the car shiny-side-down, this valve closes so meth doesn't run out and cause a fire.

I purchased AN-type bulkhead fittings, and installed these through the floor in front of the tank. Then I can connect short lines to these inside the car, and can connect to the meth connection under the car to go forward to the engine bay. The vent is just open under the car, over the heat shield. No meth should ever flow out this line, just some air in and maybe a bit of vapor out.



All piped up!


Now to get to the engine bay...
I connected an AN line to the meth bulkhead fitting under the car, then ran through the subframe, around the fuel charcoal canister and fuel tank, then followed the fuel lines to the front of the car, tying to the fuel line brackets along the way.



Routed up through the right side cowl compartment, along with my wideband O2 and EGT wiring.


Tomorrow, will finish the meth hookup and wiring, as well as the wiring for the Zeitronix wideband / EGT / data logger. And will hopefully get to drive some... I was so busy on the lift today, I didn't drive!!!! :sad:

 

Thanks everyone. Really means a lot to me.
It probably was the safest topless MINI I could have done that in. Stiff and achy and mourning today... But also happy to be here and have the opportunity to rebuild, with both arms/ hands.

That really couldn't have gone much better. Might have the next bar built a few inches wider...