Well I have now started this progect in earnest. I originaly started this almost exactly two years ago, before I even had a car to put it in,LOL.
What is this all about?
Well this is something I have been thinking about since I first read an article in Car Car Conversions magazine back in 1996, and again later that year in CCC's sister Magazine Miniworld, where Bruno Rouille, a french engineering studant working for Southern Carburetors, had mated a BMW K100RS twin cam 16v head to an A series Mini engine. Very interesting read. At that time I didnt have anywhere near the money to even consider tuning a standard motor, so it was just a dream. It wasnt untill recently and the wealth of information on the internet that i found a web site by a chap in America who had actualy done a very similar conversion back in 1989 with the BMW K100 twin cam 8valve head
http://www.users.qwest.net/%7Eshuko/I was talking to one the guys at work who is biker and said that he had a BMW K100. It didnt take long for me to work out what i was looking for with his help and in march 2005 I bought a complete 1992 K100RS engine with only 38k on the clock. Its been since then that i have spent the time researching and developing the dry belt drive set up converting both the engine and head from a wet chain drive
I had always considered a turbo on this conversion even in 1996, it seemed logical, the inlets were at the front, the exhausts where at the back and there would a huge space where the carb used to be. During my research I came across an Auzzie who was also doing this 16v turbo conversion Mad Matt is his alias
for good reason
http://www.users.bigpond.net.au/TheMiniMan/page2.html.
It wasnt untill mid last year that Matt managed to get his running normally aspirated, then soon after John Kimmens of
http://www.specialist-components.com/cnb/shop/sconline?op=merchant-welcome-null It wasnt untill July and the weekend of the British Mini Showdown at Avon Park Race Way Long Marston, Stratford Upon Avon, held every year, that Jim Lyons of
http://www.sheepspeed.com finaly got his 16vturbo, the first ever of its kind in the history of the Mini or The A series, running on race day, with help from myself and many others, even if it was just tech info
. Witnessed by many and unchalenged by anyone to his claim, it still stands as the first ever. He did suffer from some inherant build issues that could not be overcome on the week end to get the mapping some where near and allow one run down the strip. None the less, history had been set. Future mapping on Emeralds rollers by Dave Walker showd 200+bhp ant 170lbft+ at 6500rpm and with a runaway boost pressure of 21 psi. More issues to overcome. Jim is keeping his hat on as to the final figures he achieved.
Now over to me and what has happened so far, well cut an even longer story short, I habe been mocking up the engine in the garage. I have a complete front end off a scrap mini, front end cut off with a subframe and engine sat in it. Some may think Im daft but i still want to use the mini, and it enables me to work on the project in a realistic situation into the wee small hours of the morning
. Ive got rads, intercoolers, oil coolers, inlet plenums, turbos, filters, water pumps and all associated pipework to squeeze under a standard round nose front end. Of which, the FG front end is on order.
I finished prepping the block at the week end, that is ready. I need to work out the valve cuts in the pistons now and get them machined, im waiting on the Total Seal piston rings and I still need the welding on the head to be done as well as find some one to make me an exhaust manifold in 321 stainless
VEMS is ofcourse the engine Management of choice
Other than that, im skint. Steel flywheels, straight cut gears and cross pinion diffs are not cheap.
I think this engine is gonna break the bank never mind the gearbox
