fuzzy-hair-man

It's a 2GR and I'm not all that fussy about engine sounds but this sounds clean and F1 like @22.40:

If your chosen wheels turn out too wide there's different width arch extension panels available that can be put on in place of the current ones. But really with all the weight so low, you don't need a wider track imo and I think the wider guards don't look as good.

It's something I've learnt with the mini, more offset outwards increases the leverage the wheel has over the steering (scrub radius) making it torque steer more and wander with the road surface.

On 26/01/2025 at 08:10, yoeddynz said:

I'm not sure that even my 4 jaw would hold that flywheel in order to machine the boss down. I have no faceplate either.  @HumberSS do you know anyone with a machine shop/large lathe?......

A lathe is the logical choice but could you machine it down in a mill or similar as you would a block or head? I was also thinking you could mount it up using a destroyed subbie crank by cutting off the rear main journal and where it mounts to the flywheel but you want to get at that part to thin it out... You might be able to finish it off that way if necessary?

I had a similar issue with oil pressure sensors reading low (below zero at times) what I think happened was the oil pressure relief valve stuck closed(probably common I think) and the electric pressure sensor saw too much pressure, after which it seemed to read 20 psi or so low. Mechanical guage seems much more reliable. Took quite some nervous moments to sort it out...

PS: mine were Smiths / Caerbont guages so probably as reliable as lucas electrics...

On 23/11/2023 at 10:16, Roman said:

The main point of trying to figure all of this out though. Is that if the piston failed first, then there's no point fitting aftermarket rods (which I already had) 
So in that respect it was disappointing to see that the piston seems to be what broke. As aftermarket pistons cost a lot.

I'm not sure if there's too much more I can discern from these remaining pistons/rods as I dont have any decent measuring equipment etc. 
However it might be interesting to do a dye penetrant test on a piston and see if there's any hairline fractures etc.
I'll buy a kit at some stage, and post up if there's anything interesting showing up.

Thread revival I know but I had been wondering, this was running the pistons and rings from the Prius engine right?

I'm guessing but the Prius could run tighter ring gaps to gain efficiency and reduce blow by assuming it would have less compression ratio, less revs and lighter duty because it has the electric motor to help, and well it's a Prius.

I'm wondering if the ring gaps closed up jamming the piston in the bore, and the conrod pulling down ripped the bottom off the piston?

On 31/08/2024 at 08:07, Crispy said:

Yea I hear you. That’s a tricky one. While it probably won’t be road legal. I do want to keep it somewhat original in case I change my mind later on. I’m also not after all out power. I don’t need it. Something similar to the engine in my mini would do me fine. Especially in a lighter car (I’m hoping for around 100kg lighter). My driving is going to always be the weakest link. The main thing is with this setup I want to put in a qualife Atb diff to help me get all of that 80 or so horsepower down to the ground as I loose a lot of time on wheelspin on the grass.
A Honda swap has crossed my mind. But the amount of work involved is what has me wanting to stick with the A series. Even Honda engines are getting harder to find and are getting a bit older now…
I’m no fabricator and I don’t want to burden the old man with the time consuming task of making a subframe and adapting things. Most subframes you can buy are super expensive and you have to ship them here. Also except for a few of the d series ones do away with the mini type front suspension. Which also changes the handling.

IMO it’s easier sticking with the A series and building a mild engine. I think it would still work out cheaper than a swap and the handling wouldn’t be affected 

Maybe consider the CG13DE out of the Nissan Micra K11? I've put one in my mini, the conversion keeps the original suspension and has basically no mods to the body, the front subframe does need extensive modification but if you keep your original engine and subframe you could slot it back in.

The K11 has the same 13" wheels and profile tyres that are on a pair of 13" steelies on my moke (rusty I'm yet to get to work on...) so the gearing is going to be the same as the micra, I run 10" wheels on the mini and I really don't mind the gearing even for highway speeds.

I'm running an ATB in my conversion, it took a while to become available but they do exist, ask Matt Humphries in the UK as he's the guru for spares on these engines.

http://www.humphrisrallysport.co.uk/

There's a few of the Micra conversions on the mini forum:

https://www.theminiforum.co.uk/forums/forum/262-nissan/

My mini Spot (not a very good build thread...):

https://www.theminiforum.co.uk/forums/topic/253043-spot-the-micra-mini/

There's also a Nissan powered mini facebook page.

There's a guy in the UK that makes frames but if I remember correctly they involve cutting the inner wings, Adoom on here is doing a CG13DE mini as well.

With clearance to the tie rods the sump is pretty easily modified, either with a BFH (as I did in my 1st version) or cutting out a section and welding in a new bit, filling the sump up with petrol or similar on top of paper towel to test for leaks. Welding the sump wasn't as bad as I feared so could be an option.

1 hour ago, kws said:

Is your adjustable pole a fixed version of measuring with a tape measure from the inside tread blocks on one tyre to the other?

Yeah more or less, just centre the steering before you use it, but I use the tread grooves rather than the tyre sidewall as it's easier to be accurate, it's the difference between the 2 lengths that matters so doesn't matter where you measure from as long as it's consistent. Basically made it because doing it with a tape was difficult and less accurate. The wheel plates would work the same way but this was free.

1 hour ago, kws said:

Just ordered some fishing line, pretty keen to improve on the home alignment setup. It's a real handy tool to have. If I could afford and had the space, I'd love to have a 4 poster and alignment machine myself. I hate relying on others for things I could do.

If you can find a place to repeatably attach them you can make 2 rods which are exactly the same length with notches at the same spots and it makes it much easier to setup your box.

As I couldn't measure straight front and rear of my tires I found 2 bits of square tube which telescope, a couple of bits of rod sharpened to a blunt point which I welded in the ends of the tubes. This makes a telescoping guage which I could measure. To make it work better I cut off a section of the larger tube and welded in a set screw. I measure the smaller of front or back of the tire (use grooves in the tire) set the set screw, then measure the larger, measure between the section with the set screw and the other outer tube and you have your overall toe. 

https://photos.app.goo.gl/rVtqgMGrEnPTWvsE9

As the original position of the steering wheel on the column and potentially the column to the rack? has been changed, I'd start by turning the steering wheel all the way one way then all the way to the other counting the turns as accurately as possible, return back half of these to centre the rack, often the tie rods are adjusted to the correct toe but the rack wasn't centred. Then I'd check the column to the indicator self canceling mechanism, the mini has a little T threaded into the side of the column, with the rack centred it should be midway between the plastic fingers on the indicator that cause the indicator to cancel, (indicator indexes into the outer column so it should only fit in one spot, but mine was deliberately sitting in the wrong spot so the indicators would work). Once all that's set I'd put the steering wheel so it faces straight ahead.

I didn't really get mine right till I'd done these steps but my mini had been completely apart.

I'm assuming the setup looks somewhat like the mini, but given BL was in peak cost saving mode it's probably a good assumption.

The ability to do a wheel alignment at home was great for me as I could tweak suspension settings without continually wasting money.

12 hours ago, BiTurbo228 said:

The only Japanese 4v engine in the bottom third of the graph (so far) is the little CG13 from a K11 Micra at 2.0mm2/cc, and that seems to be limited by a dinky 71mm bore.

The CG13DE shares it's head with the CG10DE so it may have been compromised on that front, compared to the Suzuki G13 the head is much smaller (makes it easier to fit in a mini).

The CG wasn't designed for power, it was only ever a shopping cart meant to be easy to drive, so awful inlet and exhaust manifolds, and very heavy flywheel. My cams are 274 duration so trying to have as long as possible to breathe through a small port?

A comparison to a later CR10DE, CR12DE, CR14DE may tell a bit of what Nissan found they could do with VVTI, bore, stroke and compression ratio stayed much the same (9.5 vrs 9.8 - 10)

I come from a classic mini POV, but the under appreciated engine (I think) in that sphere is the Nissan CG13DE (1275cc).

It's understandable as it's factory numbers are uninspiring at 55KW / 73hp(flywheel), however for a mini conversion you need to fabricate both the inlet and exhaust manifolds, once you've done that it frees things up considerably (I got about 100hp @flywheel) with no other changes.

If you want to go further there are cams, ATB / LSD, and some rare rally bits like close ratio boxes out of the UK where they had a K11 Micra rally series. Unfortunately not much parts support outside the UK and Japan.

There's a bit of Nissan parts lego you can do as well, there's a CGA3DE which is much the same but longer stroke, the CG10DE is a 998, which has flat top pistons to raise the compression. Others have tried Corsa / Barina pistons or the larger bore CGA3DE pistons out to 73.5mm I think. They seem pretty happy to rev but I've stopped mine at 7,500.

Lots of boosted CGs been done, I think up to about 200hp but it seems 150 to 170hp is probably better for longevity.

Other options for the mini were: Toyota 4EFTE, Suzuki G13, Daihatsu CB70, and Honda B and K series and some Rover and Vauxhall Redtops in the UK. If you don't want to cut up the mini inner wings the CB70 and CG13DE are the only 2 car engines I've seen fit.

The donor vehicle cost me AU$500, a pretty awfully treated engine and gearbox to rebuild cost me $50.

Quote

Although I'm happily getting the last bit of wear out of the old tyres and they always feel super stable and grippy when getting low, like a semi slick, they most likely wont pass another wof test.  They have always worn on the outside which I found odd considering the amount of negative camber. I have always swapped them back to front regularly but they still wore as such. I thought I best check the toe angle. I'd previously done it with string. Not the best way and quite a faff. So I made these measuring jigs up..

Is it the front or rear that wears on the outside? You mentioned swapping them regularly so presumably it's one end? Swing axles have pretty high roll centres so it might be getting some jacking forces on cornering that's actually moving the outside wheel down / into droop on cornering rather than into bump as expected.

I was looking at your subframe work, I reckon it'd be a close thing but you might get the frame in. When I did mine the rail on the sump end goes in between the sump and the gearbox and shares space with the exhaust, means that its not much lower than standard. Trouble is the rail uses the space where standard micra extractors go so the exhaust needs to be custom.

The blue wires are normally closed, (on when the switch is off, off when the switch is on) you could use them for fail safe things like if the sensor or switch for a temp sensor were to fail the pump or fan comes on as default, although most sensors would be normally open, so you'd need to be specific about using the blue.

Googling the relay number it says its a accessories relay.. but only giving 5A to accessories seems problematic.. I know you could change it. Maybe one of the red positives is switched and the other is permanently live?

I don't know if I've mentioned it on here but my mini's driveshafts were made by taking the larger diameter and longer of the 2 driveshaft options (probably VW and subie in these cases) cutting them down in length and turning them down in diameter and then cutting the appropriate splines on the end for the outer CVs, mini in my case. So solid, one piece shafts, no welding and no chance of warping or weakness and relatively cheap as most of the works already done. There's a possible issue as the splines may have been hardend and won't be any longer but mine are going OK. 

On 28/10/2022 at 16:25, Adoom said:

Do you recall if the roll pin holes in the shaft for the top lever and the lower fork line up, or are they at a different angle?

I know it might be a bit late but here's a photo of the pin alignment, as suspected they are pretty much inline.

I fitted the heavy duty 0.75" master cylinder, the clutch works better but is very sensitive, so too much travel at the slave I think. I'm going to try the standard 0.7" master I think. 

11 hours ago, fuzzy-hair-man said:

I don't remember, sorry, I have another one I grabbed out of a wreckers but it's not with me, I didn't look much at the top pins.

The pins inside the gearbox are set so you can drive them out with a pin punch into a space behind, looking at the photo I posted above I'd say the two sets of pins are close to lining up. 

2 hours ago, Adoom said:

But since you have the pivot shaft with both sets of holes in it already..... maybe you remember....

I don't remember, sorry, I have another one I grabbed out of a wreckers but it's not with me, I didn't look much at the top pins.

2 hours ago, Adoom said:

Do you recall if the roll pin holes in the shaft for the top lever and the lower fork line up, or are they at a different angle?

I grabbed the pivot and lever together, the roll pin holes for the clutch bearing fork lined up fine though, so I think that means copy the alignment of the micra one...?

On 07/10/2022 at 06:21, Adoom said:

I was planning on using a mini master, seemed simpler since it's made to go there. I was crossing my fingers that the bore ratio would work out. I'll be interested to see how it goes for you. 

I've fitted a 0.75" heavy duty mini clutch master cylinder, seems better and an easier, neater fit, I'll let you know as the clutch beds in. 

14 hours ago, Adoom said:

I was planning on using a mini master, seemed simpler since it's made to go there. I was crossing my fingers that the bore ratio would work out. I'll be interested to see how it goes for you. 

It's probably better to have more movement rather than too little, there's a return spring around the shaft in the micra box that isn't in the Pulsar box which causes the clutch to retract further than it otherwise would, I've made bracket with an adjustment bolt to stop it retracting too far so I can use that to manage if I get too much travel but I doubt that'll be a problem...

I think it's probably best the spring isn't in there but I wasn't going to pull the subframe, engine and box out again to take it out after I realised... it might actually help anyway...

I'm not sure but I think I might have been better off using the mini clutch master cylinder, as I'm not getting enough movement at the slave, the Pulsar master is 5/8" and a mini clutch master is 0.7" I'll give it a go and let you know...

I ended up bending the water pipe in, turned out kinda neat, but does make it a bit harder to get the gearbox on I think, one of the transmission bolts is a bit of a PITA now too.

I mounted the master by building a spacer to move it up probably about 40mm and shortened and redrilled where the clevis pin goes through, the pushrod is adjustable so that helps to fine tune the length.

2 hours ago, Adoom said:

Plenty of space to reroute that pipe, either just under the distributor, or go under the slave cylinder.

I'm thinking I might be able to bend the pipe further underneath the thermostat and leave all my plumbing unchanged. I'd have to cut off the mount near the thermostat but can replace it on the other side of the pipe. 

There's a starter to get around at the back, there's the option of going behind the starter which would mean no need to modify the mini radiator.