mjrstar

so engine wise it was an expensive engine rebuild, it needed new rods, crank, pistons, plus all the usual junk, the engine was already .0020" over so was sitting at 1293 cc. The decision was made to go to .0060" to take it our to 1330cc. the "race" head i already had got sat away in the corner ready for the bottom end to be rebuilt. the bottom end was balanced up including a metro clutch setup modded to take a heavier clutch diaphram. The resulted in a clutch plat that was almost too thick to properly release. and full engagement about 2cm from the floor. As you can imagine a bitey clutch soon saw the end of the first set of uni's. So i upgraded to cooper s uni's. which also did not last too long. The next step was to go to a metro diff (sick of changing Uni's and i had callopsed diff output bearing) and metro C.Vs. not long after this my flash head with oversize valves decided it didn't want the valves to stay in the head and promptly tore a head off the stem. This of course led to a very sad looking piston. from there the valve spring pressures were measured and they were running WAY too much spring pressure. So the head got all new oversized valves and the spring pressures set up properly. Whilst in there the ports got a bit of a teflon coat to keep things slipperey. For the next 2 years the car developed an appetite for starter motors, crank seals, distributors, alternators, carbs etc. So I kept replacing these bits and used the car as a weekend fun car. I did the civic dizzy replacement which works nicely, but then the gearbox idler case (where the starter bolts on) decided to split open a bit, since then the car has been parked up on blocks in the corner of my garage. I start it now and then to keep it healthy. I'm probably just making this project thread up to try and get enthused about the little beast and get back to tearing up back-roads on sunday afternoons.

Talk it up.

Talky here: viewtopic.php?f=18&t=22717 Well this all started out in 1999 as a fibreglass fronted roll-caged race car I had which was de-seamed and not getting a lot of use, so the plan was hatched to find a road going shell to put all the bits in to. In Renwick I found a reasonably rust free 850 mini complete with wand change gearbox and red interior. The first step was fit the widened steelies with sticky Yokohama a008’s I had and attempt to destroy the original motor and box. After a few weeks the engine had not died, but it was well down on compression, so it was out with the old and in with the not quite so old. Travelling through Levin at midnight the engine developed such a loud knock that the massive sterio would not drown it out… This was the start of the project proper. What followed a full bare metal re-spray, 4 pot metro brakes, flares, 13’’ wheels and the worlds most expensive ‘a’ series engine rebuild. Sorry all the progress pics for this are on film as I wasn’t rich enough to own a digi cam back in the early 2000’s it looks a bit like this today (although probably with a bit more dust on it) Currently the car is awaiting a shiny new 296 kent cam with matching oil pump, which has been sitting on a shelf in my shed for nearly 12 months.. The reground 286 scattercam copy really does not hit the spot even though the idle sounds awesome.

well i'm awaiting some new thrust bearings to be sourced, i might have to get some made from scratch or machined down form a bigger bearing. so the block is a bit lonely looking like this: and the head got some love once i had modified my spring compressors.. Thats about all until the thrust washers magically appear, no shiny high spec stuff just a basic factory rebuild, possibly with the 3 layer steel headgasket I have stashed somewhere.

Is it still running Vacuum advance? if so disconnect it and see if it helps.

i did some running around looking for new crank thrust washers today and i have an engine builder man who can make me some if he can't find any to do the trick. No listings from bearing companys. in other news i gave the slugs a bit of a clean up.. they have been sitting in a box for a fair few years now. Also had a fiddle around under the car with a tape measure now that i have accurate measurements on how big a 1j is plus the size of the J-W bellhousing , and it looks like a LOT of hassle unless my car grows 100mm even with the water pump removed the block would sit about 30mm forward of the radiator. I guess i need to carry on with the 1G buils after all.

Tyres on that one are 205/50/15 dunlop 02G (mediums). they were the control tyre for targe up until 2 years ago when they switched to 03G's. I have a set of both 03 and 02's for my *cough* evo *cough* they do make for a nice sticky road tyre if you can put up with the high wear rate and uber road noise. as for finding bits to repair 1g's well yeah it seems like it's up there with rocking horse shit, although with some 4k big end bearings, 3s mains have got that part of the equation sorted..

The bulge is far from ideal, I'd love to go to a smaller twin scroll turbo on a low mount manifold and fit the spare mint bonnet i have stashed. The problem with the car on the whole is that it's been built to work rather than look pretty, which of course i am now regretting. I guess mounting the turbo in the boot might make it a bit laggy.

Discuss away. Also after your thoughts on just making it into a dedicated race car and turfing the 1G in favour of something else?

so i got sick of the nasty fwd offset wheels + spacers so i cheaped out on some sport max 15x8 0 offset with my 205 semi slicks. not sure i went down the right path here but decided some fibreglass flares might cover the rubber a bit.. the finished product. needs more low but i need to trim the guards before it finds it's way closer to the ground, not too keen on shredding the semi slicks for sake of a couple of inches of ride height.

He's got a G4 I think, as for the heat on the sensor, I didn't explain myself fully, nothing to do with the readings etc, the info I have tells me the sensors will last MUCH longer if the engine is run only when the sensor is hot. I'm guessing shit sticks to or effects the sensors life in some other means. Is there audible knock on rotas?

I have done a bit of home tuning, suggest things should be fine (so long as you are not pulling massive rpm or high load) it's unlikely you can do any damage tweaking on such a low boost setting. Make sure you have the o2 sensor well powered for the heating, i'd say give it 5-10 min and possibly run it off a second battery. Leave it heating whilst you have the car stopped to fiddle. Save your tune files as a new file then if the car gets worse revert back to the old file rather than re-doing the new file. A good battery for the laptop, make the fan capable of running with the engine off to dissipate extra heat. Once you get a decent idle and the ability to free rev the engine, the cruise tuning and acceleration will come pretty easily. My starlet has the power tune done at the dyno but the cruise and cold start etc I all did myself. Also my evo has had the a/f's tweaked via a road tune with a mate. Take my info with a grain of salt as my experience has also only been on uppy downy engines not roundy roundy. most of all keep it safe and have a bit of fun.. i might edit this post if i think of some other useful shit.

Discuss here viewtopic.php?f=18&t=22630 Sorry no before pics of the sky high ride height and 12'' wheels.. first track day at pukekohe led to this: this was turbo # 3 i use was because this is how the turbine wheel ended up. some of the stoppy bits.. freebie hilux calipers, running endless pads made for a subaru 245 killerwasps, maybe the 1G boat anchor is good for something? (other than stopping a boat from floating away) i'll dig around and find some more progress shots of bits and pieces, i am a bit shit on the photography side of things.