Strengthening and Self-Supporting

So this is the blog that will put the build at its current progress.

I took the engine out of the subframe and started strengthening the subframe with a decent MIG welder, previously i was using a portable one which struggles with 4mm+ metal. I attached two spars under the two main spars to create more strength and welded the top seams of the towers. I cleaned up the tie rod mounts and because i had scrapped the previous front spar, i still haven't completed the entire subframe. Speaking to people on the forums, there seems to be a little bit of flex in the subframe if there isn't a direct join from the front of the subframe to the rear. The tie rods take a massive beating also especially under heavy braking so it would only be right to attach a bracket that will join the rear of the subframe to the front, and mount that to the tie rod mounts also.

That is what i have in mind for the next part of this project, as well as attaching the ancillaries such as the alternator and a water pump idle pulley.

Here are a few pictures as she stands at the workshop.

 

Rear of the subframe where the gearbox used to foul after i tidied it up a little bit.

The self supporting engine in all its subframe glory. Not 100% complete but getting there.

Engine Mounts ahoy!!

This would be my second attempt at making up the engine mounts. The first time the engine was placed too far forwards that the driveshafts to the mini hub would of been almost 30mm out. But moving back to the subframe progress.

Once i was happy with the engines overall position with the engine slightly tilted forward as with most 4efte builds, i bolted a piece of metal to the gearbox and tack welded it to the subframe. This would save a lot of trouble with having to chock the engine from underneath while i worked on the gearbox mount. The reasons for the tilt is because A: the original engine also sat on a slight tilt, B: the intake manifold had to clear the firewall and the master cylinders, and lastly C: This would push the driveshaft further back to get a better alignment between the gearbox pods and the mini hub (cv joint). 

Amongst all of this i went through the trouble of purchasing a layshaft, aka intermediate shaft, from the AE101 Corolla which would bolt to the block. This would enable the driver side pod to sit closer to the hub making almost equal driveshafts and reduce torque steer.

To minimize the sag in the engine mount bushings i had wedged some washers in between the engine mounts and their brackets, then bolted it together. This also helped with the side engine mount going with gravity and not sitting in the tilted position i wanted. You may not understand unless you see it.

The gearbox mount was a little trickier as the original wasnt going to fit in the mini engine bay, so with the knowledge of others that have done this same project, i used a similar design to theirs. And with the engine sitting still, this was done quite easy in a few afternoons/nights. The design was simple, the actual mount would be bolted to the front of the subframe and the bracket would bolt to the previous gearbox mounting points and back to the new location of the subframe mounted engine mount. Because i was lazy i hadn't bolted the engine mount to the subframe. It was tack welded, then bolted later. Having to pull the engine out to bolt the engine mount to the subframe would of caused me a lot of emotional pain. If i were to do it again, i would of definitely bolted it first, then built the bracket around it as drilling the holes for the bolts in the subframe was a little difficult when trying to match them up to the mount nuts. The mounts have their own nuts / thread since you wouldn't be able to put a bolt through the front.

A few days later i was given the chance to work on my mini during work hours. This was a great opportunity to smash out the last rear engine mount. Going off the design of others, i produced something that was simple and very effective. As the saying goes "Why re-invent the wheel?".

The original engine mount was cut up slightly and would bolt to a piece of metal welded to the rear legs of the subframe. But before that i had to make up the bracket that would mount to the rear of the engine gearbox. The bracket used all the original points and is quite similar, but had to be made more slim and lower as there isn't a lot of room to play with. I figured that if i were to remove the subframe and remount the engine into the subframe out of the car, i wouldn't be able to get the alignment or tilt correct. So doing things the hard way i worked on the bracket and mount from underneath the car, lucky for me i had the on jack stands just high enough for me to slide in and out... just!

Note the terrible tack welding - it was blind welding, as i could only guess what i was doing.

Almost after 2 full days of work, the bracket was complete. One note to keep in mind is the more central the engine mount and bracket sit, the more it will affect how the exhaust pipes route under the car.

Engine in for the first time!

The first part was making up the left (looking at the car) engine mount as its a fixed mount and would provide the front to back lever point. The next part would be aligning the engine in the engine bay, which I had a few troubles with. The floor of the workshop i was using was not very level. I thought my only option was to move the project to somewhere more level but it was brought up by someone at work that i could just jack the whole car up to be made level, throw some jack stands underneath and work from there. Seems easy enough!

The engine was then rigged up to the overhead hoist. Easily placing the engine in the engine bay then hacking at the inner guards to make it all fit. I placed the engine on the subframe and started finding a suitable position. I kept moving the engine forwards and backwards trying to find good clearance from the master cylinders, oil filter adapter and where the alternator would eventually sit. After some more hacking of the subframe it was apparent that the gearbox was fouling on the rear part. I thought i had found the perfect location until i remembered that the gearbox pods had to be left on to check their clearance from the lower control arms. These wouldn't go on as my engine was too far back, and after all that messing around, this was the point i would get serious.

Goodies!!

To take advantage of the strength of the aussie dollar 0.96 US cents at the time, i would have to make a Mini order. It wasnt that i needed these parts yet but one excuse was that i did want to check the clearance of the brake master cylinder and clutch master cylinder against the intake manifold of the new engine. Impatient of me, i had asked my friend Alan if i could borrow his old master cylinders which would do the job at the time.

My mini order was going to be through Minisport this time. This is because they make their own Alloy 4-pot calipers. A beautiful item which comes in several different colours. There were a few items i had to include which were swivel kits, a lowering link and of coarse the master cylinders. Not all of these were important but it is always better to buy more at once to save on the shipping.

I decided on red calipers.

Amongst all these purchases, i actually needed a Oil relocation kit. When placing the engine in the subframe i needed to take note of whether there was sufficient room for the oil relocation adapter because there surely wasn't enough room for the oil filter itself. I don't know how i did it but i lucked out. Whilst hunting through the forums on several different Starlet / Toyota sites, i found a guy that was selling one. The post was a few months old but it wasn't hard to email and ask. Quite simply he emailed back and also sent pictures. The price was $85 shipped to Perth. Sweeet!!

The build quality of it is brilliant, and unlucky for my friend who also needed one, it was the only one left. He couldn't even point me in the direction of sourcing another. It was only for the adaptors, but we have plenty of hoses laying around and plenty of hose clamps so it wouldn't be very hard to rig something up later.

Rims - Yummy!

So i was reading on the forums and there was a topic "WOW Mambas are back!!"

It grabbed my eye pretty quick, so i had to check it out. What they were referring to were the Mini limited Mamba rims. These were quite a rare rim that from my knowledge only came in 10". Following the links, it seemed that Minispares and Midland Wheels were making replicas of these. And the best part is they made a 12" by 6" wide rim, Black with a polished lip.

I had been looking at rims since my project started. My options were plenty but my decision was either Minilites or Starmags, both being the 12" size. I didnt really like the look of 13" on some minis and from some peoples opinions the Mini doesnt drive the same. The best part also, was that the 12" had a nice offset making them hang out a few inches without looking like a boy racer, although they did put the track out a little bit. Not a good thing since i was upgrading my brakes to 8.4" Vented discs, which again would put the track out further.

In Australia, the legal limit you can take the track out is 25mm. From reading on forums if you were to upgrade to vented brakes this would be close to its limit, then if you were to get some wider rims, this would push the track beyond the legal limit. But what most people have done, is because the vented discs are coming from the Metro Turbo vehicle, which uses the same engine, subframe and similar brake components, is use the slimmer drive flange.

Since i was purchasing the rims from Minispares, whom also made a replica Metro Turbo drive flange. It was obvious i would purchase these at the same time. Stuffing the drive flanges in the rim boxes, no worries!!

I got the Black Mambas in almost record time. They were sent out Monday and i received them Thursday morning. Quicker than if i were to purchase anything interstate. I did have a problem with tyres though, Minispares didn't do these in a package so i was forced to buy the tyres separate, but in doing so would incur a installation fee of the tyres onto the rims, and this would void the warranty if i wanted to send them back. I backed out of purchasing the tyres as they weren't a necessity, and i remember i did have some 12"x5.5" rims with tyres sitting on my 'beat around the bush' Mini in the garage. It was sorted!! Once receiving the rims, i took all 8 and asked Bob Jane to swap the tyres and balance them. $64 later i had some sleek wheels.

Here are the rims trail fitted on the garage Mini.

I also received my drive flanges that i later put side by side. It isnt obvious in the image unless i post more, but the main difference is that the main face is slimmer and you can tell this by the bolts that bolt to the disc. If you look closely the Metro Turbo flanges have less of a recess for the bolts. Another but obvious difference is that the back side of the flange which goes through the disc is longer so that it sits against the CV joint. This is to allow the extra width of the vented disc to sit and spin. And lastly the longer wheel stud bolts.

Subframe Begins

Ok. So after having stripped the engine of most of its ancillaries. It was time to get started on the subframe. The design of the subframe was going to be simple, but not so simple making it.


It began by removing the whole front half of the subframe from the two main towers forward. One thing you have to consider later is putting the tie rod mounts back in their original position. The next step for me was making the main two side spars that surround the engine as well as provide positions for the engine mounts. These were found at a fabricators workshop, he had lying around. The pipe used is 33.7mm OD 3mm thick walled 90 degree sweeping bends. Lucky for me they had enough length on either side of the bend. This is the same pipe we have all around the workshop which we use for oil piping at our power stations. The spars were then joined to a plate that mounts to the existing shell mounts. For this i decided to cut a slot in the pipe wide enough for the plate, then cut and weld once in the right position. I think this option looks fairly clean and pretty structurally strong. There was then a front spar to join together the sides, sort of like a box. When joining them all together there was a few ways of doing this. I took a different route than most, by tack welding all the pieces together in the actual engine bay, rather than using a JIG. I did make a jig before all of this but wasn't happy with its overall build. I think I had rushed it.


But this is what is what you get: