Not Del sol but B20b/vtec going into a mini.........

[Kam]

Cheers Paul, just looked into the TPS thingy, I always thought you did it with the engine at idle but obviously not

Also yeah the cams weren't bolted down but didn't want to go through all that then find it still touched, I also didn't want to run without it so I've 'chopped' it up a bit more and clears now.....alot

[Paulm]

that plastic part is the one thing i nearly always forget to put back on then i realise - and dont worry about it

[Kam]

that plastic part is the one thing i nearly always forget to put back on then i realise - and dont worry about it

I wasn't sure how much its needed, I'm sure our friends across the pond can get away with it but over here with our weather and crud on the roads I didn't wanna take a chance, its being painted up now and has been cut ALOT so will post up pics when its dry

In the meantime, I thought I'd post up a vid of how to sling the cambelt on without removing the engine mount like I did up there ^^^^^^^ a few pics ago

Enjoy, no animals were harmed in the filming of this, well not alot anyway

http://s250.photobucket.com/albums/gg25 ... Beltup.mp4

[Kam]

Ok I've given up

No not the project but the inner timing belt cover! really important part of the build!

I can't get it to sit properly so I've ditched it, I should be able to live my life without it, I think.....

Kambelt is all done, had a bit of an issue trying to keep the cam gear markers pointing in the right direction whilst tightening the cam caps down (engine sits slightly forward tilted in ours) I'm not sure how Mr Honda does it but I decided to be creative and whipped out my old cambelt and some grips



Worked like a charm

Ok injectors, as I'm using RC ones I found they didn't hook up to my loom connectors, theres a small center inner bit that my injector clip doesn't have





My pre-made wiring loom is from Watsons, so I'm not sure what the original 1993 del sol injector clip looks like, I know theres all this OBD1 and OBD2 business but as I don't do anything electrics I haven't got a scooby on that side of things, I don't know what year loom Geoff stripped but either way these don't fit, you can get a conversion loom for the injectors but I sorted it my way instead - stanley knife!



Left one fits clips in securely now

Got all the oil pressure/temp senders fitted on the back of the block where the new VTEC take off point will be



Luckily I got quite a bit of room before anything touches the underside of the inlet manifold, you could swing a cat but a kitten would be better



But something didn't look right, I know I gotta do a fair few oil changes when this is first fired up, but I can't get the oil filter off! The new take off braid has no give even with the filter fully spun out so had to 'correct' it a bit and spin it



I can't believe Daz left it like that........schoolboy error.......

I've never used aero fixings before so I'm hoping its all still secure

Ok, my alternator bracket, I don't think I've mentioned it in detail on here just incase it didn't work out, this was one bit I was hoping would not mess up as it cost me enough to buy and stick an angle grinder to!

Basically, the plan was to buy a custom alternator bracket for the MTB frame from minitec across the pond and cut away the bottom section as this don't fit the allspeed frame and I got someone to make up another piece of the same thickness which would be the securing piece, I then had to chop about as necessary once its all in, the small cut out allows me to take the inlet off without interfering with the bracket



So it goes in like this ready to be tack welded when positioning was correct





Its using the now defunct original top alternator holes (bottom alternator holes hold my crank sensor) and a spare hole at the very top of the head, not sure what this top hole is for but its now been labelled "busy" and it will keep the bracket straight, thats the plan

Came across a problem though, I knew this might happen but was hoping it might just disappear on its own somehow through the night (which happens alot right!) belt alignment with my original b16 pulley.....



Its out as I've got the "V" pulley on the outer wheel for the honda power steering I think, I need some ribbing here!

Picture of my old b18 pulley against my b16



I've sold my b18 engine the lot, which to be fair I didn't think I needed any bits from at the time, I think the larger outer pulley is marginally larger if I remember correctly on the b18 but that don't bother me as I'm only using the smaller end one anyway which is the same size on both, but Geoff to the rescue as usual! Watsons is gonna cut out the trigger wheel teeth on a b18 three rib pulley he has there and swap it with mine

I've got my larger 68mm throttle body on aswell now along with the heater pipe out of the block going into the firewall on the passenger side, the pipe runs under the inlet as there was no other room to route it!





I've had to chop off a small bolt hole lug on the back of the rocker cover as it interfered with the alternator bracket and trim down one of the screws on the alternator which was sticking out and was sitting a couple of mm away from the fuel rail end, I know its gonna move in synch with the fuel rail but it looked too close for my comfort

The pictures make me laugh, there is now NO room on that side for anything but wiring!

I've still gotta drill some aero fixings in the front of the rocker cover for my breather assembly which I have absolutely no idea where it can go, Daz says its best to weld the aero fixings on, problem is rocker cover has already been powdercoated.....not good

Next job, sort out the wiring, my favourite part of a car by far

P.S that snow running across the screen is cool, unless its my dandruff being caught by the wind...........taxi for Kam

[Paulm]

Good work soldier. You might have noticed a hole in each kam? Well theres also a hole in each cam cap, which conveniently will hold a 5mm drill bit bit which holds the cams at tdc

If not you should still be able to turn the kam when the cap is torqued down

[Kam]

You might have noticed a hole in each kam? Well theres also a hole in each cam cap, which conveniently will hold a 5mm drill bit bit which holds the cams at tdc

Yeah I didn't notice this the old belt and wrench trick does work though so alls good

Someone over on another fourm mentioned that having my oil pressure assemblies hanging over like that might put some stress on the oil take off pipe as its all weight hanging over on one side



So I made up a hanging plate for it using the other defunct alternator hole, holds it secure now



That small bit took me about 3 hours to cut bend and get a good fit! It had to be precise as otherwise when the top bolt is tightened up it would've pulled on the T piece which seeing as the other side is tight in the block would not of been good! So I made the 'alternator' hole in the bracket oversize, so when the T-piece is tightened down there is still a bit of give to get the washer head bolt on and keep everything secure

One of my heater pipes is heading straight out the bulkhead on the passenger side just like on a normal mini but I've got no room for the other one so I need to route it over to the driver side which means running it behind the dash



Being a silly sod I did it this way round with the b16 in here expect this time though I'm not taking any chances with all the wiring and gubbins back there so got some protective sleeving for it



Next job, brakes then wiring

[Kam]

I didn't know if I had just surface rust or heavy rust on my old brake discs



But I them cleaned up anyway, including the dimples and grooves



My old gaz shocks were looking sorry for themselves, as for my old damper brackets!



Luckily I got some tidy ones so gave them a lick of paint and cleaned up the shocks



Hub assembly all done, just gotta add me old pads as they only have 2000 miles on them and torque up the notorious driveshaft hub nut - 203 newton meters!



Other side of the brakes all done aswell, got my old servo in and hooked it up



Now I can get on with the wiring as most of the bay has the bits where its needed



Expect........its no secret I hate electrics, I choose not to understand it so I'm putting it off and will turn my attention on something a bit different, my DTA ecu



I'm gonna put my old rover radio back in its original factory place (holder below dash, passenger side) but I'm gonna mount my ecu INSIDE it! yes inside it! I had another one of my crazy ideas earlier and thought why not, I've still got my radio in the main dash but this will just be sitting there out of the way, I had my ecu mounted here before but now I wanna hide it a bit

I'm gonna take my time with this as its not oh so important but ripped up the rover one anyway



Plan is to spin the ecu upside and move it to the left so you can access the DTA port through the old display window, or I might spin it and house it central so you can access it through the cat flap simples

Then I'll tackle the wiring..........maybe......

[Kam]

Ok, I'm not gonna do the wiring, I keep putting it off everyday and today was no different, I'm looking to relocate my original mini fusebox to the inside as I need the space on the bulkhead! its that bad for space! I also gotta wire in my new gauges and just generally tidy up the loom, its not a massive job but for me, yes. Can i start the car without any electrics? I mean, is it really that important?

Anyways, as I got a few days off work I'd thought I'd tackle something else instead - the custom radiator, the elves can take care of the wiring for me when I'm away from the car......

Because the guys had to make the rad a few mm thicker than I could spare its not fitting as sweet as I would like, the back of the headlamp was the main problem.......so......decided to get the dremel out again.......



Drilled another hole and relocated the inner spring to the outside and its still tight as a nut



I've run out of any more bright ideas so anyone got an idea of how to cover the back up, got some duct tape on there in the meantime!



I've lopped off 30mm, the back of the plug is about 5mm from the duct tape now so jobs a good 'un

I originally wanted the rad 40mm max thickness as thats all I could spare, they had to make it 45mm for a single core, with that 30mm chopped off the back of the headlight it helps alot, rad just about fits in its new position - about 2mm from the slave cylinder pipe and around 10mm from the bodywork!









I'm gonna go ahead and mount it in place, its too late to angle grind now so I'll make up some mounts for it tomorrow, I'll be using the front engine mount holes to make up a bracket as these holes are not in use



Radiator will be mounted to the engine not the frame, so that means it will move in synch with the engine, with that headlight cut out it means I got about roughly 10mm before the rad knocks against the frame - nice!

I need a new rad fan aswell, I can't reuse my old twelve incher as it kinda overhangs a tad!



Will need to get a 10 incher now, anyone needs my old one then let me know

I might cut the other headlight aswell just for the sake of it as its pretty easy to do, plus I need more room as I still gotta find space for more stuff......

My advice (honest advice) - stick with a clubman!

[Kam]

Got my new 10" pull fan come through today





The 12" jobbie was fine for my standard b16a2 rad but this custom rad is alot less height so the 10" fits fine, don't think for a second that the smaller size will hamper it, this is a high power out one, so, did a little test.........

Wired them both up to a battery, placed a paper towel 6 feet away and tried them both, both worked well and 'moved' the towel, went to 12 feet and both still worked fine, went to 14 feet and the 10" fan was moving the towel alot more than the 12", so although its smaller its more powerful, should work well then, I mean, its a pretty comprehensive test I think

As its 10mm more thicker it still fits fine, you can see my hand in the gap behind it holding it up



I'm still trying to get the rad sitting as upright as poss, I cut off the small lip just below the engine number stamp



But its still not as flat as I would like, but it'll have to do, I'll finish off the bracket tomorrow to hold the rad in place then concentrate on the second rad I'm planning to place in the engine bay, somewhere......

Trust me, whats the worst that can happen? Dr Pepper tune anyway?

[Kam]

Ok, not much to report, its been one of them days where you spend alot of time doing something but you don't feel like you've achieved much, you know what I mean

Spent pretty much half a day just making up a bracket to hold the radiator, on off test fitting, holding it in place you know the stuff, its not cleaned up yet but the bulk of it is done



In situ using the defunct front engine mounting bolt holes, still need to cut the bottom section to clear the frame so I'll clean it up and throw some paint on it tomorrow



Ok, new rad positon, its far from ideal but I can't do anymore with it with my skills, its a bit sticky outty



The grille don't sit flush so will play around with the grille tomorrow, aim is not to have anything poking through the grille as that just kills off the rest of the cars look, so will tackle that tomorrow

So thats one rad done, tomorrow I'll go searching for rad number two

[Kam]

Another one step forward and two back kinda day

I wasn't happy with the rad position so decided to waste all day messing around with the bracket and get it fitting better - the grille is the problem, only got about 2mm between rad and grille and as my rad will move in synch with the engine this aint good, anyways I need a banjo fitting for my clutch slave cylinder as the rad needs to sit on top of it but I haven't got that here so I put a bolt in with just a turn to hold it



The banjo should be more tighter to the slave so should have enough clearance as the bolt is longer, as for which was the banjo will face, god knows

Still wasn't happy with the rad positioning so lopped off the cross member under the bonnet



This now means I can't use the standard bonnet prop either, so will look into a gas strut one.........

So to compare, yesterdays rad position



And new position after today



Its doesn't look like it'll catch anywhere but thats just a guess at this stage, just need to trim some more headlamp bowl, also the back of the indicator is about 10mm away from the fins - nice

With this now done, the grille fits - just





Got about 5mm between grill and rad corner - loadsa room, job freeekin done!

[Kam]

Picked up my second radiator earlier, ok its not a actual radiator.......



its a heater matrix off a mk4 transit, which will fit in fine in the space I got



The pipes are standard heater ones, so not too sure about running a 32mm to 19mm back to 32mm hoses, if I can get the pipes made bigger on the matrix I will but not sure if getting big pipes on something that small would be a good idea or even if you can weld on it, the tanks looks pretty fragile

Don't worry about the tyre I know its on the wrong way round I just grabbed any wheel, I know the suspension isn't compressed, but the matrix is sitting on top of the gaz shock so theres plenty of room before the tyre decides to rub up against it and get jiggy with it

I need to space it from the wing about 30mm so I can slide my front end on comfortably as thats where the hidden fixings slide against the inner wing

Not sure how I'm gonna mount it yet, theres no fixings around it, its just tanks and fins, I'll find a way, also I'll use something stronger than masking tape to secure it next time

I wanted to test out the gear linkage and exhaust clearance next, I was paranoid about this bit as I made the linkage without having the 2.5" exhaust here and used my old 2" pipe for mock up just pushed up a bit to gauge a 2.5" pipe, bit silly I know but usually theres always a method to my madness........

Bolted the gear linkage in. Its a single kink skunk2 short shifter but the back (rubber mount) section is inside, so now it points straight up so it won't clip the passenger seat when going into second (no more rubbing passengers legs - dam!)



Slung the exhaust together



And in



At the closet points I got an inch clearance between the steady bar and selector bar, and an inch and half between the steady bar and exhaust - get freeekin in there I was well chuffed with that as that mock up could've been a f*** up

Only issue I had was trying to mount my rear exhaust hanger.........



.......to the frame, KAD anti roll bar is in the way



The roll bar sits exactly where it needs to be (directly between the battery box and rear crossmember) so gonna get another bracket made up or get this one extended by about 25mm



I might make one up myself? I've got some 1.5mm steel sheet here, the mount is 2mm but don't think that will matter, I reckon if I can make four bends in that sheet then I should be ok, otherwise I'll cut and weld a bit, I might give it a try, might be fun?

Worse case scenario I'll take it somewhere for them to make me one

[Kam]

I had a few ideas on how to tackle the rear exhaust hanger but decided to try something different, one problem I had was just spacing it out meant it would catch on the roll bar mount as that is placed near the top section of the subframe so not only did I need to space it I had to lower it slightly, so.........

.....I grabbed my bar section that I cut off my frame ages ago



Chopped it down and drilled a couple of holes and had to drill another new lower hole in the subframe, which aint easy atall with the subframe in and the back of the cup for the donut getting in the way but somehow got there in the end



If I kept the original upper hole when spaced out the hook would be hitting the subframe, thats why I made a lower hole, you can see the original upper hole

Got about an inch clearance between the silencer and subframe



And about an inch and half between silencer and roll bar



I could if I really wanted to shave a small section away from the subframe for some more clearance as exhausts move more side to side than up and down but I don't think its needed, I did the obigularty wobble test! If you want to see the results of the 'wobble' test here you go

http://s250.photobucket.com/albums/gg25 ... ipeup5.mp4

Thats pure science right there

Either way, the exhaust fits and holds up and clears where needed, look mummy no hands!



Tomorrow I'll take it back out and get the gear linkage off and then find a place near here who can weld on the end of my mini gearstick to my skunk2 shifter - gotta have that factory 4 speed gear knob baby!

I'm also gonna take my radiator to get the top hose relocated to the other side so its at an opposite side to the bottom one so the whole tank fills up as having them both on one side aint gonna help much as that side will be hidden behind the headlight which means - no ram air on that side whatsoever

I will also get them to weld up some bigger ports than the 16mm transit heater matrix ones (second radiator) so its matches the 32mm hoses for honda, gotta keep that flow errrrm flowing. And while they are there they can weld some brackets or something as I need something to work off to mount it

Also, I'm not drilling into my rocker cover to vent into a catch can as its been powdercoated so I don't want it ruined, so text Daz and will order a plug to come off the back of the block and vent that alongwith the original vent from the rocker cover both into a catch can then that will be vented to air, there should just be enough room to use that plug on the back, I didn't want him setting it up that way to start with just incase things didn't fit

I've had a few days off work so got done what I could but I'm back in tomorrow which means its also back to checking and ordering stuff what I now need, I prefer the days off myself.....

[Kam]

I've handed both the rads to the welders now so they will sort them out with relocating the top hose (on the main custom rad) to the other end, and hopefully welding some bigger ports on the transit heater matrix to 32mm so they match the honda rad pipes

He's also gonna weld on the tip of the mini gearstick to the honda one so I can use my 4spd mini gearknob, he was a bit confused with that as to why I'd want to do it? I said, look you do work I pay you, its a simple concept!

Good ol Watsons came through aswell, as usual, Geoff sent some upper cam belt cover bolts that I had lost somewhere, and a b18 crank pulley with 3 ribbed pulleys thats been cut for the teeth for the pick up



You can see my old b16 one there, its only got 2 ribbed pulleys and a grooved third - no good to me as my new belt will use that third pulley so I'm sending that back to him in exchange

I can measure up for an alternator belt now and go hunting for one, also I can weld in the alternator bracket as its in two bits and fasten that side up

Welding shop says rad stuff will be done in the new year now so I can't do much in the bay now, but I don't want to be at a standstill over xmas so I'm gonna tackle the wiring next as I got everything here also the sensors, cabin, dash, lock stock the effin' lot! I've been putting it off so what better time to do it whilst most places are shut eh?

[johnrnugent]

You not got anything to paint so you don't have to tackle the Wiring...