Driving Rimbaud home on Friday and thought I was hearing a strange noise. I let him rev slowly / mildly to 8000 RPM's and then shifted softly to second. When I did the overflow cap (Tilton) shot off from pressure and naturally my gauges and such (including the AC went berserk)............hmmmmmm.......couldn't find the cap so I think I may resort to duct tape until I can get it back to the A/C guy.

Neat, eh?

 

Spent 3k on the A/C to get it right two weeks ago (remember I'm paying for parts AND labor)....then this next little mishap got me to spend another 3k on a bunch of miscellaneous items. The list is as follows:

Smallzilla overheats on days where the outside temperature is over 95 degrees (which is most of the summer in Sacramento) so the cooling system is being redesigned. Part one of that redesign is to get greater air flow so the fan system from a 1993 Jeep Cherokee was employed. The fan prior could barely pull a piece of paper to the radiator, this on pulls a clip board with paper attached...significant difference - ~ 4x the air:



Part two of the cooling system redesign is a modified intake that will allow room for the fan, rechannel the air (old cone K&N system was located behind the radiator and unprotected and mostly plugged after 3k miles). The cold air scoop has not been added yet but will be located down down low. The box / resonator is from a Cutlass Sierra - I feel so odd.



Part three of the cooling system is a new radiator which isn't pictured or completed yet. Using the same dimensions of the MT radiator but twice as thick - dual layer (which is in part why the huge fan was needed):

Picture forth coming.........

Miscellaneous item of repair which was what caused my power shortages (when I pulled at the dyno 237 whp the limitation was the pulley slip) and the latest belt issue has been resolved (hopefully) with the following pulley redesign - take note of the pulley to the left (toward the cab of the car) of the supercharger pulley. The pulley allowed for a 7 grove belt which was 33% more surface and created more tension:



compare to previous design:



The supercharger pulley originally was for the K20A3 head and now it's the K20A2 head so boost was lost since I didn't change the block config. As such, the ultra small pulley for the supercharger was used. This is all part of the fiasco with the belt and slippage.

Next up is the radiator fabrication, fixing the methanol injection leaks and putting my ignition switch back to normal by use of relays and cleaning up some of the chopped wires.

"Steve Austin is barely alive but we can rebuild him...however, it will cost you dearly...reach deep."

The suffering continues......................................... ...................

 

Completion date should be set for 2010.

 

This can't be summed up better than in the famous last words of Colonel Walter E. Kurtz in Apocalypse Now, "...the horror...the horror..."

Perhaps there should be one more nickname for Smallzilla a.k.a. Steve Austin a.k.a. Rimbaud...perhaps "The Heart of Darkness".

 

Three weeks until the new radiator and crap...tic, tic, tic, tic, tic, tic, tic, tic, tic, tic, tic, tic..........................

............just in time for cooler weather so I may not know the difference until next summer.







Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee eeeeeeeeeee

 

just in time for cooler weather....

Now that's a familiar realization.

 

three weeks puts us at today... any updates?

 

Nope. I should check but I've "matured" out of that. He'll call or email when he's done spending my money and needs payment. You and I can connect when and if I get all of the bugs worked out; it would be a pleasure and my community service to allow you to taste what you think you want. I had hoped to go to the British car day which is coming up soon if I recall correctly but I have no idea when he's going to get finished...such is the life of the one who goes first.

DMINI is going first, too. (insert evil laugh here)

 

Meno-

Just picked up the Sept '08 issue of Miniworld that features a 260hp Zcars K-series car on the cover. Built w/new parts & new heritage shell. They quit counting the cost when it exceeded $80K USD (they list it 40K British pounds but I'm too ignorant to find the "pound" sign on my keyboard--let's see, that might be ctrl+alt+del+F6+alt-q+40... right?)

Trivia question: Just where do we find the British Pound sign on a basic US-spec Windows keyboard?

 

Yeah, I get that supscription and saw it and thought of Mighty Mini's build. I wonder if that 80k is cost or retail? I'm climbing the ladder to 60K at retail and am sickened by it.

I don't know about the symbols...I think it's easy to do in MS Word but I haven't the slightest in the internet based world of software.

 

man.... 60k.... ouch..... has is it been worth it?

man, i wanna pick up a mini world mag... are they in any stores in cali or is my only option to subscribe?

 

No. It was worth 40k though had all things worked and stayed working. The price of going first. Heck, my steering arms are still not right and I'm on version #3!

I think you have to subscribe. I'm hoping that when / if Mini Wold calls next I'll have the car ready.

I'm more worried about Travis and his situation in wind blewn Texas. Anyone hear anything from him?

Dmin - I know...I know...I owe you a call.

 

MUST READ INFO

http://www.k20a.org/forum/showthread.php?t=41504&page=4

352 WHP! Man, I feel like Woody Allen in a Mr. Universe contest...

 

more like orlando bloom vs. sylvester stallone in a who's-the-manliest-super-action-movie-hero.... your car still looks way better.

 

I agree w/swissarmybottle...
The "subtlies" of the MT/sportspack-type flares, etc., on Meno's machine make for a better looking ride. The giant rear flares on the Zmachine, though necessary, are a bit too much for me.

 

Hmm... this might sound hypocritical, as a member of the Vtec brethren, but Z-cars Minis is where I draw the line when we are talking about "Minis."
When a car is engineered to the point that it's a full tube-frame chassis with a shell-- what the hell, it could just as easily be a "VW beetle", or a "Nash Metropolitan" or an itsy bitsy NASCAR.
If I don't respond for awhile, it's because I'm out shopping for an inexpensive flame retardant suit.

 

damn that looks good.!

 

Yeah, the flender flares don't strike me as attractive BUT they seem like they'd be much better at preventing the "sand blasting" effect I have going on....so I'm mixed on the flares. I think adding Sammity Sam mud flaps to my car would look worse than adding those wider flares.

But c'mon...350+ whp at the rear? That is Hustler level pornography for vtec geeks...I'd name that car Mr. Larry Flint or something...pehaps revin it with the last three digits being XXX...just think of all the people you'd offend in a good way.

 

x x x

On paper at least, I love Zcars. I'm just not sure I'd continue to refer to one as a mini. If I could afford a street legal tube frame car in this range, I'd probably consider a used Arial Atom instead--a slightly different slingshot.

oops, let's get back on topic... Any new time horizon for Steve Austin surge?

 

i think this is meno's dream car: 600 bhp

i too am interested in steve austin, errr.. rimbaud time of completion =D

 

Filthy Steve Austin...well, if I can get pictures I will post. I went there last Friday to check in and see how much money I need to set aside only to find my subframe cut into a 1/3 segment, the tranny out, the dash unassembled, blah, blah, blah....the overall sensation was not very comforting. Guess what the owner of the shop said?



Yup, the classic "3 weeks" comment. I smiled as I knew that was coming.



That Mini you posted Swiss ran a really awkward first run. It's been 10 years since I raced and I've never been "knowledgeable" but I knew something was fishy with a 1.4 trap and 117 mph...the second run was the real deal. A 12 second daily driver is what I'd love. Quarter mile concerns are an after thought for the Heart of Darkness though I am curious and would like to have taken the brat to the track this past year. Problem for me is I have no idea how to launch a front wheel drive car much less one like mine...I was never a "true" racer at the track. I did it for the rush, sweaty palms and curiousity (i.e. did that last chunk of change equate to gains?) My buddy was the "real" racer when it came to challenges...he was always a consistent two tenths better than me.

 

Meno,



Huge kudos to you and your project. This is the kind of swap I hypothetically dream about. You have brought something to reality that I thought was just imanginary.

But most of all kudos to this thread and posts made by you. I am a member of dozens and dozens of car forums and have been for years. This is the best read I have ever experienced on a car forum. Just read the 15 pages of this swap in one sitting.

Your write ups are so witty and funny, with an extensive vocab, that I could not stop reading. You should look into automotive journalism because you blow every other journalist out of the water.

Thanks for the great read. Good luck on your project. I do plan on doing one myself one day. If I ever grow a set.

 

Lance has a fan club, na na na na boo boo.....



TTI

 

Oh, they mock what they do not understand.

Thank you Night Tower for the compliment. You have forgotten to mention my ridiculous good looks which is perhaps to state the obvious anyhow and is well documented by the tabloids.

Had this thread only been 5 pages long I figure it would have saved me thousands as there seems to be a direct and indirect correlation to my level of misery and the length of his thread. As the screams intensify from the heat of the fire, it appears the thread becomes more interesting --> screams are heard as music by the king who orders more wood for the fire. Should I change my handle from Meno to Burning Man?

Seriously though, thanks. Hopefully for everyone's sake, this will have an "ever after" at some point.

TTI will have his moment...wait till he starts to work out the bugs...

 

There alot of B.S. in this thread but lemme tell you one thing for sure!
If my beast ever gets finished its going to the highest bidder!








Small Print: Highest bidder must meet certain criteria such as meeting the reserve price!!!

TTI