Ah, well, if you plan to go turbo it's another matter

 

I was at 110 for a bit on snake road in south Fla. It was closed at the time of coarse...so no law breaking But the name says it all and it's the only road within 100 miles that is not straight and flat. That was fun. Kind of like an oversized slalom. check it out on google earth. It's the most exciting thing here since Disney

 

Just how difficult is it to replace the needed innards of a Midlands trans? Since I'm not much of a mechanic I'm wondering how hard it is to get the trans out plus how difficult to replace what's needed.

 

I think the hardest part is to take the tranny out

 

Yea it is....

 

ditto...
for the rebuild, i used the manual for the r65 gearbox in the Rover 200, almost identical. get a CD manual off ebay, it'll set you back $12.
http://cgi.ebay.com/Rover-Workshop-M...QQcmdZViewItem

 

posted while back about a rumble noise found out both axle seals were bad got them replaces noise is minimal now i think i saved my tranny!!

 

Foiled by another would-be sex thread.

 

 

Talk about a delayed reaction, I just got what you were trying to say.

It should have been titled "who here has blown a tranny"

 

Oh man!
I just got that!

Wow, I'm slippin'!

 

My Midlands has treated me like a slave on ***** Island.... But it's gonna get it as soon as I can find some 1/2 shafts for the other better tranny....

 

UPDATE: I was leaving my house and I heard a POP like my coilover springs were binding...no big deal I thought. The noise didnt come back. But I did start to smell something but at the time I was passing food places. Hopped on the freeway and the smell got real bad. Immediately pulled over and looked everything over. I started to smell/see smoke coming from the header. I look underneath the car and the whole underbody was blasted with oil. I have determined it is redline oil and after I was towed back by another MINI (AZBLACKOUT) ....we jacked the car up. As far as I can tell is that its coming from the starter area. I started the car and the motor sounded fine and there is a light chatter from the tranny. But that could be cause there is no fluid...lmao. But the gears engaged fine in neutral with no load on it. Arrrgh..Im trying to hold off putting the 6-speed in but I think I might have too. I will be tearing it apart in the next few days and I will keep everyone updated.

 

Well, since you're going to tear it apart anyway, if you can put in the 6speed...I'd do it!

 

2003 MC, Originally from South Florida and relocated to California. Had the clutch done last year. Getting crunchy sounds in 1st, 2nd and 3rd gears, two shops say transmission is a goner. 73k miles. Light commuter duty, all stock, no add ons.

Anyone interested in a project car?

 

txwerks, I was rereading your write up on the swapas I'm starting to search the needed parts, and I was wondering, you say to use the shift lug that matches the car build year, not the tranny build year, and you also say to reuse the shift cables. But aren't the cables different between 5sp Midland and 6sp Getrag? From realoem I had thought they were...

 

Well...since I have been working a ton..the car has been sitting in the garage with the motor out. I tore one of the cables so I had to go buy another one. We will see if I need to do anything else. I know they are different part numbers but as far as I know they will still work.

 

Ah, maybe that's it then, I confronted the part numbers to determine what I needed and found different codes so I thought they wouldn't work, then I read his write up and it had me confused

 

Here is the breakdown for my swap so far. Now, keep in mind...this is not the norm...

6-speed with shipping - 1243
1/2 shafts, trans mount, clutch slave cylinder, starter - 300
clutch line - 20
Shifter cable (broke on removal) - 117
Axle nuts - 6
Clutch plate bolts - 14
flywheel and clutch (OEM-used) - FREE

(Just throwing the used clutch and flywheel in until I can get my LSD and then I will put my Fidanza LTW FW and Clutchmasters clutch in)

MCS ECU - FREE
MCS engine harness - FREE

You can find a 6-speed for my price.
NEW 1/2 shafts will run anywhere from 8-1500. USED for 200 a side.
Trans mount NEW is 150.
Clutch slave cylinder NEW - 60
Starter - 500
Clutch line NEW - 77

So anywhere between mine and new is a good bet for a price list...

 

Thanks, for now I've found an used starter for about 150$ (translating from euros here since I'm in Italy ), and maybe the driveshafts at 150 for both of them, but only the part going into the gearbox, they miss the outer joint (which is the part that costs the most from the dealer, but I've found an alternate source for them, I'll be paying them 90$ each instead of around 250 each), I'll go take a look at them tomorrow to see if they are in good condition, then I'll search for the rest

 

Gee, I wonder why our Midlands grenaded?

If you figure the crap modifier for the dyno we were running on last Friday, we're at 126.5 hp and 115 ft/lbs... That's juuuuuuust slightly above stock. Once we get the new intake manifold fabbed and switch to Jan's RMW race header, I'd expect to see 130/120ish numbers with a new tune. That's smokin' for an R50, if I do say so.

I passed a LOT of cars at Eagles Canyon, which is a hp track... We went out in the first team, but with our brakes and suspension, e46 M3's and e92 335i's at the end of our 13 car group were caught quite handily in the braking zones and corners... On a 2.5 mile, very fast course... Again, thanks to Jan for finding all the hidden torque and hp - 6 ft/lbs between 1800 - 3K rpms, 2 ft/lbs between 3-4K, and 6 ft/lbs above 4K with a peak hp increase of 4-5 hp.

 

They grenaded because they are Midlands, and eventually all Midlands grenade

Seriously though, here in Italy some guys managed to get their Midlands over 100k km, that would be around 62k miles, but only treating it with white gloves and changing the oil often, and with a more viscous oil.

BTW, is it 126 hp at the wheel or at the crankshaft? My goal would be to get around 140 whp on my cooper, do you think that would be possible?

 

That was whp. 140 whp on a Cooper is possible but would take a major reworking of the engine to achieve - I don't think it can get there with bolt-ons. Also, I'd think the engine would be less than civil in that state of tune, and passing emissions tests would be challenging as well. It would take lots of time and money, I think (with the usual trading between time and money.)

 

Ok, so, now I have this on my car:

GruppeM cold air intake
Custom header with sports cat
Milltek catback

I plan to add, after the transmission swap, these other things:

Big valve head with .5 larger valves on the intake and 1.0 larger on the exhaust
Schrick camshaft
Tune

What kind of whp do you think I could get to?

 

Yup - 126.5 whp and 115 ft/lbs at the wheels - that's roughly 142 hp and 129 ft/lbs at the crank.

I think we can find a bit more with the intake manifold, a better header (RMW's race header, in place of the crap Milltek that's marginally better than OEM), and an electric water pump (might get 2-3 more whp there). I'd say we MIGHT get to 135 whp/120 ft/lbs when we are all done. Yanking the A/C might net a bit more, too, but then the car wouldn't be fun at all on the street here in Dallas - doh!

But Dr. Mike is right. Without a complete engine build and a whole lotta other work, it's going to be tough to get to 140 whp. As it stands, we've already got a good head (stock S valves), Schrick cam (RMW's future offering will likely be better), aFe intake, Milltek header (used), Magnaflow cat-back, and RMW tune. We did most of it on the cheap by doing the work ourselves, save the RMW tune. All said, we probably have $2K into add-ons right now.

I will say that 140 whp would be very, very nice - but, it would be quite expensive to get there. Our car's pretty quick as it stands and dropping another $2K into it MIGHT get us to 135/120. Is it worth it? Well, it IS fun having a VERY fast N/A Cooper...

RMW is working on a N/A high compression stroker right now, so it'll be interesting to see the results from that build.

With your plans, I'd say you'll end up right about where we are if the porting on the head is done right...