I corded the front tires on the set of Hankook Z214 in the morning sessions; right front



left front; we noticed that the side walls are not as stiff as the Toyo R888R and may be they rolled over a bit more



right rear; the Z214s were great for only a few sessions when new in previous club day, but lost the magic fast











the ST-45 pads finally got uncomfortably thin so I threw on the new set of ST-47; to me their bite and modulation are like the ST-45 and I could not discern any difference



our friend brought out his new BRZ tS to the track for the first time; all his other cars are high power but I think it would not be his frequent track car



I really like the car and would want one if I have a space for one more



I cannot believe how reasonably this car is priced



this has to be the best interior for a Subaru as we all know how horrible they all are







most interesting are there are two tuned acoustic cambers on the air intake



this was the first time I noticed this unfair advantage on the Red Baron; it has pulled fenders and that is how it can run 230/40 17 tires with thick spacers

 

towards the end of the first day Desire developed this ear piercing high pitch squeal that is proportional to the engine RPM

The screaming high pitch squeal were so loud that everyone took notice. The first thing that crossed my mind not to overlook were the rubber boots at two ends of the intercooler. The scream were too loud and too high pitch for that and started right from idle and up. The other possible suspects including a seized idler pulley, belt tensioner, or a seized bearing on the pulley system. I also include the possibly of a piece of rock wedge between a pulley and fixed feature adjacent. I didn't have my 4' PVC hose that I use as acoustic stethoscope to identify precisely the origin of the squeal. I used the fuel filler hose for race fuel can and that points to the snout of the supercharger. I was certain a bearing on the front side has seized, or begin to seize.

I resigned that Desire is done for the weekend, and resigned to load her onto the trailer. Two vehicles broke down, and I felt so unlucky. The supercharger was brand new that I install in April and has merely 3,000 miles.



one critical task of the day was to formulate plan to repair the Sprinter motorhome so needed parts may be ordered first think on Monday morning; Mr. ORP suggested that I cut out a segment of the bursted rubber hose for a sample of the inner and outer diameters; we scavenged through his collections of brass fittings and found this nipple that can be used to splice the hose ends together as a temporary fix. We couldn't find small hose clamps in his parts bins.

 

Sometimes the events are developing so fast. To keep pace I am resorting to non-linear story telling of what transpired. As soon as arriving home I set out to determine the source of the squealing noise. With the engine idling I use the 4' length of hose to locate accurately the origin of the noise. Even at idle the high pitch noise is extremely loud. It is unmistakably emitting from the snout of the supercharger. I aim the hose end at the pulley and serpentine belt and eliminated them.

Still I didn't feel that I proved beyond any reasonable doubt, I release the pressure of the belt tensioner and took the belt off the SC pulley. I carefully hand spun every pulley and idler. None feel abnormal let alone tight. This eliminated a possible foreign particle wedged on a pulley, or a failing bearing other than the SC. I was expecting the SC to be next to impossible to spin by hand. Surprisingly it did not feel like it is seized or beginning to seize.

I also removed the intercooler to inspect the rubber boots in case they spun a leak, or simply came loose. None of that.

I called up Mini of Kennesaw where I bought the JCW SC from last September. MINI has a 2 year warranty on their parts like the SC. They told me I have to go through my local dealer who would inspect the verify the failed part and will replace it under warranty. The challenge for me is I have to bring the car in and let them determine it. I grudgingly made the appointment with the service manager, who is extremely reasonable. I knew he tracked his newer Mini with Red Baron in a recent event. Our mutual friendships sure make me feel VIP.


the acoustic stethoscope



Desire at the Mini clinic; this would be the first time I let someone else service her and I much prefer if I can avoid it



the local Mini dealer has recently expanded; it has a very impressive service facility

In advance of the upcoming appointment, I had some time to think. I would wake up one night as the issue was still bothering me. What if I misdiagnosed the problem? There were two things that I could not reconcile. On the day the squeal developed, the events leading to the beginning of the squeal still bothered me.

Before going out for the last time, I filled Desire up with two 5 gallon jugs of fuel. When stared the engine, I notice both the Service Engine Soon and EML indicator both illuminated. Initially I didn't know the possible implication of EML. I did a quick search and found out it is related to emission control. That led me to suspect the fuel cap was not fully tighten. I checked it and reseated it. That made no difference nor switching off the engine and restarting. I tried a few times to no avail. I decided to go drive thinking the most it can do is throw me a limp mode.

Out on the track Desire didn't feel any different. There were only one thing. I could hear a faint high pitch sound that is proportional to engine speed. It was very faint and you have to be very attune to the car to notice it. What I also notice soon is the boost pressure was 14.75 rather than the normal spot on 15.0 PSI. I was also losing lap time at the tune of 4 seconds. I kept driving pedal to the metal.

It would be my second spin of the day but with very little drama. Desire stalled from the spin. I restarted her. Immediately that was when the squeal started extremely loud. I drove slowly back to the paddock to investigate. On the paddock the loud noise attracted a lot of members. After confirming the noise originated from the snout of the SC I decided to load Desire onto the trailer and resigned there would be no driving for the next two days.

More to come as while I was writing this post, I received a call from the dealer to go pick Desire up from the Mini clinic. It has been barely one hour.

 

I have taken my MINIs to the dealer to get work done as they seem to have the best mechanics around. For that I am willing to pay a premium. There are things I would just rather not have to do my self, or are beyond my ability and/or shop tools.

And as for your story...

 

we love our 86, make sure your friend gets an oil cooler, I am able to get ours dangerous hot just doing mountain runs

 

Desire's life story continues.

As I made the service appointment with my local Mini dealer to have the defective supercharger replaced under warranty I started to worry what if I am wrong, despite my due diligence? If it turns out the supercharger is not defective they will charge me the intensive labor. There are a two things that bothered me, though may just be coincidence.

Before the club days I was conferring with Red Baron's pilot about engine oil baffle. With 60k into his Mini naturally he has one. On a tight budget I decided to add a bit more oil to starve off potential oil starvation. A little more is good, but a lot more must be better. Unwittingly I put in one quart which bring the level up to the top of the yellow plastic bullet tip of the dipstick. This is about 3/4 to 1 quart overfill from max. I would only realize this when checking the dipstick this weekend after making the appointment.

I thought what if the excessive engine oil level caused the oil to foam? The foaming oil beaten up by the rotating crank may got sucked into the supercharger from the vacuum line, I reasoned and postulated. The excess oil coated the two scrolls of the supercharger, and being very little air space between them the supercharger may result in orders of magnitude in rotating resistance and hence the loud high pitch squeal. There is no way of checking this unless you put the Mini into front end service mode and remove the supercharger. This is a no go and the days of rain is coming the next day.

I decided to give the cheapo endoscope a try. I removed the intercooler and fed the endoscope through the outlet horn of the supercharger. A lot of struggle and I was able to barely see the scrolls. The image is far from clear but I could determine there were no oil film on the teflon coated scrolls. Signed a relief I did.


an endoscope image - there is no trace of oil on the rotors



and a couple more



note that you can see the gasket for the intercooler horn in these photos; it is that black seam between the two castings

The other coincidences were the illumination of EML light, and why did the squeal gotten so loud after the spin out on the track? I was at a total lost in seeking another plausible conjecture. I was on the phone with Red Baron's pilot while I was at the engine bay desperately looking. I tapped the supercharger outlet horn with my free palm. I immediately detected something I wasn't expecting. Rather than absolute solid there is a very subtle looseness - a subtle vibration if I pound on the horn at a special angle hard. Initially I thought there may just be something near the horn and hard pounding on the horn cause both to make contact and hence the vibration.

I ended the call to investigate further with both hands now free. Could the four bolts that secure the outlet horn to the supercharger came loose? Again you cannot get to them unless you remove the front end. In desperation I could see that only one bolt is visible but there is no space to get a socket onto it to check. There is no space to get a box wrench on it either. The only access is with an open end wrench at a steep angle.

I reached down with a 13mm wrench and sure enough I could turn the bolt without much force. I immediately knew this is the key to the whole mystery. I was able to give the bolt 3/4 to 1 whole turn with the open end wrench. Now pounding the horn with my palm no longer had the subtle vibration. I was so elated that this may be the cause. I jumped into the car and started Desire up. Sure enough the noise is gone.

Another mistake I made. In my haste to test out the now tighten supercharger output horn, I forgot that the belt tensioner has not been released from the locking pin. Fortunately I realized this before the engine got hot. I release the tensioner and made sure the belt is properly seated on all the pulleys. The noise did not return. I nailed it!

The next thing to check is what caused the EML light. I uses IMPA to read the fault codes. There are two pending, and both are related to vacuum leak in German. Naturally now all made sense. I cleared the codes, and they never return. The spinning out on the track cause the slightly loose supercharger output horn to work that much more loose, and huge amount of charge air escape. The gasket acts like a reed in a wind instrument causing the high pitch and disproportional loudness.


this is the only accessible bolt; this is an old photo from the installation months ago



charged air leaks through the gap and the gasket acts like a reed in a wind instrument; this is an old photo from the installation months ago

Recalling what I did back in April when I install the new supercharger. I could not find the torque spec for the four bolts for the output horn. While I took notice that they were extremely tight when I unbolted them from the old SC, I didn't torque them to anything near the unbolting torque suggested, for the fear of stripping the aluminium threads. Still I torque them quite tight, but evidently not tight enough. Since there is this compressible gasket it must had been compressed over time and heat cycles, allowing the bolts to work loose.

Gotten to the bottom of the cause, I called the service manager on Monday and apologized profusely. I would realize I could just turn the appointment to have Desire's power steering recall taken care of. The head mechanic was going to work on Desire according to him. He is Portland first Mini mechanic and he also works on a few track Miniac's R53s including the monster Mini. He definitely gave me the VIP treatment, besides giving me his time rather than just pass me off to one of his many service associates.

I already made plan to install a OS Giken racing clutch in Desire to replace the SM clutch kit from Exedy. I chose the Exedy over the more popular Valeo because it has larger diameter friction disc and the mating surface on the flywheel. I can also likely able to buy higher torque friction disc and pressure plate from the like of South Bend. However, on tracks especially at ORP the clutch would slip briefly at most upshifts especially when driven very aggressively going uphills. I estimate I lose 1/2 second or more each lap because of the slip. In my videos you can hear the brief clutch slip on each upshift. It sounds like my hand and foot work are ill timed.

I would take the opportunity when installing the OS Giken clutch to tighten up the four bolts before the next track driving season.

Wow, this is a longest winded post.

 

In this video and many of mine, you can hear the brief clutch slip after upshift from 2nd to 3rd, and 3rd to 4th, especially going uphill. Of course, I would never know about the slips if only drive Desire on public roads.


And BTW, the small gauge right of the tach is boost pressure. At full throttle it is exactly 3 o'clock and at 15 PSI. This is the gauge that I use to review my throttle positions entering, during, and coming out of turns.

p.s. Upon reviewing this video again and paying more attention to the duration of the slip., I now realize the slip time are quite significant. Most are around 1/4 to 1/2 second. They are longer towards the end of the short session.

 

I would definitely pick it over a MX5, especially I dislike convertibles when there is a choice. I need more car bays.

 

While investigating potential engine oil foaming from excessive overfill, I also remove a spark plug to see if there is any excessive trace of built oil residue. I remove the #2. To my amazement I could turn the plug with my bare fingers rotating the wrench extension. This is what track driving would do to fasteners. There is beyond doubt that I torque the plugs to spec, but they management to work loose. Thankfully the friction of the rubber spark plug boot prevented it from further unthreading. I checked and retorqued the remaining three plugs. They were not as loose but certainly did not retain the original torqued tightness. These plugs were installed less than 3,000 track miles ago.

I sure drive Desire's pantyhose off on the tracks.

 

What did the dealership say was the issue?

(For what it's worth, the MX-5 is a better car than the Toybaru GBTR8Z6.)

 

It was Sunday and the first of three club days. I was catering the lunch for 30. I had done enough of preparation work at home as well as the night before so I knew at least I could drive for an hour before preparing the lunch. I planned four dishes. A toss salad with novel vinaigrette, two entrees, and a side snack. I planned two entrees as there are some difficult eaters with most limited choice of food and I wanted to please all. I had a handful even with helps as there were no substitute for me. I thought only if I could multiply myself into 2 or 3.

Adding to the challenge the final cooking were done outdoors in an ad hoc kitchen, and nearly always windy. I had no opportunity to take photos of the finished dishes. However I have made the two entrees with some leftovers at home and the photos are representative of what were there.


scallion pancake


a stir fried noodles with julienned pork and shiitake mushroom


Singapore stir fried rice noodles with shrimps and char siu

The vinaigrette were made from miso, wasabi, maple syrup, olive oil, sesame oil, lemon juice and zest, and apple cider vinegar. This is an inspiration I had with a similar salad in a Japanese restaurant. I recreated it by taste with my own spins.


the novel miso wasabi vinaigrette





One thing that surprised me is I was expecting the difficult eater to poo poo the scallion pan cakes. To my amazement it was the most coveted item of the meal and many that got a big piece said it is too good to share. Share most didn't.

 

There were a couple of changes that I made to Desire in hope of getting her to be more nimble. She is already quite nimble. At time a bit too loosey goosey, in fact. So the two changes were stiffening the rebound damping of the rear Koni Yellows, and moving the rear sway bar from middle to full stiff. Often I found that the effect of changes like these can be very hard to evaluate. The condition of the tires, temperature, and dampness all play their parts in influence how the car handles. And I should mention too the tire pressure and tire temperature.

Desire did rotate better with these two changes. There were less tendency for understeer though on some slow and tight turns the understeer tendency can still rear the ugly head. I begun to explore rounding these turns with throttle lift oversteer. There is this one turn that is also uphill, and I found using this technique slowed the car too much to my liking. This is one turn that Desire pushed too much and causing the front tires to scrub hard, which also loses speed and caused rapid front tire wears.

Except for these near 90 degree slow turns Desire handled quite neutral, for whatever that really means. No major drama at high speed turns or connecting turns. Driving at the limits of adhesion with worn tires she was still a handful and going wild rabbit hunting is a real possibility.

While putting Desire back to civic duty I discovered one of the two bolts for the rear muffler flange gone missing again. This is the second time this happened. As the flange joint tends to leak I have been torquing the bolts and nuts to near yield point. I am unable to determine if they simply fell out because of elongation with the bolt glowing red hot, or the elongation cause the bolt to break catastrophically. These are circa 3/8" grade 8 or their metric equivalent.

 

It's been barely a week since the last club day, we are already dreaming for the next. What would the weather hold in October. The weather in Oregon turned from summer to winter almost overnight. We had significant downpours and big winds. October weather can be very dry and temperate, but also quite blustery with the prevailing wind direction flip in the Columbia River Gorge.

This would be the last club event, and I am planning for an uncompromising dinner and so are a few other civic minded members. We want to warp up the year with the best of friendships. I plan to bring the Porsche.

 

I have one turn like this one. An up hill 180 deg corkscrew of a turn called the “toe of the boot” at Watkins Glen. It is the worst turn for a MINI, ever! It is long enough and steep enough that the car’s momentum will only take it about a third of the way around it and only half way to the apex. As soon as I touch the gas, the car pushes like crazy. The weight of the car goes to the rear as soon as the car heads uphill and stepping on the gas just moves more weight to the rear. With the front getting lighter there is little traction left to power to the ground, let along to get gracefully around the turn. The best that I have come up with is to try to defy physics with late braking and trail brake as far up as I can. I have not been able to reach the apex but I can get close.

It sounds like Desire is getting pretty well sorted out...

 

if mazda ever put a roof & hatchback on it aka clownshoe I would own one. Till then I have a 86, back seats fold down for stuff, still not a hatchback but it is ok. I find them very similar cars, quite a few of my autocross friends have gone back and forth between the platforms and I see lots of both at the track

 

I guess, not a hatch but close....
https://www.mazdausa.com/vehicles/mx...SAAEgKwqPD_BwE

 

So Desire went to the Mini Clinic for the power steering recall inspection. I had been not wanting to go through this because I simply don't like anyone else touch my Mini. I made this exception this time as I already made the appointment with the local MINI dealer for the supercharger replacement. Rather than cancelling the appointment I decided to use it for the recall warranty work. The service manager treated me like VIP, and told me only his head mechanic will work on Desire.

It took them one hour from the time I dropped Desire off when the call she is ready for pickup.

When I arrive I was told by a service representative that they changed the pump, the cooling fan (with guard), and a few other one time use parts associated with the procedure. The paper work shows the pump is reman'ed. He also mentioned the lower left front ball joint is slightly worn. As there are two ball joint I asked which but he does not have the answer. I asked to speak with the head mechanic.

The service manager happen to walk by and he came up to me beaming. He raved about how he like the CoolerWorx shifter in the car. He went and look for the head mechanic.

I spoke with the head mechanic and he is equally enthusiastic about Desire. He told the service manager that Desire is very near the perfect an ideal Mini to him. She is tin top, and has cloth seats, he said. I said even as stock as she is she is still competitive with R53s with twice as much money of mods into them. He remarked that R53 is the best of the modern Mini's. I sense that he just love working on this as he also service a few R53 Miniacs that I know, including one monster with RMW everything if money is no object.

He put Desire up on the lift wanting to show me the slightly loose ball joint. While he think the outer joint (the one that I recently replaced because of the melted boot) is a little loose but I was dubious as I just replaced it. I tried my best to feel and eyeball the alleged slop and could not. We took turn waggle the wheel while one of us watch and feel at the joint. It was not conclusive in my view. We were mutually respectful and we had a good chat about how to replace the inner joint.


this is the first time Desire gotten this high


In all, I have a positive experience with them especially both the manager and the head mechanic. The service manager was very surprised that their parts department would not price match the JCW SC that I ended up buying from Mini of Kennesaw. He reiterated that they are there for me, if anything I need.

I had met one of their parts guy at PIR, but I could never find him.

 

Close but still short. I do like the MX5's double A arm suspension more. I am totally with Mr. Blah only if Mazda ever realize there are many would want a coupe. A coupe will be lighter than the RF too.

Style wise, I can never warm up to the frontal design of the MX5. They have gotten better with each successive generation but still have that silly face.

 

My wife says her 2004 Cooper has a smiling face and it make her smile when she sees it...

I have had similar experiences with my MINI Dealer and their shop. They are very good. And, Yes, I am less than happy to have others, other than myself, work on my car. I almost always find something screwed up.

 

The track driving season is drawing to a close. There are only three days left and I am praying the weather will cooperate. Desire will not be making the appearance, however. I put the Wilwood BP10 front pads on, and swap the rough riding track wheel (with all the free rubber pickups) with the narrower Konig 15x7 for her street duties. I also removed all the numbers on the glass. She purrs in last few outings and always eager to please. She drives and rides nicer than new by orders of magnitude.



Desire and friend Mr. Bunyan



Desire the Frontier Pony Express



Desire and friend Harvey

There is a list of performance upgrades for track in advance of next season planned:

• BC Racing coilovers with Swift springs
• OS Giken racing clutch
• A proper Bytetronik tune for the 15% pulley and 500cc injectors
• Tighten up the loose nut behind the steering wheel further
• Two more adjustable control arms (for the upper two) for the rear to dial in the negative camber while controlling the toes
• May be and may be a larger TMIC

No big power is planned for Desire as we don't believe in arms race. Desire will continue to be a dual duty little car that can in the foreseeable future. Not even the rear seats would be removed to save a few kg.

 

a word of warning with bytronic, they tune for efficiency from what I have been told, not for power. There are folks in europe and the UK mini facebook group that can tune with MPPS if you have a kline/dcan whatever cable that inpa/ista uses and it's far cheaper

 

I invested in a Bytetronik Full Access Kit with injectors and tune 2 seasons ago, but haven't install the injectors nor exercise the tune. I infer the reason Desire runs like crap when the ambient is high is due to high IAT resulting from the TMIC being inadequate (called clipping?). Hence the ECU dumps fuel and that's why I often get circa 6 mpg on track. I figure a tune from them is better than the bone stock maps I have. I know, meth injection will alleviate much of that but is another thing to add/maintain.

BTW, what clutch do you have? I am getting a single disc OS Giken. I know the dual disc one is totally undrivable on the road. Not even driving up the ramps onto the trailer.

 

The Omicron Hood Scoop helps with IAT. We run it on the race car.

Omicron

There is an Omicron 2 now - can't speak to its relative performance.

Omicron 2

 

Thanks for sharing what works. I was just looking at that this morning because of this post. I thought the money would be better spent on a larger TMIC first. Seem this scoop is not much larger than the stock but I understand it has smoother inside surfaces over the stock one. I know you have TVS900 SC, which is a lot more efficient than the Eaton dinosaur that can't take global warming.

 

The car is equipped with a GP intercooler, and I can recommend that as well.