Good evening fellow Mini people,

My typing skilling and spelling acumen are surly lacking for this endeavor. However, due to Mr. Charlie Thompson and his long running thread here, that I have enjoyed immensely, I feel obligated. Not sure how this will proceed or how it will be received.

I will try to post weekly on my Mini adventure. It is a challenge as the adventure started a couple years ago. Lets start with the basics. The car of this subject is a 2017 Mini Cooper S, with a manual transmission, no sun roof, and it is a base model. This car was owned before me by a smoker and it has been a challenge to restore!

I learned some valuable lessons right out of the gate. The car was purchased because my wife had at the time a 15 year old son. I love cars and spend all the time I can in the garage turning wenches. I thought a front wheel drive, sporty manual was the ticket for a first car I worked for an entire summer teaching the young man how to drive. He learned the manual and progressed to driver education. I also had a long present itch to auto cross. I have built an S197 Mustang to be a track car but had never actually gotten to the track. I enrolled the young man into the SCCA Street Smarts driving program and we started attending autocross events.

This is when learned a valuable lesson. You can't force young people to like what you want them to like! This kid would show up to drive an auto cross but had no interest in working on the car. I had conversations with him that even being very skilled in the garage I was not Rodger Penske. Our auto cross adventure was not going to be a "show up to drive endeavor", it is about fellowship and learning to work on cars.

He dropped out for now and hope he develops an interest. So I went all in on the Mini and autocross. Maybe I would have selected a different car if it wasn't for the young man involved. regardless, I own it and like the car for the go cart like feeling.

This is the start of the story and we have a couple years to catch up on. I will leave it here for a first post.

 

Good on you!

About 18 years ago I ran Gollum I (a JCW R53) in A Street Production. SCCA classing at that time determined the JCW, which was dealer installed, was a "trunk kit" which banished the car to the realm of lions and tigers and bears.

At the time, my son would come to Devens with me, and handled the wheel changes necessitated by the Hoosiers that were de rigueur in ASP. I learned later that part of his enthusiasm was simply escaping his Mum on a Sunday!

My Dad was a mathematician, and I ran screaming from that discipline at a young age and made my career in computer software, networks, and performance management. My son ran screaming from THAT, and now makes his career as a gifted mechanic across all kinds of vehicles. C'est la vie.

My son did however "borrow" Gollum II at one point, to escort a young lady on a first date. What should the statute of limitations be on that I wonder?

I wish you the best.

Cheers,

Charlie

 

The current status of the Mini? Last weekend I started taking the car apart. I am installing an LSD and a new clutch. The work isn't really difficult just a challenge because I have never worked on a FWD vehicle before. The picture shows the battery tray and computer removed. The top transmission mount is visible.

 

Its amazing how much of the car has to come apart to do anything significant. Going to replace the intercooler while its apart.

 

Well on Sunday the transmission finally was lower from the car. The unit weight is a 109 pounds. You take on a project like this and you really find out who the good part vendors are and the service level provided. It is not always smooth. The little Mini is in an incredible number of parts. I used sandwich bags and packed each set of fasteners. Each bag was marked with a Sharpie identifying what they held in place. I still have to remove the clutch and open the tranny to install the LSD. I plan to clean up everything before reassembly. I will list all the upgrades as I install them. I have had a few great email exchanges with Lou at Prototype R on tuning obviously once it is reassembled. I expect several weekends to get the car back together and is dependent on receiving all the parts ordered in a timely manner. So far I have enjoyed this project and recognize I am slow.

 

The transmission is 109 pounds??? That's *it*? That's, like, a big kid in middle school

Cool thread keep it up!

 

You're going to love whatever Lou comes up with for the car. He really knows his stuff.

Do you have your clutch kit picked out yet? Beware that there are some vendors that sell solid single mass flywheel kits with solid clutch discs, and the discs don't seem to be able to hold up to shock loading very well when paired with a solid single mass flywheel... You want to make sure if you go single mass conversion that the clutch disc has been designed with load springs.

 

well i may need to return the clutch ordered then.

I was going with this set-up. I talked with Eric and JMTC and he seemed very knowledgeable, no concerns were express. He said it was important to bed the disc to the fly wheel before pushing the car.

 

They were the "manufacturer" I was thinking of. If they changed their design, I'd be surprised.

Check this thread to see results of their kit:
https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...000-miles.html

In my opinion, without dual mass flywheel or a sprung clutch disc, the impact loads to the disc are too much for the rivets and failure is a matter of time.

 

when it arrives.

 

Hopefully ECS does you right, assuming you purchased from them.

I understand JMTCs position regarding their clutch kits. They designed the clutch disc to be used with the OEM dual mass flywheel. However, when you design a single mass replacement, you can't just stick a solid clutch plate on it. Especially in an autocross use, you'll be seeing a lot of impact loads on that clutch...

I have a ClutchMasters flywheel and clutch in my R55. Granted, I don't autocross, so I bought their FX100 street kit. Feels like stock, and takes all the stage 2 goodness I can throw at it.

 

Lots of choices

 

If this is what you get, you should be in good shape:


I think its funny they make fun of the "heavy" OEM dual mass flywheel, and their steel single mass flywheel is 31 lbs!

 

Interesting update this morning. So as I said ordering the clutch set-up from ESCTuning has been challenging.

 

HAHA! Sorry, I laugh on the outside, but on the inside I'm cringing. FYI, a ClutchMasters FX300 or FX350 with their steel flywheel would be almost half the cost of the JMTC kit...

 

How do get ESC to see a thread here? When I call them they make me feel like I don't know anything about what I am doing or buying. I know they are a great supplier but man building a relationship with them has been hard. I want to be a customer. I did order most everything else form a different website and had a very personalized experience. I will unpacking those items tonight so I will report back. Sounds like the intercooler is backordered for maybe 4 weeks and that will push my timeline.to finish before cold weather. I am missing the fall autocross schedule to get this build done for next spring. .

 

Send a PM to @ECSTuning

 

ESCTuning is making this out like it is my fault. This is crazing. I know they sponsor here and I am really not trying to bad mouth them at all but every time i get off the phone with them I don't feel like a valued customer. I have spent over $10,000.00 on parts in the last two weeks and spent more than half of that with an ESC competitor because of this service issue. But this is clearly my fault. I guess.

 

Without being present for the conversation, I can't comment one way or another. However, if there is a difference between the order confirmation and what you received, then there is an obvious issue. If the order confirmation matches what you received, well then...

 

What I expected of them was to accept the return and process a new order for a different manufacturer's clutch so I am not sitting longer without parts than needed. They make me feel like I need a lawyer to return the two flywheels. I guess i can dispute the credit card charge but I would rather have them do the right thing and I would still be a customer.

 

Last night i was able to get out in the garage for a couple hours after work. I cleaned up all the tools and put everything back in the box. Years ago I purchased a large 1980's vintage Snap On tool box off Craig's List. I have enjoyed the having a large tools box. When i was growing up I started buying mechanic tools when I was 16 years old. I left them in the garage of my fathers house when i left to go to school in North Dakota. When I finished school and got my first place I cam to load up my tools and my father stopped me and claimed I didn't need all the tools. He told me that since I was only doing light maintenance work I only need the basics. So he took me to Sears and we purchased a basic mechanics set of tools and a small tool box. Seems he had become accustom to having the tools while i was gone. So I started buying tools again. In 2014 dad passed and i got all the original tools back. Now I have doubles of many and I have given some socket sets away over the years. Craftsman tools is a sad story and most here know the craftsman tools available today are nothing compared to the old tools that were made in the USA. I purchased some Mac tools and love the Mac ratchets. I have metric Mac sockets and love using them. I have reached a point that I have a hard time justifying buying expensive tools. I have a split strategy if the tools is something i will use a lot, I will try obtain a quality piece. If I need something that is a very large or odd size I will swallow and buy at a lower price point. And now a little tool "corn".

 

And I got the return authorization from ESC. So I will be sending both Flywheels back tomorrow and restart the clutch selection. Very happy that this is getting resolved. Thank you ESC!!

 

Hi Johnnys2quick.
In the thread njrameka linked the original poster switched to a TTV Racing ceramic and had no more issues. Gotta say I've also been impressed by this clutch. it's easy to drive on the street and will take some serious abuse. They also make a full faced organic version.
.

 

That clutch looks brutal!

 

Yeah these guys build them strong. I'm still amazed how easy it is to drive. The flywheel is machined from forged chrome moly steel and the rest of it seems to be built with the same design philosophy. I guess they figure a clutch isn't of much use if its broke lol. The one above on my F56 is a 230mm ceramic unit rated to handle 480 ft/lbs of torque. Another option is a full faced organic clutch that's rated to handle 350 ft/lbs of torque and should be even more street friendly.

You also have a couple of options for the flywheel. There's the one above which is a good all around weight that's easy to feather that I drive daily. That entire clutch assembly for the F56 weighs in at about 25 lbs. They also have another flywheel that's even lighter but is really more for racing applications. If anyone is interested in seeing a twin for the F56 I'll try and remember to dig it out and post some pics tomorrow.