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So you are jumping head first into $2019 Challenge? I saw that in the magazine's Feb edition with a R50 photo, and thought to myself my Desire's blood is too rich to qualify base cost wise. Good for you to go for it. It should be a lot of fun.
Propane top heater also does wonders for a garage. I use on in a detached block garage. Warms it up to T-shirt temperature in not much time.
How well insulated is your garage? My walls are insulated but the ceiling and garage doors are not. I’ve been disappointed in my attempts to warm it up. Am trying to decide how much to invest in insulation.
How well insulated is your garage? My walls are insulated but the ceiling and garage doors are not. I’ve been disappointed in my attempts to warm it up. Am trying to decide how much to invest in insulation.
ZERO
CMU walls, open roof rafters with gable vents, and a non-insulated garage door. I heat that thing up with a standard propane top heater in 15 degree weather just fine. Sure, laying on the ground under the car can be a bit cool, but its really not bad at all.
iwashmycar - thanks. I have a kerosene heater but it doesn't have nearly the effect I'd hoped for. After the heater was on for hours on Sunday, the temp made it to 49 -- the outside temperature was around 30. The heater is 24K BTU but the garage is oversized 3 car with a 10 ft ceiling. Probably too much volume for too little heater. I don't want to rush into a solution so I'll probably research it and address it when the weather is warmer.
So you are jumping head first into $2019 Challenge? I saw that in the magazine's Feb edition with a R50 photo, and thought to myself my Desire's blood is too rich to qualify base cost wise. Good for you to go for it. It should be a lot of fun.
Yea, I have $1976 in the car with the new JCW Supercharger. I need a about $250 more to get on the road. I think between the supercharger core, front driving lights and the Mini Fini hitch I should be able to meet that budget. then it's just a matter of sorting the car for the different events. But like GRM says, it's about the fun, if I go down there and do well it will just be icing on the cake. I think it will be a blast.
How well insulated is your garage? My walls are insulated but the ceiling and garage doors are not. I’ve been disappointed in my attempts to warm it up. Am trying to decide how much to invest in insulation.
My walls are finished (maybe insulated) and there is insulation in the ceiling (living space above the garage.) The doors are just thin aluminum, I could insulate it with some foam board and it would probably help. I had a kerosene heater but where I live you can forget finding any kerosene. I have a propane catalytic heater but I have to let it run for a couple of hours to get the temperature up so I can use that on the weekends but not during the week. I'll keep banging at it until I get the work done, just maybe not as fast as I like.
CMU walls, open roof rafters with gable vents, and a non-insulated garage door. I heat that thing up with a standard propane top heater in 15 degree weather just fine. Sure, laying on the ground under the car can be a bit cool, but its really not bad at all.
If you are going to insulate, just have them blow a R13 up in the ceiling...I think much more is a waste of money in a garage.
I have two layers of cardboard on the floor, not only does it keep you off the cold concrete it's a heck of a lot easier on your body than the concrete!! Lots of Amazon boxes to the rescue!
OK, I'm back. In January I had a little health thing going and while it didn't take long to recover I have been really adverse to cold. Well it's finally warmed up and I'm back in the garage.Last weekend I pulled the oil pan and replaced the gasket. A lot of other stuff has to be pulled off to get pan pulled off. But it went well and I cleaned everything up as I went.
It's Easter weekend this weekend and I have plans with the grandkids so no Mini work but I have to order a JCW pulley puller so I can swap the pulley on the new supercharger to the Dinan pulley. I'll post up some pics when I have something interesting to share!
Well, the Mini has sat for the better part of 4 months. I have finally finished other projects that were getting in the way. I've had a friend's long term project WRX at my house for about 3 years and we finally got it to a point that we can trailer it back to his house for the rest of the work. I looked at my trailer and it was much worse for the wear, to the point that I didn't trust it to haul his car back home. So what to do? Move the trailer to the top of the project list. I pulled the rotten decking off the trailer and replaced it with some new wood. While the wood was off I used rust restorer to treat the rust then put a new coat of paint on the frame. I replaced all the lights and rewired the entire trailer. I also have a truck box on the trailer that holds my aux. battery, winch and towing stuff so I took the opportunity to bang out a few dents and throw a fresh coat of flat black paint on it. Doesn't seem like a lot of work but all of it had to be done outside and here in the MidSouth summer thunderstorms are a real thing. It rained on and off for about a month and a half. But I finally got it done and now the WRX is going home.
After the trailer was complete I turned my attention to the Mini. I pulled the old supercharger off which gives me access to a lot of the other maintenance items I want to do and the first thing I did was to replace the thermostat. Didn't take long all. That was as far as I got as it was late Sunday evening and that was all I had time for. Today I am inventorying all the new parts I have and getting a order together for the things I need, supercharger gasket, bypass valve to intake hose ($28.00 for a 4" hose, Anyone know where to get one cheap?) and few other gaskets to start putting things back on the car. WoooHooo!! Puting the car BACK together!!
Trailer with a new deck New Deck Back of the winch box Front of the winch box
So, I pulled the old supercharger off to access the damage that was done to the gears in the PTO. The cause of this failure, as you probably know is the seal on the input shaft goes bad and the supercharger oil leaks out thus allowing the large gear to grind the smaller gear into a fine powder. I don't know if the root cause is the seal wears out or if lack of supercharger maintenance (i.e. oil changes) causes the seal to go bad. I do know in the future I will be keeping a close eye on the supercharger oil and changing it often.
Here are the pics of the carnage!!
All that debris is ground up gears. The smaller gear has been worn in the center. The big gear is worn on the edges. Ground gear!
Wow...that's something else. My 06 MCS has just under 48K on it now...I'm thinking I'll do a winter project to inspect the supercharger and service it.
Wow...that's something else. My 06 MCS has just under 48K on it now...I'm thinking I'll do a winter project to inspect the supercharger and service it.
You're probably fine but an oil change would be a great idea.
I have been spending a lot of time on the trailer, remounting the tool box and the winch that lives inside of it. I also bought a new deep cycle battery to power the winch and air compressor. I am fabricating a battery hold down to go inside the box with the winch. I put an 8'x8' peg board area up on the wall and ditched the peg board A-frame roll around tool holder I made. I did manage to get so small jobs done on the Mini, I replaced the crank angle sensor O-ring, remounted the water-pump to block adapter with a new O-ring and I went to the auto parts store and found a small 1.5" radiator that I cut up to make a new S/C air bypass hose. I also cleaned the water pump and intercooler air inlet pipe and the pipe to the S/C with a new gasket. The goal for this week is to get the supercharger remounted and maybe the water pump.
The reason I spending so much time on the trailer is to get it ready to tow my friend's WRX back to his house so I can make room for my 1985 Toyota Corolla SR-5.
Last edited by rhenry01; 09-23-2019 at 06:46 AM.
Reason: Add Pictures
Finally got the WRX out of my driveway and now I can spend some quality time with the MINI. Since I wanted to reinstall the S/C I needed to pull the JCW pulley off and install the Dinan pulley so on Wednesday I ordered a JCW pulley puller and a new belt. The parts were delivered on Friday ... Hats off to Way Motor Works for some fast shipping on my order! On Friday I pulled the JCW pulley and put the Dinan pulley on loosely so I can align it once the S/C is installed. Today I got the thermostat replaced, the S/C oil level checked, the water pump bolted to the S/C and the pair installed on the car and the oil dipstick tube installed. I am going to try to get a small amount of work done each day until the car is back together. It's slow going because I have to clean the parts before they go back on. I just have to keep plugging at it. More updates to come......
I recently picked up a super cheap '04 MCS as well and had the same issue with the s/c and h20 pump. Got everything back together and am now chasing a no charging issue with the car.
2020 has been a year .... and not in a good way. From the work-remotely order to providing the virtual classroom for the grandson I have been firmly in the procrastination zone. But my meager efforts have paid off. I put the mini back together, topped up the fluids and turned the key! I was rewarded with a car that was barely running. Disgusted, I turned it off and went to have a think. Then it hit me ..... plug the ODBII scanner in and see what it has to say! I did that and pulled the codes. I was getting various O2 codes and such but then I saw one very interesting code .... TPS level high...... I don't remember any TPS plug!!! I looked behind the throttle and there was a connector hanging from it's wiring harness that looked like it would plug right into the Diana throttle. I plugged it in, cleared the codes and gave it another try!
I was rewarded with the smooth idle I was expecting. Throttle response is nice and while it idled there for a while the car didn't throw any codes. Man was I happy. So I put the front end back on and now have a car that I hope will be reliable enough to run on the streets as a shakedown prior to hitting an autocross or track day. I have pictures and I'll get them posted. If a bolt of motivation strikes I might even post and YouTube video and link it below. I am still a few pennies below the 2020 challenge limit so I may have to plan a trip to Florida for later this year!!
Grassroots Motorsports, a budget racing magazine holds an event every year in Gainesville. You build a car that costs less that the year ($2020 this year) and you compete in three events. Drag racing, autocross and concourse.
Add some more DINAN stuff to the list. The stainless steel back-box is a Dinan unit as well! It needs some polish on the tip to look presentable, I'll get to the soon enough!
01-16-2019, 05:23 AM
to qualify base cost wise. Good for you to go for it. It should be a lot of fun.
