Ideally port work should match the cam profile and boost curve of the engine. Sprint has chosen a turbo with a great top end, a longer duration cam profile and matched his porting accordingly. So unless the laws of physics break down it should be one very scary beast when he lets it off the chain.

To clarify my statement earlier though, port velocity and flow are two different things but are interrelated. If you increase the cross section of a port you can increase the air mass passing thru the port at the same pressure. More air combined with more fuel equals more power. But air has mass, therefore inertia, so with an increased cross section the air is more lazy at low speeds. You loose the crisp throttle response on the low end, but seriously make up for it on the top end as the total air mass flowing thru the port is much higher.
To an extent, this can be compensated for on the low end in software by altering the tip in modifiers for the load tables. In essence creating a non-linear throttle response at low loads and RPM's when moderate acceleration is requested.

 

I get what you're saying and makes perfect sense, it's also the reason why STRINTCARS Mini starts making power at 3200 RPM's to redline. Losing low end torque may not be so bad, making more power later is what I would prefer rather than to early. I can't wait to see both your and StrintCars dyno data. Seems like you guys have a lot of tinkering to do to get your engines maxed out.

 

+1 for tigger. Most of the time when you build an engine your choosing an aftermarket head and your selecting a head with a given port volume so upper rpm and lower rpm are already designed into the head you choose. To small and it only goes to a certain rpm. Say 4500-5000 rpm. To big, and you gotta rev the hell out of it to get power. Which is no good for the street. Same goes for cam durations. Small volume heads dont like big diration cams. Big volume heads dont like small duration cams. Its just stuff you learn over the years and asking questions to head and cam manufacturers when your building a motor. General rule for cams is 210-222 are for towing and hot rods. 224-236 are for hot street. 236-246 is pushing the limits for street use. Anything above 246 is basically race and high rpm engines or boosted engines. Those nbers are for carbruated. Boosted engines can handle a tick more. Most manufactures lean towards the smaller side of port volume to give that feel of a fast car to society. So even if you grind on the head, its still gonna be matched to the cubic inch or liters of our engines. To really create a drastic difference in performance due to port volume, you would have to open the heads up somewhere around 15-20cc's to feel a drastic noticeable difference. Which happens to be ALOT of volume. Thats about 1500 rpm added to the top end. No matter how much you grind out of a cooper head, your not gonna get that much volume out of them without grinding through bowls or sides of the ports. As long as the head porter stays focused with efficiency in mind. These heads will be fine to port on. I posted i lost bottom end, but it was the first time i drove the car in 13.5 months. The car also learns your driving styles. Its actually just now starting to get better. But i got a good idea from a cruising stand point where its at. But it still meeds to be driven more. These cars are pretty smart. I was also in 6th gear at 60-70 mph. I think my power band is starting somewhere about 32-3500. But at 4 grand. GAME ON !! Methanol tomorrow and i plan on having another 300 additional miles on it by sunday night. I'll have a pretty good idea what im dealing with sunday night.

 

First, is anyone having issues with the NAM APP ? It wont allow me to read or post on certain threads ? Namely this one.
Second, gotta watch this youtube video. This sings the song about pissed off rednecks pretty darn good.
Last, the methanol installation has now begun. Wooooopp wwoooooooppppp

 

I'm having difficulties with the app too.

 

N14/18 Start at the bottom end 1.6:1 connecting rod to crank ratio, pretty radical (not crazy though). Lots of of mechanical advantage (Torque), at the cost of side pressure and rod movement making higher RPM's a bit more difficult but its a 1.6L so manageable. On the top end 9.5 to 10.5 compression ratio is pretty high for turbos but possible with direct injection. R56 heads have pretty small valves set close and runners set for velocity, you can tune (take out the bump) but its relative to the existing set up. I like 4 valve velocity seems to work well. Sprint is on it working on the 5 way valve grind a lot is happening here in the short valve opening. Cams, add them they are easy to do and change up, see what you like you can always sell a good set of cams (think about springs). Turbos, are up against the 1.6L you need to get the flow going to be able push without losing grip on the air flow, no problem though, relative shorts gears, lots of mechanical advantage, and good compression ratio, light weight, relative Easy install, so Go Big and don’t look back. ALL this needs to be tide together by a tune. In the carb NA world you have springs cables and jets, now DI with electronic throttle and ECU control the feel of the car is about maps and formulas to create the right feel/power. Has Sprint not given you enough encouragement Tune now tune big tune and let the shiny parts fall from the sky like mana on the chosen.

 

Ive done 4 head on the R56 so far. I bought one head just to find out where not to grind. And im telling you homestly right now. Be very very careful with that bump. You can massage it. But dont, whatever you do, dont take it completely out. Its there to help turn the air. But its also paper thin. I can post a picture to prove it if youd like. And its seriously hard to weld up cause the holes are so small.

 

NOW !! About my test drive i just went on after the methanol installation.
Stock tune is faster than a stock car. But you gotta expect it.
Setting 1, it picks up, good for travel to work and tooling around in traffic.
Setting 2, its pretty fun, most mini's arent gonna carch it. Its a good sand bagging map to hurt there feelings for the next two. Youll like this.
Setting 3, now it feels the car just smoked crack,pull out on the highway and aggressively roll into the throttle and the traction control instantly comes. Tells ya your being goofy and about to get a ticket. So i took it off, now it literally smoked the extreme summer dunlop direzza tires, jumped straight to the rev limiter before i could catch it. The power band comes in gradual, but when it hits about 4000rpm, HOLY BA'JESUS !! It comes on so fricken hard it not funny. Only other thing i felt come on tjat hard is my race car. If it was rear wheel drive and hooked up, i think it would carry the front wheels. Gonna take time to get used to figuring out when and how fast to shift. Once it hooks up and goes, it slams the *** down and lifts the front super hard. I never knew the way transfer weight like that. I heard, boom, felt a thud. I then realized, it just bottomed out on of the suspensions. I dont know if it was the front or the rear. But i definitely felt it bump stop for sure. Next thing, your at about 70 mph beford you realize whats up.
Now for setting 4, its still smoking crack and hasn't put the pipe down yet and its about 3 hours into partying. This thing is GOOFY !! You definitely gotta roll the throttle, i was at about 60mph with the traction control turned off, learned my lesson about that earlier. Down shifted 3 gears and whaled on the throttle. Yup, you guessed it, spun tires and jumped straight to the limiter. Slowed down, rolled the throttle aggresively and it was a handle full to try to control the torque steer all the way to 100. But i could still feel it trying to work the steering wheel.
Its jumps right to 130 in a really short period. Theres a videos on manic motorsport usa faceboom page.
I'll be making a new thread once i get all my receipts together so if you guys wanna do it, you'll have the part numbers, prices and places i bought the parts. But fare warning, it wasnt cheap. I kinda hate to add them up to be honest.
Last, JERRY ARIAS at EUROTECHS IN TEMPE ARIZONA, your help, patience and countless phone calls was greatly appreciated. Ive been around auto shops since i was 9 years old. Im 44 now, seen alot of them too. Yours and yourself is a real stand up place. You guys know what your doing and every piece of advice was dead on. THANK YOU !! Thank you from the bottom of my heart. Ive got one hell of an R56 mini cooper s. This car sint nno joke with this power.

 

Now for nick at manic tuning. What a tuner right out of the box. Not on engine code. Nothing weird or goofy. Fired the car up, had to replace the o2 sensor. Other than that. This nailed it. Unbelievable. Cant wait to do some data logging and possibly more tweaks. Until then, its back to driving smooth.
Thank you nick kasberger at manic tuning. You definitely know how to tine these cars. This car runs its a*# off.
Now folks, this car makes alot of power. If i didnt it again id prolly do it with a stick. The automatic trans cant respond fast enough. Atleast not with my car. Lol
That motor spools up so fast, i honestly think the transmission ecu cant keep up.
Thank you nick, we will be logging data and going from there. You did an oustanding job.

 

Ah such a nice day I am letting the first coat of paint dry on my front sub-frame. So the bump or maybe we should call it the wedge. I have to admit to being prejudiced against the thing. Without work it is sharp and badly flashed I can not believe it is anything like the designers intentions and would badly shear any air flow. Yes from what Ive read DI engines were designed to have big swirls the 5 valve heads of other DI engines have the 5th valve to do this, be glad we dont have the extra cam these heads end up in my friend Walts shop more than any other. I have two heads the first Walt did and the bump is massaged not gone, also besides general clean up the bend was worked on and the area around the valve got a fair bit of work in the transition. I did the second head following Walts work but one day discussing swirl with Walt he sad how he felt 4 valve heads have naturally good swirl so I ended up taking out the wedge and working the transition around the valve a bit more so now the wedge is more or less incorporated into the surrounding area. The two heads are quite different one stock cams and the other CAT cams so I cant give a fair comparison, also I am not in a engine lab with thermal imaging equipment (I so wish) so I defer, but at least clean up the wedge so it is not such a mess. PS I am only a long time hobbyist who can get a bit carried away sometimes (OK all the time) so please take my posts as my best effort to share.

 

My wagner intercooler (competition) seems to work extremely well. Even after stepping on the gas a bit the intake temps stay very steady. So far from what ive seen, the intake temps are only about 3-5 degress higher than daily outside temp.

 

Whilst I'm glad to hear it that really isn't a good test of an intercooler. If you want a better idea of how effective the cooler is you need to sustain high rpm, high boost for a good period and check how high the temps go and then how quick the return to a reasonable level.

Nearly any intercooler would return good temps for the scenario you have suggested.

Cheers

Steven RW

 

Sorry it didnt meet your expectations.
Maybe you might wanna take a moment to good what you've done a good plug.
Until then, from then, as stated above. Then running hard i had done already revealed some pretty good results.
WAGNER COMPETITION COOLER SEEMS TO BE WORKING JUST FINE FOLKS !!
Tanks are sold cast and its built very well. Highly recommend it.

 

Oops. Didn't mean to offend or come across all wrong.

I've heard good things about the Wagner intercooler. I'm not knocking the product.

Good luck.

Steven

 

Thats ok, Ive encountered a small issue and gotta make some repairs. None of which were the fault of anyone of the companies who've helped or sold parts to me. My brain is gone a thousand miles per hour right now. Starting to get hard to make decisions, so that means its time to back off, slow down, relax and take a deep breathe. It'll all work out in the end.
Keep all your bolts tight and check them after you've heat cycled the engine when doing big repairs. Heat changes things even when you think they are tight enough.

 

Threads done. I'll be making a new thread with all the part numbers, place of purchase and cost. But not for every item, i think i should ask permission for one of them first. I will also add some dyno results when i'm finally done.

I dont recommend doing what i did with an automatic transmission.
I think its over kill for the trans.

 

 

Just have to make sure that I don't press the pedal done too far and actuate the kick-down button.

I have no issues being able to control what gear I want in manual mode.

 

Outstanding read and write up. Watching close now....
I have to agree with you on Jerry at EuroTech...

 

Any updates on this motor? Just read the sad story of Tigger.

 

Fitting each piston to its respective hole. Bottom end bearings look like the day I put them in. Cam journals are perfect. Other than the machine shop boring the motor 2 1/2 thou to big, I think it would still be running strong. One thing I did while building this motor, I used all Mini Cooper OEM bearings, mic'd the old rod journal size and did the same for the new. It was perfect. Checked rod journal relative to connecting rod with a bearing torqued up. Get my clearance by that method. A note for people using CP Or forged pistons. Metallergy is better than years ago. If a shop asks if the motor is high boost. Say yes but don't add extra clearance because of that. CP allows .003 clearance for these motors. Already knowing its turbo charged. No extra clearance is required. I was told you can imagine how many shops are doing this to engines and its setting off the knock sensors. Also allowing the piston to slightly rock enough to unseat the rings. Causing blow bye and premature wear. Had I not been an employee at an engine shop and considering purchasing a shop now, I might not have **** it down. Tore it apart. I may have had a basket case. Knowledge prevented catastrophic failure on the case. However, some failures you just can't prevent no matter how much you know. Now not to bash a company. But it seems im also the only one recently who has purchased an owens turbo. Just food for thought folks.

 

Hi,

I have ordered CP pistons and Carrillo rods for my R56 build.

I see from your pictures that the pistons you had did not have the tear drop shaped Injector bowl cut in them. Is there a reason for that? We are going low comp and I was asked if I wanted to keep the fuel swirl bowl in the piston and on the basis we are maintaining direct injection it seemed appropriate. Can you share your logic?

I’m not sure I know what went wrong with your engine (just reading your entire thread followed by your final post above). Maybe I am not reading it right.

I’m telling CP what we are doing with my engine and they are choosing the piston clearance. I assume it will be the same clearance as they gave you.

Thanks and enjoyed reading your build. Mine is in millions of bits at the moment and awaiting pistons, rods, re-boring etc.

Steven RW

 

First, I don't know how to explain what the shop did any better than how I wrote it. Not being smart. Maybe someone can chime in and help. As far as your compression ratio and new pistons, what was the part number pistons you ordered ? Low compression should be SC7514 for 77.5 mm. What compression ratio are you shooting for ? The proper clearance for the new CP pistons is outlined in the paperwork that comes in the boxes. If your shooting for 9.5:1 like mine, that's what the pistons look like. If your using the piston with the fuel swirl your talking about, that's either a custom low compression piston or it's the factory compression ratio. The low compression pistons that are 9.5:1 don't have that swirl. I didn't design the piston and that's how CP made them. The fuel is already at 1500 psi. It's direct port. Swirl is used for atomizing. As well as trying to make the intake charge enter more efficiently. When you get to the pressure I've chosen to be at. Stuff like that I could care a less about. They are other details of this built that most people just aren't gonna do that makes it run the way it runs.
Note to everyone about this build I did, this car needs attention that takes mechanical ability now. It takes maintenance to keep on top of it and running smoothly without breaking down now. If your looking to build like this but expect to just change plugs and oil. This isn't the build for you.

 

Sounds like reliability has become a problem for you now. Sorry to hear that I was really looking forward to your dyno numbers and by the sounds of it when it was running well it was an absolute beast. Hope you get on top of it and workout the bugs

 

When choosing new pistons for my rebuild, I went against all recommendations and stayed with 10.5:1 and 77mm --- cylinder walls weren't deformed or scored. Knowing 30PSI was the target boost, I just wasn't comfortable reading about lowering the CR. Maybe when playing with 7+ liter engines, this philosophy is good, I don't believe it necessarily applies to our 1.6L engine. Maybe there's some other advantage I'm not aware of?

Also, my CP / Carrillo pistons have the same configuration dome as the OEM pistons.

And for results, I can't imagine lowering the CR would produce more than my current 312WHP & 321 ft.lbs torque. Maybe, but I'm happy with what I've got!