Mini Workshop

[rohan]

hello minimaniacs......

how is your mini lately? does it feel sick? losing power?

please post your queries here and i hope that we can answer them correctly....you may need parts and stuff for your mini, or even need a mini....please do give us a call or send a PM and we'll get back to you asap..

keep on slugging

[rohan]

The sheer volume and diversity of bolt on goodies available for our cherished Minis underlines the fact that a very large portion of them is modified in some way. Be it just dress up items to personalise it aesthetically, or tuning parts to improve performance. In the latter’s case, either more power or more economy are sought - both being desired by many. Should it also enhance the looks at the same time, so much the better. Unfortunately not many components can achieve this without integrating with a number of others. The exhaust system, however, is one of the few.

Although the exhaust’s efficiency and effectiveness is reliant on a well matched system from the exhaust valve in the cylinder head to the tail pipe, the majority view it as two separate pieces - the exhaust manifold, and the ‘system’. Not entirely mis-placed, as this is how vendors present them - folk buying one or the other, though mostly both, dependent on guidance and or budget. Contrary to popular belief, the system actually has a greater effect on both power and economy than the manifold and generally produces more performance per pound spent. It’s also far easier to fit than the manifold and first to rot and fall off. Consequently, getting to grips with what the exhaust system is all about will help in making a decision as to what to look out for when making a decision on which product to buy.

Let’s start with a quick and basic look at your Mini engine’s basic functions. Ultimately the end product is energy to drive your Mini along. The engine is a four stroke - induction (piston takes in fuel/air mixture), compression (piston squeezes mixture), ignition (mixture burns - the power stroke), and exhaust (piston pushes burnt gases out). Unfortunately only the power stroke produces energy, the others consume it. The more they consume, the less there is to drive your Mini down the road. The main aim in modifying/tuning the engine to produce more power/economy is to reduce the energy consumed by the three ‘wasted’ strokes (pumping losses).

We’re only interested in the exhaust stroke here. Initially it absorbs power by having to physically push the burnt gases out. To minimise this effort, the exhaust system needs to be as un-restrictive - ‘free flowing’ - as possible. Standard, and unfortunately a number of so called ‘performance’ exhausts, cause excessive power losses because of their designs - the restrictive nature causing ‘back pressure’. Backpressure is the result of an exhaust with poor flow efficiency. To compound the problem, backpressure doesn’t stay a constant. The higher the throughput of gas, the greater backpressure becomes. In fact it rises at something like the square of the engine’s gas throughput. So the more power developed/the bigger the engine, the greater backpressure becomes, consequently sapping more and more power.

Speed Freak
On the exhaust stroke the piston pushes the exhaust gases out past the opening exhaust valve, starting the ‘slug’ of hot gases on its way. The slug of exhaust gas needs to maintain sufficient speed to ensure as much of the burnt mixture is extracted as possible so as not to dilute the incoming fuel/air mixture. Most folk assume that the exhaust only travels in one direction - down the pipe and into atmosphere. However, at small throttle openings (low rpm/light cruising speed) it actually slows down and reverses flow.

As the piston nears and reaches top dead centre, the inlet valve has started to open leaving both inlet and exhaust valves momentarily open together - called the ‘overlap’ period. This period can greatly reduce power/torque if the out-going exhaust gases contaminate the in-coming fresh fuel/air mixture. The hotter the cam, the greater the overlap period, the more dilution can take place.

How does exhaust system size affect speed? Bigger diameter pipes allows the hot exhaust gases to expand, slowing them down. The earlier the exhaust gases encounter a bigger bore, the sooner they slow down and reverse flow. This accentuates the low rpm/light cruising speed problems, making hot cams run even more erratically. Using a system with correctly sized pipe diameters the exhaust gas speed is at least maintained, if not increased, therefore taking longer to slow down and reverse flow at the end of the exhaust stroke. One of the major benefits making ‘hot’ cams come in sooner, and run better at low speed.

Sound or music
There are two parts to this. ‘Sound’ as in noise, and ‘sound’ as in waves. Dispensing with the easiest to explain first, the bigger the pipe diameters, the more noise the exhaust will make, the harder it will be to silence. This has much to do with the next part, sound waves. As the exhaust valve opens towards the end of the power stroke, a slug of high-pressure exhaust gas is ejected, sending a positive pressure pulse wave (a very strong sound wave more commonly called a ‘shock wave’) hurtling down the pipe. Traveling at something like 1300-1500 feet per second - substantially higher than the normal speed of sound due to high temperature - it pops out the pipe end, creating what’s commonly called a ‘reflection’.

This comes in the guise of a negative pressure pulse wave, and hurtles back up the pipe towards the exhaust valve. No, it really does! If this wave gets back to the exhaust valve whilst it’s still open and in the over-lap period, it helps suck out residual exhaust gases. Even better, it can also reduce the combustion chamber pressure to below atmospheric pressure, actually starting the intake charge flowing before the piston starts moving back down the bore on it’s induction stroke. Sort of ‘super charging’ the engine by increasing volumetric efficiency (total amount of induction charge sucked in). The more charge you get in, the more power you get out. These ‘shock waves’ also create the pinging, drumming, thudding noises produced by the pipe.
How does size affect sound? As mentioned earlier, the bigger the diameter the harder it is to silence; more of a space problem than anything else. The bigger diameter the pipe bore is, the proportionally bigger the silencer needs to be to cope. For excessively large pipe diameters there simply isn’t the space under the car to fit a suitably sized silencer. Consequently using a really big-bore system produces horrendous drumming at low rpm/light throttle/cruising speeds, and a right din when the (literally) ‘loud pedal’ is floored.

Pipe diameter has less of a direct effect on shock waves as they’re more dependent on temperature and pressure - so it’s speed is pretty much a fixed quantity. ‘Tuning’ the shock waves is therefore done by altering the pipe’s overall length - the reason why in some circumstances a pipe going straight down the middle of the car will give different results to one exiting in the more normal position - the former being shorter than the latter. Unfortunately it rarely gives more performance. Having said that, shock waves only really has an effect over a very narrow rpm range - around 3-400 rpm. Optimising lengths to maximise potential performance increases are mainly affected by the manifold - for more information see 'Exhausts - Manifolds, use'. However, careful development of the system shape can be used to good effect. More on this later. For now, exhaust systems are generally fixed in one of two lengths as mentioned above.

[rohan]

Little or Large?
We can now apply our newfound knowledge of exhaust gas behavior to selecting a suitable system. Despite the plethora of systems available, the most reliable from a performance increase point of view will be those that have been around for some time; largely because more recent systems are either copies (generally poor ones), or purely made for aesthetics (huge bores and multiple tail-pipes). The longer-standing exhaust systems manufacturers established long ago the optimum sizes, shapes, and lengths as far as exhausts for Minis go. Boosted by the sheer volume of folk racing, rallying, and tuning them. Consequently they’ve been distilled into a few very effective systems.
Size-wise, a bore diameter of 1.625” is more than ample for practically any road engine. Right from 850 up to 1400+, where power outputs don’t exceed 125bhp or so. Even then, going to a bigger size - say 1.75” or 1.875” bore - will only gain a few extra horses right at the top end of the rev range - OK on a racer where the engine is flat-out all the time, but on a road car the benefits of increased gas speed and getting a hot cam pulling power in earlier far outweigh the slight hp gain. Conversely, fitting a 2” system to a small-bore engine (850/998/1098 based) will actually loose power because of it’s relatively small through-put of exhaust - the huge bore increase prematurely slowing the exhaust gases, bringing about the unwanted effects outlined earlier. Using a 1.5" bore size instead of the more common 1.625" can have marginal gain on a small-bore engine. But I stress these are small. The uncommon pipe size being reflected in its price. Given the choice of the two different lengths generally available, the longer side-exit type almost always gives the best over-all results.

Silence of the Lambs
You can see the three main methods of silencing an exhaust - constriction, baffle, or absorption. As far as performance improvements go, constriction and baffling are dirty words! Neither of these produces performance improvements purely because they work to restrict the flow of exhaust through the system. The only one that gives optimum performance gains is absorption. Applying silencers using this method for silencing gives the ‘straight through’ appearance - and maximises exhaust flow.

Many believe that ‘straight through’ means ‘more noise’. This just isn’t the case, so let’s get this straight - just because a system is quiet doesn’t mean it’s ineffective. A properly designed ‘straight through’ system with correctly proportioned silencer boxes will give both maximum flow and civilised noise levels. Conversely, just because a system is noisy doesn’t mean it’s efficient. This is more of a feature of its size than silencer type. The only silencers on the market of a seemingly correct size that make quite a row, and folk think they’re a ‘performance’ exhaust, use the constriction method. From earlier comments, we know that the larger the bore, the more difficult it is to silence adequately.
Conclusion

Picking the juicy bits out of the fore going then, the most efficient exhaust system you can fit to our Mini to provide optimum performance (both power and economy) will be one that maximises gas speed, shock wave tuning, and fits well. So you want one that’s got a 1.625” bore, follows the standard exhaust route to give best length, and has straight through, efficient silencing (two silencers usually needed to get noise down to a sane level), and is well made for an easy fit. A good finish will help in the aesthetic stakes too! That'll be the RC40 then, or more recently the Mini Spares Millennium range.

[lionell]

hi rohan,
where's your shop located.... im just curious. do you have an a/c unit for the mini? i've been looking for an a/c unit for a long time.
thanks

[rohan]

lionell

we have our partner Dondon Cruz, who specializes on mini AC installation, he's located in Sta.Mesa area..PM me your cellno or landline so he can call yuo for an estimate..thanks..

[vince168]

rohan,

how about mini mechanics? any recommendations???

:D

[rohan]

vince..

the one mechanic to go to really is the one we have in cavite, arvin..he's got a high batting average..but for my engine tweaks, i have my own mechanic here in antipolo, who specializes in racing carbs...he use to race with the ramirez's, ochoa's, silverios, so he normally tweaks my mini before any runs..

if youre near antipolo, maybe you can bring your mini for a check..just text me sir..

[rekdi]

rohan,

rekdi here. i still have the '62 black mini from dondon's shop. mon promised me to supply the engine pero di ko pa nakukuha from cavite. no time to travel that far mula antipolo! i don't know if it's still worth spending for it. sayang din kasi kung tigilan ko na. any suggestions on what to do with it?

[rohan]

rekdi..

if it was my own 62, ill wait for the good engine..you can go for the old 850 or the 998, but we can also transform it into a retro-racer..old school.

we can have the whole shell on black with red trimmings with a little flame on the front fender...like the lledo Mini-7 "On Red" color scheme...

keep the black mini...its worth the wait boss...mon will be back from the UK by july 6...maybe we can go there and check the engine out for your mini..keep the project alive.....so if it was my own? ill keep it..i would love to have a mark1 retro on 10"

good luck rekdi!! maybe i can visit your place this weekend?

rohan

[rekdi]

rohan,

tnx for the advise. cge, hintayin ko si mon. you can check out my minis here in my office in makati. dito ko pinapark kasi. the black 1 and the open classic na brg. anytime you can drop by.

rekdi

[vince168]

rekdi,

post ka naman pics ng open classic brg mo. :D

[CLAVEL3699]

Can I ask how much ang budget to have a mini?

Thanks for the reply.

[rohan]

Clavel3699

Thank you for your interest in having a classic car in the future..our shop Classic Mini Constructor, has been engaged in restoring and supplying minis and mini coopers to the local market..we have been doing this for quite sometime now, and was able to form our miniclub, MiniPilipinas.

our shop is located in Bacoor, Cavite..this is where we restore, assemble, accessorize and stress-test our minis...we have a few in stock and a few more coming in for this year..we have classics as early as the 1960s to the middle-aged (80s) and the newer ones on the 90s.

A basic unit costs around php280,000 which comes with the following :
a. A basic mini under Mark3 or Mark4, meaning its in its 1980s model.
b. new suspensions, rubber cones and new steering components (not replacements)
c. new weather strips, rover special arches, electrical wirings, new bumpers and grilles, restored instrumentations and cabin seats
d. Prestressed British A+ 1275cc engine
e. Newly painted shell under Rover or Austin colors, or your preferred personalized color scheme.
f. standard wheelset and tires (rim 12)
g. large capacity gas tanks

OPTIONS
1. Long Center Branch or LCB Headers
2. Sports Exhaust systems
3. Gas Shocks or Hard Shocks systems
4. Twin-side carburator system
5. Sports-pack arches and rims (Rim 13)
6. Cobra or Corbeau Bucket seats
7. Smits Magnolia Gauges
8. Motolita, Nardi,etc steering wheels
9. Wooden dashboards
10. Special alloy wheels
11. Airconditioning units

these are just a few options that you may want to consider later on..but the very basic kit is just as powerful out of the box..we guarantee all of our works and you may also opt of a financial schedule..

CMC can finish the car in around 3months...but we may extend the period of restoration to suit your finances...we may also change your engine to a smaller displacement of 998cc (1000cc) which will cost you a little less for the whole car...our engine upgrade is advisable in the long run.

please contact me thru my handset at 09209203607 or at minipilipinas*yahoo.com

by the way, you can see my mini's pics at the photo gallery.....keep on slugging!

Jeff
MiniPilipinas

[JHS]

I am looking for a Cooper. Do you have any in stock? Must be manual, 1275cc and preferably original LHD.

[rohan]

rekdi...

ill try to take pictures of those minis you have...im trying to compile the minis that came from CMC and of the members from the egroups, this is for the anniversary issue of MiniWorld, omon plans for minipilipinas to appear in that issue with our minis...

or maybe you can send me lots of pics thru my email...thanks

ro

[vince168]

rohan,

Does CMC sell original Cooper engines??


:D

[vince168]

rohan,

Does CMC sell original Cooper engines??


:D

[vince168]

rohan,

Does CMC sell original Cooper engines??


:D

[rohan]

vince....all our engines are british made...not japanese, or whatever country..and yes, cmc sells cooper engines...like yours.

we install only the original engines from austin, rover, leyland....of course this depends on what we have in stock..

[vince168]

rohan..

what im trying to say is if cmc sells cooper engines from a mini cooper and not the typical standard mini 998s and 1275s that we usually have but something similar to mon's orig mini cooper 998.


how can i schedule a tune-up with arvin my mini badly needs a tune-up. pumapalya when im cruising at patayin pag hindi pa masyado mainit. dati hindi naman ganun eh.

thanks
:D