AMT 16V Conversion. Electrics, Cooling system. Brakes.
Once the new front end was on and the engine was in the electrics were done (Cheers Jarv) which wasn't too hard, the starter motor had basically the same connections as my original pre-engaged system. The wiring for the lights needed to be slightly longer, the reverse light switch wiring was moved from the tunnel to the engine bay. The fan was wired in and that was about it.
In this pic you can see down the back of the engine bay, to the right is the fuel filter fastened to the frame, further left is the starter motor and solenoid, down at the bottom is the alloy dummy driveshaft bracket. The black plate blanks off the holes where the master cylinders were, and thats the clutch cable going through the bulkhead. Also visible is the blocked off rubber water pipe which can be connected through the inlet manifold to the head.
At the front a Cavalier radiator was
fitted with a metro fan in the Cavalier housing (the Cav fan motor was huge)
and the exhaust was wrapped to keep it as cool as possible. A small oil cooler
was mounted in front of the rad and plumbed in. The plumbing in of the cooling
system was fairly straightforward and works ok, the diagram below shows how
mine is connected up.
One of the most important things about
putting such a high performance engine in a Mini is the ability to stop! The
thing to remember is that you are going to be arriving at your fave corner much
faster than before and getting to that speed in no time at all. Because the
standard brake master cylinder is normally removed you have to replace it with
either one or two of the AP Racing types.
At the moment a few of us are experimenting as to which combination of
sizes and brake types work best. To start with I had two cylinders, plumbed
into the brake bias valve on the bulkhead. This isn't ideal though as its
better to remove the valve and use a T-piece with bias to the rear brakes being
controlled by an adjustable in-line valve either in car or under the bonnet.
The cylinders are mounted in a AMT
converted pedal box in the normal
position, remote reservoirs provide fluid. This worked well when I had BIG
brakes at the front (10.5 inch discs) but not so well with normal four pots.
The big ones were bought from Maidstone Mini Centre, they are 10.5 inch vented
and grooved discs with an alloy spacer fastened to the drive flange. The
calipers are alloy four pot Girling Mk5's. They were supposedly ex F1 kit that
was used on a Rallycross Mini by a mechanic from a F1 team! The big problem was
that the calipers had no dust seals and eventually the pistons started sticking
which meant I warped a disc. They were then replaced by Metro Turbo brakes, you
can see the size difference in the picture.