In weak moment i decided to give ecs tuning another chance and ordered an engine support bar. Decided i am going to drop the transmission again. Last time i used a chunk of 2x4 under the oil pan. This time I decided to just go ahead and order the support. ECS offered free shipping so I thought i would end my 1 year boycott.

And the madness begins, how much stuff will I work on this time while the car is in pieces? With these cars it easy to talk myself into all kinds of things due to the tedious nature of working on the drivetrain. I am certainly going to get some kind of transmission jack because the last time was just a touch unreasonable in the amount of effort and coordination it took to get the tranny down and back installed.

I will try to post a few pictures little along the way this time.

 

If I were to be spending your money, I would put in a set of the PowerFlex caster bushings on the lower control arm while you are at it. Caster is very helpful for autocross.

 

Harbor Freight has a support bar that works just fine, and cost less than half for the one from ECS:
https://www.harborfreight.com/1000-l...bar-96524.html

 

This is on the list for this round of work. I agree with you on this being a good improvement.

 

Good find, certainly cheaper. I am looking at the Harbor Freight tranny Jack also.

 

Sorry no update. I have started taking the car apart once again. My 17 year old found something that has his attention more than the 18 year girl he has been chasing. He has hope after all. He purchased a KTM 390 Duke and is focused on this bike. He got his learner permit and is now able to ride with me. So the time drain is that he wants to accumulate the 600 break in miles. All day trip yesterday was almost more than i can complete at this point in life! He is 49 miles short. No time in the garage this weekend. We did ride the bikes yesterday to the autocross i would have been running and watched for awhile. Regardless it is nice to see the young man coming around. I was so over the sneaking out at night.

 

Forums are pretty dead these days and that is too bad. I will keep posting. I continued the disassembly of my Mini over the weekend. The temps in my garage were over 90 degrees most of the weekend. I could only get so much done. I know many would say I am taking too much apart but having done this before I have found it is more easy to just call it what it is and bite the bullet. Some things are just so difficult if you only disassemble the minimum. For example removing the drive axels is no treat with spindles in place. I am for sure going to replace the serpentine belt this time and I am thinking about flushing the coolant. Here are a couple pictures from Saturday. Looking forward to getting the transmission down to see what happened to the new clutch.



.

 

I had time to work on the Mini a bit this weekend. One interesting thing that occurred is when i removed the left rear most bolt for the sub frame it was cover in lubricant. I am tying to think back if I used some penetrating oil some place that would have run down to the location. I will have to dive deeper into how the steering rack works on these cars. It is a possible source for the oil. Not sure.



Pretty close to dropping the transmission to finally see what happened to the recently installed clutch. The sub frame came down to install the new front sway bar and bushings. Since it is down i will check everything out to assure it is all in good shape to reinstall. It was not very difficult to lower.

 

I just recently became the owner of this car….sorry but no current track use plans as I already own a “track mini”
the alignment set up is quite mild, -1.75 negative, as this will be my daily commuter car (10k per year)

I also added V3 kw and milway camber plates, prior to collecting, as I like going round corners flat and quickly….
look at the whiteline bar thickness in the build video compared to the oem (sports suspension bars)

Adding some context to this thread, I feel no negative impact to running the upgraded bars (1 week into ownership) but having done the same thing front and rear with my R59 roadster I was happy to take a chance buying this car without a proper test drive ( 3hours away ) to see the handling.

if you look on their channel you will find a few track days, including one one a few weeks prior to me buying it .
shame the car hasn’t been tested on the same track with the kW V3, but it rides well enough on 18” rims with 35 profile Goodyear asymmetrical 6 tyres.
i will start a full thread here at some stage, on this car when I have some more of my own personal sauce added.

I had “planned’” originally on buying the H&R front and rear bars ( as adjustable) for my next car, as thought the whiteline kit might be too hard-core ( it isn’t) but stumbled accidentally into buying a car with most the suspension work done already …it just needs diff and power adding…
and I have a plan in place for this.

https://ukwhitelineperformance.com/products/bmf74-sway-bar-30mm-heavy-duty



https://carbonwurks.com/product/mini-cooper-jcw-f56-millway-camber-top-mounts/

 

Thank you for your post and your the first person I have heard from that installed the whiteline front bar. I have an electrician coming next week to do some work in my garage. This will detract form progress on working on the mini. I am not going to be able to make anymore autocross events this season. Looking forward with the newly installed heater and upgrades to the garage and being able to spend those long winter days turning wrenches. Hope to at least get the transmission down this weekend and see what happened to the new clutch. Then the best part is to be able to start putting things back together.

You purchased a really nice car.

 

I had my garage upgrades completed. I had electrical outlets added, internet, heat and now insulated. I am all set for winter and will get back to working on the Mini this weekend. I am no longer up against a winter deadline for working in the garage!

 

Once again its out. The transmission jack i purchased allowed me to drop the transmission by myself. Taking a break watching end of the indy car race and then i will look at the clutch

 

Reading this as I watch Colton take the win. Enjoying this oval racing more than I thought. For my Mini, likely I’ll be putting in a clutch and a Wavetrac in the next 10K miles. For this winter, going to enjoy driving around Florida in the cooler temps to come (we hope). Will do front sway at the same time, along with engine and transmission mount, likely do a swap to the aluminum oil cooler housing. I used to do HPDE down here a decade+ ago with my S2000, but with the mini would like to have fun with Autox and mini. I also have a 17 year old boy…he as a Civic SI but covets the mini since I put on the Dinan Tune and Coilovers. Will get his Honda into some Autox down here also. Like you, I’ll be a total rookie so trying to learn.

I’m a fair mechanic, lousy driver. Enjoy the Mini, looking forward to getting it put back together.