Driving

Before taking the mini on the road for the first time, i had to test out the brakes and correct a few of the loose fittings and hoses I didnt get right the first time. Good thing I did ge tthe brakes working, because the car is outrageously fast. It was hard not to burn up the tires in any gear.

It was a great feeling to drive the car home after 2 years of work.

Unfortunately the fun didnt last long. After only one week, I got tired of the ultra-short transmission gearing and took the tranny back to have the gears changed (after 5 hours of work pulling the entire frame, motor, and trans). I will also be ordering a custom final drive. It turns out i was given a B16 transmission (with 4.4 final drive) instead of an integra LS transmission (4.27 fd). After calculating the ratios, I would like to get a final drive with a 3.4 or even 3.2 ratio, which would get the freeway rpms close to 3000 at 70mph. I cant believe no other honda - mini swappers have looked into this. it seems ridiculous to be buzzing around at super high rpms on the street.

There are a few good gear calculators posted online, found them by searching "honda gear calculator"

I also made some calculations based on the 165/70R10 yokohama tires having 1074 revolutions per mile and the honda gear ratios as follows:
Y21 Del Sol B16 Transmission- 5th gear .848 - Final drive 4.4
S80/Y80 Integra LS Trans - 5th gear .714 - Final drive 4.27

Now im waiting to get the transmission back, then removing the final drive to have a custom one made.

Update

Well it took a few weeks to get the wiring sorted out. i had to resolder every wire for the ECU and engine. So much soldering i burned up a 200w soldering gun and had to get another one.

Filling the transmission with oil was tricky. I had to remove the reverse light switch and feed a small hose in and tape it to a funnel. The normal fill hole was inaccessable behind the modified mini subframe.

more wiring

Yesterday i wired up the headlights, relays, and headlight switches. The wiring will be a lot of work, since i just found out only 1 brakelight is working, the neither rear blinker is working. The wipers were running for a minute then stopped... at least the engine wiring is mostly done, just need to trim some of the harness shorter and resolder.

Wiring

I Started soldering all the wire connections together. The ECU is all hooked up and mounted. Now i have to do the wiring to the gauges and the fuse box. I would have gotten more done last week, but i was so excited about learning how to ride the velodrome...

Engine Running

Andreas and I temporarily wired the engine and ECU together and the engine started up right away, no smoke. We did find some fuel leaks quickly and had to tighten some connections. This motor is beautiful. Now the problem is the cv boot came off the joint and wont fit because it is rubbing the frame. Ill tackle that later.

more

I forgot to add, I finished the fuel lines and connected them to the motor. a 5/16 pipe from the tank and fuel pump goes to the filter then the intake manifold. Then a 1/4" line returns from the manifold to the tank. I think it is close to standard for the B16 honda motor.

The vacuum lines were a little confusing at first. Some are not needed, but some are. I was missing a MAP sensor (didnt come with the B16 motor) and it should be hooked to the vacuum line on the throttle body (the smaller of the two fittings, the larger fitting is not used in the mini since it is for a honda smog/ fuel vapor system). The other vacuum line that is needed goes from the back of the intake manifold through the fuel pressure regulator cutoff solenoid and then to the fuel cutoff valve (that controls the fuel return line to the tank). The solenoid came attached to the same bracket the MAP sensor was bolted to. Ill add pictures later.

Radiator

Just finished some custom bracketry for mounting the 1st radiator. it is a near perfect fit behind the grill, with just a 1/16" to spare around it. The second radiator it a little tougher to mount, i had to modify the mounting tabs a lot to get it to fit in the wheelwell,
The radiators are from honda motorcycles, an older 500 and newer 750 if i remember correctly. The nice thing is one is designed as a secondary radiator and doesnt have the cap opening, just inlet and outlet.

I also finished hooking up the brake lines this week, just no fluid reservoir yet.