My Vtec Cooper

[Oz]

Odd, they are working for me on two PCs (one on Chrome and one on IE) but I can't see them on my phone (Chrome)

[leon]

Potential Motorsport does k series based std nose vtec frames too here in the uk. I thought this was one of them for a sec

[Mini Vlatko]

Sorry to hear that as I'm sure we all are aware of Ollies craftsmanship so to see that you're having this kind of problem is at least strange...
I'm sure Ollie will help you sort that out.
I looked at pics and as I can tell from them it's not only the crossmember that is making you a problem cause if you do mod it I don't think you'll have enough space for manifold and rad after all...
It looks like the whole frame is positioned to far to the front?
How would that be even possible?

[Yellow]

Only idea I have....... I replaced the whole front end on my yellow mini and was amazed how much tension is in the a-panel, wing, front panel combo. I had the standard mini subframe in place to push/pull it to the right place and to act as a reference. I'll have a look see if I have any measurements you could refer to and see if this might be the issue. It was easily a couple of inches out with the panels just clamped up to each other. Maybe Gazwad can offer some advice as he has a whole steel removable front and might have come across a similar challenge when doing his


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Yellow]

Here you go. B+E measured from rear hub


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[ardonfast]

Don't give up yet Mr !! I swair the front bar looks different ,
Ollie s work is second to none !!! But lack of reply must have a reason , possibly away , it will work !

[Oz]

Thanks for all your comments and Yellow, thanks for the dimensions I'll check them out.

A plan has been formulated with my mate who ran a body/custom shop here. Once my new exhaust manifold has been received then we can assess exactly how much room I do have at the front and we can then build a new front crossmember to suit. It might actually help with my other issue of how to mount the front panel bolts (see here) as we can incorporate something in to the new design.

I spent a bit of time at the garage over the week end mainly working on getting the rad back as far as possible which I think I have now done, I can't see it going back any further (serves me right for making rad mounts before trying the front panel ). As mentioned in a post on here, the rad is now stopping the bonnet shutting fully so as part of the new front crossmember we will see if we can lower rad by about 10mm, that should be enough to get decent clearance.

[Oz]

Unfortunately as the rad has moved a bit when moving it backwards I have also found that the modified headlight bowl I've done still needs further work because the rad sits more vertically. I am stopped from tilting the rad back because it'll hit the head by the vtec solenoid

[joltfreak]

Having a small tilt in the rad would be better than having the rad dead straight. When the ran is tilted, the air would hit more area on the fins and allow better cooling.

[Oz]

It does have a small tilt but not very much. Eventually the rad will largely be sealed so there won't be much leakage around the sides. Also the idea is to exploit having a large rad and a smaller grill opening, the theory being that as the air comes in through the grill it expands in to the larger space between the grill and the rad causing it to slow down and therefore is more efficient at getting air through the rad rather than being deflected away from the rad as an area of high pressure builds up in front of the rad by too much air trying to be forced through a restriction and it not being able to cope.

[ardonfast]

I see what's happening Oz , forget the radiator for now!
Fit it in the space you have left for it !

[Oz]

Thanks Shaun. The idea is to get everything in place so that we can build a bespoke front bar for the frame to ensure everything fits where it needs to go. The rad is exactly where it needs to be now and my old scrap front panel has been used as a template to work out what cuts need to be made for it. Once the manifold is here and on then I will know how much space I'll need for that and the front bar then can be built to ensure the rad goes where it needs to and the manifold has down pipe clearance and again the scrap front panel can be used as a template as to what cuts are needed for the manifold. Don't worry, I am a man with a plan

[ardonfast]

Yes qwite ! It's so hard to judge what's happening by pictures
I can't for the life of me work out why the frame fitted in the
Pics you were sent, it looks tight,
And fits in just one spacifick place, I thought if you remove everything and see, with no exstra bits in the way, but I'm Shure you would have already ,

[Oz]

Just to clear it up, yes when we first tried fitting the front panel we didn't have the rad or exhaust fitted. Only once we'd cut the front valance to get the front panel fitted properly did we see what happened when we put the rad in place.

[ardonfast]

Cheers oz