Dazecoop – Blog of David Cooper – Photography, Videography, Drifting & modifying cars

Continuing with my Mini on-going project, and the constant want for more power, I have decided to finally bite the bullet and fork out for a new performance cylinder head – perhaps the single most efficient way of increasing power from the A-series. There are numerous companies that sell and produce cylinder heads for the Mini, such as Slark Racing, MED Engineering, Mini Spares, Rob Walker and many more.

However, after contacting my personal two favorites – Slark & MED. Both told me that their lead times on their cylinder heads are currently around 8-10 weeks which is way too long for me. Mini Spares always has heads on the shelf, but they bulk-produce heads (as far as I know) and they wouldn’t be of as good quality as the likes of Slarks or MED’s.

Rob Walker was my next phone call and he said about 3-4 weeks lead time on heads which wasn’t too bad. Then a friend of mine reminded/recommended me Vmax Scart. I phoned and spoke to Stuart and he said approx 3-4 days!! Brilliant.

So, as of Wednesday (tomorrow!) I am off to meet Stuart at Vmax Scart to pick up my new cylinder head. Its a stage 3.5 (approx) with 35.7mm x31mm valve sizes, along with double valve springs, bonze guides, and with the ability to accept Unleaded fuel. I’ll update with “install” pictures and how the car runs after its fitted!

My on-going Mini race replica project is coming along nicely now. I’ve fully committed myself into it now (not like I wasn’t before!) and I’ve spent a fair bit on it in the last month and-a-bit.

She currently looks a bit like this. Needs lowering though!!

I bought myself the very sexy KAD 4 pot caliper brake set-up for the front not so long ago which I’ve now fitted to my original hubs and are on the car. I was looking into also buying some sort of master cylinder replacement since (for many reasons) I hate the standard master cylinder braking set-up on the Mini. Its a pain-in-the-backside to change, it rusts, its awkward and expensive to replace parts. Needless to say I was looking into alternatives and I stumbled across OBP Performance who sell a Mini-specific aftermarket pedal box, including separate master cylinders, reservoirs, and the pedal box itself – completely replacing the master cylinders and standard pedal box.

So, whey! This morning I ordered it and it should be here later in the week.

I’ve also been thinking a lot about the brake pipes and hoses – obviously replacing all of them anyway, but also hoping to “upgrade” them in someway. I thought it would be a good upgrade to ensure both front left/right and rear left/right brake hoses are equal length. This way surely it must equal out the braking power to further improve the braking-in-a-straight-line.

After some thought, I think I’m going to go with custom-made stainless steel braided brake hoses throughout the car, running the brake hoses through the inside of the car down the exhaust tunnel along with the fuel and battery cable which are already in place.

Fuel lines clipped down with P Clips – inside in need of a tidy!!

I’ve sent off a number of emails to various people to find out the union sizes of the different things I will need the hoses to connect to – the KAD calipers, the rear wheel cylinders and the new master cylinders on the pedal box. I’m unsure on the union sizes right now, but I will find out and when I do – its here you’ll find the answers

Photos from the latest of my build soon!

UPDATE: I can confirm the following union sizes so far…
Slave cylinder banjo-style union : Female 3/8th UNF
KAD 4 pot caliper union : Female 3/8th UNF
Rear wheel cylinder union : Female 3/8th UNF