benjamins 1976 1152cc turbo (Project)

1976 leyland mini

1152cc engine
fully balanced and lightened
arp studs
re-13Turbo cam
harland sharp roller rockers
bigger valves
lightened flywheel
belt drive conversion for cam
full custom turbo setup
land rover defender inercooler custom end tanks
ceramic coated manifold
GT2552r dual ball bearing turbo custom ar49 turbine housing
2.5'' exhaust
greddy boost controller
rebuilt gearbox with quaife LSD
no distributor
megajolt coil pack ignition
5 puk brass clutch
adjustable suspension

15psi boost 125.6 fw/hp

well bad news the motor has to come out, blowing alot of smoke and oil coming out of breathers

anyway so went and spoke to graham russel and he put a little camera in the spark plug hole , fairly large gouge in number 2 cylinders bore. So started pulling motor out today

plan is rebuild again , new pistons from graham and possibly coverting back to timing chain as there is a new chain i would like to try rather than the belt drive kit. Then have dynoed at grahams and might see how it goes with 18psi boost.

just got to borrow my engine crane back , my mate is borrowing atm but its all ready to come out

well not much has happened in the last months , been very busy with lots of tafe work and havent had a good chance to sit down and do some work.

our garage is all built and now with tafe done for the year iv finally got some work done:) Basically cutting all the rust out then will get a full respray

bit more has been done , car is almost fully stripped and have started doing the rust in the floors. i ended up making my own floor panels as the bought one was totaly wrong.

finished the floor on the drivers side , but still have to do the passenger side and drivers side pillar is bad.

started working on the parcel shelf , the old one had two huge speaker holes in it which looked as if they were cut with a hammer and chisel. Since i respraying the whole car i thought i might as well replace the parcel shelf . I cut a good one from a car at pick and pay-less .

i cut the majority of it out of my car the peeled the left over pieces off with a pair of pliers , the spot welds seemed to break fairly easily.

Had a big day of cutting today , Managed to get a fair amount done. The back had been run into 3 years ago coming onto the m4 by a 4wd . It was repaired a little dodgly with a large amout of bog being used in the repair.

Iv never really been happy with it despite the excelent paint and it looking straight. Anyway it started to rust under the bog so i bought some new panels and thought id just replace the back section of the floor and the back.





The rear panel is made for a rover mini so the rear window is actually wider so only can use up to the window , but this is fine for me as only the boot area was damaged.



happy with the fit now to weld it all

did some more work today .

i bought a new battery box , but as i use a small dry cell i figured why not cut it down to size? so thats exactly what i did . Really happy with the results and looks perfect in boot

Very nice... Any more updates!?

sim_ou_nao wrote:Very nice... Any more updates!?

Havent done much , cut and patched all the rust in the boot and also welded in the rear section of the boot floor . Was a fair bit of welding as both sides of the wheel well had bodgy rust repairs that had been done by one of the previous owners.

Was also a lot of work to get the rear section to line up but im happy with the fit .

Only just got some new gas today so apart from stripping the wiring an dash out haven't made a huge deal of progress . Any way back on track as i go back to work on Monday so trying t get as much done as possible . Rear section cut and tacked on, will hire a spot welder next week some time i hope .

Finished the door sill repair where the door strap had pull through. cut it out and made new pieces and welded all back in . came out great really happy with it.





Started removing the drivers a-panel as it was very badly rusted from the window leaking , One of the hardest jobs i have done so far . Took about 3-4hours to get both inner and outed panels out the hardest bit being the top radius part of the inner . Still have to repair the body under it then can put the new panels in.

Finally bought some more panels so i can continue on the rust repairs but my welder is having some issues after welding some thick plates. So it is off to be repaired . Hopfully can get back into it in a few weeks.

The welder is already fixed?

sim_ou_nao wrote:The welder is already fixed?

yeah welder was back 2 weeks ago but have been really slack and have nothing to update on , deffinatly got to get back into it miss driving it

well a small update new radiator from MED engineering in the UK , was only $350AUS to my door . The welding and finish is extremely good much better than the cheap chinese ebay ones.

off to sand blasters just fits nicely

Got the mini back from the sand blasters yesterday afternoon , and im very happy with the results. It did show up a few more spots of rust which is bad but also good in a way because i know ill have everything fixed . Now its all clean i can finally really get stuck into it.

fixed the floor where the back seat meets the boot floor , which the blasting had shown up.

After blasting i was unhappy with my fitment of the battery box so out it came. Made a new top and bent it to match the floor then re-cut the battery box to match the floors shpe better . Now is all sqaure

Front drivers floor also turned out worse after blasting , so i dicided to re-do .Since Minisport now have aussie floors made life mutch easier.

waiting on a freind to do a little mig welding so had a bit of a play around with the rear beaver panel. I think it looks really good so will be staying.

got under the innner a-panel area all finished with new metal , and also finished of the sill and where is all joins in . Wasnt very happy with the fitment of the inner a-panel so i have removed the lumps off it.

ben your GT2554R turbo i know that you have changed out the turbine for a .49 one from a CA18DET t25 ? but what is needed to do so? can i order the parts new as id like to have a whole new turbo rather than a second hand one as i think it would be less head ackes if you know what i mean

i plan to build something like your 1152cc with 160 ish bananas

turbo this.. wrote:ben your GT2554R turbo i know that you have changed out the turbine for a .49 one from a CA18DET t25 ? but what is needed to do so? can i order the parts new as id like to have a whole new turbo rather than a second hand one as i think it would be less head ackes if you know what i mean

i plan to build something like your 1152cc with 160 ish bananas

Hey, The housing needs the 4 bolt holes plugged ( the bolts that hold the clamp for the centre). The same side needs to be machined to fit the ball bearing centre and then new 6 bolt holes drilled and tapped.

Im not sure if you can buy the turbine housings new, But you could also use the GTR skyline rear housing although different dump pipe flange. (same machining is needed).

I think there is a small housing gt25 but is a triangle turbine inlet >> edit here it is>

http://gcg.com.au/index.php?page=shop.product_details&flypage=flypage.tpl&product_id=146&category_id=28&option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=53

no updates , but garage at my house is on its way so i can get stuck into again in 2013.

heres a photo of the two mini's in my dads garage