Mini A series torque settings

I thought this would help people out who own A series engines.
It was made up for theminiforum.co.uk by D Souch which was hugely helpful of him.
These engines are getting old now.  The last Mini came off the production line about 10 years ago now.

I found an old picture of my Mini with my bike. This was my old garage. Massive eh?  With a pit too. I spent many an hour in that pit.  Oil dripping in my eyes, dust in my hair. Ah sweet memories.  :D

My bike has already had the titanium bolt treatment in the 90's.  It's only a 250 two stroke but it can easily keep up with much bigger bikes

Titanium Mini bolts

Hello again. I placed an order yesterday. See below.

Bit of a tricky one this time round. I was kind of cornered into buying 100 at a time of the longer bolts, so I had to cut back my order by quite a bit, but I'll get the rest of the big bolts done early next year. I think it's to do with the high price of titanium at the moment.

I wasn't able to have 50bolts for the pre 1976front subframes made but I'll get it sorted. Metal prices bounce up and down from month to month.

100 x 5/16"unf24 x 5/8"long

100 ordered and this is a general bolt I've found dotted around the Mini. I've seen it used on the alternator bracket.

100 x 5/16"unf24 x 4 1/4"long

Although this type bolt didn't have that much rust on it when I took it off the Mini, I estimate there'll be 35gramme saving for 2 bolts.

100 x 5/16"UNC18 x 1" long

This is a repeat order of a very common bolt used on the Mini gearbox. I've also order

60 x 5/16"UNC18 x 3/4" long used on engine mount.

20 x 5/16"UNC18 x 7/8" long The shorter bolt on the clutch cover. I'll offer one of these and 7 others as a clutch bolt set.

100 x 5/16"UNC18 x 1 3/4"long Used on the Mini gearbox.

100 x 5/16"unf24 x 11/16"long This bolt is used on the timing cover of the A series engine and all the ones I saw were rusty so why not replace them if you're sprucing up your engine.

Nyloc nuts saga

Well the 3/8" and 7/16" titanium nyloc nuts arrived but they were in UNC thread instead of UNF. So back they went. Third time lucky I hope. They should be replaced and in with the above order, so about a month.

The 1/4" ti nyloc nuts worked fine though. I fitted them to my Mini and they were lovely. They were a particularly good idea to use on the seat hoops that are fixed to the Mini floor. They'll be exposed to the very worst of British weather.

The Phillips head titanium 1/4" countersunk door screws worked fine. I noticed they also fit the door lock receiver plate, so the Mini uses 14 in total.

There are a number of bolts used on the Mini but one day I'll have all of them replicated in titanium. I'll sell them in packs for different parts of the Mini and the hope is to keep the prices as low as possible by selling in volume.

It would be very nice to keep our Mini's until we're old and to look on them and see all the bolts still gleam as much as the day they were fitted, decades earlier.

Arrived! Nyloc nuts, Metric M8 and M6 nuts and Mini door screws

I haven't tested them on my Mini as yet but they arrived this evening and look lovely.

Here is one of 200 Mini countersunk door screws in titanium.

Standard steel weight = 4.8grammes

titanium weight = 2.6grammes

This large cross drilled washer fits at the back of the rear subframe. Looks good fitted with yellow poly bushes.

It weighs in at 6.8grammes

100 in stock

Central hole is 11.43mm or 7/16" and it's 2.5mm thick.

This is lovely and can be seen from the curbside.

I have nyloc nuts that can go with this.

This is a titanium 1/2" spring washer weighing in at 1.8grammes.

A stainless steel version weighs in at 3.3grammes.

I also have M6 nuts and M8 nuts which as you'll know are metric thread so not appropriate for the Mini but would be fine on modern classic cars and bikes.

7/16" nyloc nuts x 100

3/8" nyloc nuts x 100

1/4" nyloc nuts x 100

After testing I'll put the items for sale as soon as possible.

Nyloc nuts, Metric M8 and M6 nuts and Mini door screws

I should recieve the Nyloc nuts soon. They've been redesigned so the nylon doesn't get pushed out. They should be perfect for under the wheel arches and corrosion exposed areas of classic cars.

There are some M8 and M6 titanium nuts coming too so those will be good for people with European or Japanese cars and bikes.

There will be 200 titanium 5/16" unf countersunk screws for the Classic Mini door hinges. The steel ones are a nightmare because they rust solid from water getting at them down past the window. The titanium pozidrive head should take more abuse than steel versions which always seem to round off the cross slot.

Also I mailed about 18 diagrams for pricing on different products to be made. They were

5/16 x 3/4"long hex head bolt.

Long radiator bolt. Those 2 long bolts that bolt rad bracket to gearbox. (Steel weigh 46grammes each.)

5/16"unf x 3/4"long flanged head bolts that fit to rad side of A series engine.

5/16"unc x 1 3/8" bolt

Oil filter bracket bolts. These are big bolts so I thought there can be a lot of weight reduced with a titanium version.

Pre 1976 front subframe bolt. A nice chap from Stourbridge sent me one of his to measure and model so I'll get a run of these made.

5/16"unf x 3/4" flanged bolt and hex head bolt. These are common on the Mini

5/16"unc x 1" flanged bolt. I can't believe I sold all 100 of this bolt within about 2 weeks.

Pointy radiator bolt. Bolts from the radiator bracket to the bottom of the radiator.

1/4" x 3/4"unf hex head bolt.

clutch throw out bolt and the locknut.

1/4" brake bleed screw

I think titanium bleed screws is an excellent idea because I've snapped these before. I've also released steel ones to bleed my Mini and they've been blocked up so hopefully some of these will make for easier maintenance.

Thats all for now.

Any ideas of what fasteners you think would be good to manufacture. Give me a shout and I'll see what I can do.

Future titanium

http://www.ctemag.com/aa_pages/2010/100911_CuttingTitanium.html

Here's a linky for anyone interested in Titanium development for the 21st century.

Titanium Ti5Al5V5Mo3Cr (also known as 5553), is 20-35% stronger than titanium 6Al/4V which is the grade of titanium Titan Classics uses.

Blimey! You can haul a planet with that stuff!

Placing another order soon.

Hi,

I'm placing another order in the coming week. So now is the time to nudge me and tell me if you're after something in titanium, that I can mass produce.

I have to replace an order for 5/16"UNC by 1" long bolts as the first lot sold out.

I'd like to diversify a little bit from the UNC and UNF threaded fasteners and cover metric threaded fasteners too. Below is a fairing bolt I modelled from the original which is starting to bubble under the chrome. Standard weight is 11.8grammes so a titanium version will be about 7grammes. I believe this also fits the Suzuki Hayabusa as well as the RGV250SP but it'll probably fit a lot of Suzuki.

I've also been modelling a part for pressing. This is a Mini alternator bracket. I'm hoping to sell it in a set along with the alternator adjuster I already stock and the bolts that go with it.

Other stuff I've been working on is stress analysis in Solid Works. It's pretty amazing! Model the part, specify the type of metal and add loads or forces to places on the part. Then you can see where the stress is. There is a feature where you let Solid Works have a go at making a much stronger part by adding a bit more metal and it'll make several different versions and you can pick the ideal one.

I'm thinking of getting some 5/16" by 3/4"UNF24 hex head bolts made as they're used on things like the Mini engine mounts.

Also 5/16" by 4 1/8"UNF24 hex bolts for the engine bracket pictured below. Standard weight is 42gramme so a Ti version will be about 25grammes.

That's all for now and hopefully the redesigned nyloc nuts, cross drilled washers, countersunk Mini door bolts are ready in the coming week.

Oh yeah! I can get titanium parts titanium nitride (TiN) coated. It's not the cheapest process in the world but it could be good for stressed parts like wheel nuts. TiN is a super hard coating. You may have seen it on the ends of drill bits. Its bright gold. Looks very Bling! :)

New stainless supplier and my work for Jaguar!

This morning has been great. I've found a new supplier for my stainless hose clamps, which means I can pass on MASSIVE savings to my customers. I have to buy in colossal amounts but that's what a shop does. I now sell a set of 9 Hi Grip hoses (The best you can get) for the Mini for only £15. I obviously bought the first batch way too expensive, but lesson learnt.

I can also talk about the work I did for Jaguar cars now the Jaguar concept car has been shown at the Paris Motor Show 2010. I did the artwork on the gimbal dials for the car, my good friend and colleague did the nostalgia mode for the dials. That's the artwork and animation on the screen below. It was a project that really pushed my skills and I learnt a great deal. I was closely mentored by the team and in particular my boss who had the vision and idea for the gimbal concept. A great deal of research went into the animation before reaching the finished piece.

I actually think the rotating gimbals would work quite well in a production car. Jaguar Land Rover is such an incredible company to work for. So professional and forward thinking. People seem very upbeat and happy there. I've not seen that in many places. :)

Here's a link to an article on this incredible car

http://www.evo.co.uk/news/evonews/257647/968bhp_205mph_jaguar_cx75_supercar.html

Shop update.

I should have those snazzy titanium cross drilled washers, titanium countersunk Mini door bolts, titanium spring washers for sale next week. The titanium nyloc nuts should be corrected and ready for sale in about two weeks.

As always, I fit the parts to my Mini first which means I test the products I sell.

Titanium flat shapes.

This week I replicated 2 parts for the Mini engine bay that could do with a lighter corrosion proof version. They are the bulkhead plate with one hole for heater hose and the alternator adjusting bracket.

I took the original parts off my Mini and couldn’t believe how corroded the blanking plate was. I suppose it has been slowly rusting away since 1986 and the bulkhead is a water trap.

Scanned the parts in to the PC and put into Solid Works. Modelled around the picture of the original parts, paying close attention to the measurements.

Took the Solid Works file and the titanium to an engineer shop in Redditch. It was amazing! Machines the size of houses. The chap put the files into his PC and we walked across the factory to the water cutter.

I wish I could’ve taken a photo of this machine. It’s massive! Like a shallow bath with a big moving girder holding the hoses. Lay the metal on the machine, the chap pressed some buttons and the machine was away. Firing water and abrasive at 60,000psi. The parts were cut and vibrated to deburr any rough edges. They are also accurate.

Here's the finished result

Rusty steel bulkhead plate = 60grammes

Titanium bulkhead plate = 35.9grammes

weight saving of = 24.1grammes

Rusty steel alternator adjusting bracket = 50grammes

Titanium alternator adjusting bracket = 36.5grammes

Weight saving of = 13.5 grammes

Not a massive weight saving with this part but if you notice it's 4mm titanium, 1mm thicker than the steel item, so you'll get the extra strength as well as a weight saving and corrosion proof.

Grade 1 and 2 titanium doesn't polish up as well as stainless steel but you'll never get those little rust spots you'll get on stainless. Yes, stainless steel rusts. It just takes longer.

I'll put these titanium items on sale within a week. I think I have 18 alternator adjusters and about 9 bulkhead blanking plates. They're unpolished but respond quite well to polishing. You'll never get them as shiny as stainless though.

Titanium unf nyloc nuts,Spring washers and Metric nuts

I had a delivery last week of titanium ¼”unf nyloc nuts

3/8"unf nyloc nuts

7/16"unf nyloc nuts

1/2"unf plain nuts.

They look absolutely beautiful.

Unfortunately I had to send the titanium nyloc nuts back as there was a fault, which is a shame. The plastic in the nut kept getting pushed out when I tried them out on my Mini. I'm hoping they can sort it as they were lovely. I'm sure they will.

The half inch nuts were really good. I found out they also fitted the rear radius arms as well as the front subframe in the engine bay.

The side hidden under the car that is a bit of a pain to get to unfortunately. You have to use extensions on your ratchet to get at the nut too. They may fit the side visible from the curb but I've got KAD camber brackets with their own special nut so I didn't try them there.

I placed an order about a week ago for some titanium Metric thread nuts. M8 and M6 plain nuts.

The way I see it there are already metric nuts out there but they're just so expensive. So I'll sell some at a good price and maybe expand the metric range.

I bought some 1/2" and 5/16" titanium spring washers which will compliment the plain nuts I already sell.

Oh yeah! I bought 200 countersunk 1/4" screws that fit on the Mini doors. The standard screws are a total nightmare, as the end of the bolt rusts solid. Then when you use a Philips head screwdriver on them you end up rounding out the cross. I had to drill out some of them. The tougher titanium screws will stand up to much more abuse.

Oh yeah again! I've got some cross drilled washers coming for the back of the rear subframe.

That's it for now. Hopefully I'll do more frequent updates. Cheers, Rich.

I think the Nyloc nuts will be about a week away now and I'll be adding a load to my Mini for starters. You may have noticed little tweaks to the shopping cart quantities and I've thought of adding a section for Metric fasteners as European and Japanese classics are Metric. Well, a lot of it is to do with my rare motorbike being metric, so I want a load of fasteners to finish off all the titanium stuff I've fitted to that.

I'm in touch with a pressing factory in Wolverhampton and hopefully I can manufactured pressed parts for the Mini.Things like washers and some of the stranger shaped locktab type washers you get on the Mini engine. I'll have to have a chat with the titanium stockist to see which grade is best for this job because grade 5 ti is quite brittle. Well, it was when I tried bending it in a vice with no heat.

What do people think of titanium brake bleed bolts? I had one shear off once and It was a nightmare to fix. I could have a small run of them made.

Shopping cart in and working!

At last, I've battled with the quirks of shopping cart software and finally got it working so it doesn't charge postage at £150 or more. Yes that did happen.
I've also paid for a new load of nuts. They are:
1/4" unf nyloc nuts
3/8"unf nyloc nuts
7/16"unf nyloc nuts
1/2"unf plain nuts.

I chose these sized because it pretty much covers all the nuts you'd normally have to undo on a Mini. I think the 3/8 ones will make the best use of Titaniums corrosion proof qualities because they're used under the wheel arches where all the road salt sits on everything.
The 7/16" nuts fasten the rear subframe and two are seen from the roadside so if your Mini looks lovely appart from the rusty fasteners this should make it look better.
Thats all for now. I think they'll be for sale in about a month.

Proper shopping cart.

I'm a bit cheesed off with Paypal because it doesn't really allow postage outside the country and I get the feeling people don't trust it outside of Ebay, so I had a look around for proper shopping cart software.

As you can probably tell I've designed and laid the Titan Classics site out myself with help from my wife who's better than me at Java.

I've decided on 'Roman Cart' for the shopping cart software. It was in the 'Creating websites for dummies' book but it was also quite easy to get my head around, been around for a few years and had good security. So people from outside Britain won't have to mail me for postage costs from now on.

I'm hoping to get the cart in soon but work at Jag has got me run off my feet at the minute.

Oh yeah! I asked for a price on a number of new items too.
After a rummage amongst my skanky old nuts and bolts I asked for a price on

Ti 1/4" nyloc nuts

Ti 3/8"unf nyloc nuts. Have you seen the state of the standard steel ones under the car? I remember I had to unscrew one once and it was so corroded it finally came off the bolt hot!

Ti 7/16" unf nyloc nuts. For the rear subframe supports and I think they're used a few times on the front.

Ti 1/2" unf plain nuts. These will just be a bit of a bling really for the engine bay, although they're constantly in the harsh conditions and are stronger than stainless.

Ti 1/4" unf x 3/4inch Phillips Countersunk Screws For the hinges on the Mini doors. They were SO difficult to remove I thought I should sell a load of these. The ends get rusty and stick solid, and as they're Phillips head the cross would get damaged. I had to drill one of them out which I guess isn't bad on a 1986 Mini. Titanium Phillips slot should last longer too as its much stronger than mild steel.

Titanium rear brake adjuster has arrived!

They've arrived!

I popped to the engineers this afternoon and picked up the finished 60 rear drum brake adjusters enough for 30 cars. They're very shiny and I can't wait to put the first 2 on my Mini.

About 2 years back I tried making some of these myself on the lathe but it proved too much hard work. I think this shape can only realistically be made on a CNC machine. There are just too many tool changes to make it worthwhile if they were made by hand.

I wouldn't be suprised if this part fits the Austin Healey and I'm sure I've seen this part on two types of Metro I've had.

Weight wise there's a 19gramme weight saving over the standard steel part but it's the corrosion resistance that makes this part so good. Rust, salt and acid won't ever affect it.
http://titanclassics.com/Ti%20rear%20brake%20adjuster.html

This is the story with the Ti rear brake adjusters.

I took measurements from a high quality brand new brake adjuster and modelled it in Solidworks.

Handed the drawing to the engineers and about a month later the parts were delivered to my door but as you can see in the picture there are no flatspots machined on the titanium part.

The skanky rusty one in the picture is off my Mini but I noticed its not the same design as the new part I bought. Maybe its a pattern part as it doesn't seem as good as the one I bought from Minispares.

The unfinished titanium adjusters went back to the engineers about 3 weeks back, so hopefully they'll be finished and ready for sale in a week or two.

Weight wise the original rusty part weighed 41grammes and the Ti part weighed 25grammes from memory. Not a massive weight saving I grant you but as it's unsprung weight it should help in a minuscule way with the suspension. :)

That and not seize solid to the point where you have to remove the whole radius arm, buy a MAFF blow torch and heat it red hot and put ice on to break the rust.

I wish I still had the photo to show you of the spanner I snapped trying to remove the brake adjuster.

Anyway, the titanium parts look gorgeous and the first 2 are going on my Mini.

First post!

Testing, testing!

Hi, this is the first post for the Titan Classics shop.
The purpose of the shop is to sell longerlasting, corrosion free and lighter car parts for classics cars and bikes.

It all started from seeing my classic Mini and rare Suzuki VJ23 motorbike being corroded by the elements. I'd fit brand new steel parts only to see them rust within months.

On this blog I'll show my thoughts and developments of the parts I'll have produced. How I replicate the part in the computer. The materials used for the product and hopefully get peoples opinions if a product will sell so I don't take an expensive risk on something and not sell the item.

I've recently realised that a lot of the UNC and UNF fasteners I'm producing specifically for the Mini also fit other classics cars in America as well as Blighty. e.g. A Mini clutch pushrod fits an Austin Healey if it's been upgraded with a Jaguar clutch. I'd like to know a lot more about these quirky bits of info so maybe with this blog people can chip in with thier classic car knowledge.

I may be able to discuss some of the Classic cars at Jaguar where I work. I'll have to check that out with my boss' though.

Cheers for now,

Rich