Just thought id keep those of you that are interested in such things up to date with the engine im plodding along building at the moment for my mini.

Massive thanks to Stu@MSD for revealing a bit of a trade secret to me and giving me the part number for the under piston oil cooler jets ive used, i well and truely owe you a pint mate



Ive now installed under piston oil cooling into my LET block, thought this might interest some of you

First step i centre punched the bearing tunnel for each of the cylinders:




Then drilled a hole (just like regal and wallace do) for the jets to sit in, they are an interference fit and the size of the hole is critical so i got a friend who is an engineer to create me a drill bit exactly the correct size.




Then rather than go down the route of drilling the bearings like the companies doing this normally do (they choose that route just cause its easier i guess) we decided that we would provide the oil from behind the shell rather than draining it back off the crank journal, as this way if i ever need to replace the bearing shells i dont have to start drilling them i can just install new standard ones like you would on a cossie motor or anything else with "proper" oil cooling.

Couple of pictures of my mate slotting them oil way in with a die grinder, i must admit i bottled it at this point and let him do it, as he spends most of his spare time grinding cylinder heads etc and is far more competant with a grinder than i am!
Id normally have had a go myself anyway but i didnt in this instance simply cause the block is completely finished now and the thought of scrapping it at this stage when slipping with a die grinder filled me with a fear that could only be described using your nose lmao.

Obviously anyone else who is going to copy me on these jets i would advise that this is the first thing you do before spending money on line boring etc!





Then i filed all the edges to make sure there were no sharp bits that could be potential stress raisers




The finished article:



How it looks from the top of the block:


and again (sorry, bit dark this one for some reason!)



And then just a random shot of the block looking kind of pretty lmao

 

You should have just used a YB..............

Just kidding, nice work, good to see someone trying new stuff....

 

Nice Job Chip

Can you imagine fucking it up with the grinder. It would be like the bird trying to drill a hole on the Nuts add

 

You're rigth i should have used a YB!

but when i started the project i was looking for 200bhp, not 500bhp like i am now, so the LET seemed a good choice at the time

Made my bed so now im lieing in it!

 

what are you putting that engine into mate ?

What did you get it from a calibra or a cavalier ?

 

The engine is from an Astra

It will be going into my mini, hopefully producing around 500bhp or so.

 

Nice work anyway, Chip. You're a brave man, I wouldn't have dared take on doing that to the block, knowing that one wrong move would have cocked it up!!

 

TBH i was kind of hoping we would scrap it and i would have to throw it away, after all would YOU want to drive a fwd mini with 500bhp and 600kgs?

Thats 400bhp@wheels, or 600bhp+ per tonne.

Its actaully a better power to weight ratio than Rods sierra

 

nice

 

Same as mine on Nitrous (615bhp/ton)

 

Fair play to you Rod, that really does put things into perspective with regards how much power you have, even super cars rarely breach 500 per tonne!

 

PS

Although my figure was quoted at the wheels by the way.

I suspect you have more like 500 per tonne @ wheels?



Im looking at over 800 per tonne based on flywheel.

although that will drop considerable with my lardy arse in it

 

nice work chip, love it when people share these little tips n tircks, will be well handy if my mate decides to build himself another let nova should be awesome when complete

 

lookin good chips mate all the best with the engine and the car, will be mad ! your have to take me for a spin if you ever take it to pf meet whne its done

 

I know nothing about vauxhalls but has that kind of power been done before from a LET? Fair play to you m8 u must like a challenge good luck with it all

 

Im not aware of any road going LET with anything like this power yet, although some of the norwegian lads have managed it on there track motors over there.

Very hard to find much info out about them though, its FAR harder than trying to bolt together my YB to make 600bhp in reality as that is relatively common compared to 500bhp from a LET, just to put it in perspective.

End of the day though, all engines are just air pumps and work much the same way, i just have to make up for a few short comings that the LET has (like no piston cooling to begin with) and i should get there in the end

 

amzing work mate looks awsome and you know what your doing

but what have you done to the block its self i.e the shiny bits have you ground tehe casting marks out or something or is it stress relieveing the block

does it make mch difference?

top work though

 

Well spotted mate, yes ive compeltely stress relieved the block, ive removed all the casting marks and every sharp edge has been "broken" into a radiused edge instead.

I cant comment on how much difference it makes as its not like cossie engines where everyone has tried everything a million times before.

It might not even be needed, but im working on the basis of i am going to address every single possible point of failure as i dont know which ones are issues or not as i have no one to draw on the experience of sadly.

 

Damned fine work.. very impressive pal

 

 

looking good as always chip

 

You were a bit quiet about this one Chip

Looking good none the less, got some guts to be fucking about with the shell seats like that

Getting my block back on tuesday, will show you then

 

Superb mate...