Mods when fitting turbo to a LHD Mini

Since all commercially available bulkhead boxes are meant to be fitted in RHD Minis, there are some difficulties with LHD Minis. The RHD box needs to be narrowed to about 250-255 mm because of the brake master cylinder location. It is useful to have brakes left ! I bought a bulkhead box from UK but it is simple to fabricate should one choose to do it. The problems with fitting consentrate around the brake master cylinder location.

The box I bought included also a couple of bits. The crossmember needs to be cut back and welded shut close to the brake master cylinder. Another problem with LHD cars is the accelerator cable and pedal which want to occupy the same space as compressor housing of the turbo. Here some careful fabrication is required.

Actually the only things that are close to the original bulkhead are the compressor housing of the turbo and actuator and its bracket. With clever fabrication one can get away totally without the bulkhead box. This makes things a lot easier.

Here are some pics of my own car. Click for larger images. Note that my car is fitted with an intercooler so things may look a bit crowded under the bonnet.

Turbo actuator close to crossmember Modified bulkhead box fitted Modified bulkhead box fitted Compressor housing close to bulkhead box Crossmember corner cut and modified for extra clearance Turbo and manifold fitted to the engine

I am currently fitting the late model Mini master cylinder and integral servo. The LHD version naturally does not fit since there is a cross bar from LH pedal box to RH pedal box. This means that I had to cut and weld a tubular section to the bulkhead box to get some room.

The problem with brake pedal and cross bar:

Cross bar in the bulkhead box Cross bar in the bulkhead box Cross bar in the bulkhead box

The solution:

Bulkhead box fitted a piece of tube to clear cross bar Bulkhead box fitted a piece of tube to clear cross bar

The following pics show the late model pedal setup with close up photos. On the driver´s (LH) side the original pedal box is replaced with a new one. The clutch pedal is retained on the LH side. The brake pedal is integral with the cross bar and is fitted to the pedal box with a large tubular bush. Similar bush is on the other end and fits in tho the RH side bracket. Both the pedal box and RH bracket fits into the front crossmember and all bolt holes etc are on the older bodyshell. So it is a simple bolt-on mod.

Pics showing the LH side pedal box:

LH side pedal box LH side pedal box LH side pedal box LH side pedal box

Pics showing the RH side bracket:

RH side bracket RH side bracket RH side bracket RH side bracket

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Updated August 6 2001.

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