I have seen the 660c donk....and whilst I appreciate elegant engineering.....there is no substitute for cubes

Start thinking about a big Suzi, Dai or Toyo mate and save your self the embarrassement of finding that your relatively heavy Mini (compared to where the 660 engines are used)....is whirring like a sewing machine and making similar progress!!

(geeeez..that sounds a bit harsh )

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"Show me the Mini!"

I drive a Suzuki as a daily car. It is 1 litre, TOHC, Port Injected, 4 Valve and is in a body that weighs about 850kg. I reckon that in a mini with a lot less weight it would be on the plus side of adequate if you were not looking for startling performance. It revs to 8,500 any time you want and would at least equal a standard S motor's performance I would think with a lot less noise and 5 gears. It would be a really nice civilised car, but would not be quick enough for most people who do conversions. It would depend on what your motives were when looking at the conversion and yours are clearly not performance orientated as you made quite clear in your post. I will agree with the post above in that these small Jap motors do lack torque, but they are smooth and rev like a chain saw.

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Chris

Everything I like is either
illegal, immoral or fattening.

Interesting article in AutoSpeed Magazine:

One of the latest breed of high-performance micro engines is the Suzuki K10A Turbo.
Click for larger image

The K10A is a 1-litre four-cylinder that?s fitted with a DOHC, 4-valve-per-cylinder head. The K10A also boasts variable inlet cam timing and an 8.4:1 static compression ratio to maintain driveability when the little turbo is caught off boost. Maximum output is 74kW at 6500 rpm and there?s 122Nm at 3000 rpm ? more than all right for a 1 litre engine! The K10A Turbo can be found in the 1997 Japanese Suzuki Wagon R and is available with a choice of a manual or automatic transmissions.

Bob says the K10A is becoming plentiful in Japan and, at present, you?ll pay AUD$2650 for an engine package with loom, sensors and ECU. Interestingly, Bob says this engine is popular with hobbyist aircraft and hovercraft builders due to its light weight, torque and top-end power potential. He also points out that it?d be a trick conversion into a local Suzuki Wagon R or an old Mini. Again, there are no known problems associated with this engine.

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Too many cars, and too little time.

Im a big fan of the Kei class cars my mates got a dahatsu move which is a bit different, anyways the suzuki alto is the one to go for ive seen these motors pushed over 100kw ,the biggest restriction is the turbo. Im actually running a supercharger from a kei class subaru on my mini the thing is the size of an air con pump, so theres plenty of uses for these little jap cars and engines

Bugger the Mini, I'll stick one in my Wagon R. What a sleeper, massive understeer and all!

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Chris

Everything I like is either
illegal, immoral or fattening.

hmmmm sounds like a bloody good conversion idea if i can get 100 Kw from it easily and at 1 litre it should still get much better economy than any 1275

My standard Wagon R gets about 5km/100. If I pussy foot around it gets into the mid fours/100.

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Chris

Everything I like is either
illegal, immoral or fattening.

These little motors are suprisingly strong and the standard internals would support twice the factory output.
Just have to weigh up the associated cost to get over 100kw @ the motor, first being a bigger turbo and engine management.
Might workout the same or cheaper going the starlet turbo route with additional torque as a bonus.

i like this idea, high tech, forced induction, tiny size