749 replies to this topic

[smudger068]

I am surprised you have a secondary filter as i believe there is one already attached to your fuel pump 

[lawrence]

The one attached to my fuel pump is a micro filter and as there's not one in the tank it seemed like a good idea to place a disposable one prior to it. There's no internal filter in the tank as I removed it due to having holes and being useless.

Time for an update then :)
Well the fuel tank leaks! ahhhh

It's leaking from some hammer maks that I made but also from he seams it's just had it I think
Drained and repaired with some petropatch stuff


Planning on getting her a new tank sometime in the future. Just need to sort out what type. I remember seeing a nice one that fitted in the wheel well so will try and find that.

Exhaust baffle made to try and remove some of the drone



I don't want to change the exhaust system just because of the drone as I am hoping when the new 1275 is fitted the note may change with the increse in capacity. Either way it's alot nicer to drive at speed now :)

Lastly my new radiator arrived

It's an ebay special alloy one so will hopefull aid cooling, it's apparantly a 2 core rad
My issue is that stupid wing nut drain that looks destined to fail, looking to find a bolt that fits in it, also it is where the rad is mounted so may need to redesign the mount :) I will also have to reconsider where my temperature sender will be, I may get a thread tapped in the engine block for the sender when it goes off for machining

Feel free to comment :)
Lawrence

[Ben_O]

I would get the tank replaced of welded properly straight away.

 

You can't muck about when it comes to that. i know i wouldn't want to drive round with an iffy tank.

 

Ben

[Artstu]

As you've found petrol finds gaps water doesn't, something to do with the surface tension of water I believe.

[lawrence]

Yh I want to try and find a boot floor mounted tank, one with a fuel gauge would be helpful too but I'm not sure how it would work with the mini fuel gauge in the dash however

Currently the fuel leak has stopped tho so im not massively worried, having used petrol patch before it works fairly well for a month or two

Lawrence

[lawrence]

So then, time for a small update.
Petrol tank seems to be holding fine which is nice :)
On Friday me and a friend had a few hours so whipped the old rad off


As you can see it really doesn't look great! Rusty and flaky with decreased cooling capacity defiantly!

New rad fitted


Well on fitting the new rad it came to my attention that I have now lost where the temperature sender went!
So I stuffed the wire through the overflow of the tank and it's now sitting inside the radiator itself working happily!

Temperature now a solid 90degrees at 50mph and 95 at 60! I did briefly take her up to 70 and it didn't move from 95
I have however noticed that the car warms up quicker in traffic but that the aux fan now doesn't have to be turned on at all at speed!

Next on the list is wait for my student loan to come in then send the engine off.
I am also going to keep an eye out for some low mileage driveshafts as I can hear clicking at speed along with a gentle hum. Hum may be down to wheel bearings so I'll check them again in the next few days when I grease her up again

Lawrence

[lawrence]

Time for another update

Made a temperature sensor that I can screw into the block

Where it goes

It's a bit wonky and untidy but does the job

Night time random photo

Some temptation while driving


Put locking catches back on the front as someone attempted to take my bonnet off the other day when parked which I wasn't happy about


Decided to change my 998 cams for my 1275 ones

Before

After


And she's all back together


It's a definite worth while modification, has given her some low down torque and drivability down to 1500 revs so that should make her more economical in city traffic.

I've got no further with my soundproofing. I've got some loud transmission noise from the driveshafts and the clearance around my exhaust y piece is too close to the subframe and I believe its touching slightly causing during driving vibration

Next update will be when I get some more money's!
Feel free to comment
Lawrence

[lawrence]

So then people time for an update,

I got my student loan in and like all students I spent it on my studying and bought a bike.

And did my cbt paid for insurance etc so it kinda wiped me out.

But on the plus side it does silly mpg and is only a 125 so I'm not gunna get wiped out speeding which is handy!

Back to the mini then :) she's being a good girl mostly apart from the cooling issue still isn't perfect. She is still getting slightly warm when I have to accelerate in traffic, under no load it's fine but accelerating up the few hills causes the temp to rise again. I shall investigate this issue further

So what have I done? Well the engine parts are back from the machinist :)

Flywheel has gone on a diet and lost about 5kg.
Head has had a skim and lost 2mm so compression should be higher :)


Bought some sound absorption foam


And fitted


Tidy’s up the bulkhead nicely

And also fitting a new gear knob.


That's all I've done really, few bits and bobs here and there but overall she is running nicely. Hopefully using the bike to go to uni on nice days will cut my fuel bill down from £40 a week to about 10!

This afternoon I shall be in the garage making a list of bits I need to do prior to the engine change and maybe wire in the gear shifter light!

Feel free to comment
Lawrence

[l_jonez]

Back to the mini then :) she's being a good girl mostly apart from the cooling issue still isn't perfect. She is still getting slightly warm when I have to accelerate in traffic, under no load it's fine but accelerating up the few hills causes the temp to rise again.
Feel free to comment
Lawrence

Have you got an AFR gauge yet?

Sounds like it could be the mixture leaning out under load

[lawrence]

Not yet. Was going to get the new engine in and running nicely and fit a weld in bung on the exhaust sometime in the future.
I think it could be down to the small engine size and needing to drop a gear to keep the power up tho

I also am asking alot of the rad to keep the car cool. On the a series there is the engine powered fan on constantly to keep the engine cool and there's not on this application.

[lawrence]

So then people. Long time no update
Had a breakdown on the 6th June. Waterpump belt went unfortunately mid journey so had to drive about a mile to the girlfriends with no waterpump going.
On examination in the morning I found that the waterpump bearing had gone with 2mm play side to side. Most likely causing the premature belt failure
Changing the waterpump

Cleaned up ready to fit new one. Access through the inner wing isn't too bad. I'm glad I cut them back however or it would have been an engine out job


New coolant in the engine and she's running fairly well. However there is a grumble at low revs. Probably the engine has had it but I'll keep it going for the time being. Also main good thing of the breakdown is that I found a bolt rubbing on the subframe, removed it and there is no more engine drone!!!

Anyhow back to mini. Put some sound deadening down on the rear floor sections

Also redone how the seats both mount to make them tidier. Passenger side is mounted lower and further back so they don't get in my vision

So back to the engine mentioned in the last post
After checking the valves with petrol they all had leaks to some extent and the combustion chamber only remained full for about 10seconds before draining

So lapping the valves in

Nice Matt finish

Pitting evident on the exhaust valve seats



So they are all lapped in. New stem seals gently tapped to places and valves oiled
Had to adapt my spring compressor tool after having a shock finding the price of the proper tool


All done. Took over two hours to fit the valves due to the complicated tool I made!

New plugs fitted

Bosch super 4s as a little treat and as the late Richard Attenborough said i “spared no expense”
And tested with petrol


All good now. Not perfect sealing but dam near!
Plan it to build the engine up in the next few days, I'm also buying lots of the spares I would like to change when the engine comes out

Since passing the cbt and getting the 125 I haven't been using mini all that much as the weather has been nice. Also been contemplating painting the body bright blue as a change from the White. Main reason being I've used all my white paint up so have to get a new tin and that the rustoloum seems to have faded which was evident on the wings

That's all for now folks.
Feel free to comment or make suggestions
Lawrence

[lawrence]

Hey then people. Time for another long needed update for the blog
Last thing was lapping in the valves which are all done and dusted :)
Also finished the sound deadening

Carpeted over the crossmember as my mounts are now tidier
Needed to tidy my gearbox mount as it was cutting into the carpet

Tidied up

Covered in sound deadening to try and cut down on engine gasses creeping in so mucH

Carpet cleaned up and refitted

Interior all back in

Waiting on my new (to me) wingmirrors to arrive. Planning to paint black

New wiper blade bought

Only want the nice soft new rubber to rebuild my diy blades

And then back to the engine
New headgasket (£15 bargain)

Head placed on


That was all done by the 5thjuly. New engine was ready for fitting cams and lower timing chain all torqued up

There will be another update later and it shall be more interesting :)
Feel free to comment
Lawrence

[lawrence]

Right then. Had the evening off Friday and Saturday free to play in the garage :)
Decided on the way home from uni on the bike that stuff it I'll do the engine change!
But only if I can get the engine out but leave the gearbox in!

Using precision mathematics I calculated that in order to get the gearbox splines out of the clutch plate I needed precisely 42mm of space

Measuring up I found I had about 50mm in total that I could move the engine/gearbox side to side in.

8mm clearance= not a lot and it made me work for it! Updating this now I probably wouldn't have attempted the change in that little time. I've sprained my wrist for doing up bolts too

Well then, photos! Bikes moved outside, mini inside
Working area

What's going in

Stripping down


All ready to come out, cams removed as they are the 1.3 ones and need to go back in the engine
Coming out

You can see how tight the space I had to work in! Really could have used another pair of hands too!

Gearbox all alone

Engine out and on the floor


Total time to remove engine completely and gearbox staying in = 4 hours
Started at 1800
Out and sitting on the floor by 2200
Left and at the pub by 2230

So that was Friday evening.

Cue Saturday morning :) started at 9, had to be done by six as girlfriend coming over and I'm cooking

Timing done and Cams installed by 10am

Gaskets all done, sump on and ready to go in by 12


Straps on ready to hoist in the car, pump the hoist and hang on what's that? And gap by the headgasket! Cylinder head has come off the block By a few mm!

Ahhhh
I had never torqued the sodding thing down before had i!

So I now have 6 hours to take it apart, torque down the head, put all back together and then refit everything to the car ready for work on Sunday!

Well that didn't happen.
To torque the head the sump comes off, timing cover, cams everything needed semiset gasket removed and reapplied. Took me hours and I was so annoyed with myself

Last photo so far
Engine finally in and reunited with gearbox

Went in lush and so smooth.
Engine at 45 degree angle, then flat to hovering just on the subframe. Slightly jacked up gearbox, pushed together but the splines didn't line up. Rotated engine slightly with crank pulley bolt. Tried again and they slipped together lovely.
Probably took 5 minutes tops

But by the time I had rebuilt the engine again the engine was in the frame by 1500!
So I had three hours to get everything back together. Well it didn't happen obviously
Writing this now everything accept the carbs and exhaust are done and dusted

I test fired with easy start. It's got a slow turnover but ignition so that's good.
Inlet manifold is fitted but no new gasket as I need to make it. Tested with my hand on the manifold and there's a big vacuum that end and puffs from the exhaust side :)

So hopefully engines good!

That's all for today, wonder if anyone will read the essays. Sorry about the, but I wanted to vent haha!

Feel free to comment. Uni tomorrow but finish 5ish. I'm hopeful for running on Tuesday for uni!
Lawrence

[l_jonez]

Keep at it, the 1.3 makes up for the effort.

[coopdog]

niceeee, first time on this thread, didnt read from the beginning as its a long one ;)

 

 

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