749 replies to this topic

[lawrence]

Cheers l_jonez , the 1.3 will hopefully be awesome! :)

And yh coopdog it is a rather long thread I know, taken me a while haha. Nope it's not really my thing, tinting photos etc

Tiny update from when I got home from uni.


So then
Good news, she starts and runs with the carbs back on (changed jets when they were apart) gave her a brief Rev and wow it picks up fast. Didn't run her much tho as no coolent in her yet

Bad news:
1. Intake manifold leaking air. I've put a new gasket on and it's leaking round a bolt hole. In all honesty I need to remake the manifold as its nasty and restricting the engine defiantly.
2. Taken off heat wrap on the exhaust as its fallen apart. Evidence of gas leaks on some of the welds. And one of the welded flanges broke off. Must have been a bad weld between cast steel and mild.. Time for a new exhaust so I'll keep an eye on ebay for some stainless cheap ones! Current one will do for now

Just got to sort the exhaust out now, need to cut some gaskets out but my hands are well sore so I'll do that tommorow morning. Also replaced the exhaust studs with bolts so that will aid removal/refitting

Update soon on how she drives!
Lawrence

[lawrence]

Right then time for today's update. I've got the engine running nicely.
Had to reweld the exhaust

And all back together
[URL=http://s1111.photobu...00809.jpg.html][/URL7



So a review of how she drives

[coopdog]

haha that manifold looks lovvely :L

[miniobsessed]

Awesome job Lawrence! And the pics of your interior now look really tidy :) Has the soundproofing cut down the noise appreciably?

Any chance of a new vid with the 1.3 roaring???

[lawrence]

The manifold is nasty, in all honesty it probably needs changing for something different but currently it works really well and flows nicely despite its looks! There's no point going stainless I don't think as I need to wrap the exhaust again to keep the under bonnet temperatures lower and that will have to be cut about again too.

Thanks for the comment about the interior, I'm happier with it now even tho half the gauges don't work! Only ones that do are Rev counter and temperature. I'm thinking of making a new dash sometime over the winter. The sound deadening has to a large degree cut sound. The exhaust is noisy tho and I've got squeaks and whines from the diff/micra cvs which I need to look at

I think I can make a new video, I'll put one up sometime in the next week or so. It drives extremely nicely though and pulls really well all the way up to 8k. I need to have a look at the ingition maps and change them around.

Current plans are to drive her about and make sure there's no leaks or anything nasty and then change the oil after 500miles or so
Lawrence

Edited by lawrence, 15 July 2015 - 07:31 AM.

[coopdog]

8,000??!?!?!?!?!?! whatttt

[lawrence]

Well about 7800 but I'm not sure on the accuracy of the Rev counter. Plus power drops off about 7k but it's more for the pub bragging :)

Looking into the theory of huge head skims my plans are when I next have the carbs off to file the dowels



This will allow me to dial in the cams at tdc in order to get a bit more power from her

On review of her on the road it's very fun! Video will be put up once it uploads. Even let the girlfriend drive her for once! She said the steering is Heavy and the brakes awful!

She's overfueling massively however which is creating huge backfires on deceleration! Scaring many passers by especially when driving through the city! With the exhaust cut out open the sound is deafening!

On the plus side. 34 mpg after the engine change. That's from driving to the city 20miles and then back, also lots of driving though the city. All of this driving very spirited and enjoyable. Planning to lean the carbs when I have time and see if I can hit 40mpg which is liveable!

Back to the car. Got my wing mirrors.


Needing a good polish


Sorted out the scuttle panel join out and de rusted it

Part masked off, then given a top coat of spray rustoloum to keep everything protected


Masked up where to put the mirror

Also decided to paint the outside window trim black. Mirror fitted


Fairly happy with the rear view too considering they are supposed to be wing mirrors and not door ones.

I shall update when my videos finally upload. Got a drive by one and an on the road driving experience too :)

Feel free to comment
Lawrence

[miniobsessed]

Awesome mate! Glad the 1.3 is working out for you :)

[lawrence]

Yep it's great fun. Need to put a limit of the throttle cable to counterbalance my heavy foot if I'm not careful!

Right then, time for another small update
The video finally uploaded. This is the one driving round a car park with some acceleration fun

That was taken the other week

Today I decided to dial in my cams to make up for the timing change from the head skim
Filed the dowel down on the inlet, exhaust cam was still time fine


And refitted


On the micra when the engine is at tdc the inlet cam lobes on cylinder two should be pointing at the cam cap bolt. Mine was about 5 degrees retarded


The exhaust cam lobes on the third cylinder should also be pointing at the bolt on their cam cap


Dialling in the inlet cam has lowered the power band somewhat from about 5k more to 4k so has given more usable power :)

I also have checked the spark plugs and gapped them slightly more. Taking a run in her tonight she seems to be pulling nicer from lower down now but it could just be in my head. I've also tuned the megajolt to change the soft Rev limit up to 6600 while I'm getting used to the engine

Mpg wise I did a calculation and she's doing about 32mpg. That was only from a 50mile fill up and 10 of those miles were driving through the city banging her off the limiter to get fun backfires. I'm hoping that with some gentle cruising she will get at least 40mpg!

To do list
>fix constantly squeaking fuel tank, there's metal on metal contact somewhere and it's annoying!
>after pay day order new inner cv joint. Current one is making a nasty grinding noise at speed. Think the bearing have had it.
>the alternator whines! It's mild but annoying. Going to swop to my spare. Also going to make more effort in lining the pulleys up as I think that may be some of the noise too.
>new heat-wrap needed for exhaust. Again after pay day

That's all folks
Feel free to comment

Lawrence

[miniobsessed]

Love the vid - It sounds sweet! And that backfire is epic :)

[666junky]

I think this is fantastic, fully functional + works extremely well.. yeaahh its been hacked about and welded back together but its what makes Senior so unique. Keep on micra'mini'ing!!  The thing i love the most is the attitude to the paint work.. its pretty much the same ethos as i have with Nelly.. Just like "yeaah that can be covered!!"

[lawrence]

Cheers for the comments guys :) I agree the backfire was awesome but it was due to the retarded cams so is now no more and cheers junky, she doesn't look to bad from 10feet its just when you get close. In all honestly the look I'm going for is rolling project with a fun engine peeking through the grill :)

Speaking of grills I've painted the chrome surrounds in gloss black! I really like the look and if you see carefully the wrapped exhaust is there too!


Exhaust now re wrapped

It keeps the engine bay temperature down nicely and hides the rustic look of the exhaust manifold haha!

So it's been a while since I actually update this blog, I've been busy, been to a wedding and been to Barcelona with Jess (girlfriend)

But prior to that mini wasn't behaving herself we went on a cruise to Great Yarmouth with some other mini chaps and mini was a bad girl.this was the 2nd of August

The new compression of the engine tied with my modded cam cover created a lot of crank case pressure and blew out seals all around the cam cover this meant she dumped nearly all her oil on the way to Yarmouth. On the way back after topping her back up we stopped for a Macy's, on leaving there my lights failed with the hid ballasts full of oil so were fubared drove home in a close convoy back to Norwich bout 5miles with only side lights which wasn't fun. (She Could stay at Maccys that night as she had left a small lake of oil)

Oh and the entire way to Yarmouth she was overheating slightly when I went over 70mph. This was because there was only water in the system as I had changed a seal on where the coolant hardlines enter the waterpump! This i though was acceptable as she was running neat water

Then come the morning of the 3rd August I topped her up with oil again and took her to a mates workshop where I temporary fixed the oil leak by making an oil catch can from a water bottle, scourers and some tube and Gaffa tape :) bodgy but worked perfectly! Also decreased the engine bay and the entire car! Horrible job!

Drove her home all non oily, overheating now under control when driving back at 60. Water in the system only mind! So made a note to self to change water for coolent/water mix in the next few days. Also proper oil catch can from ebay ( £19!! Bargain!)

4th August. Drove to girlfriends in the day all fine. We both drove back home to mine as had cousins wedding next afternoon! Obviously had a race from the line with girlfriends car! Had her up to 40ish mph then massive bang water all over the windscreen engine temp shot through the roof! Little bugger had blown a bypass hose!! On close inspection hose had split apart through pressure, standard Nissan part so not very happy! But only had water in the system so no money lost in coolent which is nice


Had two people in less than a minute stop which is awesome. One guy with his audi was at the Yarmouth meet the previous Sunday and saw her there. Also a fellow mini owner!

5th August went back to mini with replacement pipe off other engine. Filled with water, run up to temperate all sorteD!

So back to the to do list from before
>heat wrap – done

Since the 5th I've been using the bike is the weather been great and ran out of money for mini anyhow

Catch can arrived on the 14th August. By then the water bottle one had called apart and the car was full of fumes. Zero oil leaks tho!!!
New and old

Need to get a photo of it plumbed in still tho

Got back from holiday last Friday 20th august
Parents told me mini stinks of petrol! Check the boot and little sod has sprung another leak In the tank along the original welded seam. No way to fix. It looks awful anyhow. Petrol leak has ruined paint everywhere again!

So new tank ordered! Hopefull it'll arrive soon!
Boot cleaned up, primed and painted

Boot board for tank to sit on partially planned

Outline of tank footprint


I've ordered a 7gallon tank to give me some more range compared to the 4.5 one before

To do list now
>heatwrap –done
>fix tank squeak – new tank, no more squeak or leak!
>new driveshaft - ordered a new driveshaft!

So yh I've had three breakdowns, one wedding and one holiday so it's been a busy month!

Sorry for all the words!
Feel free to comment!
Lawrence

[lawrence]

So then time for an update people :) still haven't used her since the coolent pipe failure and that's now over a month

So my to do list was the driveshaft on the passengers side so I won a second hand one off ebay for a good price

Had to grind off the inner cv joint in the end, compression clip just wouldn't compress!

New fuel tank finally arrived!

Had to use cad to make the mounts up

Lovely snug fit

And the other side

Nice and even fit

Just now waiting on some an to push fit converters and then she will be usable again!

Welding up the feet

How I left her for today


So second on my list of issues was cooling! I decided that I wanted to add an aux radiator front mounted. It's fully removable incase it over cools too much in winter

Nice and tidy hoses


That’s all for today folks. She looks pretty depressed currently!


Currenty the cooling system is running water so I'll see how it goes when the fuel tank fittings finally arrive! Fingers crossed she will be fine :)

Feel free to comment
Lawrence

[lawrence]

Hey there guys, time for an update again but it's really not a great one

After fitting her up with her new rad I took her for a few little spins, one 10 mile one to make sure the cooling system all ok. Was lovely! Temperature never went above 70degrees so I took her home and drained some water and added coolent.

Second trip was to girlfriends about 20miles. Cruising there at 60/70 she was running at a lovely 80degrees! So perfec! Bang on what I want :)

Then it went bad. Traffic and lots of it. Aux fan comes on at 95 which was fine in the old system new system not so. Temperature rose up to 110 once I arrived at girlfriends (has happened before at cruising speed with no issues) when I got there was the aux rad cap not completly on so obviously caused the water loss so problem fixed! (or so I thought)

So topped up and went home later after rush hour. Got home fine, no overheating or anything so I though coolent system sorted! (Never thought to check the system for water loss did I!

Next morning I decided to take mini to placement at James paget, about 35 miles from mine. Started off great. No overheating or anything nasty. Got about 20 miles of cruising at 50 and noticed the temperature creeping up. Pulled into car park and temp was aprox 120! Had to get to placement so looked at the problem later

Finished at 5pm. And gave mini a check over. All unions done up tight, both rads with correct pressure cap fitted properly.
But massive coolent loss from the system!
Filled with water to test for leaks. Temperature all good and no leaks from the system. So now I'm confused! Then the temp rose a bit more (about 85degrees) and All the pipes are swelling and waters coming out of the overflow!
So I'm confused.
Took off second rad. Refilled with water. All ok until 85 degrees again then pipes swelling as before and water down the overflow pipe!

Come inside to think

Our side again. Took off rad cap about 30mins later so it had cooled down. Started the engine again with rad cap off. Massive geyser of water. Rev the engine, again massive geyser!
When all the water had gone from the top of the rad a very clear put put of smoke/evaporating water was coming from the rad

So my diagnosis is headgasket gone

Got her trailed home and she is now at mine and I'm very angry at her
Shall upload a videos of the put put from the radiator once it's uploaded

So I'm moody now. That was all the 10/9 and I've not touched her since she got home

Lawrence

[Anthony30]

Nice build. I would move/or remove the second radiator, It's blocking the first radiator.   Sure you can't fit a mini MPI radiator in that space? I really like these old Nissan engines, built to last.