75 replies to this topic

[buddylove]

I came home to find this in the mail. It was completely unexpected and only re-affirms as to why I am such a fan of the Mini community.

[PhilipGCaldwell]

thats a nice touch, the mini community is ace, my mini club is great so much parts swapping and help/advice received off them in recent months.

[1984mini25]

You might even be luky and find a 'spare' on the passenger side of the firewall.

[buddylove]

A couple weeks back, we ran into an issue with the intake manifold hitting the exhaust manifold. The current exhaust manifold is an LCB unknown brand. As of Monday, after a trial fitment with a maniflow LCB, we figured out that there was just enough space to bolt up the intake manifold. Looks like I will be needing to order a new exhaust manifold and exhaust system sooner then I thought.

[buddylove]

Just a quick update.

Ordered a Maniflow Cooper Freeflow exhaust manifold and a full RC40 Exhaust system. I hope to install it in the next couple weeks and get the Mini running again.

[buddylove]

Progress has been slow, sorry about that...

Over the last few weeks, I received my RC40 Exhaust System and Maniflow Cooper Freeflow Exhaust Manifold / Downpipe.

The manifold that initially came with my car was an LCB, but we didn't know what kind and it didn't work with my new carb / intake manifold setup. We had used an earlier Maniflow LCB to initially test fit to see if my carbs would be able to clear the exhaust manifold and mount up to the head. It turns out that over the years it seems that they have slightly modified their manifolds enough that the new Cooper Freeflow was not able to fit with my intake manifold. Thankfully Chuck had many extra older LCB's and we found a Janspeed Exhaust Manifold that allowed just enough clearance for everything to work. We struck a deal and exchanged manifold for manifold.

The next problem that showed up; I received an incorrectly matched RC40 Fitting Kit. We had to wait for some parts, and we are still waiting for 1 more part to fully finish the install.

Cutting out the old manifold, as it was so rusted that I couldn't get the old y piece off.






All gone...





New to me Janspeed LCB Exhaust Manifold, Janspeed probably didn't make it and they were most likely just resellers of it.






RC40 Exhaust System, we had to cut down the first pipe as it was made for the Cooper Freeflow Exhaust Manifold. Thankfully that allowed us to push the whole system back a bit and I am pretty happy with the fitment on the rear of the car. It is only about an inch off of where I would want it idealy. Normally it would be about 4-5 inches further in.








That's it for now, thanks for reading!

[buddylove]

Progress from yesterday:

We ran new fuel lines for the new to me / rebuilt twin HS4 carbs, installed a fuel regulator as the Mini has enlarged lines and a larger capacity fuel pump for the old Weber 45, ran the throttle cable and choke cable, removed all of the weird overflow and breather stuff, and got the carbs fitted up. I am hoping that next Monday we can get it started.

[Sir Cheat]

Very nice..

[buddylove]

ya... It'll get more interesting in the next few weeks.

[buddylove]

We got it running yesterday! We had some hiccups with the fueling that ended up being a bad fuel regulator, the 2nd hiccup was water pouring from the thermostat housing and heater valve area. We also reset the timing to be 3 degrees advanced, as we were unsure of where the timing was at with how far it was off. The gapage for the points was off as well, and the parts seemed pretty worn. Chuck ordered up new wires, points, condensor, rotor arm, cap, and a couple gaskets. We will be pulling the distributor next Monday and replacing all of those components as well as doing some tuning. It will also be getting a compression test to see if the compression improved at all in cylinder 1 or if it just go worse with us lowering the compression.

I am hoping to be able to bring it home soon after that so I can get the welding / body taken care of. I am really itching to drive it!

[buddylove]

Found out today:

It is actually a Austin Seven Deluxe, and it was originally Speedwell Blue with a grey interior. It also had the optional heater. As Chuck had already confirmed for me, it was built in July of 1960 and dispatched as an export to the USA. It was then sold in Portland, OR.

I'll get a scan up of the Heritage Certificate when I get a chance.

[buddylove]

[red1967]

Hey Buddy

Nice job on the mini. I noticed your coil was sitting upright. It should either be pointing down or horizontal. They are filled with oil which helps in cooling the coil. The way it sits now the internal electrode is exposed and will get very hot. The coil has the potential to explode. Sitting horizontal the oil will cover the electrodes keeping the coil much cooler. Just something that was pointed out to me when I was car show from a mini race buddy.

Keep up the excellent work and have a blast!

[buddylove]

Hey Buddy

Nice job on the mini. I noticed your coil was sitting upright. It should either be pointing down or horizontal. They are filled with oil which helps in cooling the coil. The way it sits now the internal electrode is exposed and will get very hot. The coil has the potential to explode. Sitting horizontal the oil will cover the electrodes keeping the coil much cooler. Just something that was pointed out to me when I was car show from a mini race buddy.

Keep up the excellent work and have a blast!

Thanks for the tip! I didn't know it had that much of an effect on it, but I was planning on moving it anyways. I will definitely mount it horizontal when it gets moved.

[buddylove]

Update as of the 6th and 8th of Feb.:

We were going to try to take it home on the 6th, but the Mini decided otherwise... After Lis and I checked the valve gap, I took it on a test drive. It got out of Chuck's driveway just fine, but about halfway up the street it started misfiring. It also took me forever to start it still, but once it is warm it starts up just fine. We checked all the obvious stuff, and even switched out the rotor cap, but it was still misfiring.

As of the 8th, Chuck and I were talking over things and he had a theory that a low battery might be the cause of the misfiring as the alternator isn't functional right now. He put it on the charger and even with a partially charged battery we started it up and it seemed like the misfiring issue has been fixed. He is going to fully charge the battery over the next couple days.

Next issue is the hard start and getting the alternator setup right. It seems as though the choke cable isn't fully choking the carbs, with chuck manually fully choking the carbs they seem to want to fire right up.

That's it for now, thanks for reading!

Edited by buddylove, 09 February 2011 - 07:26 PM.