846 replies to this topic

[megamini_jb]

Mini looks fantastic, really like the wheels

[timmy850]

That's lovely!!

Thanks!

They really do suit the car.

Thanks, I think they look pretty cool!

 

Cheers!

Now you need to update you signature, to include those new wheels.

I'll have to do that when I'm at work next... iPads can't run the oildrippers website unfortunately

Mini looks fantastic, really like the wheels

Thanks!

Today I installed my stage one kit I got a few months ago. Here's the engine bay before I started.

And here's the view from the rear. There's a little exhaust pipe there somewhere!

First up the HS2 carb and filter housing were removed

The cast intake/exhaust manifold was removed next

I removed the entire exhaust system and put it next to the new one. It was about 30 minutes to get to this point..

And a close up of the old and new manifolds and carbs

So now we have the new parts going on - first on was the exhaust manifold. I had to lean the engine forward a bit to fit it in. This took about 40 minutes to get in..

Intake manifold was next.. I had to grind a flat edge on the two inside washers as I couldn't get them to sit flat. I put the new studs in too

The HS4 took about an hour to get installed... I had to borrow some bits from my other carbs and that took a bit of time to get sorted. The new AAC needle went in fine. The old one was an ADF.

The KN filter was installed in the filter housing

Everything is mostly done in the engine bay in this photo. I've got to get another choke cable as mine was too short to reach, as its on the opposite side to the old HS2

I got the RC40 installed easily and went to connect the battery back up again, which resulted in some big sparks! It took me a while to figure out what the deal was, but it turned out the new exhaust was touching the floor starter button! I tried moving the exhaust to miss the button but soon came up with a good fix..

It was all good once fitted!

You can actually see the exhaust from the back now!

It fired up first time, which was awesome! I had to up the idle speed a bit to get it stable and idling nicely. I set the mixture a bit richer and took it out for a quick drive. I didn't really need the choke to get it going as it was 30 degrees here today! It's got noticeably more grunt now, which is great, but it's not too much louder from the inside, which is slightly disappointing... There is a lot more intake noise though!

I've still got to fine tune a few things, and give it another oil change before I take it for a proper tune.

[Vinay-RS]

That new exhaust and carb look very nice, though I think the air box needs a coat of paint to match the rest of the setup.

[colinf1]

That looks much better now. 

[Jared Mk3]

So much better than the peashooter :)

[timmy850]

That new exhaust and carb look very nice, though I think the air box needs a coat of paint to match the rest of the setup.

  
Thanks. I'm still deciding if I want to paint it or not.. The other photos made the engine bay look a bit tidier than it actually is! The paint is peeling on some of it, and other bits have red overspray on them. It all needs a good tidy up and sorting out!

That looks much better now.

  
Cheers, it's been a long planned upgrade!

So much better than the peashooter :)

Thanks, it does look much better now, and it goes and sounds nicer too!

[Vinay-RS]

The engine bay still looks very clean. Do you know if it is possible to spray those parts of the firewall without removing the master cylinders? Mine has lost a lot of the paint in that area because of leaks at some point in the past.

[timmy850]

You could possibly do it without removing the cylinders, but in my case I'd rather remove them. They have overspray on the bottom half of them and I'd prefer to do some rust treatment on the metal under them too.

[timmy850]

I had another problem with the ignition circuit the other day. The engine was stuttering under load and the tacho needle was waving around like mad.. I had a similar problem before and it was a loose connection between one of the low tension wires to the coil from the distributor. All the connections were tight this time however, so I pulled out the distributor cap and rotor and cleaned them but this made no difference. I then replaced the distributor cap and rotor with some new parts and then the car wouldn't start at all! I ended up putting the old parts back on and it still wouldn't start. It ended up being the exact same wire I had issues with before. Last time the spade connection to the coil was loose and causing the low tension circuit to be intermittent. This time it was the dodgy crimp connector:

 

 

I stripped the wire back to a decent bit, then a little spot of solder and some heat shrink and we're all fine now. It's the first time it's been running properly since the bigger carb and exhaust went on, and it pulls much better now!

 

[timmy850]

I've had some interesting times recently! 

 

First up I picked up some parts from a local guy who needed to clear them out quickly. I've got some photos of the goodies here:

http://www.theminifo...-hunting-today/

 

The next day I went to our local mini show, which had about 65 cars over the day. It was a great day out 

 

I had three mechanical dramas on the day though.... Number one was on the way up. The gear stick locating pin unwound itself and caused the gear stick to flop around. I managed to catch it before it fell out though! The bolt thread was rubbish and wouldn't stay in properly. I made it to the show fine after this

 

The second drama was on the way home. It was a repeat of the first, except the bolt fell out completely and it was a struggle to find gears after that as I had no way of fixing it...

 

Third drama was a bit more terminal!

 

Which required some assistance 

 

One of my QL5000 couplings disintegrated going along the highway at about 100kph. There was a large bang followed by a huge racket as the driveshaft bounced around under  the car! It was only 1-2km from home too, which was particularly annoying.

 

At the moment I'm considering replacing the old rubber cross yokes (which currently have/had QL5000 inserts) with the Hardy Spicer joints and possibly swapping to the 3.44 diff. The standard diff for the current engine and gearbox should be a 3.76, and I think that's what's in there now.... Fun times ahead!

[Clubmaninsandiego]

Really nice red mini mk1! Always wanted to have one. Finally I'm able to trade my yellow clubman with a 1963 austin cooper. Not an as but it's a mark 1 just like yours! I'm excited!

[Jared Mk3]

Sorry about that Tim. Time for another upgrade

[timmy850]

Really nice red mini mk1! Always wanted to have one. Finally I'm able to trade my yellow clubman with a 1963 austin cooper. Not an as but it's a mark 1 just like yours! I'm excited!

Thanks! I'd really like to have an early 997 or 998 Cooper one day, very jealous!

 

Sorry about that Tim. Time for another upgrade

Yep, might be a good opportunity to clean up the engine bay while I've got the engine out and tidy up some wiring too..

 

It turns out the damage was worse than I thought... The passenger side coupling had disintegrated too. I was able to find two of the nylon caps (so far) from the joints and a couple of the needle bearing rollers too...

So I've started pulling things out of the engine bay ready to remove the engine and replace the driveshaft yokes. It's ready to come out tomorrow as I've got the day off...

Should be enough bits here to sort out the driveshafts!

[timmy850]

I've made a decision on the way forward now! The current diff is a 3.76, which I'm happy to keep on this engine. I've also decided to swap the rubber cross joints for Hardy Spicer joints.

I've been busy this morning removing the engine. I didn't have any mini specific lifting brackets, so the engine was at the wrong angle to get it out easily. I got it out eventually, but I scratched a little bit of the (peeling) paint..

One problem I had was my engine crane was too high and I couldn't get the legs under the lower suspension arms. I took the castor wheels off and had to move the car forward and backward to wiggle the engine out..

One of the u-bolts was bent, and had scratched a little of the gearbox casing. There were also a few dings from the driveshaft

The driveshaft also dinged up the new exhaust manifold

Diff was removed to replace the rubber cross diff outputs. The diff ratio is definately a 3.76

The spare Hardy Spicer gearbox was stripped to look at the diff.. It is definitely a 3.44.

I'm not sure whether to use the spare gearbox and spilt it all apart. I've also got some of these outputs that might be a better option? I'd just have to swap them onto the 3.76 crown wheel..

Also got a couple of extra output flanges

And these diff covers

I had another accidental ebay purchase... A nice shiny rocker cover to top off the engine! It went very cheap, and looks nearly new

[Jared Mk3]

Good to see you getting some progress here