375 replies to this topic

[mike.]

haha thanks guys

[Ash17]

this project is going to be more or less the same as mine apart from im no way near as handy as you. Going to B&Q tomorrow to get some paint for my headlining was going to go for white but after seeing your black i kinda like it especially seen as my interior going to be black same as yours... you think you will get a dashboard ?

[mike.]

Nah i can't be bothered with dashboard. If i ever got a dashboard it'd be something custom made, maybe like a works dashboard or something or maybe ford KA dashboard. But at the moment theres not much else i want doing apart from the engine...

Good luck with your project

Edited by minimadmike, 02 November 2008 - 03:55 PM.

[mike.]

Well in november i bought a 1275 MG metro engine from pantera2075 off the forum (thanks) Went and picked it up from him and my god it was heavier than i thought!! There was no way me and my dad we going to be able to carry that all the way down my drive, round the back of the house, down the garden and into the garage. So we dumped it in my nanas garage until we could figure out how to get it back to our house.

Anyway i got some thin scaffolding bars off a mate, took the head off, lay a bar across the deck of the block and strapped it on with a ratchet strap and shuffled it round the house like a spit roast lol

Anyway once it was back i home i butchered a cheap ikea sofa we had in there to make a workbench to stick the engine on, just to bring it to a more workable height. So after a couple of hours of my immence carpentry i came up with this:



You can tell it used to be a sofa! But 2 people can stand on it and it doesn't move much so good enough for what i need.

So got the engine on that:



Then over my xmas break at uni i managed to get it all cleaned up and most of the grime off it, took the timing/clutch cover off, got the clutch/flywheel assembly off and the transfer casing and took the timing gears off, then i took the head apart and cleaned up all the valves and chambers.

My plans are to sell the MG head on after refurbing it, and the MG cam too and save up my pennies. Then i plan to buy a stage 3/4 head, a lightened flywheel, lightened duplex gears, and i'm not sure what cam yet, i want a kent 276 but there abit pricey so was thinking a mini-spares high torque cam which is very similar to the SW-5 or piper 255 profile and is only £60. I've also got a specialist components stainless LCB manifold and plan to buy a twin box RC40 large bore exhaust system to go with that.

The MG engine came with a HIF44 carb and minispares inlet manifold and a lucas electronic ignition system so apart from that the rest of the engine will just be all new service parts, a thorough clean and a lick of paint. Should look lovely and go like a rocket (well compared to my knackered 998)

I'm hoping for about 75-85bhp hopefully more like 90 if i can get my hands on the stage 4 head and 276 cam i want...

If anybody has any performance cams/heads for sale, get in touch.

[whiteboi]

mate you project is inspireing i have similar plans i would like to do my head liner similar to yours i have all my interior done just awaiting new dash and guages have my wheels and arches that you helped me do with are a pain in the back side and then i hoped to do my extireior similar only with a red roof as i have red and black interior ow and i have my f1 mirrors to with i hopefully will fit soon but im to poor to offer the respray i need to find some1 who does body work and spraying and become bestfriends with them or help them out in order to be nice and do me a cheap dill lol cheers for ya help again
courtney

[mike.]

mate you project is inspireing i have similar plans i would like to do my head liner similar to yours i have all my interior done just awaiting new dash and guages have my wheels and arches that you helped me do with are a pain in the back side and then i hoped to do my extireior similar only with a red roof as i have red and black interior ow and i have my f1 mirrors to with i hopefully will fit soon but im to poor to offer the respray i need to find some1 who does body work and spraying and become bestfriends with them or help them out in order to be nice and do me a cheap dill lol cheers for ya help again
courtney

haha thanks. I wish i knew people in the trade too to do me cheap favours but unfourtunatly i dont!

The trick to a cheapish respray is to find an old man who likes classic cars who used to do quick resprays 'back in the day' Thats what i did. Otherwise alot of bodyshop places nowadays are more into insurance repair jobs - I can understand why since they can pretty much charge what they like...

[campr]

Any updates on the engine situation? Surely you have done some work with painting and replacing the standard service parts?

Rob

[mike.]

Well i've not really done that much being at uni and all. The odd weekends i come home i spend catching up with friends and family and the like.

I've just been scraping off old gaskets and things really and wirebrushing the block off. I've recently bought a stage 3/4 head to go on so thats one thing to cross off thel list of stuff to buy. So the MG head that came with it i spent a day refurbing that ready to sell on. Heres some pics of what that looked like:






That may have already sold anyway.

Not got pics of the new head but thats in just as good condition but with slightly bigger valves and massive ports.

Been pricing up all the things i'm going to need from minispares which includes exhaust system, cam, new pumps, filters, gasket sets and some fresh studs and bolts and thats come to about £280 depending on the cam i choose. I also want a lightened flywheel and may replace the clutch whilst the engine out and apart.

So really the list of parts i'm buying comes to about £600. Minus i reckon about £200 for various excess bits off both old engines. So really should be pretty cheap for the power im hoping for.

Im really struggling on cam choice though! I was going to get a minispares road cam which is very similar to an SW5 or piper 255 mainly because its cheap at £60. I didn't want to spend £120 on a kent 276/286 but recently found out piper do a 285 which is essentially the same as a kent 286 but for half the price. But after searching and researching into them they seem like really good cams but for whatever reason have very soft lobes, so will wear quickly and be easily damaged!

So really after spending about 4 hours the other day researching cams thoroughly; i'm still no closer to choosing one! I want a 286 really but theres none for sale cheap and don't know what they're like for torque...

[stardude]

save up and get a morspeed PH3 cam

i beleive its basically an improved 276 or 286, with better drivability and power.

and the kits are nicely priced:



MSPD cam, followers and H/C oil pump £100.00


MSPD cam, followers, H/C oil pump & duplex gears £120.00


MSPD cam, followers, H/C oil pump & vernier duplex £170.00
Includes

ohh and also:

Morspeed phase 3, MLs favorite ultimate road cam, can be looked at as a modern 276 kent with none of the bad bits. More low down pull, more mid range and more top end wthe less emissions. For road work ML recommends a 1.25 rocker. You can expect a lopy idle with this grind.

Edited by stardude, 17 February 2009 - 10:42 PM.

[mike.]

Yeah i looked at them. They do sound like a great cam and there only £75.

I'm not sure though, i've heard so much crap about morspeed and i don't know what to think of them. Maybe its just issues with full engine but i don't want to order a cam from them and never get it.

How do you order from them anyway? You can't do it online i don't think and if they're as bad as people say they are then i won't be able to get through on the phone to order one.

Somebody put my mind at rest and i'll buy one

[mspd_ant]

If you do decide you want one of our cams or cam kits just drop me a pm, ill sort it.

That goes for anyone else too.

[mike.]

Well you may well be getting a PM soon ant

They do sound great those cams and like has been said the cam kits are a good buy. Also looking at the FAQ topic, AC dodd reckons morspeed cams have good grind accuracy which is more than can be said for kent!

[mike.]

Right well i've got an update. Decided that i'm going to rebuild this engine with new bearings. Will still be using the standard pistons, just going to clean them up and put them back in unless i find they need replacing.

Anyway, gearbox off:



Had a quick look at that, all looks fine to me (but then again i don't know what i'm looking for) But then i came across this! Looks asif the cranks done this damage or something:





Don't know whats happened there. I'll have to PM guessworks and see what he reckons.

Anyway built up my clark engine stand i bought from machine mart and put the block on that:



Just for anybody intrested, this is how i mounted it. Just used the fuel pump holes with some of the longer transfer cover bolts (same thread, just longer) with fuel pump blanking plate as a thick washer to spread the load and put a couple of beefy washers between the block and stand. Holds the engine fine:





So thats pretty handy.

So crank assembly ready to come out:



Pistons and rods out:



Pistons have been working hard:





Empty Block!



Bores look good, can still see the cross hatch finish, along with abit of vertical marking. Flash on camera makes it stand out:



Then got the crank out and looked at the bearings. Again this is the first time i've ever ever seen inside an engine so not sure what im looking at but tryed to get decent pics of the bearing faces:







They look ok... But i think the oil on them makes them look better than they are. This is the main cap bearing after a quick wipe with a rag. Looks like somebodys been at it with a wire brush to me!



Had a look over the crank. Bearing faces look great, can't see any real scoring on there, so shouldn't need anything doing to that.

Although did spot this weird mark. Its like a discoloured pit around the stamped letter. Looks like that area got pretty hot or something? Theres a similar pit on the other end of the crank in the same place.



Also i guessed this is just some factory standard balancing?

[LankyJames]

Whats the plan with this engine then boyo?

I'll most likely be doing identical as i'm having my gearbox rebuilt

[mike.]

Well i'm hoping to rebuild it with new main and big end bearings along with all new seals and gasgets.

Can't really afford to have any crank work done along with the rest of the parts i'll be buying and also the car needs abit of welding doing over the summer, may also be having it resprayed again hopefully because i'm not too happy with the spray job i had done last time. Then the car will need reinsuring and taxing along with an MOT over the summer, so that'll all add up. Although in the back of my mind theres a voice telling me to get a type R engine kit from MED, but at £900 i don't think thats going to happen

Anyway the spec will be a morspeed phase 3 cam kit, with high capacity oil pump and new followers, with some lightened vernier timing gears, stage 3/4 head which i've already got. Then hopefully will be converting from a verto to a ultralight/balanced steel pre verto flywheel assembly with a rally clutch plate and probably just a new standard pressure cover. Gearbox will be left as it is unless i find anything wrong with it, then i'll send it off to guess works for a refurb.

Then will just be rebuilt with all fresh gasgets and seals. Will be running with a HIF44 carb with a K&N filter, mounted on a minispares high torque alloy manifold. Then for the exhaust i've bought a sweet specialist components polished stainless steel LCB:





Still undecided on the exhaust but it'll be an RC40 with a large bore tail pipe. Still undecided on if its going to be a single or twin silencer system, side or centre exit or if i'm going to fork out an extra £60 for stainless steel or not....

I'm almost hoping i do find something wrong with this crank so i can send it and the rods off for some work. I would love to bore it up to 1330 or even 1380 but if i did all that it'd probably add up to the price of the MED type R engine kit. I don't know, depends how much money i have at easter and also what my dad thinks about spending my student loan on an engine Already know the answer to that one though...

But like i said i've found an old friend from school who now works for his dads company who said he can weld and spray things. So planning on having a few things done. I've noticed the oversill on the offside is looking dodgy, so will probably need inner and outer sills, battery box, rear valance and he said he'll put my rear window lip dodge right for me too. The passenger door frame is also in a bad way and the drivers side is sound but the skin has been poorly welded on and is coming away from the frame. So also on the look out for some replacement doors. This guy said he would just respray the whole car to much better quality rather than just the doors.

I also want to send my alloys off to be polished then i'll be spraying the centres gloss black. But its all money so it depends.

So basically my minis going to be a transformed machine after the summer!

Edited by minimadmike, 08 March 2009 - 05:55 PM.