24 replies to this topic

[haz]

right, first things first... some of you may notice that this is my second project thread, this however, is not my second project. The reason for this is that i hate the name babs which was the name of the project. soo err, ill start a fresh. This thread will mainly follow my engine build but ill throw in some mini progress when the weather is nice

Please ignore this convoluted story:
Bought a '1380' engine kit second hand, turned out to be an old school effort of a 1380 which basically entailed some pistons from a triumph spitfire requiring a 73.7 bored block. The problem being that I wanted a all singing all dancing 1380, so when i came to upgrade the pistons to omega 7cc offset dish's... they were loose in the bore - New block time.

Intended spec:

73.5mm crosshoned bore A+ block, steel centre main strap, decked 20thou with new core plugs and cam bearings
X-drilled, wedged crank heat treated & balanced
Omega cast 7cc offset dish pistons on S-rods
Kent 286 slot drive scatter cam with high capacity oil pump, kent followers, 1:5:1 rockers - undecided on make
MED 19cc chamber big valve head with 240lb double valve springs
Straight cut box with 4 pin diff, undecided on 4 or 5 speed & make - guessworks on 4 speed thats for sure
Vernia duplex lightened timing gears
Ultralight steel flywheel, racing clutch & orange diaphram
Vandervell bearings all round (AE thrusts)

Praying for 100bhp & 100lbft at the wheels

Piccies so far - waiting on AP rod bolts before i go any further... and i know that plastic sheet looks dirty but i assure you its the other side thats bad, its clean as a whistle! engine stand is also on its way.
Kept the res low on the less important piccies

Block
 SP_A0108.jpg   25.89K   50 downloads
Crank
 SP_A0109.jpg   21.38K   34 downloads
Omega on rod
 SP_A0110.jpg   24.66K   29 downloads

Todays work: (picked up decked block & skimmed head - bought a nice new tool box for all my new tools too)

Fitted crank, nice and smooth... nicely oiled up bearings first and offered crank carefully. made sure main caps went back on in same orientation from whence they came
 SP_A0113.jpg   101.88K   47 downloads


This was a little worry for me, the oil hole doesnt quite line up with the block
Sorry about the quality on this pic, my camera phone isnt the greatest..
 SP_A0111.jpg   71.38K   28 downloads

Ill be doing pistons at the weekend hopefully, just waiting on AP rod bolts. Ill get some piccies of the head too whilst im at it.

[haz]

ok, so not much of an update

ARP rod bolts still havnt arrived so i cant do my pistons, so basically all iv done is clean everything again... cant hurt, and i found a nice big piece of swarf in the process, which is always good to know you've got rid of!

in the mean time, heres some pics of my cylinder head









heres the mini in a sea of NOS at work



and at home...

[tomkidd]

Good luck pal. I have a MED 1380 in mine, I've got 105bhp at the flywheel on a properly collaberated rolling Road.

[Retro_10s]

Good luck pal. I have a MED 1380 in mine, I've got 105bhp at the flywheel on a properly collaberated rolling Road.

callabrated?

[Jammy]

Calibrated!

Looks like its going to be one great engine! I would of thought that should make 100bhp at the wheels, will certainly do it at the fly! Which carb you going with? SU, twin SU or Weber?

[haz]

cheers for the replies

Tomkidd, what cam & rocker ratio were you running on your MED engine? and do you know which 'stage' of head you have?

im thinking on going twin HS4, but im also toying with the idea of a 45... i really do like the look of twins tho, could do with getting out in someones car with a webber and with twins to see the difference. With it being a road car I dont think ill really see the gains of the high rpm power from the weber, it'd be nice to hear both and feel what they're like low down rpm.

For the time being though, I have a HIF44 that i'll probably run the engine in on and then ill get it RR'd with which ever carbs i choose

the other thing i forgot to mention is im looking at the 123 dizzy for the choice of curves

Edited by haz, 07 May 2008 - 12:04 PM.

[haz]

not a happy bunny today

got my arp rod bolts through yesterday, decided to have a crack at doing the pistons today

took my first rod appart, fitted the big end bearings, they were too big... wouldnt sit flush (around 3/4's of a mm too big - a pretty sizeable gap when assembled) and stopped the end cap from seating on the rod propperly, i got annoyed... thought about filing it down, tried a little bit of brute force and ignorance and ended up putting a few nice little scratches into the bearing surface. GRRRRR

thats the last time i buy anything AE ever again. Vandervell all the way!

Gonna ring minispares on monday and get some new'ns

annoyingly too, even without the bearings in the rod bolts were ever so slightly slack in the housing and the cap simply would not seat easily... didnt want to give it a technical tap with the mallet at this point. Just to add, they go on no problem with the standard rod bolts.

oh well, ill carry on in the week.

got a DTI gauge in the post too today

[tomkidd]

cheers for the replies

Tomkidd, what cam & rocker ratio were you running on your MED engine? and do you know which 'stage' of head you have?

I have the MED h/t cam and 1.5 rockers. I'm running a VIZARD tweaked hiff44 carb and a calver sub stack. The head is a road comp one, so its one up from "phase 3".

[duncancallum]

ae bearings should be spot on, theyve not sent you the wrong size/spec ones by accident?

[haz]

ae bearings should be spot on, theyve not sent you the wrong size/spec ones by accident?

Perhaps, I do have S-rods and a GT crank ground to, i might have bought bearings for the standard rods when i should have bought S-ones... that'd make sense really. It was sooooo long ago i bought those bearings tho

anyway, iv scratched one of them now, it'd polish out probably but id rather just buy some vandervells for peice of mind

Edited by haz, 30 May 2008 - 09:46 AM.

[haz]

cheers for the replies

Tomkidd, what cam & rocker ratio were you running on your MED engine? and do you know which 'stage' of head you have?

I have the MED h/t cam and 1.5 rockers. I'm running a VIZARD tweaked hiff44 carb and a calver sub stack. The head is a road comp one, so its one up from "phase 3".

hmm im not familiar with that cam grind but for that spec of engine id have thought it'd be 105 at the wheels not the fly.. if you took it to the RR they give figures at the wheels and somtimes a crudely calculated one for the flywheel - the ammount of variables makes it impossible to work out accurately tho, the only way to get a flywheel reading is on a dyno engine rig

im no expert tho, im just going from what iv read on this site and in vizard

[tomkidd]

Minisport know how to use their rollers and its quite a modern set up. The rolling road figures out the power at the flywheel somehow. 105 at the wheels would mean over 120ish at the fly, which from a normal 1380 with a 5 port head, you'd be looking at BIG MONEY!

[haz]

bit more of an update

got a donor 998 for the gearbox and clutch housing and general odds and sods - note to self, next time undo the pulley bolt whilst the flywheel is locked!!



got the piston ring compressor technique sorted in the end... you need LOTS of oil everywhere, especially in the compressor



2, 3 & 4 fitted... ARP rod bolts, S-rods



not happy with one of the bearings so im gonna get some more before i fit number 1, will be getting the 286 scatter at the same time hopefully so ill be straight onto timing after that

Thinking of spraying the covers in silver engine paint, iv got to finish cleaning off all the soddin party spray paint the donor engine had been done in first

Edited by haz, 17 June 2008 - 06:55 PM.

[haz]

a little more of an update

got my kent 286 scatter cam through and a new set of big end bearings (to replace a couple of dodgy ones in the last set), went to minisport today and gave an exchange cam in and picked up a timing protractor disc thingymajig and a metro turbo oil pump too

snapped a piston ring whilst doing number 1...

oops... carefull with these, they're brittle as owt

got a new one through in the post today (thankyou mr MED) so ill do it this weekend at last - then onto timing

was being held back by the timing plate, finding a 1/4" UNF threaded countersunk fastener less than 3/4" long isnt easy! so i opted not to... and did this instead

cleaned up and counterbored the plate...


ground down 2 dome head fasteners (the one on the left)...



and voila, nice and flush



timing will follow shortly...

Edited by haz, 27 June 2008 - 07:49 PM.

[miniman92]

Any update mate?