thelovehate998

[thelovehate998]

A little update: When we were running the engine up to temp to open up the cooling system (heater matrix etc) the car started running abit rough... abit rich to be clearer so we decided to give it a 'base tune'

Now all that we hope to achieve with this is a a nice idle thats not chugging fuel out the tail pipe. time for another trusty screwdriver... the bendy boy

So after running the car up to temp, my co worker took over as he has experience in setting this by ear, the general process we took was as follows:

Listen to the engine

With the bendy screwdriver adjust the mixture screw OUT to lean out the mixture until the engine revs drops.

When the revs drop adjust the mixture screw IN to richen it up till the rpm is smooth

Bring up the RPM and repeat until revving cleanly and not chucking (too much) fuel out the back

To be honest i was watching years of experience so even though i was listening and paying attention to the engine etc i do think this is something that is practiced.

The car needs a really good drive and a proper rolling road etc to tune it properly but this should help with getting in on and off ramps etc. very confusing as it was revving lean but smelling rich... mini's eh!

[thelovehate998]

Ok so back in the office today and finishing off the little cooling system overhaul i started. Today i:

Extracted the thermostat housing studs

Cleaned up the mating faces on both the head and housing

Installed fresh studs

Installed 88 degree thermostat

Installed Fresh Gasket

Re-installed thermostat housing

Filled the system with fresh coolant 50/50 mix

No photos today as it wasnt the most exciting of things, so i made this cool mini art with some AI.

Thursday we will bring it up to temp so the whole system is open and top up, hopefully we will then be in a position to take a pass at tuning it.

[thelovehate998]

Nigels Big Screwdriver...

Me again, aswell as the nasty rusty bits there are other things that need attention on this mini, the cooling system being right up there, so im going for a flush and refill. Before i do the coolant flush I have used CLR (Calcium, Lime & Rust Remover), brought the system up to temp, checked the themostat is opening etc (although i do have a new thermostat to put in). This is an added step to clean the 'insides'

First things first i removed the Thermostat and refit the housing / top hose. I plan on using a garden hose to flush (and reverse flush) the system, by removing the thermostat i hope to get fresh water moving around the whole system even when not at temp.

Next step was to remove the bottom radiator hose (this is where nigels big screwdriver comes in). NOTE: i took the bonnet off and have left the top rad bracket off as it allows more access to the rad.

Look at that beauty! (also in picture is a 'bendy' screwdriver for adjusting idle mixture)

Once the bottom hose was out the what coolant i had in the radiator / block drained out, i too the hose to the rad first and gave this a really good run through until clear but that didnt take long at all.

I then flushed the block. i put the hose into the top hose going into the thermostat housing, after a few seconds the rusty brown drained out, i let the hose run until the water ran clear then a little bit more.

Once that was done i decided i wanted to 'reverse flush' the system, so i put the hose into the bottom hose (that we took off to drain it all), handy hint here if you left the top hose on you can point it away from the alternator / wiring etc. I ran it this way for some time till i was pleased it was running clear.

Happy that im flushed i but the bottom hose back on, again a doddle with this screwdriver.

i was doing this on my lunch break so i ran out of time here. next jobs on monday.

[thelovehate998]

Supplies have arrived for the Patchup,

Im going to be using 0.9mm steel as per the orginal panels, more 'probing' of the effected areas, rough plan in place, looking at putting some new metal in on the 24th sept if i can use the workshop at work.

Other products:

Bilt Hamber Hydrate 80

Bilt Hamber Zinc Primer

Bilt Hamber Dynax UB

Pretty happy il do a better job than some of the other patches i can see on this car :|

I have gone for a little magnetic welding earth clamp too, its not 'perfect' but it should suit the appilcation quite well providing i dont let it get too close to the work.

[thelovehate998]

[thelovehate998]

Needs Must...

Ok, im going to patch my sills and get an MOT ticket on her, that way its will be much easier to get it around and in the mean time save to get things properly sorted as at present i dont have that capital to use up.

I plan on doing what i can to prevent further rust by using rust converter and cavity wax between inner and out sills, im using Bilt Hamber products, hydrate 80 for a rust converter, Zinc Primer / Dynax S50 in between the sills and Dynax UB on the top.

SO plan is:

Dig around / wire wheel the holes back see where the good metal is

Cut out sections for repair,

Treat and zinc prime / S50 where i can get too (use the S50 nozzle to do where i cant see)

Weld in new metal,

Zinc Primer

Black top coat

Dynax UB over the top

i also plan on taking the existing underseal off the sills and Prime / Spray / Dynax UB over the top.

THIS IS A TEMPORARY MEASURE! i repeat THIS APPROACH IS A TEMPORARY MEASURE,

some examples of the full extent of my sill / floor holes (that i can see)

[thelovehate998]

Spec Update

So wanted to do another quick update, i contacted Matt who i orginally got the engine from and he was very quick in responding. I asked him if he could confirm the spec of the engine and got some info, i was allittle off

998cc A+ block Cooper 12g295 head, skimmed for the correct compression 1275GT roller rockers (near as damnit 1:3:1) Omega Flat pot pistons Valves bored out to std 1275, double valve springs 277 piper cam + uprated duplex timing chain  all gas flowed ported and polished Ive also added: Aldon Yellow Distributor HIF38 Carb So its got a less lumpy cam in it (i thought it was a 286) and it has some bigger valves in, should be a good setup if we make it over the line

[thelovehate998]

Its on a ramp... and it drove on there itself

SO im happy the engine will be 'ok', it 100% needs a coolant assesment etc but its quite happy driving even in its 'default' state, nothing has been adjusted for driving.

Lets get onto the sticky bits, rust, so when it went too the Garage several years ago to get a 'Pre-MOT' assesment and i was told that it needs inner / outer sills both sides, a floor pan and various other bits and bobs. Looking at the sills... yes they are gone but the floor can be saved without a floorpan, ive since noticed that there are signs that its been on the lift via the floor pan as its all bent in...

I think the aim is to get a MOT on this thing so i can move it etc without having to fork out for a trailer each time, that will allow me to work on it AND save up to get it sorted properly. to get a ticket it looks like i need to:

Patch the sills / floor - Yes this is the wrong way to do it, but it might be the difference between being able to keep the car or let it rot further or worse... sell it.

Bushes & Gaiters etc - so the steering rack bushes have disintegrated and will need replacing, the mini sits to the left so this needs to be investigated, there is a bump stop missing etc.

Brakes - Brakes are fine but probably need to be assesed, one of the new braided lines is pig tailed and too tight so this needs to be adjusted

Cooling - the coolant flush needs a proper flush out, it shows signs of serious rust, so this means taking off the bottom rad hose... oh joy, while we are here we will wack a new thermostat in

Electrics - We need to check everything, the lights have had a short and burned the offside light out, so new pair of lights for a start, bulbs behind the dash pinnacle need to be investigated as the turn signal indicators are not functioning, exterior lights are good. Battery is DED

Misc - the engine steady bar mount has corroded, this can be replaced however it forms part of the master cylinder mounting so will need removing then bleeding etc to sort this. The Carb hits the bulkhead.... so this needs a little chunk cut out and a pocket fabricating ideally, short term solution is to put the ultimate engine steady on and really reduce movement.

Some of the Worst bits of rust below, ok lets find a sympathetic welder

[thelovehate998]

Well look at that... it runs, Its not tuned up and its not even up to temperature but its running, a big relief, oil pressure looks solid even at idle, its also running a hell of alot nicer than previously! so what did i do? The car is now at work with me and i also have a colleague who used to work on these mini's, we decided to take the carb off, strip it down again and try and reset it to 'base settings', - Float height adjusted - Cleaned - Jet Height Reset - Idle / Fast Idle Reset - Reinstalled

The battery is also completly done so its using a jumppack at the moment.

What we did notice is that one of the breather pipes that was blocked off on this HIF38 could have been actually pressurising the float chamber making it even richer! so this has been left to atmosphere for now.

We also have drive, tomorrow i plan on putting it on the ramp and looking at the extent of the rust. We cant run it for too long as the radiator top hose has perished so we dont want it pressurized just yet.

[thelovehate998]

Im Back

No one is reading this but im back, so its now 2023, covid happened, i now have a 4 year old son and a VW camper... BUT im revisiting my mini, its looking very sorry for its self, last time i posted it was going for an MOT, which it failed, Rusty sills and floor, V expensive to fix. Its Make or break, ive brought the mini to work so going back to basics with abit more knowledge and lets see if we can get this thing running and back on the road!

Fingers Crossed everyone

[thelovehate998]

Moved 2 Canada, Moved Back, Got Married.

SO... this life thing.... got in the way again, 

But one thing that hasn’t changed is the love for my mini. 

Since my last post the golf engine blew up, a new engine got put in, i moved to Canada for 2 years so my girlfriend could go a career starting post doctorate at the university of British Columbia, once that was complete we moved home and recently we got married. 

so now i have 2 loves in my life, my mini and my wife

I dont want to say im admitting defeat but i have so much love for this little car i think its time i get some professional help, the plan is to detail and sell the golf and use that $$ to get the mini MOT’d and back on the road! 

DONT WORRY! there is alot to do on this little B00 to get it how i want it so this blog is going to have a revival,  but the next few posts will probably be abit boring. 

James 

[thelovehate998]

Brakes and a purchase

Been a while so I thought I would give an update, the new brake calipers have been fitted and I successfully bled the brakes using a gunson ezi-bleed, all seemed well.... But when I followed the lines around the car I noticed that the line that ran to the nearside caliper was pinched quite badley and actually sprung quite a serious leak, so it was time to replace this, first I used some kunifer copper pipe and a brake flaring kit to create my own, however I did not have the correct unions to complete this so in the end I popped to min-it's and picked up the correct copper line with the unions and all, 

On that note if your in the area min-it's is a fantastic place to pick up your parts - http://www.min-its.com/ P.S they have many more parts than on the website so go see them 

Anyway I digress, as with most things on the mini the brake pipe that connects from the t-piece, across the front of the subframe and too the offside, is NOT easy to get too, but I found my most useful too to date, crows foot spanners - http://jbtoolshop.co.uk/images/SP039.jpg -  using these you can get to the union on the offside t-piece by poking a ratchet with an extension + one of my new crows foot spanners on the end, and you can get to the nearside by using a MASSIVE extension down the side of the radiator, 

The ezi-bleed was back out and were done! I then adjusted the rear drums and bobs your uncle fanny's your aunt, brakes sorted....

Now back to this bloody engine... I have made a new purchase... An aldon yellow distributor (electric), this should come in handy when we are up and running properly also the vacuum advance was busted on the previous dizzy, it also gives me another starting point for my engine / cam setup 

[thelovehate998]

So an update on some recent work.... It can be frustrating this restoration malarkey

[thelovehate998]

Still running rich but getting a better idea of how this puppy will sound

[thelovehate998]

Recap on some work and compression check

Ok so this blog has been taking a massive back burner, as a freelancer i am working constantly, then if im not work working, im working on the mini but i need to make time to squeeze in time for this

Anyway Moving on 

I have posted of the mini (running like crap) but running, before that we had a few other little jobs, the front callipers were shot and all of the bolts etc were an absolute pain in the backside, with this in mind i have purchased lots of copper kunifer brake line and all the required cutting and flaring tools to hopefully replace all the brake lines, however until i am well practised in making single and double flares, i decided to just bang on the callipers and bleed them in to get an idea of the state of the system... bear in mind this has been sitting dry...and brake lines... without brake fluid... attract RUST the dreaded R word 

I won the callipers off ebay from a member of theminiforum and they arrived in very good condition, pistons and seals recently refurbished plus he gave me a set of dust guards, discs and a set of nearly new pads... all for £64.... bargain, after inspecting the components and compressing the calliper pistons for fitment, they went on no hassle, i used a gunson ezibleed to bleed in the system and all 4 corners bled well! couldn't believe my luck, im still not convinced however so im still planning on replacing the brake lines 

After the excitement of being able to stop, i wanted to see if the mini actually drove! que previous vid, 

ok what you will notice is that when i rev the little motor a shed load of blackish grey smoke flies out the back...now im fairly sure this was over feuling but to make sure i didnt have any dodgy valve / piston issues i decided to compression test the engine, to do this i took the following steps:

got a compression tester... went for gunson off ebay :) 

removed the spark plugs and the plug from the coil 

rubbed a tiny amount of oil on the rubber o ring of the tester

screwed the tester into a spark plug hole (each in turn)

cranked the engine, not pressing the accelerator pedal until the reading on the tester stopped rising 

i was ready for the worst, results are as follows:

cylinder 4 = 150psi cylinder 3 = 157psi cylinder 2 = 152psi cylinder 1 = 155psi

now you can correct me if im wrong but im happy with that, i think the general rule of thumb is as long as all the cylinders are within 30% of one another you are golden, and im well within that, i shouldn't be surprised as the engine was rebuilt just before i got hold of it, chuffed  

more excitement = more work 

i decided to re-jet the carb and install the choke cable (i was missing the locking nut previous), now the standard internet based advice for setting up  a 'start point' on a HIF carb is to set the jet flush with the bridge then screw 2.5 turns in (clockwise), NOW! that doesn't work for me on my HIF 38... i have found out tonight if you make the jet flush with the top of the jet sleeve (where the jet moves when adjusting the screw), then going 2.5 turns out creates a better starting point A.K.A only slightly rich instead of hugely rich, 

one all this was done i held my breath pulled the choke cable out and turned the key, the little engine sprang into life on the 2nd turn and with some fettling of the idle screw and leaning the mixture off a 3rd turn the mini is now idling very nicely, still puffs abit when you rev it, but i ran out of fettling time tonight so couldnt tweak anymore... i also think im running out of petrol! so want to put more in before it drags all the crap out of the bottom of the tank...  a video of the new idle will be up shortly 

Next steps,  - ive located a few minor leaks, gonna get these sorted - start running the first of the new brake lines from the t piece to the nearside calliper  - see if i can borrow a CO2 analyser to tweak the mixture further  - look at the requirement of a Aldon Yellow Distributor, as i have a piper 286 cam and my the standard dizzy does not have sufficient mechanical advance (no idea what that means but im learning)

bye

[thelovehate998]

Quick Update - New carb new plugs, running, MASSIVELY rich hence the crap pouring out the back but getting there, clutch working fine now drives , all gears selectable! Progress

[thelovehate998]

Hit the brakes!... wait ive got none

Now that the engine is going, its time to focus on how to stop. The braking system has been left.... dry... so little or no brake fluid in the system, i know this is a nightmare because brake fluid actually encourages rust, especially on the old Mini's Copper Brake lines, so i know this is going to be abit of a task,

i know the front offside calliper has a brake bleed nipple snapped into it, so i started there, jacked the car up and placed the front on axle stands (where it will probably remain for the foreseeable future) and started looking at the state of the front brakes.... 

knackered 

in a word, so i got my trusty WD40 out and sprayed all the bolts, nuts and washers i could find, on both sides. ( i repeated this process every few hours), once i was confident the WD had penetrated i went to removing the callipers,  many swear words later they were off, and apart from cutting up my fingers and arms nothing else broke... however its pretty clear that i was going to need new ones as rust had fused everything together and they really are looking worse for wear... 

so next steps are:

- New 8.4" calipers (just standard for now...£...) 

- New discs 

- New Pads

- New brake pipes (Kunifer all round), and brake lines (braided) 

my current callipers are sitting in a mix of cilit bang and coke... to try and clean them up abit but im not holding my breath, although i am going to try this -