Craig's mini engine Re-build. 1380 NA this time!
Turbo Mini Forums

My weber 40's choked down to 30mm, but it produces a nice amount of torque. Its the perfect engine setup with my 276.

My dad went round next door a couple of days ago to ask permission to use the crane and so I have my usual source of engine lifting again :) with that said I have had a couple of days off work and so I set about making a start on the shell :)









Got down the unit with both cars and started giving the mini a once over - its year of being stood doing nothing really has taken its toll on the shell :(, I took the bonnet off and started inspecting the state of it:



Now bear in mind when I parked it up everything was like brand new this is how its all looking now:





























I spent the first day unbolting everything with the intention of getting the engine out in the same day, however I soon realised I forgot some tools and it was one of those days where things kept going wrong, for instance I sheared the throttle spindle on the carb trying to get the accelerator cable off and smashed the water feed for the turbo from the block as well :/

I got the majority of the car in bits with only the starter, altenator, shafts, speedo cable, clutch cylinder and plenum to take off. I ended up chopping the throttle cable and I will have to buy a new one :/

End of engine removal day 1:



Started today by going and buying the proper roll pin removal tool as the 5mm allen key I was trying to use the day before was not bearing fruit lol.

Removed all of the intercooler setup and a few other bits and bobs:



Parts coming off slowley:



Eventually it was time:



Up Up and away:







Sum Ting Missing?



And I smashed the FPR off the mount which has pissed me off immensely as I was going to re-use this :(, the bracket is actually part of the unit as well, so may have to test out dads new welder or make something else to attach it.




Now back at work for a little bit, next phase is stripping the old and new engines down for inspection and building one up ready for track day in February.

Cheers for reading :)

Good to see your cracking on with it mate, where are you doing the trackday in feb? I'm looking for a reason to get the car back out early next year :)

Avon 2010 class c 3rd
Avon 2011 class c 2nd 13.8 @ 98mph

Looking good dude good to see your back on it!! but how damp is in there to cause all that?

Can imagine seeing it like this makes you sad..
No doubt you will make it look like it originally did, keep it up.

Btw any ideas on how to prevent the alu bits corroding like that?

Dazed and Confused....

Thanks for the comments guys, yeah made me sad alright lol, however I had kept it outside for 9/10 months so that's why it was all corroded and rotten, plus after the heater tap exploded I didn't clean it up properly so that won't have helped either :/

Ah after a few mins with a wire brush you'll be okay

With reference to your fuel regulator I repaired mine this way.





Hope this helps. Alan

Main Build
http://www.turbominis.co.uk/forums/index.php?p=vt&tid=489133

Upgrade to Turbo
http://www.turbominis.co.uk/forums/index.p...tid=448367&fr=0

Alan, I'll use this thank You :)

Finally got around to doing a little more to this lump.

I started by stripping some parts off the new engine to be sure it was okay.

First thing I wanted to do was check the bores and the head chamber for any rust as I am aware this engine has been sat for 10 years:



Took the rocker cover off and found that when it was refurb'd it was even painted under the rocker cover - immediately showing me the attention to detail with this head. I was told it was ported and polished and skimmed by AC Dodd himself - my friend I got the engine off used to be close friends with him.



Got the head off this is the chambers:





and the bores:











All looks great so took the wok cover off to see if it had a lightened flywheel and found this:



Boom happy days!

I am obviously putting the x pin diff in from the turbo engine and soooo:

Got some pics of the gb inside and its not a straight cut - but thats probably a good thing from a noise point of view:







And finally some Diff pics:

old:


New:


Should be back working on it on Thursday/Friday - need to swap the crown wheels across from the diffs to match the new gearbox :)

Cheers for reading!!

Looks like a good engine then :)

http://www.turbominis.co.uk/forums/index.p...tid=469104&fr=0

Engine looks pretty good to me

what caused those marks in the bores? is that the wrist pin or clips?

Thanks for the comments guys.

I thought the marks in the bores where from honing??

He's reffering to the vertical score marks in your last picture. Worth a better look.

Phil.

WWW.TURBO-MINI.COM

I'll have a look when I'm down there next :)

couldn't see any damage on the phone but just looked at in on the laptop and agree with the others

on second look those vertical marks cant be the wrist pin or clip
the wrist pin runs the same way as the crank so the marks must be from broken rings or some foreign object stuck beside the piston?
not sure but i guess if the marks are just that marks with out any damage to the bore ie cant catch fingernail or better yet have the shop take a look see?

might be nothing to worry about but i think its worth checking out imo

are you going to dismantle and rebuild this engine or clean are re assemble whats been taken off?

Tbh I hadn't seen it before so when I get down tue unit on Thursday I will give it an examine I am hoping it might just be oil thats dripped down.

I was planning to just change the head gasket and put it back together and run it tbh

Been down to the unit last week and had a play with the engines,

The marks in the bore cant be felt by scratching your finger over it so should be okay right?

I got the diff all back together in and torqued up:



I had bought a fuel pump blanking plate as I'm still going to run the mini spi one:



Spent a bit more time swapping stuff from the old engine to the new one:







Left the old engine looking like this:



Next day off is wednesday so I will be doing a bit on the parts I have taken off, I need to sandblast the trigger wheel as it is all rusty as I never painted it before :/ and the thermostat housing needs painting up - I think I may use a metro one as I am considering running a front mount rad from a cinquecento as they look easy enough to fit and its £30 for a brand new one, whereas a new mini spi rad is over £100 for a decent one.

Cheers for reading :)

Remember to price in a header tank if you go front mount

Yeah I was just looking at them on ebay might try and find a small cheap one in scrappy little bit annoyed as I had 6 clio ones at one point which might of been ideal

I have started a new job in London (fingers crossed this one works out!!) and as a result I commute 5/5:30 hours a day so only really get the weekends to play now. Finally got round to doing some on the mini, last time I was down there I got the bottom trigger wheel/pulley off and as I never painted it last time it was rotten and as I am using it as my trigger wheel for the ECU its kinda important.

In primer:


In black:


Lovley!! missed a few spots but its not really visible in the bay.

So went down the unit today with the wife, got the bottom pulley/trigger put on and torqued up and I got her to paint the engine and head for me as well :)

It used to look like this:





It now looks like this:





Awesome! So it has a week to dry while I am at work, should be long enough haha :)

While Jess was painting the engine and head I removed the old exhaust off of the car ready for the new maniflow system - the rubber mounts literally fell apart in my hand whilst I was undoing it - Glad I have new ones lol, I also removed the FPR as I need to make a new mount for that:



Andd finally I got the clutch slave off as I need a few one to run the pre-verto clutch/flywheel as it has a lightened flywheel I want to use that :)



Tested my leccy fan and it works - happy days. Jess was fed up at this point so we left for home and I have loads of little bits I can get on with this weekend like drilling/tapping the inlet and fixing the FPR. I have some parts on order that I am waiting from minispares as well.

Really need to get a move on with this now as I have my London to Brighton ticket and no mini!! I need to get a custom size head gasket made for this but I have a friend working on that for me. I have worked out I can get the whole build pretty much done and do the cylinder head gasket last.

Thats all for now :)

Edited by Craigie-B on 23rd Mar, 2014.

nothing like a dead line to get things moveing