Metro; the engine build; updated May 2016
Turbo Mini Forums

I know your all right. Just don't want to hear it!

If it stopped pretty abruptly, fingers crossed a lot is salvageable - but that bearing cage will fail quickly.

I probably have some of those parts if you can cover postage, but may work out easier to find a 99p 998 engine+box on ebay?

Edited by PhilR on 17th Feb, 2015.

Got a straight cut gearset to go in it so the gears aren't an issue - but cheers for the offer. I was more interested in the bearings as these were all new a short time ago

I think I would rather fit a good, secondhand bearing than one I knows been in an imploded 'box.

Stop being Scottish and buy a new bearing.

I'm going to have a look at what i've got kicking about. Going to scrap this one anyway

Well managed to get down to the shed on wednesday evening for a few hours. First thing was to get a bit of heat into the place....


cleaned the casing up with a mix of diesel and brake cleaner to rid of all the shrapnel


then cleaned up the new gearkit



then started work on the mainshaft assembly







and finally in



With regard to the bearing discussed previously, i found a good (hopefully) used one in the parts bin

hoping to get the rest done if i get an hour over the weekend but looks like family is demanding a bit of attention!

I have a load of pictures, i will try and dig more out later.

There is a shed load more somewhere

I wish I had a fire like that in my garage... my convective heater is pony! Whats with the pallet truck lol?

Wolfie, cheers for the photos. Wish it still looked that good and had the same talent behind the wheel!

Dave, the fire gets moved out the way when not in use. It is as easy to just leave it on the pallet lift

Ah I see.. good job. Thought the chimney was fixed somewhere...

Cool pics, looks good!

Well a bit of progress over the weekend.

I got up to the shed on Saturday evening and, after finishing off a couple of bits on the mini, I completed the diff install in the box. I've never had an engine in this car so I've been doing it all a bit blind. The mounts in this car are early metro which is even less familiar to me so I spent a bit of time going through the boxes of bits that came with the car and started pulling together all the bits for the full build.

I then got back up to the shed yesterday morning for a few hours. The block still needed a couple of bits sorting before taking the build further. The drydeck port needed fitting and I'd fitted the wrong front plate (the metro has a mount on this) so I had to swap that over and check the cam timing. After all that, I managed to get the gearbox mounted and the head on.

Next step is to replace the 1st motion pilot bearing in the clutch housing before it gets fitted along with the clutch. As the car isn't standard, I'm going to mount up the engine a little less built up than usual so I can work out a few things so hopefully have it sitting in the engine bay in the next few weeks - having said that, I've building the engine for over a year now!

Nice progress.

How many times did you check that there was nothing left inside this time?

In the 13's at last!.. Just

Lol- plenty!

well, I've been working my way through things, bit by bit. Engine is now in the car, drive shafts, gear linkage and exhaust all mounted up. Top end wise, I've got the cooling system in and the alternator and starter fitted. I'm currently waiting on a car re-build kit so I can get the carb fitted.









So the current issues are;

location of an intercooler; I stupidly thought I'd have loads of room for an intercooler but it seems as awkward as the mini to find space. I was hoping to use a cossie cooler mounted up high but the slam panel and bonnet on the Mk 2 simply get in the way. Someone has sent me a photo of one front mounted externally, cutting the front bumper down and sitting it where the numberplate would go but I think I'd have a few issues routing the hosed round the left side of the rad back into the engine bay. I do have a smaller fiesta cooler that I could possibly mount next to the rad in front of the oil cooler but not sure how well these perform - anyone got any guidance?

Also started mounting the megajolt stuff. It all came with a used loom which, in my lazy state, am trying to reuse without cutting it about. The edis mounts perfectly behind the master cylinders but the main battery cable runs tight to the top of it and there isn't any give to realistically move it away. Are these things affected by outside interference at all?

Can you not move the rad across to the passenger side a bit

Then get a cooler in front of the rad with the pipework heading uphill then back?

We had a twin pass MR2 cooler at the side of the rad but we ran a small rad.

Other option could be sticking something like the Landy TD5 intercooler up front like we had when the van was in GT17 trim.

If something is worth doing, it's worth doing half of.

its a possibility I suppose; the rad is fixed between the standard mounts but I could jiggle things about

I think we took the standard mounts off and Andy made some up to fit the TD5 cooler to then strapped the rad to the back of the cooler.

I recall the IAT's on the rollers being really low with the TD5 cooler too so definately did the job and didn't blow apart at well over 20psi.

If something is worth doing, it's worth doing half of.

just been reading through the van Thread John. The TD5 cooler is nice and thin; I think I may be able to fit this in if I move the rad back a little; I've not got loads of space but could work.

I take it there is no great issue with sitting the 2 rads in front of one another?

We didn't have an issue, our rad was much smaller than yours too, we just put a pull through fan on the back of it. I would imagine heatsoak could occur in traffic from the rad to intercooler which would drive IAT's up but not a problem really with this cars potential usage profile.

If something is worth doing, it's worth doing half of.

Have you managed to get a MK2 turbo bonnet for it? I seem to recall after a shunt JF ended up with a MK1 bonnet on it which doesnt match the grill profile.

Other option would be to MK1 the front end which would give you more room at the back of the grill for intercooler etc.

If something is worth doing, it's worth doing half of.

car will be track only John; its not road registered

Loads of room! You've managed to keep it all inside the bay so there must be plenty of space left! Haha.

With regards to the EDIS, not sure if the cable will cause any interference but ideally you want to mount on some aluminium as a heat sink.