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

Lots of people run the cheap pancake filters too but they aren't great. Honestly mate, get something better, a pipercross foam filter or something of that nature, It's literally going to kill off torque and hp at the first hurdle. Don't want to see you going to all the effort to end up with a set of disappointing figures over something daft.

Carl is right,you probably couldn't get a worse filter setup. Just because somene else dose it doesn't make it right.

I was going t mention it before but there's so much in this thread that is wrong i didn't want t get started

Tell your dad to buy a part off tool fr a start, what an embarrassment!

Craigy boy. Just pulled the ultra light flywheel of my mini. Only took 1hr 20 PM me if you need one.

okay chaps I'll check it out once I have the car running and back on the road :)

He did have a parting off tool but it went blunt haha has another on order

On 19th May, 2014 slater said:
Carl is right,you probably couldn't get a worse filter setup. Just because somene else dose it doesn't make it right.

I was going t mention it before but there's so much in this thread that is wrong i didn't want t get started

Tell your dad to buy a part off tool fr a start, what an embarrassment!

Haha nice, bet you didn't need a sledge hammer. Thanks Andy will do mate :)

On 19th May, 2014 apbellamy said:
Craigy boy. Just pulled the ultra light flywheel of my mini. Only took 1hr 20 PM me if you need one.

Great news!!!! I found the cause of the engine locking, as per usual it was down to me being a retard haha.

So I did all of this last week but haven't had the time to update the thread as I have been tinkering with the clio this weekend.

Started like this:



Previous post shows how much hassle it was to get the fly off, stripped the b/e off the box. Now I thought it was best to move the engine the other end of the garage and put it on the table, now those of you who have met me know exactly how skinny I am, only I forgot how heavy a fully built up mini bottom end is, picked up it and raised it to my chest and just had to put it straight down, I figured it would be best to put the b/e on a jack and then pull it across the garage and jack it up then make the final lift to the table. Seemed to work okay and this was the result:



Okay so 50 points to anyone who can see what is wrong:



Yes, that's right I forgot to take out the dizzy worm drive when I put the megajolt bung in, it was catching on the crankshaft and as a result locking the engine:



After removal (its a video so click it :)):



By some shear miracle nothing was damaged at all, not even the teeth on the cam that the worm drive goes onto, checked the drop gears and the gb:





Full of little chucks of the worm drive so I cleaned it all out, it was then at this point I noticed the center oil pick up in the box and took a bit more of a closer look at the block, I then noticed the center main strap and the work done to the conrods and the crank shaft:















Not sure if you can see the sort of 'steps' on the cranks but it looks like someone has spent a lot of time machining this bottom end, really not quite sure what I have here tbh, but it looks great

So after I put it all back together with new gaskets and a new oil seal, I cleaned up the taper and the inside of the flywheel:



Much better!

and then put it all back together and left it exactly as I found it:



Need to buy a new clutch plate as the old one has burn marks on and I'm not chancing it! So good news! More updates soon!!!

Edited by Craigie-B on 1st Jun, 2014.

Shit the bed, check those heat marks on the crank tail!

ahh man how many times has this been done !! :(

Yes i moved to the darkside

Instagram @jdm_brett

You dick

Your bottom end looks pretty standard to me. The center man strap is the only bit out of the ordinary by the look of it.. Maybe balanced con rods too but some look like that from the factory.

Make sure you lap the flywheel in again before re-fitting. With a bit of luck it will stay in one piece..

Crank looks stock (maybe balanced), rods possibly been worked but cant tell from your shots, ARP rod bolts from the looks of things and a CMS.

Oh and you gret bob end leaving dizzy drive in there! Lol

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

recommend you at least check the pump for this



if it looks badly marked up like mine id suggest further investigation if it looks fine with little or no marks put it back and for get i said anything!

with things hitting and making metal bits/marks on parts you must be careful as it may have eaten shit and passed it on to the bearings..



its more work to check this but imo its worth it the pump will tell if damage has be done up stream

agreed ▲▲ this is when one of the gearbox thrust tabs found its way through the pump at about 5000rpm

Edited by Brett on 3rd Jun, 2014.

Yes i moved to the darkside

Instagram @jdm_brett

I never actually had the car running for more than 2/3 seconds and even then it couldn't have been more than 500rpm at best

check it anyway, then you don't have to pull it out again when it taps like a bastard a few miles down the road.

FINALLY got around to ordering a new clutch plate and arp lube.




Got it all put back together in between revising for an exam I had the following day:








So I'm dedicating this weekend to trying to get the engine back in the car and hopefully running!

Also I took these pics of the clutch diaphragm hoping someone can shed a bit of light on which one I have??





Thanks :)

Orange.

how can you tell!? I thought they had an orange dot? Thanks mate

There's an orange stripe on the spring.

The blob of orange paint on the spring next to the left hand bolt kind of gave it away...

Ohhhhh I thought that was rust!

Nope, you can see where the paint used to be a stripe across the spring but has worn away.

have you ran it yet?

how did the internal inspection go?

out of interest guys i have several dia farm with no paint at all is there a way to check them for poundage lol.. you know what im saying like a valve spring can be checked for its pressure..

good luck with the first fire up mate its a grate feeling when it fires up and ass is well

I'm going to spend this weekend putting it all back together and trying to get it to fire - It was firing before it got jammed so hopefully I'll get the lot put together and fired up - could be a good weekend :)

So I spent today getting the engine back together so I can get it back in the car.

I had left it without its rocker cover on stupidly so the valves and springs and head got covered in dust and crap so I spent most of the day taking the valves out one by one and cleaning the springs the valves and removing the carbon deposits off the valves









Here's a pic of inside the inlet to show the beasty porting it has tam59m inlet valves and tam61m exh valves



Went down my unit and got the rockers and push rods put the head back on the bottom end and torqued up



Got the rocker cover back on so it doesn't get covered in shit and hopefully will get it back in the car next week :)