Kansas City MINI Enthusiasts

dimini wrote:If you remove too many of the rattles and other noise makers, Buzz might have to be renamed Purr. You could give him a proper last name, like Pudwell from Yorkshire. I still can't get over the fact that your car came with a notebook full of maintenance records and proper UK registration docs spanning it's entire lifespan--how normal! Only thing I know about my frankenmini is that it began life dressed in green.

I so enjoyed hearing about the history of Buzz! Mr. Pudwell would surely be proud knowing where his Mini is residing now.

Well, I may have solved the mystery of the bad vibrations...if so I may have to rename him!

Turns out that since this isn't the original engine, it doesn't fit perfectly - the base of the carb is hitting the firewall. There's evidence that someone tried to make a little extra clearance with a hammer, but it didn't work, the edge of the carb is worn significantly so it called for a different strategy. After looking at it for a moment I noticed a 1/2" thick spacer.....aha! Exchanging that for a thinner one should move the carb far enough away that it won't hit anymore, now all I have to do is find one. I looked in all my leftover Jag parts as I changed the carbs on it from Strombergs to SUs and I remember having to use different spacers on them too, but no joy - at least I couldn't find any.

Next idea, I went up to British Victoria's Secret and spent a few minutes looking thru catalogs till I found just what I needed! $10 later I'm home fitting it to the carb. It still took a little engineering but now I have plenty of clearance and I won't have to beat the firewall in or weld a small divot into it!

I didn't get it all finished tonight but tomorrow will tell whether I cured Buzz's buzzes......fingers crossed!

In the pic you can see where the paint is worn off the firewall from the carb hitting it....and at the left of the pic you can see the black spacer I put in between the carb and the manifold.

<Sighs>......... all my work with the carb did nothing noticeable to reduce the bad vibrations, so my next move is to pull the motor - while I have it out I'll do some wiring repairs, replace some leaking gaskets and seals, replace the motor mounts and engine steady rubbers, clean and paint the block and head, and clean and paint the engine compartment a bit too. Whew, that's a lot of work, but I want to have it looking it's best for the East meets West event this summer.

I'll also pull the heater as I know there's something loose rattling around in it, and the fan doesn't work - those two issues could be related.

Today was headlight day.

The lights worked, but they were English lights so they pointed the wrong way so to speak. I also noticed the left side headlight bucket had the back rotted out, so I bought some nifty plastic buckets made to install US style headlights.

First I had to drill out the rivets that held the buckets in. Then I had to wire in some new sockets for the bulbs, the English ones would have worked but the wires were in bad shape. Once the bucket was in it was a simple matter to install the headlight and viola! Let there be lights! The driving lights are wired into the high beam circuit and really help on those dark backroads!

BTW, if your classic Mini needs new buckets, go to Victoria British and buy them there - they're $10 a piece cheaper there!

I found a good source for wiring loom coverings that are pretty inexpensive, and I found another source for weather proof multi pin connectors - some of the wiring in Buzz has been changed, added to, replaced, modified and so on.....I'll do it a little better and neater once I have the engine out of the way. I'm not going for show car style here, just clean and functional.

very good job Dave

Almost like I know what I'm doing, huh?

Over the weekend while on the Fun run in So Mo I had poor running problems, traced to a weak electric fuel pump, so I went down to O-O-O-O'Reillys and bought a new one, it took some engineering to get it to fit and work, but once in it really made a difference in how the car ran. Until it didn't......

When it would stop, all I had to do was give it a light tap with a wrench and it would run again, but I'll be visiting O's again for a replacement tomorrow.

Today's rattle repair brought to you by the fine folks a Buzz Laundry detergent!

When we left our hero he was valiantly searching for the source of Buzz' cacophony, and slowly but surely Buzz has been giving up his secrets, one at a time. Yesterday it was the heater bracket bolt that was loose.....

Today, it was the alternator. I noticed that occasionally the belt would squeal for a moment on start up and I found out why - one of the bolts was missing. I found a good one but had to shorten it about 3/8" so it would fit - no biggy - I have a hack saw. Then once I got everything in place and adjusted properly, just as I started to tighten the last bolt - snap! - it broke off, so back to the bolt bin, found another likely candidate, cut off about 3/8" and Bob's yer uncle Annies yer auntie it's nice and tight.

Job done, on to the next.

Alternator, now tightened and adjusted properly....

Havin fun yet? Great retirement project.

I love reading these updates! Thanks for taking the time to share.

There's more on the way......stay tuned!

Today I took out the sealed beams that I just installed and replaced them with Hella H4's with 55/100W bulbs - I decided that for the amount of time I drive at night in this car I don't think I need to spend the money for Xenons. I got a great deal on these - $100 the pair including bulbs and shipping, if anyone wants some PM me and I'll send you the link. Regular 55/60W bulbs are only $4 each compared to $10 for the 55/100s, BTW. I haven't checked but I may need to add a relay for the high beams as they draw a lot of power and I don't need that going thru the high beam switch and melting it.

Here's what they look like.....

Once I had that done it was time to get it on the rack so I can start the engine-ectomy. First I wanted to get some of the dirt, oil, grease and gunk off so I pulled the hood and front grill then sprayed everything I could reach with engine cleaner and let it soak while I drug the pressure washer up from the garage. Half hour later it was as clean as it was going to get, and of course now it wouldn't start, even after blowing everything off with air! Fortunately I have ways of doing things, I had an old boat winch which I chained to the legs on my workbench which is bolted to the floor, then ran the cable out to the car and hooked her up. 5 minutes later after doing a bit of adjusting it's on the rack.

Next I'll start disconnecting things on top, draining fluids and such then lower it down and unhook the subframe, and lift the car up off the engine/subframe in one assembly. Tuesday MiniX2 is bringing his engine hoist down so I can lift the engine out of the subframe then I can get started on the work I need to do. That's the plan anyway, we'll see if it works out this way.....

Proof!

And it's out....a few things gave me a bit of a fight - the exhaust didn't want to come apart and some of the wiring is not original, so I made plenty of notes, took some pics, put some tags on the wires and so on.

Next up, separate the engine from the subframe so I can clean and paint it, I'm also going to pull the head and send it out and have the hardened seats installed so I can run it on unleaded fuel. I'm seriously considering changing the diff ratio while it's out, but I can't decide just how much acceleration to give up so I can have comfortable cruising. It's currently running 3:44's, but I can go down all the way to a 2:76. That would take 70 mph RPMs from around 4200 to about 3500, making the long distance trips I'm planning much more comfortable but, I don't know if my engine has enough ooooph to pull that gear, especially up hills.

Gonna hafta give it some thought.....

Here's a few pics to go along....

Once my back recovered from yardwork yesterday, I decided to pop the engine out of the subframe in the hopes that someday soon the sun will shine again and I can take it outside and clean it up!

Got that accomplished today thanks to the loan of an engine hoist from MiniX2 (thanks, John!) and now I'll start tearing it down. the heads' going off for some hardened seats so I can run unleaded gas, I'll pull the diff and swap to some taller gears, although the housing says 3:34 gears are in it (I didn't know they made a 3:34, all I've seen is a 3:44) so they're not as short as I thought. I'm still going for the 2:76 and hope it will pull them OK on the highway.

I'll pull the clutch and fly wheel and then the drop gears housing so I can modify it for the breather - while it's out I can change the clutch disc if it's worn.

Then it will be into clean and paint mode till it's time to re-assemble....

Would love to come down some time and help ya with that car. Learn a little about auto repair. Especially on a classic

Thanks for the offer Zack, but I find I do better alone....less chance of forgetting something or how I took it apart and so on.....

Hmmm, this looks an awfully lot like a blown or at least failing head gasket.....

Took the head down to KC Engine's this am for refurbishment....he'll install the hardened seats, skim it slightly and give it a good valve job. I'm going to go ahead and finish disassembling the block and take it up to school to do some accurate measuring of the bores for size and taper. The engine was supposedly overbored .060, but I'm concerned now that I've seen what was done with the head that I may have been misled - it was supposed to have been rebuilt about 5k miles ago. Now's the time to find out and make it right....

One thing's sure, based on the carbon on the head and tops of the pistons it's been burning a lot of oil.

I'm not very happy at the moment.

I got the worst of the crud cleaned off the subframe, next I'll take a wire brush to it, then clean it again and put a coat of black Rustoleum on it.

Well, I got the puller I needed to pull the flywheel off (thanks MiniX2) so I'm ready to take the rest of the engine apart, I'll get started on tha tomorrow.

Today I worked on the subframe - I got all of the suspension removed so now all I need to do is clean it all up and get a good coat of paint on it. It's in remarkably good shape other than being a little bent up in a couple of places - those were easily fixed with a little hammer and dolly work.

Since I had the puller, I decided to get on with tearing the engine down to see exactly what I have.....so far everything I've found is very positive....

The clutch disc looks almost new.

It has a duplex (double row) timing chain.

The pistons are .060 oversized.

The crank looks good, and they used ARP nuts on the rods - that's good stuff.

All in all, it looks pretty positive but I still need to do some measuring and see if I can hone it out a little, and I'm still not sure why it was burning so much oil. I may have to have some machine work done on the block yet - such as the cylinder hone and surfacing the deck to make sure it's flat and true.

A few pics to show the work....

As the Mini turns.....

Well, here's where I'm at - basically it's a total (and expensive) rebuild of the motor.

The head needed "everything", as in new seats on both intake and exhaust, which meant new valves (stellite coated on the exhaust @ $25 ea), resurface, new guides, seals, valve job etc - total cost parts and labor - $635!

Today I pulled the crankshaft out and got some more "good" news - I haven't mic'd the bores yet but based on the wear patterns I'm seeing I think they're toast. To fix that since it's already bored as far as it can go means re-sleeving the block @ $125 hole. If I take it back to stock 1275, then I have to buy new pistons and have the rotating assembly rebalanced too. If I go .60 over again and anything happens, I have to re-sleeve it again, but I could probably reuse my pistons and I wouldn't have to rebalance.

I'm hoping the crank is OK and just needs a good micropolish, still that's $125....

Camshaft - at least 2 flat lobes. I could have it reground, but that costs as much as a new camshaft. Buying a new cam means returning the old one for core or paying the $100 core charge. Of course that also means new lifters, and I should get new rockers to take advantage of the extra performance available with a hotter cam. Also new bearings of course.....

Mo money, MO money, MO money!

Of course I still need the spring kit to replace the worn out donuts in it now, and the trans gears, and all the bits and bobs for the front suspension......

My $200 hardened valve seats and valve job has just gone over the moon!

But the fun factor is priceless!

Brought the head home today, see the before/after pics....

I took the block down, he'll drop it in the hot tank for the weekend and it will come out like new, then he set it up to check the line bore and bore it if needed. After that he'll bore it out for new cylinder sleeves.

The crank will get boiled out too, then micro-polished - hopefully that's all.

I'm researching cams as this one's worn out - he says it's from running modern engine oils that have no zinc in them - a lot of guys with older style engines are finding this to be a real problem. I run the ZDDP additive in the Jag....

I got a coat of self etch primer on the subframe and tomorrow I'll get a good coat of black on it, then set it aside to cure for a week or so.
After it came out of the hot tub it was really clean and rust free....

I'm also planning to take a bunch of suspension bits up to school and use the glass bead blaster on them, they'll look like new when done.

Forgot to post the finished pic!

Considering it's just brush on Rustoleum, I think it turned out great!

Today was header wrap day, this should help keep underhood temps down a bit and maybe even make it a tiny bit quieter. Jet Hot or some ceramic coating will last longer and work better, but this is far less expensive and should work just fine for what I do. The kit was all of $23 shipped and I still have half of it left, so if I need to I can do it again!

Besides, I think it looks pretty cool!

Today I bought a Sprite block to replace mine, which is worn too much to be serviceable with my setup, it's still a perfectly serviceable block but would require more money spent on it than I have. The block I bought is already .040 over so we'll take it back to .060 over and I can re-use my pistons.

There's very little difference between the two despite one being front drive transverse and the other being rear drive longitudinal....the rear main cap is different, made to hold a seal on the Sprite that the Mini doesn't have since it's trans is the sump. Other than that there's virtually no difference.

Today I cleaned and painted a few suspension parts....I'm trying to get all the little bits and bobs ready so that when the block comes back and the parts arrive from Old Blighty, I can start putting it back together.

I know it's cliché, but I like my lipstick red Mini calipers!

This is just the first coat, and the camera didn't catch the color very well, but they're gonna look good once they're done. I may not get any more paint on them tonight, the rain's coming in....

Just a few of the buckets full of bits I need to clean and/or paint.......and they'll get new brake hoses too of course.