My Mini Project

[James]

I've made this thread to stop cluttering up other ones.


In June this year I bought myself a 1990 Rover Mini.

Here I am, proudly posing at the first service station on the way home from buying it.

[img width=700 height=466]http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m84/BrokenFlight/Mini/Services.jpg[/img]



However, less than 30 miles later...


[img width=700 height=466]http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m84/BrokenFlight/Mini/Roadside2.jpg[/img]


The head gasket had blown, letting water into the combustion chambers. A week later, the seller had come down to fix it for me, free of charge. I did offer to pay for parts, though.

The engine bay with spark plugs removed:
[img width=700 height=525]http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m84/BrokenFlight/Mini/SS100018.jpg[/img]

Old head in place, rocker cover off:
The milkiness is water in the oil.
[img width=700 height=525]http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m84/BrokenFlight/Mini/SS100008.jpg[/img]

The old head:
The gasket had not snapped but it was letting water through between 2 and 3 cylinders.
[img width=700 height=525]http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m84/BrokenFlight/Mini/SS100013.jpg[/img]


New head, nice and clean:
Normally the head from a blown gasket engine would be taken away to have a very small amount of metal skimmed off to make it flat again. The seller brought down a completely reconditioned head to make an easy replacement. i.e. just swap it over instead of taking the old head away and coming back another time.
[img width=700 height=525]http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m84/BrokenFlight/Mini/SS100009.jpg[/img]

New head in place:
[img width=700 height=525]http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m84/BrokenFlight/Mini/SS100015.jpg[/img]


And so I was able to drive it to the top of the sloped driveway.

[img width=700 height=525]http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m84/BrokenFlight/Mini/SS100021.jpg[/img]

[img width=700 height=525]http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m84/BrokenFlight/Mini/SS100022.jpg[/img]




However, it then failed its MOT a few days later on 14 points. It sat in the garage for a while, then I spent a month in New Zealand. Then when I came back I decided to run the engine to charge the battery and keep the thing oiled. But it was bogging down and even cutting out if I tapped the throttle. This was all on the driveway, not on the road.




It turned out it had a distributor from a 1275cc engine on it, and mine is a 998cc engine. The bigger engine has a different advance curve so the timing was all wrong. There is a notch on a pulley that lines up with some teeth next to it whenever the spark plug on #1 cyclinder fires. If you use a strobe light to flash when the spark plug fires, it makes the notch look stantionary when the engine is running.

Here is the timing being set with the 1275's distributor.



The notch is supposed to line up with the second small tooth away from the big one at the back. So the third tooth from the back. But as you can see, if it got anywhere near that it bogged down and cut out. If I set the notch so it was revving nicely, it was a couple of inches forward of all the teeth.

I bought a new-used distributor from a 998cc engine and fitted it. The notch got to the 2nd small tooth. But if I reversed up the driveway quickly it bogged down and stalled. Advancing the timing sorted that. But that meant it was further advanced than it should have been. I tested for an air leak by wafting a feather around the manifold and it fluttered a lot at a certain point.

After replacing the gasket between the inlet/exhaust manifold and the engine head, I set the timing to where it was supposed to be. It's now running like this:
This is the first turn of the key of the day. The weather this morning was cold and misty so there was a lot of condensation, which shows up as white smoke once the engine warms up. It bogged down a bit but that's because it was cold with the choke pushed in. Now the timing is right, I need to check the fuel mixture. I think it's still a bit rich.




While I was sorting out the engine, I was also poking it with a screwdriver. Two of the MOT failure points were "excessive corrosion near the seatbelt mounting points". Like this:
The round hole at the top is where the bolt for the seatbelt goes. The flat hole underneath is where it's rusted. It was like this on both sides and I didn't even realise.
[img width=700 height=525]http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m84/BrokenFlight/Mini/DriversSeatbeltMount.jpg[/img]



So after poking it with a screwdriver I found out I need two new inner sills, two new front floor pans, and two new outer sills.

[img width=700 height=466]http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m84/BrokenFlight/Mini/SeptemberRustSmall010.jpg[/img]

The worst bit:
[img width=700 height=466]http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m84/BrokenFlight/Mini/SeptemberRustSmall007.jpg[/img]

...which was covered with this:
Mesh and filler!
[img width=700 height=466]http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m84/BrokenFlight/Mini/SeptemberRustSmall004.jpg[/img]


So I now have a welder, grinder and 6 new panels. I just need some courage to start chopping up my car now.

[logical123]

Epic post here James. I say suck in your gut, and go all out on the panel installation. If you wait any longer, it'll be too cold, and you'll have to wait until spring to fix your car. Your choice though...

[blcklblskt]

If you have the parts, definately do it now.  I'm finishing up replacing cam seals, head gaskets, valve seals, etc. on my  car before it gets too cold.  It can definately be a pain in the ass, but you're better off doing it now before it gets cold.

[Sirgin]

Nice post James, a very informative read I must say.

[TraderJake]

Your car will be freaking awesome when it is all fixed up and road worthy.

[St0rmTK421]

Wow, you know a lot more about cars that I do.  I envy you

Very informative post and neat little project you're taking on.  You should make this a blog entry and post followups the further along you get. 

[James]

You should make this a blog entry and post followups the further along you get.

Good point.

On your first comment - I'm not exactly a car guru. I get a lot of advice from forums. I bought the Mini to learn on, and so far I've learnt a lot.


Update:
Last night I "reset" the carburettor. That means leaning it off until the mixture nut won't turn any more, then turning it 2 1/2 turns open. It turns out all the smoke from the last video was because it needed to be turned four whole turns to close it. Very rich.


This is the first turn of the key this morning.
Apparently I won't get the revving problems once it's warmed up. As you can see - almost no smoke.

[logical123]

Awesome. The next vid should be an interior vid where you show all the rust, then you do a start-up with a view of the tach!

[Ghost Soldier]

Very nice read, keep us informed.

[James]

then you do a start-up with a view of the tach!

The what? Doesn't have one.



Today I took the petrol tank out ready to do some cutting up this week. It took me two whole hours because of the clip holding the hose onto the bottom of the tank. It was really tight and in an awkward position. Also, it's not a good idea to syphon out the petrol with a hose and your mouth. It doesn't work and doesn't taste nice.

It's illegal to do any welding within 20 feet of a petrol tank. I only found out it was against the law a few weeks ago but it does make sense.

There should hopefully be some pictures of me cutting and welding some time in the next week.

[logical123]

then you do a start-up with a view of the tach!

The what? Doesn't have one.



Today I took the petrol tank out ready to do some cutting up this week. It took me two whole hours because of the clip holding the hose onto the bottom of the tank. It was really tight and in an awkward position. Also, it's not a good idea to syphon out the petrol with a hose and your mouth. It doesn't work and doesn't taste nice.

It's illegal to do any welding within 20 feet of a petrol tank. I only found out it was against the law a few weeks ago but it does make sense.

There should hopefully be some pictures of me cutting and welding some time in the next week.

So you did in fact learn stuff in that class you took?! Amazing!

Also, are you going to put in a tachometer (shows revs )?

[Sirgin]

Also, it's not a good idea to syphon out the petrol with a hose and your mouth. It doesn't work and doesn't taste nice.

Normally that should work though. It's simple physics.

You did keep the hose below the tank level, right?

[NES_Rules]

Also, it's not a good idea to syphon out the petrol with a hose and your mouth. It doesn't work and doesn't taste nice.

That's why I always use a long and clear hose when siphoning anything. Gives you plenty of time to get the hose out of your mouth.

[James]

Also, are you going to put in a tachometer (shows revs )?

I do know what a tachometer is.

You did keep the hose below the tank level, right?

Yup. But what I had to do was put the hose under the petrol line in the tank and the other end in my jerry can then blow down the filler neck. That pushes the petrol through the hose. Unfortunately when you stop blowing and break the seal of your hand the pressure blows petrol fumes back in your face.


I've bought myself a fire extinguisher at last. I'm pretty much ready to start cutting it. But it's been drizzling most of today. When it stops, I'm going to prepare it for cutting another day. That means scraping the sound proofing rubber off the floor, and the underseal off from underneath.





Edit: I've been scraping the rubber soundproofing off but it's very hard and stuck on well after 18 years. I had the bright idea of using a heat gun to soften it a bit. But that was after I had packed away. I'll try again later today, I'm just having a break and I don't like leaving tools on the drive.

Also - More rust. >_< And now I have a hole in the floor from where the chisel went through. Good job I was replacing that bit anyway.

[den68]

That looks like it'll be a fun project. I'll be interested to watch the progress.