702 replies to this topic

[Lund]

Heres what I've been playing with today. I took the rockers off the head and dismantled them to the shaft, gave it a light sand and a good clean, I then individually sanded and cleaned each component in the rocker assembly. Patience is a virtue! I also filed the edges of the inlet manifold to allow the inlet and feeflow to sit nicely on the head ports. The inlet and outlets are significantly smaller than those of the manifolds. Is it really worth porting the head to match the port sizes? If so how can this be done and what with?

[Lund]

Today I spent the day taking the 'shoulders' off of the cylinder head ports. I matched the ports on the head to the sizes of the inlet and freeflow ports. Im not after polishing the ports to perfection, but just to match the ports. Hopefully this will have help the Mini's efficiency in some way., maybe some more donkeys if I'm lucky. Here are the photos:

Before:



After:





Sanding and polishing an exhaust valve on a lathe:

Edited by Lund, 04 June 2008 - 07:28 PM.

[Lund]

Home-made jobbie, cold air feed!

I found a knackered old Henry in the garage(without the smiley stickers, made me feel less guilty ) and took his nose!



I then had a plasticy ring bit in my hand, which wouldnt fit the airbox as it was, i.e. it was to big to fit in the air entry bit. (is this making sense? ) So I cut a small section out of the plasticy ringy thingy so that it would close up more and fit in the hole. I the cleaned out the hose/nose as it was full of henry poo.





Slots in nicely:



In place:



Hose in place:





Sprayed the jubilee clip black:







So far so good!

I then lowered my standards and cut the top of a 'Lenor' bottle / Cut it as neatly as I could Then primered:



And then gloss black:



The bottle top fits nice and Snug over the tube, and stays in place.

All together now:



On the beast:





I spy:



Done, quite proud of myself What you all think? Oh and it cost me £0.00 rather than £35 that Pipercross want.

[MrMini]

Hi mate for the price you paid you have done a really good job there, however i am concerned that the pipe may be too small in diameter but i guess you will discover if that is true or not when you drive it. What paint did you paint the plastic with? Also are you running a k&n inside the air box? My pipe fits snuggly around the outer of the air box pipe and even then i had to use extra material to get an air-tight seal on the pipe. (At a guess the pipercross pipe i have is 14cm in diameter). I love the scoop, and must say it looks good on your car!

Edited by MrMini, 06 June 2008 - 02:35 PM.

[sweetser]

haha nice bit of customisation lol. i also like the big white pipe you used before that lol (seen on retrorides)

[Lund]

i also like the big white pipe you used before that lol (seen on retrorides)

haha that didnt last long!

Hi mate for the price you paid you have done a really good job there, however i am concerned that the pipe may be too small in diameter but i guess you will discover if that is true or not when you drive it. What paint did you paint the plastic with? Also are you running a k&n inside the air box? My pipe fits snuggly around the outer of the air box pipe and even then i had to use extra material to get an air-tight seal on the pipe. (At a guess the pipercross pipe i have is 14cm in diameter). I love the scoop, and must say it looks good on your car!

I painted the plastic bottle with cheapo grey primer and gloss black. I using a paper filter inside, the hose feeds right into the inside of the airbox, about an inch away from the filter itself, cheers for the compliments.

Tom

[Retro_10s]

ingenious!... air box was sent 2 days ago mate, just so you know.. even if you dont use it, it could be a useful blank for something

[Lund]

ingenious!... air box was sent 2 days ago mate, just so you know.. even if you dont use it, it could be a useful blank for something

Oh right cheers for that, havent received it as of yet! I still plan to drill holes in the airbox as I feel this setup might be a little restrictive possibly. I went for a very short drive then and didnt notice much difference at all to be honest. I cant really hear the air intake either. baaah!

Edited by Lund, 06 June 2008 - 03:22 PM.

[Lund]

Today I worked on the little niggly bits that p*ss you off. I re-aligned the passenger side door so my passengers don't keep slamming the door to make it shut, when it already is. Re-fixed the door card where it keeps popping out. Re-sprayed the wiper arms gloss black as the old metal bonnet used to rub and pull the paint off. Fitted my stainless twin washer jets. Re-fitted the heater air intake to the tube. Fixed the rubber back on the arches as it kept popping out making my arches look square. Used paint thinners to rid the stainless bumpers of overspray. Then I gave her a really good polish.

I'm pondering over the idea of spraying the inserts of the alloys black.

[Down&Out]

looking very nice

[Lund]

I love how she looks orange in bright sunlight. After a good polish she really shines, and looks amazing. I'm wanting her to go as fast as she looks now really. Debating whether or not to buy a 1275 and build it up on the bench ready for fitment at a later stage, but I quite like the idea of getting the best I can out of an 850 without a re-bore. I'm unsure of the possibilities, what sort of cam could be fitted? As that would change the characteristics of the engine indefinately.

Apparently they're 34bhp standard, I bet I'm lucky If I'm getting 28bhp to be honest, shes burning oil so will check the piston rings, (I'm hoping its the valve seals) etc when I remove the head. Its not going to be an engine out job as I want the car for the summer, but I want abit more poke.

Right now I'm looking at a Cooperfreeflow exhaust manifold, and 3/4 inlet manifold, but I'm already losing as the carb choke diameter is 1.5. Valves are just short of an inch and there's little if not any play in the valve guides which is great. I'm going to have another go at fitting the electronic ignition, with my new coil and leads, hopefully I can get it just right this time. The head is unleaded and lightly ported, and ever so slightly polished on the inlets and outlets. The ports are also matched to the inlet and manifold.

I wonder what sort of power output am I looking at if it all gets sorted?

I am also looking into twin carb's. How would they improve the power of the vehicle? IF correctly set-up and tuned, what sort of power/torque would I be looking at? An extra 7bhp or is that abit optimistic?

Thanks, Tom

[tedmcedd]

this is one tasty car!! love the old city's, especialy the side decals!

i really like the idea of your intake! i have a pancake filter on mine which i think makes a difference, especialy to the noise im in the process of cleaning up some twin carbs i have bought, i dont know how much more power they will give me, but they look cool and will sound sminty!!

[Lund]

this is one tasty car!! love the old city's, especialy the side decals!

i really like the idea of your intake! i have a pancake filter on mine which i think makes a difference, especialy to the noise im in the process of cleaning up some twin carbs i have bought, i dont know how much more power they will give me, but they look cool and will sound sminty!!

May I ask how much you paid for yours?

Thank you for the compliments

[Baldspeed Racing]

dude looking well nice in the sun and im loving the cold air feed, good to see some Hnery recycling going on and its a cracking idea

[Joloke08]

good luck and i hope you get on the road soon

Cheers Bungle, I've bought the insurance now, unsure about the amount of mileage i will cover anuualy, but you can always amend that right?

Went with Liverpool Victoria in the end.

For non standard alloys and exhaust changes the price came to roughly £1600 , you know what boosted up the price a great deal? The arches. They don't like bodywork modifications - if only they could see the Mini for what it really is Bodywork modifications gets classed as 'bodywork/bodykit mods' even though it isnt a bodykit. So with everything declared, it got to about £1800.

However, with having a family member insured with LV, you get a huge discount. My brother is with LV, and therefore because someone in the family is already insured with LV, i got about £80 discount which isnt bad at all is it!?

Ok, dropping the price even more so, for some reason (God knows why) it helped to add my dad to my insurance. But he is the named driver, I hold the insurance and am the proposer. So that dropped the price abit too.

End price, well... £1730. rounded up. - Not too bad?

Well compared to what I've had. I am very pleased with this quote. Which seems very odd really concidering the amount of it!

Tom

Hiya
been reading your thread and luv the ickle fella
I feel a tad bad for you regarding insurance,it does show what difference age makes though i started driving late in life didnt start till i was 25 and gave up a few times too

I used to have a 998 clubman back in 2000 and was paying £250 fully comp at the time i was 10 years older than you but still on a provisional!!! A car ive allways wanted is a ford mustang and i nearly got one just after christmas but it fell though
But i now realise how lucky i am as at 36 years old my quote for a 1978 mustang ghia 5.0 was just £300 fully comp on a classic insurance with unlimited milage

So i know its hard but youll just have to bide your time,as soon as you can get classic insurance try footman james they are really good

Thesedays i drive a vw golf its a really good motorway cruiser but i really miss my mini so me n my partner are getting another hopefully in time for miniworld action day

I say leave your city as it is an 850 as there arnt many good ones left now,yes youve modified it but they are really subtle period looking mods so keep it at that keep your nose clean get your insurance down and get something more commonplace to modify like a late 80,s mayfair and modify that.

To me the early citys are the purest minis ever even the basic early 60,s minis had better seats,carpets trim etc the early citys were pure and simple minimilist

By the way loved your vids makes me just want to get back behind the wheel of a mini again,i used to live on the wirral and recognise some of the places

Hang on in there your insurance will go down eventually,your mini is really gorgeous

Huggz
Jodie

Edited by Joloke08, 14 June 2008 - 01:38 PM.