52 replies to this topic

[Sprocket]

Use a Gunsons colortune spark plug. Magic things these for finding out whether one cylinder is running weaker than the other, is also useful to set up fuel at idle, but deffinately not for use under load.

Have the car tuned on the rolling road to see if it is running lean, all this idle mixture stuf is rubbish when the needle is worn out or the wrong one. As to finding out what needle to fit, I would speak to the likes of Mini Spares Centers and from personal experience Mini Sport. They should be able to roughly gues at what needle to use from the information you give them, its then down to the rolling road operator to check how close it is to the engine requirements. Oh and replace the jet while your at it, both needle and jet wear out at simmilar rates.

I have all my tuning done, when any mods to the engine are done, on the rolling road at Mini Sport and the bloke that operates it realy does know his stuff, the car always drives better when it leaves.

I would also replace the rad rather than flushing it as if it is the original from 1973, there will be a lot os scaling and sludge in it. Mini spares center does a supper two core rad that is supposed to be better than the four

[77LeylandMini]

I would love to do a rolling road on the car, but im afraid here in central Florida all we would be left with would be a redneck scratching his head not to mention the 4th grade IQ, All the mini guys down here do not have dynos :sad: The car is supposedly a 73' but when we tell the pros what year it is they all laugh! not to mention the shiny new vin tag on it- US laws prohibit the import of minis unless they are over 25 yrs old or more. we are running 93 octane in the engine with 1 can of lead additive per tank. at first I thought there was simply some water in the petrol, added drygas, no change. I am going to try changing the plugs tonight and richening it up a bit more. Have any of you ever herd of the technique of letting it idle, adjust it, then lift the piston a bit, if the engine runs for a sec then dies its ok, if it just dies, too lean, keeps running too rich??? I read it somewhere? I will try to snap some pics tonight of the engine. Thanks!!

[Guess-Works.com]

Try some higher octane gas, 96 or 98, will go much better, and should also allow you to advance the timing a bit, and richen it up, which may help the cooling issues.

ps. with the HIF there's a little button/pushrod on the right hand side at the back which allows you to do this, it richens up the idle and would indicate if it can take a little more fuel...

Edited by GuessWorks, 18 July 2005 - 09:47 PM.

[Sprocket]

http://www.dynamometer.fsnet.co.uk/

Surely they can put the car on the rollers and run it through full load all the way through the rev range with the exhaust gas analyser up it and the osiloscope on the ignition. That way they can tell you where the fault lies at full load with instruments. Whether it is too much fuel, too little fuel, too much advance, not enough advance, dodgey spark on #1 2 3 or 4 cylinder, they don't need to know how an SU carb works. Get in there yourself, you know how the thing works better than them. Yes they are more probibly used to BIG V8 brutes comparet to a tiny pint sized car but its the only way, just perswade them.

Are there any mods to the inlet and exhaust on the car, because if its a standard carb needle( whos to say the needle is the correct one for the engine the carb is on even if the engine is standard) and you have a high flow filter of any sort and a straight through exhaust then the engine will run lean all the way through the revs and hesitate on acceleration.

Rolling road, the only way to tune

I also found this but I don't think I'll be trying it http://www.niksula.c...diy/10/dyno.htm

[77LeylandMini]

snapped some pics of engine #'s and such

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[Dan]

Ignore all the casting numbers (on head and block) as they mean nothing. Take a bit of emery paper to the engine number plate on the top of the block and lift the paint off of the numbers so they shine out and can be read.

[73MiniSport]

will do! car is at work now, i will post pictures when it gets home

[73MiniSport]

Maybe the carb is fitted with the wrong needle? We were told that the engine and tranny were rebuilt...maybe that was overlooked? Just like my speedometer says I'm going 60 but I'm going 80mph! (After the hour or so it takes me to get to 80).

[liviococcia]

Hello all members, i'd like to introduce myself, i have a Rover Mini City E 1000cc Automatic 1992 'K'reg, and it's in quiet good condition for it's years.

The reason i've added a reply to this thread is because of the nature of this discussion, see, my Mini runs on the hot side (always getting upto around 2mm on the temperature gauge), now i recently found that i can have external fan fitted (one off a 1990 rover mini cooper (carb model), this would be fitted under the wheel arch and be controlled manually from the 'Dashboard'.

I did enquire as to wheather a 'Resistor' would be necessary, but was told it was not and that my Battery would be able to support it and the other standard electrical features of the car (current Battery specs: 35 Amp/Houre @ 285 Cold Cranking Current).

Would i be better off with a larger Amp/Hour 'Capacity' and thus a higher 'Cold Cranking Current' rate?, and would having a bigger 'Battery' be more work for the 'Alternator', and could a larger 'Cold Cranking Current' damage the 'Starter Motor' or other parts?

I also read a piece in this thread from 'Dan', he mentions about using a fan with a different number of 'Blades' off the 'Water Pump' to improve cooling, is this something that could help me solve my cooling problem, and save adding anymore of a burden off the Battery, at the moment i have the standard plastic fan that came with my engine model for my Mini.

Please bear-in-mind that my Mini is a 1000cc Automatic, so i wouldn't want to loose what little 'Break Horse Power' i have, if changes were made, but i am looking for the easiest/cheapest solutions.

I hope members don't mind the 'liberty taking', but i have three of other question, and hope you can also help with these.

The first is, what sort of oil should i be using in my 'Carburetor', i think it's a SU HS4, and how do i get the old oil out of it without removing the unit.

Does changing the 'Distributor Cap' and 'Points' mean that the 'ingnition timing' always needs to be re-adjusted, or is there a procedure or technique of changing these items while not effecting it's timing

Any help, ideas or advise would be very grateful

Kind regards
Livio

[73MiniSport]

Drove the car for a while yesterday...had to keep the heat on to keep the car's temp down....and it's already almost 100F in Florida! And the car just doesn't sound right!