Hi All!
Right as pointed out by Steve above I have somewhat slacked of recent with updating this thread and to be honest not a lot of work has happened in between but regardless there are updates!
So we had some issues as previously mentioned with a fairly large oil leak coming from the crank/gearbox cover which worried me somewhat. Are first we suspected the gasket just placed incorrectly (which in hindsight didn't make sense with the amount that was coming out, literally gushing!), so we replaced that and needless to say it made little difference and was a waste of time considering how long it takes. Then Steve took a closer look as we stripped it apart for the second time and we found that bolts were going through and pushing on to the gearbox casing. So we cut down the bolts, put it all back together, started it up and problem solved! So may have taken 3 gaskets to get it right but it's sorted now :)
Then we move on to exhaust which I've spoken about previously. Basically that's fitted and fitted like a dream as it being a maniflow, highly recommend them and don't plan on changing for something else any time soon.
Finally got brakes all bled through which was a monster achievement I thought, having functioning brakes. This did involve a bit of trial and error though as the rear brakes didn't seem to want to make a solid seal and let loose of some of the £30 a bottle Automec brake fluid! Fingers crossed though over my 2 months absence from the mini it hasn't leaked a drop, the same with the fuel (we think).
Now the good stuff....
All the above was primary to getting the car running in that the noise didn't annoy any neighbours, it didn't spew anything as I drove along and obviously that I could stop when required! So after 3 attempts (if I recall) we had this...
...running like a bag of nails. Expecting the worst with the previous history of this engine with head related issues, Steve set about looking for plausible explanations as to why. After looking at the spark plugs cylinders 2 and 3 weren't firing up so after checking the distributor it turned out the leads had been put in clockwise as opposed to anti-clockwise (I blame the electrician Steve
). Tried again and we had this....
Brilliant! Not perfect but close to the best we are going to get without a tuning session I reckon.
The girlfriend also took a horrible picture of me which I found quite amusing because I look huge in it!
Then we (Steve) moved on to doing some more of the electrics. Now I'm not electrically minded so Steve previously could have been doing anything and I wouldn't have had a clue but basically his efforts are always a build up to multiple things working all at once (with it's own control obviously). So in the space of an hour we had functioning indicators and flashing main beams which was mega, another step closer
...
So this is pretty much where I am at with the mini to date. The only thing that is going on in the background is the refurbishment of my 6x10 cosmics which I will update with accordingly (hopefully later today if I get round to them).
So if you read all the above and made it hear, thanks for reading and any comments are always bonus and an encouragement to me
Cheers
Chris
