68 replies to this topic

[minipete]

Thats one bloody nice mini you`ve got there,the blue is alot better than BRG.Mk2 rear lamps and 10`s all the way!Love it.

[tony kenobi]

Time for a quick update.

So i found a 'proper garage' for me to finish the rest of the mini off, my uncles mushroom house,lol. 80ft long garage. So no excuses now.
Well ive taken this week of work to get it finished. Ive the interior finished today, ill get some photos tomorrow promise.
Was having problems with the wipers and stereo, but all sorted now. Earth points are so important,lol.
Ive a small list of things to do before i can rest.
The first thing is oil leaks! Ive 2 coming from both sides of the engine. Also my speedo isnt working, so i guess i can do both tomorrow once i get the car jacked up.

Ive also a friend of a friend calling to run a diagnostics on it. If you look in the injection section, ive been having a few problems running it in. But i guess the fact ive only done about 2 miles in it since the rebuild isnt helping.
Only bonnet left to fit along with the front and rear badges.
Then a good clean (the thing has waxoyl everywhere) and off to the paint shop to be touched up and polished.
Then a suspension set up and engine tune, MOT, Tax etc etc!

Not sure what i have to do get the tax book changed (colour change) and ive heard getting an engineers report is needed? Then insurance, oh dear!

So no pictures tonight, but i will have some tomorrow.

Thanx

[Bean]

Just read through from the beginning! Superb build - Well done!

[minifunclub]

Looks like a great result mate.
Very nicely done.

[analogue_radio]

Read through this again just to make sure you didn't already say, where did your carpet come from?

[tony kenobi]

hi there, the carpet is the original MPI one. Even the night i bought the car i questioned if it was the original one because it was spotless. Seriously, it looks brand new and still does to this day. But yeah, its the standard MPI one in black. Ive new mats coming soon, in black, just to keep it in good nick.

Well, still no pics yet, mainly because i spent all day laying underneath it trying to fit the wrong speedo cable and find 2 oil leaks. Turns out the oil leaks where coming from the same place, the head gasket. So off with the head and yeah sure as, you could see where it had been leaking. I had it torqued down properly, but either it was a bad gasket or i hadn't it done properly in the first place.
The oil was coming from both corners of the head and the left was worse. Oil running down on to subframe etc, you get the picture, not good. But 2 hours of cleaning and 1 hour of fixing, then head was off and ill hopefully get a new gasket in the morn.

My friend came round with his diagnostics to check it all over. No faults in the 3 tests he carried out, so im chuffed the ECU and sensors are behaving.

Just really fixing the niggly small things now, tightening odds and ends and generally cleaning it all. The underside is being treated in Dinitrol tomorrow.

So ill have pics tomorrow of my head gasket failure,the interior (tho its nothing special) and other bits n boobs.

[BMC Paul]

FANTASTIC! All i can say, just had a good read and look at the pictures, you done a lovely rebuild mate, well done !

[lee&janmundy]

absolutely love this car me and my wife take our hats off to you mate

fantastic job done

whats the bill so far??

again mate its lovely well done

[tony kenobi]

Hey, thanx. The bill? mmm, im not sure, im too afraid to count. The main things where the paint job and prep for it. The engine has set me back as well, with my plans to supercharge it all within the next year,lol.
Though at the minute im spending alot of time trying to fix tiny oil leaks, my speedo (still not working with a new proper mpi cable fitted) etc.
All small things i guess, but taking alot of time,grrrrr!
It feels like im putting things together only to take them apart again to fix something else. I guess i should have sorted these things first time round.
Hopefully have it on the road in a month or less. Then off to be polished and touched up (no matter how hard you try, you will always have the odd small chip here and there during a rebuild).

Hoping to really get lots of shows this year, including IMM which will be a biggie with 20 or so of us heading over from N Ireland. Looking forward to it!

[nicksuth]

Aye up mate, have you got your PBV and running problems sorted now?

[tony kenobi]

Hey nick, hows things?
Well no not really. Ill tell you what happened. I had it plugged into the computer and it only came up as 100% fine, infact i did 3 tests on it.
I had already changed 3 sensors incase. It was still not running proper.
So i thought it needed a run in, i set about sorting other things out,like oil leaks.
It looked like i had one coming from my head, so off it came for a new head gasket.
There i discovered that the main head nuts had not all held the head down, so oil was getting into the cylinder and was being burnt.
Hence why i was getting alot of smoke and very black plugs
New gasket, new studs and nuts all torqued to 60lb, new plugs and i only started in yesterday.
Sounds ok, but havent driven it yet, as ive another very small leak to sort.
Its not smoking as much and sounds better. Ive went over the fuel system 100 times to make sure its all ok.
So thats where i stand at the mo, not much further, but im sure you know, these things all take time, alot of it,lol.

The PBV seems ok, tho i still have a loss of pressure after i turn the car off. It takes about 7 mins for it to go from 37 psi to 0.
Ive been told thats normal and that the system can not hold that pressure up for any longer.

Phew, so ive this week to find leak no2, its tiny, but i dont want any. And sort the speedo.
Its not working and it seem like the pinion is not turning, so god knows whats involved there?

This car has taken over my life, lol, well it feels that way!

[nicksuth]

I still need to get mine plugged into the computer and then setting up on the on the rolling road after fitting the 52mm throttle body and K&N cone filter.

My PBV does exactly the same as yours and loses pressure after a few hours, however, since fitting the new throttle body and filter it does "screech" a bit on pressuring up and sometimes when running on tick-over.

It's running a lot better now but still has the minor hesitation when feathering the throttle but we think it may be due to it having a "sporty" cam but don't know what has been fitted? Do you know what cams are available for the MPi and how to check it wthout stripping the engine down?

Don't forget to re-torque you're head after running it a while (and re-set your tappets)!!!

As far as oil leaks go, mine had a pretty bad one that turned out to be the headgasket having gone at the back corner on the near side which took ages to find? Still have a leak which is a stange one as the car can be used then parked up for a week without a drip, then it starts dripping??? I've got some of Guessworks dye in the oil and need to get underneath again with my ultraviolet light and find the source!

My speedo was a bit eratic until guessworks rebuilt my gearbox and found the speedo pinion stripped (see pic).

[Saxo-Fiesta-Mini]

great build love it

[Gyser]

Any update?

[tony kenobi]

Hi there, well yes and no really, had a family member pass away,so not much has been done over last month. ive the rod change and exhaust off to fix them. not selecting 4th and reverse should hopefully be fixed now. exhaust is being checked and a new piece being fitted. then if its still not running right,im removing the adj pressure reg and going stanard again. will have pics up on monday evening as im off then.

havent saw it in near a month. looking forward to it.