200 replies to this topic

[miniBrain]

Hi Skoughi,

 

Been running a front-mounted rad/fan for a few months now. With 82 degree thermostat fitted, the temperature sits at, surprise surprise, 82 degrees.

 

However, I think the thermostat barely opens 'cause the circulation to the heater is reduced when driving. Possibly needs a hotter thermostat.

 

Looking good 

[skoughi]

Cheers! I'm going to refine the bypass/heater supply rigg up that I fashioned earlier in the project. I'm going to have the heater take off on the head fitted with a open pipe going through the heated inlet then onto the heater. Between the inlet manifold and the bulkhead fitting I'll fit a y-branch on the pipe going in the opposite direction so if the heater supply is closed the the hot water will go back up the pipe and to the water pump, if you know what I mean! I'll hopefully be getting my inlet manifold back from a welder friend who is doing a little repair on it, once I get it back and have a go at doing the pipe work I'll post up some pics and let you see what I come up with. Thanks for looking!

[skoughi]

Finally got all the water, fuel and breather pipes all mocked up, plus a good few other things bolted on and sorted. These last few days have done my head in!! Struggled quite a few times to come up with solutions to problems as I came upon them, had to think on my feet a few times to rigg up ideas with whatever I could lay my hands on. Also I've had so much help from friends what with suggestions and making stuff for me after they hear what stage I'm at with the mini. In fact just about everyone I meet always asks how the mini is coming on! The quantity of folk that has helped me out is huge, makes me feel rather humble if I'm honest! So after a chance meeting with a mate this week and after the usual "so how's the mini doing?" he made me a heater takeoff for the head. Well he tigged a stainless pipe fitting onto a thick stainless plate so I could lower the water level and fit a air bleed pipe on top of it.

https://drive.google...iew?usp=sharing

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Rather happy with what he came up with, another few pints owed! This then goes through the heated/cooled manifold for the simple reason to keep the water level as low as possible. Did a fair bit of reading on plumbing in these manifolds and couldn't really find any real plus or minus reasons for using or not using so I'm using it for the water level! I made a couple of "manifolds" for the pipes feeding the heater and going back into the lower pipe to go back into the pump. I've rigged it to firstly feed the heater and if the heater valve is closed then the water will go back up a link pipe of sorts back into the lower pipe and into the pump. This will keep a constant by pass feed from no4 end of the head and a good circulation of water when the thermostat is closed.

https://drive.google...iew?usp=sharing

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So it all seems to fit. Also sorted the fuel feed and plumbed in a filter. Used mostly copper pipe but I feel I need to get some sort of heat wrap sorted. Either cover the fuel pipe from the pump up to the carb or heat wrap the exhaust manifold. Fitted a pipe for the carb overflow down to the drivers front wheel side of the subframe and sorted breather pipes. So now I need to fit the tiny washer bottle and then fit some fuses so I can try electric things. Also need to clean up the center exhaust pipe and fit the bung for the Air to Fuel ratio gauge.

[skoughi]

Been tackling the wiring for the relays for the Air to Fuel gauge and for future power sockets this week, along with fitting the sensor boss on the exhaust and rigging the exhaust itself. Also fitted new front seat belts as the old ones wouldn't lock up no matter how hard I yanked them! The relays were simply the hassle of routing a wire from the battery itself before the cutoff switch under the carpet (hassle) and also finding an ignition switched live and an Illuminated feed from the sidelights. The control box is fitted just behind the glove box so easily accessible and the round gauge on the dash, I'll take a couple of pics next time. Then onto rigging the exhaust. I'm using the old LCB that was on her when I got her along with the centre pipe. They were quite rusty but cleaned them up with acid and the centre pipe ended up getting a couple coats of Kurust. The back box was a horrible DTM stlye thingy so that got binned and I bought a second hand centre exit single pipe. This however had an inside dia that was a fair bit bigger than the outside dia of the centre pipe so I went to a local engineers who have a very handy pipe compressor and we simply reduced the dia until we had a snug fit. The centre pipe also had to get shortened in length as well. After that I rigged up a rear hanger, which looks the part but it may be a bit to stiff so might have to re do it with a normal exhaust hanger rubber thingy.

 https://drive.google...iew?usp=sharing

After that it was onto fitting the boss on the exhaust for the sensor. The instructions said to fit it on the top half of the exhaust so the only place it could go was behind the gear selector, also a good distance from the y-branch. Welded the bugger on but I feel I made a hash of it as when I look inside the pipe I can't see the tip of the sensor poking into the pipe. The instructions say the tip is to be flush but I'm not convinced it's far in enough, I may grind off a little off the end of the boss to get it further in, or may just chance it as is!

 

[skoughi]

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Here's some pics of the boss and where it ended up. Snugly behind the gear selector which meant the short cable that comes from it ends on top of the centre tunnel nearly at the front bulkhead. There's quite a large bulky plug on the end of the cable which joins on to an extension cable that goes to the control box. I have an old centre console that I wasn't really to fussed about using but will now press it into service as this'll hide this bulky plug. Also seeing as any future bluetooth radio device will be installed in the dash then I'm going to alter the console to house two 12v sockets and a cubby hole for my phone.

[skoughi]

Well we managed to get her going last week!! Super chuffed as she started up reasonably easily after a wee tweek on the dizzy position. However due to a wee foo paa on my part the AFR gauge wasn't working so we weren't to sure on what the mixture was so had to roughly set her simply by setting the mixture on if she was dropping revs or whether she could hold a certain level, also the rev counter wasn't reading properly so she maybe wasn't reving as fast as she could've been. Anyway she ran quite well and there seemed to be little smoke from the exhaust and there was no horrible rattles or bangs coming from her. The biggest problem was an oil leak that ended up being coming out of one of the threaded bungs I'd fitted to the oil galleries. I'd screwed them in with some thread lock I had but it didn't take even though I'd cleaned the threads with thinners. So this along with my doubts about the turbo oil pump resulted with the engine coming straight back out!

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I then realised that my fears about the pump probably came from the leaking bung as air would've been able to get in past the threads when cranking resulting in it taking a while to get pressure up. Anyway seeing as it was coming out I decided to fit a standard pump and also refit all four bungs. Bought new threadlock, cleaned all the threads and put them back in. Hopefully this'll sort it. Engine is back in tonight and will finish off all connections etc tomorrow night hopefully. I obviously drained the oil and was amazed at the state of it after just a short time running. Black and with a very different "feel" to it. All the bearing and follower lube fairly changed the state of it. 

 I also changed the exhaust hanger last week. The first attempt was fine but I felt it was just too solid. I felt if I'd kept it as is then there would've been a stress fracture somewhere in the system. So I made a more typical hanger from a normal black hanger rubber.

https://drive.google...iew?usp=sharing

A lot more movement with this set up so hopefully it'll work better.

[skoughi]

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Managed to get the engine back together and back in, problems with the oil leak seems good and the oil pressure is a lot better now. Not sure if that's down to the bungs now being tight or fitting the standard pump but anyway it's all good on that front. Other issues are with the expansion tank bubbling over, got a new cap but at times it was still frothing over. Checked all the pipe connections with soapy water but couldn't find any leaks so it had to be the cap not being tight enough on the tank. Gave it a good tweak up and it seems to be holding fine. Maybe the old tank is slightly worn on the threads, but at over £50 for a new one I'm gonna stick with the old one but just make sure it's well tight. Other problems were with the electrics and mainly the dashboard. After a few checks I found a break in the PCB. I have a set of MPi clocks so had a compare between the two and besides the airbag light they looked the same so swapped the PCB's and everything worked! A faulty fuel gauge sender was sorted by crimping on a new connector on the positive wire at the sender. The fast reading rev counter will hopefully get sorted once I get a loan of a meter to set it too. I took the rev counter apart and found the little adjuster wheel. I then bored a large hole in the plastic casing so I can get to it whilst it's all together to tweek it.

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Even got the screen washers sorted! Only downside is I would've preferred chrome ones but could only get black ones locally. This morning I got the ride height checked and adjusted so that left and right sides were within 4mm of each other. This'll need rechecking periodically as the cones settle in. Also set the Spax shocks at three clicks at the rear and four clicks at the front. Again this will probably need redoing once I get her on the road. So now the main problem I have is a speedo that won't read! This is going to be a real pig to sort as I would think the problem is at the gearbox end, probably not gotten the cable end properly inserted. Going to be a horror story to get it undone and refitted, playing on my mind so much I think I'm going to have to go out now and make a start on it!!

[skoughi]

Ok so I thought I'd go and get a new expansion tank as the old s/hand plastic one couldn't keep the pressure. Popped the new cap off a couple of times, hot water everywhere! Went on good ol ebay and found a neat little alloy one with a traditional half turn cap. Bought it and fitted it, filled up with water and started her up, kept the cap off until she was warm then screwed on the cap. It wasn't on for more than 30 secs and the tank pissed out water! There was a bead of weld along the bottom of the tank that had been ground back and buffed up resulting in the aluminium being very thin. A crack about a third of the way around the tank appeared! Now this tank was cheap so I only have myself to blame for buying it but you would still expect it to hold water surely? Also I felt it wasn't worth it to send it back, wait I don't know how long then get another that was just as bad so I took it to a mate who is very good with a welder. He's going to cut off the bottom, inspect the thickness of the aluminium and weld it back up. If it's too thin then he'll cut off the top where the cap fitting is and weld it onto a suitable length of aluminium pipe and fashion a tank from that. At least I'll know it'll be good then. In the meantime I took off Thursday and yesterday in the hope I could get her ready for the MOT and baring the tank problem then I think she's good to go. Even checked the four wheel alignment and got everything close enough for an initial run in period, though I think the first thing on the shopping list is a pair of rear camber/toe brackets. Adjusting the rears using shims is all well and good but I found it hellishly time consuming so will get these to help re-set everything once she's bedded in better. Along with a few other bits and bobs that's nearly her so hopefully I'll get the tank back this next week, fit it and she'll run and keep the water on the inside! Then the MOT!!

[skoughi]

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Before and after! Only five and a half years apart!

[skoughi]

Well after 5 1/2 years of work my wee clubman is MOT'd and back on the road!!!

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Managed to get a space at a testing station this morning and apart from a slight weap from a brake pipe she was good to go. The only downside is that she couldn't fully warm up on the drive out so I'm going to take out the 82 deg thermostat and try the 88 deg one back in. When she's stopped then she warms up no problem but when she's driving then she's way down halfway between cold and midway on the gauge. As a result then I had to keep her on the choke on the way out but she did and has run better since then. I also might wire in a switch for manually switching on the rad fan as when she's been idling for a while then she gets quite hot, going to check the timing as well to see if that's still ok as it might not be helping if it's out. She also seems to be running more and more richer with every little run so will tweak that back a bit. A strange bit of a rumble from the n/s/r wheel when turning hard right which seems to be getting better with every corner taken. All in all it's been a fantastic Monday, and it's sunny!!

[skoughi]

One thing I forgot to add was a huge thank you to all those on here that freely gave advice and help. Cooperman, Mokespider, AC Dodd especially. There are countless others who have helped so I'm sorry if I haven't mentioned you but thank you if you've helped somewhere along the line. As long as I have her then I will be on here daily looking for any new solutions to Mini problems, and I sure I'll be needing more help and advice in the near future. The mini forum is a first class website and long may it continue!

[skoughi]

Made the Shetland Classic motor show with the clubman, managed to blag a last minute place. Have a look on our facebook page for some pictures, we were blessed with lovely weather as well. Had tons of positive comments about her so I'm now feeling rather smug with myself!

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[skoughi]

So I had the Clubman on the road for nearly 3 1/2 months and have done just over 1k miles in her! Totally enjoyed it to the max, every time I go for a wee run in her I seem to like her more and more! I get nothing but positive comments from folks whenever I speak to anyone about her so my ego has been well and truly massaged! She's been very reliable too, no breakdowns too date, only a flat battery in the garage from leaving the radio on overnight. She's a very easy car to drive, the Kent 266 cam, big valve head and 3.44 - 1 final drive makes her a nice old car to potter about in. Going to be taking out the engine over the winter as I'm starting to collect bits for changing the flywheel/clutch to a pre verto, fix leaking diff side plates (or at least that's where I think she's leaking from) and I think I'm gonna have to get the throttle spindle and bearings in the HIF changed as it seems a bit inconsistent regarding settings/performance. A trip south on the ferry to a rolling road is defo required I feel. The interior needs a proper go at it as it was thrown together with what I had, new headling, carpet, front door cards, make a centre console and some door pockets and re do the dash. Not much if you say it quickly! She's going to get the paintwork flatted back in a couple of weeks and get a good polish too. All in all I'm very happy with her so far and for once I'm quite proud in something I've done!

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[miniBrain]

You should be proud, it looks fantastic!

[skoughi]

Cheers!