38 replies to this topic

[a13gpn]

Stripped the engine down today ready for starting rebuild tomorrow.

Everything is filthy and sooted, gasket seems ok but will change anyway.

Some corrosion around some chambers on the head and block.

Wet with oil in piston 1+2 (obviously I poured some into number 2 for compression test) 3+4 are bone dry.

Lambda sensor is embarrassingly sooted. Will re-build everything, change a few possible suspect hoses and test again.

Debating pulling the whole engine out and restoring/painting everything now instead of later on as planned, the car is definitely worth the effort with its masses of history.

[a13gpn]

Ok so another update..

Engine has new copper head gasket fitted and been torqued up correctly.

Everything has been cleaned up, flushed through and re-fitted. And new coolant and Lambda sensor fitted.

After starting the car again we seem to be possibly running slightly smoother but still have problems.

Loosing a lot of coolant, the expansion tank level has dropped from max to near the bottom already. 

Black water coming out the exhaust along with a bit of hazy white smoke. (possible coolant, but could be slightly oily??) 

Engine still stalls if you put your foot down inside the car, engine seems to revs better if you manually rev using the throttle body which is strange.

Unsure of where to go with this now.

[jaydee]

First the new gasket, it needs to be run through 3-4 heat cycles, then re-torqued when its completely cool down.

After that, it shouldnt eat coolant, at this point minimal bubbling between cylinder head and gasket is acceptable as it clears out after a bit of running in. Otherwise, try a leakdown test.

I wouldnt focus on exhaust smoke really.

[a13gpn]

I have had it up to temperature twice now and re-torqued both times. At temp we also get a bit of wispy steam/smoke/gas(?) from where the inlet manifold meets the head. 

The smoke isn't what bothers me about the exhaust, its the black water/oil covering the drive which signals alarm bells.

[jaydee]

Could be one of those unreliable copper gaskets around these days, a BK450 could be a better replacement

Try to trace leaks and see if you can get a leakdown test

[a13gpn]

You will all be pleased to know the car had a full engine rebuild and is now running perfectly, 105BHP.

Soon to be featuring on the show circuit and select competition events. 

[Ruckus]

So the problems where purely mechanical after all?

[a13gpn]

The head had been overtightened sometime in its life and it had slightly warped the block, so the engine did have compression problems causing it to run poorly. All sorted now, fully rebuilt by top race engine specialists Paul Inch.

[bloke]

Paul's a good bloke, plus he has a workshop to die for. :) You'll always find Mini's outside, his daughter races them in the mighty mini series.