51 replies to this topic

[stevelane]

Had my car around 4 years, two of which it was off the road.

It's a 998 mini city e and it's never been quick. The engine is standard and has been stripped and rebuilt so it's clean and tidy with good compression. Apart from a bit of adjustment everything seems ok.

However it's never been particularly quick, it goes around 60 but have to build up to it, but that's about it.

It has never bothered me but over the last few days there are been a few threads on here that suggest I should be looking at more performance.

What sort of performance should I be expecting, I've always presumed it was just the character of the car but now I'm not so sure

[cal844]

Yeah it should do 80+, our 998 sits at 80 all day!

[Tamworthbay]

I have a city E and like above it will sit at 80 all day but is happier at 65-70mph. It has seen 90mph but that seemed to be all it had. The E had a different FDR to make it better on higher speed runs (and fuel economy) at the expense of acceleration. Are you sure its the original engine?

[Gremlin]

What year is it, I've got an 89 city and it's got a 3.105 fdr, so at 3000 rpm in 4th I'm doing 60mph

[stevelane]

I have a city E and like above it will sit at 80 all day but is happier at 65-70mph. It has seen 90mph but that seemed to be all it had. The E had a different FDR to make it better on higher speed runs (and fuel economy) at the expense of acceleration. Are you sure its the original engine?

Maybe original was the wrong word to use as it's had a complete restoration before so it's possible that it's been changed but I mean it's all standard, no stage one kit etc.

Any suggestions what I should be looking at to improve the power?

[stevelane]

What year is it, I've got an 89 city and it's got a 3.105 fdr, so at 3000 rpm in 4th I'm doing 60mph

1992. Sorry for my ignorance but I don't know what fdr is

[Gremlin]

Final Drive Ratio :) Go on guessworks website and type in your engine number, it should tell you with what final drive you should have

[stevelane]

Final Drive Ratio :) Go on guessworks website and type in your engine number, it should tell you with what final drive you should have

Thank you

Ah that may be a problem, the engine number was removed when the head and the block was stripped and I lost where I made a note of it

[Tamworthbay]

What year is it, I've got an 89 city and it's got a 3.105 fdr, so at 3000 rpm in 4th I'm doing 60mph

1992. Sorry for my ignorance but I don't know what fdr is

no problem, apologies for being lazy! FDR is final drive ratio, it is the number of turns of the engine for a turn of the wheels. By making it high or low you can change the top speed and acceleration characteristics. It can be complicated, but basically high top speed will result in slow acceleration and vice versa.

To answer the previous question. The first thing I would do is a compression test and full service. Make sure the basics are right before spending time and money on more complicated things. Whereabouts in the world are you?

[sonikk4]

From the engine point of view check the timing is correct, no issues with the air filter then if those and the compression is good ( what are the figures) then it could be dragging brakes, slipping clutch etc so worth checking those as well.

[stevelane]

Timing has been checked recently and is ok

The engine was rebuilt and had new plugs, points, coil etc

I can't remember the readings for the compression test and I've lost the adapter to recheck it today but I remember the guy that was helping at the time was happy with it and it was consistent across the cylinders.

I should probably say that I'm not worried about the speed as such, more worried that it was a sign that something was wrong.

If it's possible that it's quite normal then I will probably just sit in the crawler lane lol

[stevelane]

What year is it, I've got an 89 city and it's got a 3.105 fdr, so at 3000 rpm in 4th I'm doing 60mph

1992. Sorry for my ignorance but I don't know what fdr is

. Whereabouts in the world are you?

I'm in Essex

[stevelane]

From the engine point of view check the timing is correct, no issues with the air filter then if those and the compression is good ( what are the figures) then it could be dragging brakes, slipping clutch etc so worth checking those as well.

Will have a look at brakes, thanks, clutch was recently adjusted and bled

[Ethel]

Check your speedo against satnav, along a known length of road, by following another car. You say you've had the timing checked, but was that just static/idle, you really need to map it against rpm. It's not just the air filter is it?

[stevelane]

Check your speedo against satnav, along a known length of road, by following another car. You say you've had the timing checked, but was that just static/idle, you really need to map it against rpm. It's not just the air filter is it?