Hi, 1989 998cc mini owner here,
Developed a couple issues with the running of mine that have come on fairly recently- I hadn't driven it in a couple of weeks and noticed when I try to accelerate or otherwise put the engine under load the RPM goes through the floor almost to the point of stalling, this seems to have developed very recently.
A year or so ago (with help) I replaced the head gasket, when the car was sat with the engine running I noticed a very faint bubbling at one point where the cylinder head meets the rest of the engine. As it wasn't immediately obvious I can't comment on how long it's been that way or whether it's another sign of the problem.
I had topped up the water in the radiator when I noticed the level had dropped, though I put that down to the small overflow hose having come off its connector right next to the radiator cap which I didn't notice right away.
As background, a few months ago I replaced the battery (upgraded the old 063 to a Halfords 075), and previously installed electronic ignition (I don't miss having to mess around with the points!) which has worked faultlessly since installing it. I also had to replace the accelerator cable a few weeks back as the old one had broken (replacing it was 2 hours of figuring out what to do from the manual followed by about 10 minutes of actually carrying out the job)
Possibly relevant is that when I last drove the car I noticed that the rev counter had suddenly stopped working as it's stuck at zero- as far as I can tell the other instruments work fine. I already checked the wiring round the ignition coil to see if there were any loose connections but couldn't find any.
Any light anyone can shed on this issue would be much appreciated, thanks in advance! 
Edited by Sovereign01, 14 April 2014 - 04:25 PM.
