4 replies to this topic

[Bradp1997]

So my dad has decided to give me his 1989 Mini thirty which has a 1275cc engine, and as I'm only 17 I'd like to get the engine swapped for the orginal engine it should have (998cc) due to insurance costs. Any ideas where one of these engines could be purchased for maybe £300-£400 or less if possible? The car also has oversills which should probably be replaced, paint bubbling below rear window and lower offside windscreen, underneath the carpets is damp maybe that's due to the ripped, naffed up passenger side rubber seal at the bottom of the door or the oversills? The underside of the car looks pretty good, just hoping oversills aren't hiding anything nasty. Anyways, any advice on these problems much appreciated, and if any other problems should be take into account about Mini's or this particular model please let me know.

 

P.S by the way I do know a reasonable amount about cars so 90% of the time I'll know what you mean.

 

Thanks.

Edited by Bradp1997, 13 May 2015 - 08:45 PM.

[sonikk4]

Hi and welcome to TMF. First off if not done so already get quotes to see whether its worth doing the engine change. If so go from there.

 

Now onto the dreaded oversills, by the sounds of it the damage may have been done already with regards to the leak. So if i was you i would take the carpets up, dry out everything as far as possible then with you in the car get somebody to hose the car down. That way you can see what is what with regards to any potential leaks.

 

The other rust you have will mean material needing to be cut out and replaced with good metal. No point in treating it as it will only get worse. If i was you use the car for the summer, get the most out of it then come the winter period start looking into the oversills and other rust.  If you start now you will more than likely lose out on a summers worth of driving. 

[peter-b]

I don't know too much about the second hand market over there but here you'd have guy's lined up to swap a 998 your 1275 and give You money. I also don't know how you insurance works but can you get insurance for a 1275 car, would it just cost more? If so would it be offset by the cost of the engine swap?

[Bradp1997]

Few more questions, after taking out all the carpets, how would you recommend going about drying the floor? Are overseals costly to replace? And the bubbled paint means cutting metal out and replaing it, im guessing that's quite costly to?

Edited by Bradp1997, 14 May 2015 - 09:48 AM.

[tash.the.mini.13]

i've just bought a 998 engine off ebay for £110 in running order but needs rebuilding. I'm going to swap it for the 998 that's in the car now (mainly as i think the clutch is getting a bit worn and this way the car won't be off the road very long and gets a shiny new engine) will probably be end of summer when it gets swapped so if you can wait til then you can have my old one for a decent price (i've never had any problems with the engine itself) and i'm west yorkshire too so close by.

 

If it's a bit more urgent, then £100 is roughly what they go for on ebay but will most likely need a full strip down and rebuild, all the ready to go ones i saw were quite a bit more than that!

 

as already said id check insurance, my did seems to think that all engines under 1500 are in same category but you'd want to check