53 replies to this topic

[Retro_10s]

Great revival going on here, on a nice original looking Mini. you must get some attention with the British plate on the front - will you have to swap it for the U.S. style or is that just the rear one?

[jpsulisz]

Great revival going on here, on a nice original looking Mini. you must get some attention with the British plate on the front - will you have to swap it for the U.S. style or is that just the rear one?

Front UK plate will stay. Minnesota, with classic car plates, does not require front plates on vehicles that are <1972. Very lucky as not many states allow this afaik 

[Retro_10s]

 

Great revival going on here, on a nice original looking Mini. you must get some attention with the British plate on the front - will you have to swap it for the U.S. style or is that just the rear one?

Front UK plate will stay. Minnesota, with classic car plates, does not require front plates on vehicles that are <1972. Very lucky as not many states allow this afaik 

 

 

That IS lucky!! look forward to the updates :)

[jpsulisz]

Update:

So I couldn't really get the car running well at all, it would idle fine but on any throttle it would fall flat on its face. I was having major issues with backfire from the carb and was just struggling as it was super random when it would happen. I then went to adjust the timing and got shocked multiple times when touching the wires - I think I found my problem!

I luckily pre-purchased new distributor leads as well as a new 25D. Forgive the yellow fuel line, it's the only thing I had on hand. I also cleaned up some of the wiring and crimped on some new connectors for the time being, here is the end result:
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I was so ecstatic I went out for lunch in it, and then the issues began!

Problem 1: I drive barefoot in the summer, I take off my sandals, and noticed my clutch foot was wet - I looked down and every time I made a left turn water would spill from the heater on my foot. While refreshing when the car was cold, it quickly became pretty hot. So I am assuming a new interior radiator is needed.

Problem 2: I notice a block away from home as I am driving back (around 5 miles) that the car smells of oil burning. I stop the car in the driveway and see smoke pillowing from the exhaust - the entire rear drive side of the engine is nearly coated in oil:

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I put some cardboard underneath while the car was idling, it looks like it was leaking from everywhere.

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There is an oil stain on the bottom portion of the drive side of the manifold (hence why it's smoking). My first thought is that I have an oil leak on the driver CV shaft as there is nothing I can see when it's idling that could throw up oil that high. I think there may be an oil leak on the transmission side as well as from one of the photos you can see it leaking near the oil drain plug. Oy vey ... well, glad it runs well enough to move it out of the garage so I can move my toolboxes this weekend!! 

Edited by jpsulisz, 04 August 2023 - 08:17 PM.

[jpsulisz]

Well I hope this was quickly resolved, I got video camera and mounted it to see if I could see the oil leaking - lo and behold I was able to! Here are the 2 videos I recorded stitched together:

If you don't want to watch the hole thing, skip to 5:30 and look at the top right

Now - time to clean my driveway

[jpsulisz]

I made a somewhat dumb decision - I used my Mini to go to work and bring it back to the other side of town, it was very scary and my left shoe got wet (heater matrix won't be available from MS until October, so I might need a 1/2" coupler for the time being). Though on the highway the car ran just a hair above half temperature and maintained oil pressure, couldn't be happier.

Anyway, I kept it below 50 mph due to the age of the tires as well as a rattle I heard above 50 from the gear knob.

Photos:
 

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and finally... a 2 car garage, a huge upgrade from the single    - probably its home for a while

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Edited by jpsulisz, 09 August 2023 - 03:13 AM.

[jpsulisz]

Going to a local English car mechanic within the week to look at an Austin 1100 engine/trans combo - apparently it has turned over and he is willing to part with it. I was hoping to grab this for a winter rebuild - from my understanding the only difference is the diff used on these so a majority of it should be fine.

Since I am running distilled water, no coolant, I really want to get the heater matrix fixed. I have since gotten 1/2-inch coupler for the time being and been bypassing the heater matrix. The blower fan works, but I am debating on taking it apart, although I am very hesitant since it works fine and replacements don't seem available.

I did remove the heater matrix and couldn't find a leak - I wonder if this only occurs when the system is pressurized and running hot, since that's the only time it'd leak. Anyhow, clearly it's been leaking for a while:
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The new heater matrix from Somerford is much thinner, but does fit. I wonder if this will have a great effect on it's heating performance:

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[timmy850]

The main differences between a mini and Austin America 1100 engine are:
Timing cover plate has an extra engine mount (this can be cut off)
Diff ratio is normally higher
The diff cover has a rubber sandwich plate between the diff and the remote change housing.

[jpsulisz]

The main differences between a mini and Austin America 1100 engine are:
Timing cover plate has an extra engine mount (this can be cut off)
Diff ratio is normally higher
The diff cover has a rubber sandwich plate between the diff and the remote change housing.

Nice, sounds like I won't have much issue then. I was hoping to actually get a lower diff ratio for highway driving - but if it's going to be rebuilt it seems like a trivial swap (provided they sell it)

I assume this is the sandwich plate you are referring to? This I imagine will be the biggest issue if I want to reuse the gearbox - although I initially was only looking for an engine and was going to get a remanufactured gearbox, I imagine this would solve it.

 

 

 

Also found out a MK3+ heater matrix would've worked and would only have had to drill 2 holes   . There goes 60 bucks!

[timmy850]

Yes, that’s plate. The Austin America bolts go through the plate & diff horizontally. The mini bolts go up vertically from the bottom

https://www.minispar...box/22G222.aspx

[jpsulisz]

Got a 10x3.5 steel wheel from MiniSpares and a Kenda 145r10, got it mounted by a local Discount Tire but they couldn't balance it as their machines are too big. I called around a few shops and it looks like an older gas station has a machine old enough that will fit it.

Today, I went to BMC Repair here in Minnesota and talked with Brian, great guy and showed me around his shop. Talked for an hour about his MG's and Saturn's. We went over the engine that I am picking up, I couldn't get any good photos up front but the tappet cover had an MG badge on it and got a photo of it from the back. Looked like it has twin HS2s and a FWD transmission:

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[jpsulisz]

Picking up the engine later this week; but for my birthday, I went across town in the Mini and disaster struck! I lost the ability to change gears and was stranded in a gas station parking lot in St Paul. It appears I lost the clutch slave cylinder (the boot/seal is leaking brake fluid and the pedal is very light now). I have already gotten the replacement AP clutch slave cylinder and going with a one line braided solution. I am also replacing the master cylinder since it appears to be the original tin one and I have no idea how those seals are doing. It was 95F that day and was slightly overheating on the freeway, I blame this on the vacuum advance line coming off and have the proper one in my package. Anyhow, here are some pictures from that day:

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[jpsulisz]

Found something interesting today - an old automatic climate control project I had for my Saturn SW2 during peak covid. I had all the software figured out with the Arduino but due to many circumstances, selling the car shortly after this being one of the biggest one, I never got the system in the car. Buuuutttt seeing as I have a new project, why not try something different here? I think what I would want to do is make a heater box accept MK3+ heater matrices as well as a standard fan from a car that is easily available (Mitsubishi Mirage/Suzuki Swift/Saturn S-series  ) as well as servos to control circulation as well as air direction.

I also saw another thread where someone was controlling their choke with a servo from a controller as well, I would love to integrate this in too if possible. My choke cable, even though new, does not feel the best quality and I'd love to have an automagic choke that can adjust based on the engine bay temperature. I'd also love to get additional stats (battery, water temp, rpm, etc) and ability to control relays with this as well - if I can maintain the original dash with just the heater box being the control center I think that'd be neat.

Here is a gif back from 2021 when I had this whole thing working, offscreen is a servo that would move based on the desired temperature sensor vs. user selected temperature:

 

[jpsulisz]

Still cleaning the garage this weekend - but went back to central Minnesota to pick up that MG 1100 engine! :)

Here she is, I even got it home in 1 piece. My knowledge of these engines isn't great, but I believe this is of the A+ variety?:

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I grabbed my schlong borescope, this is cylinder #4 - not the best looking and can't tell if that's rust or crud on top of the cylinder. Wearing doesn't look great neither, so will most definitely need some machine work. Wondering if I tempt to turn it over or do a compression test.

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[timmy850]

It’s not A+ . The generator is the giveaway as being an early engine. You’ll need to change a few things to suit a mini but it looks like a good base for a rebuild

If you remove all the spark plugs you should be able to turn it over by hand using the crank pulley. Pulling off the head is a good idea too