27 replies to this topic

[mjrstar]

Talky here: viewtopic.php?f=18&t=22717

Well this all started out in 1999 as a fibreglass fronted roll-caged race car I had which was de-seamed and not getting a lot of use, so the plan was hatched to find a road going shell to put all the bits in to.

In Renwick I found a reasonably rust free 850 mini complete with wand change gearbox and red interior. The first step was fit the widened steelies with sticky Yokohama a008’s I had and attempt to destroy the original motor and box.

After a few weeks the engine had not died, but it was well down on compression, so it was out with the old and in with the not quite so old.

Travelling through Levin at midnight the engine developed such a loud knock that the massive sterio would not drown it out…

This was the start of the project proper.

What followed a full bare metal re-spray, 4 pot metro brakes, flares, 13’’ wheels and the worlds most expensive ‘a’ series engine rebuild.


Sorry all the progress pics for this are on film as I wasn’t rich enough to own a digi cam back in the early 2000’s

it looks a bit like this today (although probably with a bit more dust on it)






Currently the car is awaiting a shiny new 296 kent cam with matching oil pump, which has been sitting on a shelf in my shed for nearly 12 months..

The reground 286 scattercam copy really does not hit the spot even though the idle sounds awesome.

[mjrstar]

so engine wise it was an expensive engine rebuild, it needed new rods, crank, pistons, plus all the usual junk, the engine was already .0020" over so was sitting at 1293 cc.

The decision was made to go to .0060" to take it our to 1330cc. the "race" head i already had got sat away in the corner ready for the bottom end to be rebuilt. the bottom end was balanced up including a metro clutch setup modded to take a heavier clutch diaphram.
The resulted in a clutch plat that was almost too thick to properly release. and full engagement about 2cm from the floor. As you can imagine a bitey clutch soon saw the end of the first set of uni's. So i upgraded to cooper s uni's. which also did not last too long.

The next step was to go to a metro diff (sick of changing Uni's and i had callopsed diff output bearing) and metro C.Vs. not long after this my flash head with oversize valves decided it didn't want the valves to stay in the head and promptly tore a head off the stem.
This of course led to a very sad looking piston.

from there the valve spring pressures were measured and they were running WAY too much spring pressure. So the head got all new oversized valves and the spring pressures set up properly. Whilst in there the ports got a bit of a teflon coat to keep things slipperey.

For the next 2 years the car developed an appetite for starter motors, crank seals, distributors, alternators, carbs etc. So I kept replacing these bits and used the car as a weekend fun car. I did the civic dizzy replacement which works nicely, but then the gearbox idler case (where the starter bolts on) decided to split open a bit, since then the car has been parked up on blocks in the corner of my garage. I start it now and then to keep it healthy.

I'm probably just making this project thread up to try and get enthused about the little beast and get back to tearing up back-roads on sunday afternoons.

[mjrstar]

well the car left the garage today for the first time in 3 years, I have fitted and a spare metro carb up my new needle/spring i had ordered from the UK a while back, even with new gas it still needs a heap of choke to run nicely, I'm thinking I need to have a look at the jet sizes. (or wire the choke open all the time)

A bit of luck and it'll drive itself on to the trailer when it's shifting time. I'd love to get the gearbox rebuilt after driving a fresh one a while ago, man it was nice. I might have to find somewhere to show it a bit of love when i pull the motor out to put in my proper 296 Kent cam.

[mjrstar]

Ha-ha fools, no real update here, although i am stoked with Nikks Artwork.



I'll be looking for a nice wof man in the Hamilton area, Nothing too dodge as the car is Certed. It'd be good to be able to legally put a few k's on it this summer. it's been a too long since the it's been used in anger.

Still need to figure out why it seems to be running lean,I might just chuck the wideband at it and see if any of the other carb needles I have a better suited.

[mjrstar]

Turns out the lean problem was the needle had turned green with a layer of hard oxidisation which let f-all fuel past the jet, the jet was also seized so adjusting the jet screw was not changing the height..

Does anyone know if the metro HIF44 has a different choke setup to the older style SU's? I know the old hs6 used to just drop the main jet down about 1/2 an inch, but this new carb doesn't seem to do that, maybe it runs a second orifice for choke?

Anyways with almost no tuning (other than blip the throttle and turn the screw) I have it running pretty good on the new carb and needle setup, it bogs slightly between gear changes and runs on a little when you switch the engine off..

Sadly the car does feel like a slug compared to both the evo and the starlet but i guess you can't expect too much from an 8 valve 1300 rocketship.. I'm sure it felt quick 10 years ago...

Next step will be to fit a bigger (quieter) Muffler i have stashed in the garage, no self respecting WOF man would hand over a sticker at it's current noise level.

[mjrstar]

Well the muffler/exhaust mods didn't go too bad, except my new gas bottle for the mig had a F***ed thread so the gasless welds ended up a bit average, i have gone from a straight through stainless muffler to the offset pressed steel one.


Has a bit more fiddling with the mixture and it's running a bit happier, although still bogs a little on the gearchange, chasing the throttle seems to reduce the problem, I might try a heavier oil in the carb dash pot?

Engine bay is looking rather sad after years of neglect, may have to give it a bit of a scrub-up..



also the bonus of owning smaller than average cars..



Chucked the timing light on it too, but then I remembered I don't have any timing marks
I'm thinking I might make my own with a white paint marker ?

[mjrstar]

well I continued to fiddle with the carb a bit last time I was home, tried a different dash pot and piston and a heavier piston spring. still not happy with the way it pulls,(plus i think tacho is reading low) also need to sort the slip joint out for where the LCB extractors join the collector, I was thinking some t-bolt stainless clamps might to it.

Mirror pic of towage from auckland to hamiltron.



muffler mods have been only semi successful, i think it's taken it from 250DB to 245DB....

[mjrstar]

So, in the quest for WOFness, I gave the car a once over.

park and tail lights not going with headlights on, but work on park. (FIXED) dodgy british/my wiring
Left front wheel bearing loose (FIXED)
leaking rear right brake slave cylinder (FIXED) full of orange goo/rust
loose lower steering column bush, (FIXED) this is just a bit of felt which I packed out a bit
buggered bushes front control arms (FIXED) see below

The r/h inner CV seems a bit loose where it exits the gearbox, unsure what the go is, I know there is a brass bush inside of where the output shaft seal is, I have not pulled it apart to investigate further. It doesnt seem to make any noise or leak any worse than the rest of the engine/box

The control arm bushes were odd, they are around 10 years old, but have done less than 10,000miles. they have turned to what can best be described as a consistency somewhere between crayons and old dry cheese. Very crumbly/a bit mushy. They were urethane maybe the constant oilyness of the underside of the car got to them??



To my astonishment Te Awamutu Repco had bushes in stock...

unsure what else mr wof man find will find but i should have shortened the to-do list

[mjrstar]

Spent ages trying to sort a minor fuel leak from the fuel pump inlet, had a bit more of a fiddle of the tune, does not want to rev with the new needle and spring combo, thinking maybe the spring is too heavy and not allowing the piston to rise fully?

[mjrstar]

Well a bit more of a "test" drive resulted in quite the exhaust leak..



I have since busted out the welder and re-shaped the bottom section to give a bit more clearance from the CV's.

[mjrstar]

So the mini has been getting a bit of a workout lately in the quest for wof ness, and has developed an annoying issue with the clutch. Occasionally it does not dis-engage after changing gear, which makes me look like a c***t due to the amount of noise the car makes.. Have bled the system but still seems to be slow sometimes and other times you need to fiddle with the pedal to get it to grip, dammed intermitant faults...

I had considered the possibilty of shit in the slave cylinder making it stick??

[mjrstar]

car is finally wof tastic, think th old buggers at the testing station must be deaf to pass it but hey I can't complain..


The clutch seems to be behaving itself again, although have ordered a slave rebuild kit and a new hose, along with a few other niceities such as a choke cable and proper throttle cable from the UK..

mildly unrelated pic..

[mjrstar]

have pretty much just been hooning around in the car since wof time, it's all going pretty well, i replaced the top engine stay mounts which were in the same state as the castor arm bushes..

The only annoying habit it has at present is it's unwillingness to start when hot, it just floods straight away, it will however fire into life straight away if I pull a vacuum hose off the inlet manifold to give it some fresh air..


I think I'll lean it out some more as it fires up straight away with no choke even if it's been sitting for 10 days?

[mjrstar]

giving the carb a bit more lean means that it will start when hot now..

also new plate



no doubt some will not approve of ditching the black plates, but it's not exactly a mint mk1 with period mods so I'm happy enough to jam a white plate on there...

[mjrstar]

Have purchased a straight cut close ration box, just in case there was not enough noise coming from under the bonnet as it was, also sourced a new/secondhand idler gear casing.. shouldn't be too many more bits of the puzzle required to do the cam and gearbox change other than a few litres of sealant to slow the oil leaks/flow.

[mjrstar]

I had a bit of a fiddle with the new gearbox on the bench, looks to have been freshly put together, layshaft appears to be brand new or close to it and the rest seems to be in good nick. I'm not too sure what else I can check out other than chuck it in each gear and spin it over. (I'm a bit of a gearbox novice)



To prevent pictureless update...

[mjrstar]

A bit of windows photo editor (no photoshop here)

[mjrstar]

So the initial hover car tests have gone quite well...




I have the engine and box out, and managed to fill up the car with water whilst giving the engine bay a waterblast, this will not turn into the epic rebuild, just a quick tidy up..(it still seems odd ripping out a prefectly healthy running engine)

the new box seems pretty good with the shifter connected, although the gate seems VERY close between 3rd at 1st.. so that could be a bit of a trap..

I have hit a few of the bits with the wire wheel, i did think about getting some stuff powdercoated, but i know the engine will just coat all this crap in oil in no-time so there really is stuff all point.



The clutch is still mint so it'll see another round, although the flywheel was a total B@$tard to get off (again) I bent by home made puller which is made out of 8mm plate..

Hopefully it'll be back on the road in a couple of weeks time.

[mjrstar]

I had to change over the crownwheel from my new box into the old diff to get things to match up, I also had a bit of a peek inside the engine.

All seems ok.. In saying that i am having dramas with the flywheel end crank seal, idler gear tolerance and a stuffed input shaft outer bearing...

Pics to follow at some stage. If this shit had gone right today I would have had the engine back in the car tonight..

[mjrstar]

well this still seems a bit odd.... I'm thinking that even with the slot lined up correctly that i must have had the dizzy slot 180 degrees out last time as the plug leads are now wrong..
Ie it's pointing to #4 instead of #1 when TDC #1 compression.. In other news the cam wheel and guessing max lift with verniers puts the cam at around 108 (give or take) which doesn't seem too bad..



I would have had it back together but the old primary shaft pilot bearing is coozed and it's a matter of waiting for a new one from Oztralia..
It also looks like my non gasket method for the transfer gear case is failburger as it puts too much pre-load on the transfer gear, so waiting for a new gasket set which has the correct gasket this time (hopefully) I think they may have jipped me with an automatic gasket set last time???




the plan is to jam it back in the car and try and figure out the ignition timing...