ProZac

Interesting, cheers for this, downloading now .

Jusding from the shifter position, i'd say Sigma/Early Galant. Measure the distance between the top two bellhousing bolts, and also the bottom two, will tell you if its 'wide' or 'narrow' block... Will probably be narrow, but if it came out of something with a 4g5* motor, it could be either.

Never really though about mini's, then i drove this one, was pretty much hooked. Girlfriends dad went to buy some parts for his mini, and came back with this car... Though it would be a good second car for me and the mrs to cruise around town in, what a good bugger. Drove it for a bit, got used to it and really started to dig it, then took it for a warrent... oh noes. I didnt expect it to pass first time off the bat, but when they told me that they wouldnt inspect underneath because the front subframe was about to fall out, i knew it couldnt be good. Cut a long story short, its got to many good bits, and is way to cool to not fix up, so thats what im doing. A plan is hatched! Basically the plan is to have it done by christmas. I've sorted a full 2 weeks off right after exams during which i'll put in some long days prepping and painting the body, and hopefull have all the mechanicals overhauled already, then bolt it all together . After a good inspection of the shell, its poked. Rusty, dented, bent, twisted, fuxed basically. Found another shell that looks pretty solid on shaftme for cheaps, catch is that its missing the whole rear panel. Went to have a look at it and they removed it by drilling the spot welds, and slicing through the rear pillars about halfway up, so its no majour to fix up . Rest of it is pretty rust-free and straight, MUCH better starting point than the original shell. Bought the bonnet aswell, coz its also straight. Im super busy with Uni atm, but still find time to work on small projects here and there (thus the lack of real progress on the chevanne). I've stored the mini out at GF's parents place in Cust (north canterbury for you non-locals), and as we go out there for dinner usually once a week, i'm bringing bits of it back in and fixing them up at home . Got chatting to Chris (CUL8R) the other day and he mentioned he had a banged up mini body at his... Went to look at the rear panel, and its pretty damn straight and also rust free, score! Even the same colour! Busted out the angle grinder a few days later and roughly hacked it off... Which brings me to the first work on this project, sorting the rear panel. Today job was to carefully un-stitch the spotwelds holding all the excess metal i'd chopped, and leave a nice useable rear panel behind. Coupe of pics of the mini as it was bought: Good wheels, looks tidy, but that body is really fucked. Interior is a bit messy, but its all there, and will tidy up nicely. looks good from the rear too, but trust me, it aint! Shell i bought from trademe, dont have any better pics of it unfortunatly, but it'll be a good'un once i'm through with it rear panel as i hacked it off the donor, took quite a bit of excess with it infront of the seams. Found out that the spring loaded guide on the spotweld drill was next to useless, so i drilled a 2.5mm hole all the way through to use as a guide. Want to leave as much metal behind as possible to make welding it onto the new shell easy. fastfoward a couple of noisey hours later, and its got one rear panel, with lots of little plugs of spotweld left on it. Another noisey half-hour later, after grinding and cleaning up with a fibre stripping disc, and its all gravy. After a better inspection i can only find 2 dents on the whole panel, just by the passengers side light, will be easy to beat out a bit more and then will get covered with the reat of the bodywork once its welded into place . fuck yeah. Job jobbed. Next on the list is fixing up the front brakes/hubs. Pads and rotors are worn out, all the balljoints are shot, and the wheel bearings are notchy as... Basically its ALL fucked. Nost sure if the CV's are useable, but for the price of them i'll just put new ones in. Ive got the pistons from the calipers sitting infront of my moniter at the moment, missing alot of their chrome. The calipers themselves look sweet as, so will get some new pistons, clean, paint, and good as new. Last weeks project, dont have any in progress pics, but they were filthy and also a bit buggered. Took them to bits, cleaned, new jets and needle/seat. Had to weld up the throttle cable linkage as it was slogged out, and make a new cable clamp bit thingee... The heatshield was also cracked, so welded that back up and smoothed off, and made the brace for the throttle springs. Not sure if it'll clear the exhaust manifold, but I can make another one easily enough if needed. The throttle spindles are also well and truly shagged, but quite expensive to replace... I'll run them as is for the immediate future, i plan on swapping to a weber/dellorto or similar in the not to distant future.

Haynes SU Carb book says SAE20 oil. ATF sounds like a good option though.

Need to be careful you dont strip the threads in the crank aswell, I suggest you get a new crank to be sure. . <--- Sarcasm. Have done many many flywheel jobs, and have never had a problem re-using flywheel bolts... Sure, occasionally you get a bolt thats messed up and shears, but that could happen anywhere, with any bolt... You going to use brand new bolts every time you replace anything? In conclusion, re using your flywheel bolts will be fine, unless you're unrealistically unlucky, in which case you should put the spanner down and open your wallet.

yeah man, for sure, could be very keen on getting some mini bits done.

Helped a friend do it on an RB, we just used the nissan ignitor... Dont see the need to swap that out for a GM one? *edit* reading further however, i totally can see the reason for using diodes, should mention that.....

Isnt all you need to do to convert to wasted spark is get a couple of twin post coils (mitsy diamante v6 or similar), connect the output trigger from the ignitor for cyl's 1 and 4 to one coil, and cyl's 2 and 3 to the other?

Can help out with converting to wasted spark if you like man, have some twin post coils you can have to free if ya want. Or can do new ones pretty cheap through work.

Relay for them maybe? Could have popped out if it was loose, or just fucked out altogether.

Could definately be, thats all the symptoms, or could be ignotion module (ignitor), they soemtime fuck out when the get hot aswell. Have you checked the timining at all?

I was under the impression that the RX& box's moved the shifter position also... Check out Jason's thread on austarion, as he's doing the same thing.

Chur for the info man, always seemed like there must be a fix out there for this, good to see some solid info on it!

Have you had the injectors out at all? Could be leaky maybe, pissing in extra fuel... Would be weird if they were all doing it though...

Sounds like a sweet conversion man, should go good. Will be a little bit of work though, running EFI lines and putting in a HP fuel pump, etc....

Crap, i dont have the workshop pictures on this computer, but it definately sounds like timing out to me. Its really easy to get the dizzy a couple of teeth out when putting it in, as the gear is helical and it rotates as you put it in. Take the dizzy out, and theres a mark on the gear/shaft that lines up with a mark on the housing, then you insert the dizzy so the stud on the inlet manifold is central to the adjustment slot in the distributor (might have to muck around with it a bit to get it past the thermostat housing). Even then i consistently manage to get them a tooth out... Totally timing though if its backfiring through the carb.

3/8" Steel bundy tubing shouldnt cost much... We sell it at repco and i know it aint that expensive... Retail on it is probably astronomical though.

The 4g52 in my 1980 L200 sport was narrowblock, so I'd say no.

*cough* steering box *cough*

Dont know about the 4x4 l200's, but my 2wd 4g52 was narrow block. If yours is the same , it means a 4g54 wont fit, neither will any RWD turbo 4g63's. However, non turbo twd 4g63's, and all fwd 4g63's will be fine and an easy as hell swap. I have heard that 4wd mitsy stuff from that era was all wideblock though, but no one can ever really give you a straight answer. Measure the distance between your top two and bottom two bellhousing bolts and post it up, that'll sort it, and will determine your selection of easy to swap in motors.

Sapporo would gain you IRS, and a bucketfull of awesomness.....

GUTTED! Glad your okay man. Know of a sapporo shell you could plonk everything into if your interested, would be cheap cheap. Let me know if you need any motor bits or what not, i've got some shit lying round.

Looking awesome Trigger, love the camber on the front.

When i think about it, i end up reaching for the tig any time i'm welding something on the bench, where i can sit down and really focus. If its on the car, and im just zipping up panels or whatever, the mig gets called into action.

I bought a chinese MiTech tig recently, 200amp, AC and DC, foot control. Have found it to be heaps of fun, and has done everything i've asked of it... I have no other experience of tig's to compare it to though... this one: http://www.trademe.co.nz/Business-farmi ... 395354.htm