Obtaining an Engine! Part 2

Sunday 1st June 2003 - Picked up new gearbox

Went to pick up a cheap metro turbo gearbox and head today from south London. Got a massive scare just after I picked up the box. When I got back in the mini and started her up the oil pressure light was on and wouldn't go off. At higher revs the light flickered somewhat, but wasn't very convincing.

In a bit of a mad panic I thought it be best if I check the oil level, which was fine. Although I had big problems trying to find the level as the car had recently had an oil change. I then rang Dave to get his advice, as going round the M25 with an oil pressure problem didn't seem like a good idea. He suggested that I drive home slowly after a few checks. Took me about 2hrs to get home at a rather timid speed going down the motorway.

Monday 2nd June 2003 - Metro stripped, new plan

Not much happened in the last few weeks apart from the mini scare, the metro shell has been moved around the garage several times. I also had time to strip the car, I took the panels and doors off. The interior also got stripped. Many of the parts were added to ebay for sale, but most didn't go. Some of the body panels have arrived for the mini's repairs.

Much of the last few weeks have been spent helping getting the garage into usable condition. This included removing several bucket loads of pigeon poop from the floor with a high-pressure washer. Electrics were also a concern at this time, since running all the equipment off of one socket was getting a little dodgy. I also needed somewhere to take the engine apart!

With the previous days problems it would appear that I needed to get the engine change on the move ASAP. It seemed that both bodywork and engine change would happen at the same time now.

The general plan is that the engine would be dropped out the bottom of the car with sub frame. The sub frame would then be put back in place with wheels on and the car front-end bodywork would be sorted. Dave had agreed to do the welding if I prepared everything. As compensation we had agreed a few hundred to cover his time and materials.

Whilst Dave was doing the welding I would spend most of the time rebuilding the engine to put in. when the welding had been finished on the front end I would take the sub frame off again and put the new lump on with all ancillaries in tact. This would then leave Dave to sort out the rear valance and do any tidying up of the rear end of the mini.

This plan optimised the time that the mini would be off the road, but relied on there being few problems with parts and other things. If there was a delay in the welding of the front end, for example, then I couldn't put the engine on the sub frame that would cause a delay.

Thursday 12th June 2003 - Started to strip engine

First time I have been able to get down to doing more stuff, on the engine, in a couple of weeks. A friend, Mark, came down with me to lend a hand we managed to strip the engine of ancillaries and remove all the valves from the head. Dave, yet again, showing experience lead the way in trying to remove the clutch/flywheel combination with the puller. This defeated us late on in the evening.

Friday 13th June 2003 - Troubles removing flywheel

Proved to be the day that is Friday the 13th, I attempted to remove the clutch to no avail, without help from anyone it was proving to be difficult. After standing on the breaker bar trying to 'pop' the flywheel off, I think I was doing a better job wearing myself out than I was at pulling the flywheel. Standing on the breaker bar whilst pushing the top of the engine away from me was most definatly getting the best of me. I would need to have a rethink on this one and retired for the evening.

Saturday 14th June 2003 - Removed Flywheel

This would prove to be an extremely expensive day. Not only did I find my debit card had been cancelled I ended up hiring out a plumbers blowtorch for nearly the price of a new unit. I wasn't best pleased. Put it this way I wasn't ever going back to that hire shop.

However, it seemed to do the trick. Nearly 13hrs of toil with the flywheel and a puller it finally 'popped' off. I can't tell you the relief I experience when it finally moved. I think there should be a new emotion, the combination of relief and rage, maybe 'relage'……. I'll get my coat….

It had survived three people swinging around on a breaker bar for half hour, a high pressure impact wrench tugging on that puller centre bolt and me standing on the end of the breaker bar pushing with all my weight and might. The really galling thing is that all it took to get it off was a little heat from the blowtorch and a 'whollop' from a rubber mallet on the side of the puller.

Tuesday 17th June 2003 - Engine Taken apart

After a good couple of days at the garage the engine was almost completely stripped, with only a few things left to sort out. All the parts were labelled up and put in some sort of order. It didn't take long to pull everything apart as soon as the clutch was off, although there seemed to be an endless supply of crankcase to transmission nuts and bolts! Once again, help from Dave speeded things up very nicely.

Wednesday 18th June 2003 - Measured crank and block

Mark came down to help again, didn't end up doing much, as it was more of a show and tell for mark. I did manage to get the crank measured and inspect the block for wear.

Later in the evening I decided that it maybe a good idea to try and get a plan of action sorted for the swap and bodywork repairs on the Mini. I worked out that I had 10 weeks left before my placement ended. In this time I had to get the engine cleaned, painted and built, the SPi engine removed and the bodywork removed/replaced and painted.

I totalled up all the parts that I would need to complete the engine rebuild. This was proving to be massive sum and was out of my reach to be perfectly honest. With the prospect that I would need a rebuild on a gearbox added to the sum something needed to be dropped off the list.

Thursday 19th June - De-coked head, no more garage

Started cleaning up the coke off the head today, was quiet a satisfying process. A brush on the end of a small grinder performed the final removal of the coke. However, I ended up spending most of the time talking to Dave rather than doing anything. Most of the sessions seem to end up being whiled away in this manner. However a strategy was formed on rebuilding the engine.

We decided that the bores of the block were in good enough condition as to stick with the standard sizes. This would negate the need to buy a new set of pistons, which would add about £150 to the rebuild bill. After consulting the Haynes manuals I had I also realised that I didn't need to regrind the crank, both big ends and mains were in good condition and were within a few thou of the original spec sizes. This again would drop the price of the rebuild by a further £50-75.

Later that evening I found out that we had been asked to move out of the garage. The farmer had decided that we weren't suitable tenants; I think it had something to do with an inspection by the local council. We found out at this point that the council lets the farm. This was a bit sad since we had moved in a lot of stuff and put up a fair amount of electrics in the form of extra lighting and sockets.

This could easily prove to be a complete show stopper since it's so late on in the day. It could have been worse though; the Mini could have been in pieces on the floor of the garage as well. To cap it all, my plan has gone to POT, GRR.

Sunday 22nd June 2003 - Bought cleaning materials

The weekend was spent recovering from many a beer on Thursday and Friday night. I did get time to pop over to the local DIY store at home and pick up some white spirit and huge plastic container.

Monday 23rd June 2003 - Cleaning technique for block

The plastic container proved to be an inspired move, since it enabled me to wash all the split engine parts in a clean environment, without spilling cleaning fluid all over the place J

First to go in was the block. With the crank and rods out, the block wasn't heavy at all, although it was difficult to move around due to its harsh edges and delicate nature. I poured half a 5-litre container of white spirit into the tub/container where the block had already been placed. Using a spark plug brush and some rags I pursued to scrub as much of the debris off the engine as I could. I continually washed the oil ways through with white spirit and left the block to sit over a couple of nights, whilst working on it in the evenings.

When I was satisfied that the block had been reasonably well cleaned I wash it through quickly with a little more white spirit and then washed it through with water. Although this may seem like insanity, I thought it was at the time, apparently it's a well used trick. I wasn't about to argue with experience, so I carried the block down to the courtyard hose and washed it down thoroughly. Taking it back immediately to dry it off with a compressed air blower.

The block to about 10mins to dry completely with compressed air, I made sure that the bores and oil ways dried first. When I was pleased that it was dry I then used a paraffin gun attachment with some 'easy start', goup/oil/wd40 like stuff that's supposed to drive out moisture etc, and sprayed the whole block down. To my relief the thin oil type liquid came out the oil ways the same colour it went in, more or less confirming that I had cleaned the block reasonably well.

Wednesday 25th June 2003 - Cleaned head

Reasonably confident that this technique worked I followed up by cleaning the head in a similar way. I had already removed most of the coke that had built up on the head, so it was more of a polishing exercise than a cleaning one. The head was dunked in the white spirit for several days like the block, with a good brush with a stiff brass brush. Followed by another blast with the brush on the grinder. The Grinder brush was another inspired move; again a bit of experience from Dave goes a long way.

The same brush helped to remove the last bits of fibrous gasket material from the mating surfaces of the block. These gasket remains were almost impossible to remove if it were not for the brush on the angle grinder.

Friday 27th June 2003 - Began To prepare for engine Build

Spent most of my time tiding the garage, along with helping Dave fix his trailer he had just bought. The idea behind the trailer was to be able to move his cars from the garage to a suitable storage area or another garage. It would also give me the opportunity to drop the metro shell off at the local scrappy.

Tuesday 1st July 2003 - Needed new garage

Had many discussions today, Dave's searches for another garage weren't going well. He had other things on his mind to be honest. I didn't want to, but I had to say to him that I needed somewhere soon to get the mini done and that I might have to go for the car club garages. Would be a bit of a shame as it almost felt like I was abandoning him, but with so much invested I needed to get a move on.