Engine Build Part 2

Wednesday 16th July 2003 - Took stock

Took stock of what was happening today, several things were of concern, Honing being the main thing. I spent most of the time tidying up from the engine removal; I had gained a large mess and a lot of parts all over the place from the removal. Its defiantly worth noting that cars take up a surprising amount of room when apart, certainly more than I was anticipating. I was also unsure on an exact rebuild schedule since the Haynes manual is vague on this, so turned to reading what I could up for building the engine.

Haynes was slightly misleading on rebuilding as their guide sections don't really lead to refitting is reversal of removal since they are all over the place. Their engine inspection sections were quiet good, but lacked a succinct process for reassembly. There was far too much of the 'skip to this section' that the Haynes manual is so fond of doing for my liking.

I had previously bought an 'Engine assembly manual' from Minisport along with another few books. Mechanical parts guide being the main other one. The assembly manual was at first glances a bit of a rip-off. It contained only 10 pages and was quiet brief; I even think one of the pages was an advert for their services. Thinking about it further, it did describe quiet clearly how to get the crank/pistons in the block along with the timing gear and a few other parts. This was something the Haynes manual didn't cover very well, particularly with the parts spread all over the book.

Thursday 17th July 2003 - Honed cylinders

The parts I had ordered had only half come through, I'm still waiting for some big end shells and the gearbox. I was missing some woodruff keys as well as the thrust washers. The engine build wasn't going anywhere.

In the event of not having anything to build or look at I turned my attention to honing the bores. Something I was dreading doing. Instructions on the packaging were somewhat limited to fitting instructions, so I turned my attention to the net. This turned out to be a bum steer, so I went in by myself. Assembling the S & P tool took forever. I was most unimpressed. The instructions were poor at the best and the parts were difficult to fit together, mainly because of poor fabrication. For an S & P tool I wasn't best pleased.

I battled on and got the thing assembled, when some people viewing the garages popped in by chance. One of the numbers looking around the garages seemed to know his stuff and gave me a few tips. It was perfect timing and gave me a bit of confidence to have a go. I started with the worst off cylinder. According to this helpful bloke, in the case of 'Morris' engines, the walls inline with the cylinders suffer from wear the most. This was particularly emphasised on the outermost cylinders. I decided that if I was to be successful I would need to get the worst of them done, so started off with the bore closest to the water pump.

It doesn't mention anything about doing this in Haynes, so I followed the guy's advice and started off slowly, concentrating on the lip that's formed by the rings at the top of the stroke. Working up and down the bore on occasions to try and 'rough up' the bore was also suggested. If the cylinder is smooth down its walls the new rings won't bed in.

About 5 minutes through doing the first cylinder the helpful guy popped in again, to see how I was doing. Nice guy. He had a quick look and more or less confirmed that I was doing it correctly, although a tad slowly. He also brought to my attention the Piston Ring Gap, which I have to say I hadn't considered at all!

Having a flick through the Haynes, again, I ascertained that the gap should be in the region of .2 - .44 mm (from memory I can't remember exactly). Following his advice I stuck the new ring in the bore and measured the end-to-end gap using feelers. To my shock and horror the end gap was in the region of .8 mm. The guy, who I later found out was called Ivan (I think), suggested that I get a set of +20 rings. I wasn't too convinced and was a little concerned with the £50 price tag for another new set.

I finished off honing the rest of the cylinders and retired with a heavy load on my head. I desperately didn't want to have to send the block of for re-bore. What to do!

Friday 18th July 2003 - Painted engine, considered end gap

Still the big end shells and collets etc still hadn't turned up, was getting little frustrated about the lack of parts, so I rang Minisport. They were typically helpful, although slightly unenthusiastic. They informed me that the box had been built, hurrah, but they were waiting for a couple of parts to turn up (such as collets and a fuel pressure regulator). They also didn't have any 3.44 differentials, so I had to go for a 3.29 instead. They also informed me that the parts would be with me by the end of next week. I also realised that the parts that had turned up weren't right, the main shells had locating tabs in the wrong place! Replacements were ordered of the correct flavour in the same call. Glad I caught that one early since it would have undoubtedly held me up over a weekend or something silly.

I spent some time painting the block, since it turned out to be a dirty black/red colour after coming out of the tub of white spirit. The paint came from Halfords and is quiet thick; in hindsight I should have thinned it, but was wary what would happen when the engine heated up with thinners in the paint. It took one coat with no problems and a second followed later on that same evening. From what I had been told, it would take at least 4 to get the block looking spanking new

Consulted Dave at work, still wasn't too sure what to do with the rings! He suggested that if I go for bigger rings they might wear more than the standard. I wasn't convinced either way now. It's not something I had ever really heard anything about.

I spent the late afternoon playing around with the pistons. Re-read the Haynes manual on the subject and re-measured the gap. In the manual it suggests to use a piston to insert the ring in to the bore. This would help to get it parallel. I removed the old rings off one of the pistons and used it to push the ring down the bore. To my amazement the gap had shrunk by .25mm taking it to about .55mm. This was still over the spec but was much closer than .8 mm. It suddenly occurred to me to check the other rings that I pulled out the engine. Although these would have bedded in, they still could give me a rough idea. I found the one of the rings for that bore and used the stripped piston to push it down again, but this time on top of the new ring. The gap in the old ring was visibly bigger than the new one, encouraging. I then measured the gap of the old ring to about .10 -.15 bigger than the new ring.

I decided that I needed to sleep on this one. With the parts looking like they would be at least another week I thought it best to do something with the mini.

Saturday 19th July 2003 - Borrowed compression tool

I borrowed a cone spring compression tool off Dave today. I'm running out of money fast, so couldn't afford to buy all these expensive use only once tools. I would need them in the long run, but for the time being they'd have to be put on hold.

Most of the day was spent tidying the garage up and thinking of what to do next.

Sunday 20th July 2003 - Tidied up old garage

Like the previous day, I spent most of the time in the old garage tidying up. We didn't have long to move stuff out before the end of the month, so I was preparing the metro shell for scrapping.

Monday 21st July 2003 - Waiting for parts, garage on hold

After my disappointing discussion with Minisport I decided to leave the garage for a while, it was costing me £5 a day, which was expensive when you're on a tight budget and already running over. In light of the monetary situation I discussed the problem with Brian, the garage-booking manager. He kindly let me off the next few days' rent. I couldn't use the garage, but it meant I didn't need to move out all the stuff. Garage booking would resume on Friday when I should have some parts!

With the rest of the day still booked I proceeded to get something done today, now I had the cone spring compressor I could resume in taking the suspension apart. Both cones came off with relative ease along with the other suspension components. I managed to break one of the tie rod bolts though. The old break pipe union that had corroded was also grinded off. Pretty much everything followed the Haynes manual here; it covered the section well and was, strangely for an instruction manual, extremely useful.

Tuesday 22nd July 2003 - Metro scrapped

Finally the metro was scrapped. The shell, rear sub frame and fuel tank were about the only things left to scrap. I couldn't be bothered to move the large amount of parts that I had taken off, they'll have to wait for now.

Friday 25th July 2003 - Waiting for parts, painting

I returned home at lunch to find that I still hadn't received any bits. I was getting extremely angry. The worst part is, I didn't really have anyone to blame. I should have ordered the parts and had them on my desk before starting on the project. Inexperience I suppose you could call it.

When ordering the box, I rang round all reputable suppliers and engineering places to get quotes for a new box. The best quote I found was from MED, but their lead-time was 'long' due to people being on holiday. Once again, 'perfect' timing by myself. After going round the shops, it seemed that Minisport would be the best option, the deal wasn't so good as MED, but it mattered little since a few pounds here and there didn't make too much difference when your paying £25 week for a garage.

The lack of parts leads me to start work on the suspension again. With the majority of the suspension apart the only thing left for me to do was to group it up and start cleaning. The First think to clean was the sub frame; it was more or less completely stripped. The only thing remaining was the occasional clip.

With the frame covered in debris and under seal I could hardly paint straight over the top. Out came the trusty angle grinder again, similar to de-coking the head the brush was used. This proved to be very effective at removing both sodden oil deposits and under seal. It took some time to clean it completely, but did so effectively and in places managed to clean down to bare metal.

Some paint was bought from the club shop, in the sub frames case it was Hamerite, smooth finish. Some silver paint was also ordered for the engine parts, such as the clutch housing and anything else down that end that was ally looking. My plan was to paint the rather shabby looking rocker cover at the same time, as the chrome effect had mostly worn out.

Looking at the sub frame I wasn't convinced that the paint was going to take up well, so decided it would need further cleaning. I resumed with the brush for a little longer and then moved onto swabbing it down with some sprits to clean off the last remains of oil etc. To my horror when I started painting the frame I realised that I had gone and brought gloss paint instead of matt. I was quiet disappointed, but couldn't do anything but continue, it would just mean I had a 'gay' looking shiny sub frame L

With the first coat done, I resumed to start cleaning the rest of the suspension components. Whilst the bush was still wet from cleaning, I decided it would be a good idea to give the block its third coat as well. In my haste moving things along quickly I realised that I hadn't painted the cylinder head at all. This, in similar condition to the block with ugly black patches, was in a proper state. I proceeded to paint it, but gave it slightly thicker coats as to move it along a bit.

Attention quickly turned to the suspension components, next on the list being the two upper suspension arms. These were in similar condition to the sub frame, so I decided to give them a blast with the mechanical brush. This worked well and the parts were looking clean within a few minutes. With new lower suspension arms and new tie rods going on the car I didn't bother cleaning the old ones.

Saturday 26th July 2003 - Suspension cleaning and inspection

My attention turned to the suspension cones today, with the second hand purchased hi-lo's needing to be fit. Looking at the set-up it was obvious that I needed to get the ball part of the knuckle joint out of the old cones to place into the hi-lo strut.

After a quick txt to Dave he informed me that the ball could be pulled out, but I might need some heat to do it. I wasn't about to go and hire the blowtorch again from the extremely expensive hire shop in north harrow. I decided that it maybe best to investigate the cone a little further, so used the mechanical brush to clean around the joint between the cone and the ball. Looking down the end of the cone I noticed it was filled with sand. I was hoping this came in after production through the gaps in the cone spring, as I'm sure Mini's didn't come with sand as standard. It was a little troubling to find so much stuff in the cone and it took some time to clear out.

Looking at the joint closer it appeared that it was a simple interference fit, so proceeded to drift it out the ball. Using an old head stud seemed to be the simplest solution and after a little persistence worked well. Once out they were then pressed into the hi-lo's using a vice with a small piece of cloth in place to protect the ball from surface damage.

My attention then turned to painting once again; the block and head got their fourth and second coats respectively. The sub frame got its second coat as well. I had bought a spark plug thread chaser, so this was used successfully. This wasn't a crucial step, but I thought it be best to do it now whilst the head was already off the engine.

Sunday 27th July 2003 - More painting, Suspension assembly

The weekend as a whole has been quiet long, lazy mornings don't help productivity as well. More painting was the goal of the day. Things needed to be looking ship shape by the time the suspension was on hopefully when the engine parts would arrive.

First thing to do was to assemble the upper suspension arm into the tower of the sub frame. The cone spring compressor was used to align the cone into its slot and then used to compress the cone into an appropriate size. Bump stops and rebound rubbers had already been attached at this point! I forgot to assemble these on the first one I did and it makes for a difficult assembly afterwards!

Next to go in were the upper arms with their appropriate spindle; I had cleaned these up since they had come out. The grease on the inside of the needle rollers was less than healthy; these have a high possibility of failing, as they looked rather tired. I re-greased the spindle and shoved a healthy load of clean grease down the needle bearing. The whole lot was then assembled including face plates and nuts to finish off. All the parts were very distinctive and fitted together easily, this was quiet a satisfying process since I had no troubles doing the job, it was nice to be putting stuff together instead of taking it apart.

Monday 28th July 2003 - Testing compatibility with electrics

Still no parts, I had completely lost faith in Minisport at this point. Their 'pushing it through the workshop' technique obviously wasn't working. At this rate I should have gone for the MED box. I think they would have had similar lead times in the end.

Mark popped around to lend a hand again, as we set about sorting out the electrics. Before things started going back in I wanted to know more about the electrics, just in case things didn't work. I got a box and put it in the centre of the engine bay. I then got all the parts from the injection engine and put them on the box. Plugging everything together was a lot easier than I thought, the main goal being would things turn on without the components being there.

With almost everything connected, I think the only thing missed out was the (engine of course) flywheel sensor. I used a copper wire and grounded things I thought to be important starter motor was the main one, but I also grounded the manifold as well. I then connected up the battery negative terminal and checked everything was ok, i.e. no fires. I then plunged the three fuel pipes into a petrol can, but made sure I could get a look at them to see what was going on.

First click nothing happened, that's a good thing. The Stereo turned on and that's about it. Next click, the petrol pump started and did its three-second thing, then switched off. The Throttle body moved as well. I was reasonably confident that things were ok. I couldn't test the coil since I didn't have distributor to connect it to. this was one of the more concerning things though, mainly due to the fact that I didn't know much about it at all.

Third click, I was half expecting things to go ape at this point. There was a real chance of the starter motor flying around the room tearing parts of the loom apart, but I had to try it. To my relief I hadn't grounded it properly, but the starter relay switched. This was the main thing, if the relay went this meant that the solenoid would fire and engage the motor. That's what really mattered in the long run.

I slowly removed injection parts till I got to the ECU, everything still worked as it did the first time. When I removed the ECU the fuel pump didn't work, but I wasn't too worried about this.

This was an important test since it let me know how much modifying I needed to do to the loom to get the carburettor engine running. With the test out the way we returned to painting the head and sub frame. The sub frame had had about 2 coats over all, it was difficult to paint the whole thing in one go since it's an awkward shape. The head got its Third coat, which was enough for now.

Tuesday 29th July 2003 - Twin carburettor check

I inspected my twin carburettors today; I took apart the 1.1/4's, as they seemed to be the more appropriate sized carburettors for the engine. I had got some 1.3/4's as well, but they were a bit of a toy for now. The 1.1/4's were in reasonable nick, they needed a good clean, which they haven't got yet, but I didn't plan on fitting them till later. For the time being I planned on using the HIF off the Metro, as it was set-up for the engine I was using.

I helped Dave move some more of his bits from the garage as well, we had but a few days to remove the last things from the garage.

Wednesday 30th July 2003 - New bits arrived

Wahoo, the parts have arrived! I got a mate, Matt, to give me a lift around to the garage with the parts, as they were too heavy to carry around there. The gearbox looked absolutely spanking, I was quiet chuffed. For the rest of the evening I was busy and couldn't do any work. A little disappointing since I had been waiting for the parts for three and a half weeks, and they had been one and a half late!

Thursday 31st July 2003 - Assembled crank, rods and pistons

Had the day off work today, I was concentrating on the block. My intention was to get the crank and pistons in before the end of the day. I started early getting up at my normal work time, on a holiday I must be MAD. After getting to the garage at about 9.45 I started to sort the parts out I needed to do the job in hand. Out came the new bearings, but there were no thrusts!

I began assembling anyway; I couldn't be doing with more delays. I also couldn't assemble the engine without thrusts, so I decided to use the ones I had pulled out of the engine when it was stripped. These cleaned up nicely they weren't damage at all either, which was a bit of a relief. The crank went in and was tightened down carefully, following the 'engine assembly manual' from Minisport.

Things were going well, I had 'nipped' the crank in position and was ready to test the crank end float. To my massive relief it was well within spec, so the rest of the engine could be built without problems. I continued to torque down the caps carefully making sure that everything was spotlessly clean and well oiled up. The crank turned perfectly without a hint of binding/rubbing. I was well chuffed.

Next were the pistons, I had previously cleaned all the pistons. They were then polished off by mark on a previous evening in the garage. Mark had also fitted the rings that I'm glad to say he did a good job, although one of the rings was the wrong way round. Using the piston ring compressor, again borrowed off Dave, the pistons were carefully added. The engine stand was invaluable here, without it this would have been a proper trial.

Once the pistons were added the caps were placed on the big ends and the whole lot got torque down in increments. It was then checked, re-checked, re-checked again, and again. You may have guessed that I wanted to be sure it was right!

The next thing I knew it was 5 in the afternoon! I hadn't stopped once when doing the build and it had taken me a long time to get everything in. I wasn't going fast though. It was the first time I had ever done anything like this and I didn't want to get anything wrong!

The evening was booked up again! This time it was the final move from the garage. The only thing left was Dave's tool chest and the metro parts. There was therefore a massive number of Metro parts left behind as we left the garage in Harefield, not too disappointed though as the parts were becoming an annoyance to sell. The stupid farmer that kicked us out can sort them out now.