Engine Build Part 3

Friday 1st August 2003 - Cam and box assembled

Another early day followed last, with Today's goal being a little more ambitious. I wanted to get the followers, cam, oil pump and timing gear connected along with the box. Today I had the whole day, so it shouldn't have been too hard.

I started off fitting the followers; they got smothered in cam lube that I had got from Minisport. This stuff was designed to help he cam bed in and claimed good results. I had a second hand cam, one that was used for a short amount of time before being sold on. It was in reasonable nick, but the woodruff key was stuck in the end and wasn't shifting. It didn't look like it was offset so I wasn't massively bothered.

With the followers in, the cam got the same treatment, being smothered in lube and then carefully placed in the block. I had decided to leave the cam bearings where they were. They were in reasonable nick, not 'mint', but by no means bad. With the cam in place a pushrod was used to move the followers in and out, this was to make sure they weren't stuck/rubbing in the block.

I was wondering what to do next; I wasn't entirely sure if should put the box on or try and get the timing gear on or the oil pump. After looking vague for some time Dave popped over to the garage with Nick, nick was working on one of his projects. Dave lent a hand and suggested I got the box on next and lent a hand getting it into position with all the seals and gaskets in place. I was very careful to put the oil pickup seal in first since I had heard nightmare stories of people forgetting to put it in.

The block went on after trying a few times. I would have never got it on without a second pair of hands, so again it was a good job some help turned up. The box was tightened up. A transfer, of the lump, from the engine stand to the bench now occurred; using a rope and some brute force and ignorance it was easily moved.

Next to put on was the timing gear, after a search through the bits from Minisport I realised they had sent me the wrong gasket set. Instead of box, block and head gasket sets they had given me two box sets and a head set. Not much use when you're doing a complete rebuild. They had also forgotten the woodruff key for the crank. Just perfect, I was really really really angry now.

The items were re-ordered and I was assured they would turn up on Tuesday of next week. A little annoyed again with Minisport I moved on to fitting the head. It was about all I could do.

The studs were put in and tightened up and the head was placed on. It was difficult to line up, I think one of the stud holes in the block isn't strait since we had troubles removing the head last time.

With the head on, the next thing to do was the rockers. I had decided to go for roller tips, a bit of a mistake since I was on such a tight budget in the end. These could have been missed off my initial list. Instead I could have spent more money on delivery charges from Minisport. I had just realised that they had charged me delivery 3 times for the same order. When they couldn't complete the order the first time, they sent part order through. Then had then sent 2 subsequent packages through and changed me each time, I think this is a bit off since I had just spent £800 with them! No doubt, they would charge me again when the parts they missed off were finally delivered.

Fitting the rockers proved to be a bit of a trial, I had tried to fit them previously and failed miserably. With two pairs of hands we were getting there, until I made a stupid comment that was. It's not a good idea to use sarcasm when your getting help of someone in an awkward moment, but just plain insulting them even if it was meant to be a sarcastic joke is even worse. Another tally was added to the list of Andy's foot in mouth moments.

I struggled with the rockers for some time after, they eventually went on and I bolted the whole lot down, but didn't torque up. With the lack of gaskets I couldn't even put the oil pump on, I was stuck, proper style.

Saturday 2nd August 2003 - Practice assembly

With the lack of gaskets I thought I better do the best with what I had and decided to do a dry assembly. This is where I put everything together minus what I didn't have.

Timing up the engine is extremely easy when you don't have a crank key; it's just a case of slip the gears over and twiddle the cam till it lines up. I can't imagine it to be that easy when both keys are there with the resistance of the engine. Next thing that went together was the other end of the engine. I put the drop gears on and put on the housing and cover. Obviously I didn't put the flywheel on as I didn't want to have to remove this when I did the build for real.

Without the engine set I couldn't even put the filter housing and petrol pump face on since the gaskets are all in the same set. I was getting a bit 'peed'd' off again.

Sunday 3rd August 2003 - Removed last few things

I turned my attention to getting the rocker cover looking good, and took the mechanical brush to it. This worked very well; it cleaned off all the old chrome and debris and left it with a good surface finish for painting. A few coats of the silver paint later and it was all looking nice and shiny again, good as new. These items were about £10-£20 on E-Bay, I could hardly believe it.

In between doing the rocker cover I also decided it would be good to reclaim as much as I could from the old engine before I got it collected. I still needed the fuel pump cover plate and brackets. The thermostat housing along with the thermostat would also be useful.

I ended up snapping 1 of the three bolts holding the housing on; I have had bad experiences with these horrible things before. I resorted to grinding the head off and pulling the whole lot off the head over the bolt. This didn't work since it wouldn't budge. I ended up removing the head (this sounds familiar, I did the same thing with my previous Mini - Arghhh) and taking the rocker cover off along with rockers and a valve so I could twist the whole lot off including the bolt.

I also removed the parts from one of the spare gearbox's I had acquired. I wanted the Speedo drive and bearing off the end of the main shaft. These came off with relative ease and were fitted without problem. The Bearing needed to be taken apart and cleaned, this also aided pulling it using the bolt underneath and a couple of screwdrivers to leaver it off at the end. It was reapplied using a smaller socket and rubber mallet.

Monday 4th August 2003 - More painting

I painted the drop gear housing and clutch cover plate today, along with cleaning all the bolts to go in that end of the engine in white sprit. This did a good job and left the bolts looking good as new.

Tuesday 5th August 2003 - Converted rust in engine bay

Its Tuesday already and NO PARTS have arrived. To be honest, I'm not surprised anymore.

I purchased some Dinitrol rust converter today. It did a good job at converting it, which I expected since it was recommended by several people. The price tag was a little steep, but hey you get what you paid for. I treated a couple of areas in the engine bay, most particularly the bulkhead. I had my eye on some clear under seal, specially designed to go in the engine bay, which would be used to protect the converted area.

Wednesday 6th August 2003 - Assembled engine, timed up

The parts turned up, I took a half-day and spent he afternoon reassembling things with the gaskets this time. There is little to say, other than I had a fright when trying to time up the engine. Every time I tried to turn the engine it would stop at one point. It got a little frantic for some time, but a call to Dave put me back on track. It turned out to be the timing not being in sync. Once the engine was fully timed up the problem disappeared.

I started assembling the other end of the engine as well. It now felt as if I was finally getting somewhere, but yet again, the poo hits the fan at mach 4.

On assembling the primary gear I found out that the float was slightly too big. This was another stopper, so I rang round and got a price for a thicker washer. I was loosing confidence in Minisport so I rang Mini Spares instead, and ordered the washer on next day delivery.

Thursday 7th August 2003 - Washer arrived, assembled Flywheel

The washer arrived and I finished off building that end. It was simple stuff, everything was put on exactly the same as it came off. There was a blistering array of bolts to put in, all similar in length and type. The only difference being that there were two different types of thread to contend with. UNC thread was used when putting the bolt into ally, like the gearbox or drop gear housing. If the bolts had a finer UNF thread they screwed into the block or similar.

Once the drop gears and cover was in place, I made sure that they all still turned freely. Next to go on was the flywheel and clutch. This had been pre-assembled and it was just a case of fit it on the end of the crank/primary gear and then to tighten the 6 surrounding bolts. Once done the lock tab and flywheel centre bolt was put in place and tightened up. The easiest way I found of obtaining the massive torque was to put a breaker bar on the other end, with the correct sized socket, and braced it against the bench. Once done, the other end could be tightened using the torque wrench. This proved to be reasonably effective, although still difficult. Similar to removing the flywheel, a lot of acrobatics and patience was required.

Friday 8th August 2003 - Finished engine

With almost everything assembled on the engine the last things remain to fit the radiator and mounting brackets. All the parts had been ready cleaned in spirits or cleaned on the mechanical brush. Similar to before, things went on easily. This was till I got to fit the fan and radiator.

In my hurry, I had completely forgotten about the breather on the timing cover. I remember reading an article saying it was a different shape to the mini one and needed to be moved out of the way. The breather off the metro was indeed a different shape; in fact it was round instead of square like the mini one. I used a clamp to move it out of the way and gave it a good firm strike with the hammer. It seemed to work and with a little bit more adjustment done to the blades things were looking good.

After adjustment I decided to leave off the radiator and fan, when the engine came out the mini it was close with the radiator and the inner wing. The last thing I wanted to do was have to buy another radiator because I crushed it when lowering the mini onto the sub frame and engine.

Saturday 9th August 2003 - Home for a lift

Got the train home today and should be able to get dad to pick up the engine on Monday with any luck.

Monday 11th August 2003 - Removed old engine from garage

The evening was spent travelling back to harrow with Dad, the intention was to pick up all the old SPi engine and parts. The lump, fuel system and exhaust all had to go back. There was also a substantial amount of other stuff to go back as well, these were mainly things I had bought over E-Bay and eventually not used.