Engine Fitting

Tuesday 12th August 2003 - Engine on sub frame

With the engine in one piece, except for the radiator that I removed due to clearance problems with the breather pipe and the fan, the next step would be to fit the engine to the sub frame. Just at the right moment Matt decided to make a guest appearance and lend a hand. It couldn't have been more perfect timing, as I wouldn't have ever got the engine of off the bench let alone on the subframe.

I lifted the engine using a rope slung around the engine and tied at the top. The crane was then used to pick it up off the bench and hover it above the ready sub frame. We then lowered the engine into the right place and bolted it on. It took some time to get it attached, as space was tight around the locating brackets. We eventually prevailed by wiggling the engine up and down whilst pushing the bolt through the hole. It wasn't a very scientific method, but worked well in the end.

With the engine attached the next thing to go on was the front steady bar, it went on easily, simply bolting onto the bottom of the engine and then onto the sub frame-locating bracket.

This made the engine a lot more rigid on the sub frame and the offset sphere joins were quickly added to their associated pots and fitted to the differential. It's important to note that they don't go through the hole in the sub frame and must be assembled with the drive shaft in place. Once added, to the diff, the drive shafts were ready to be located, with the hub, to the suspension. First off the braided brake cables were assembled, taking note to fit them to the cylinders first as they don't allow for rotation when attached to the sub frame.

With an exceptional amount of hassle the hubs were eventually located in place and the nuts were fitted. On tightening up the nuts they began to spin the ball joints, as the taper lock hadn't engaged properly. With some pressure applied to the joint, through the taper, they could be tightened. This would have been an awful lot easier if they had been chased out beforehand.

Wednesday 13th August 2003 - Engine in car

I finished fitting the rest of the ball joints with the help of Nick and a small bottle jack. They were getting to be a pain the backside, but eventually constant abuse won through. He left me with the car to tie up and get ready to put the engine in the next day, but in the light that I had the day off, I thought it best that I get it in by myself.

My technique followed that we used at the end of the engine removal last time, a technique based on brute force and ignorance. I managed to drag the engine along the floor towards the car using a swinging action. I moved the wheels to one side and moved it forward, then turned them the other way and moved the engine back. This had the effect of shuffling the engine along the floor passed the legs of the crane and under the car.

Once there, the car could be lowered onto the engine and sub frame to finish off one of the most exhausting evenings work to date. I also managed to choose the second hottest day to do the most physical work, genius.

Thursday 14th August 2003 - Fitting Sub frame

I spent most of the morning trying to fit the sub frame bolts; it was extremely difficult to get it all lined up correctly. I managed to get the tower bolts in with relative ease, but the rear bolts just simply wouldn't line up. I connected up the front bolts through the teardrop shaped rubber mounts. I then jacked up the front of the car again on trolley jacks before letting it rest on the genius things that is the little blue ramps. When I put the car down on the ramps I noticed that engine was sitting too far forward in the engine bay, maybe this was why the bolts wouldn't line up.

With the car up on the ramps I could get under the car to try and attach the last front sub frame bolts. With the top tower bolts in and the front bolts holding it in place, the sub frame wasn't going anywhere, so there was no danger that the car was going to fall on me. I used a tapered punch from Halfords to align the bolt holes and then inserted the bolts into position. Similar to the tie rod bolts, I made sure they went in bolt facing down so if the nut came off, hopefully the bolt wouldn't so easily.

I then attached the gear selector; the selector plug refused to move by hand, so I hoped the leverage of the selector would do something. Unfortunately it didn't, so I was faced with a car that wouldn't go into gear. Things were looking a bit boring again.

I suddenly realised that with the engine leaning forward and the fact that I couldn't move the selector it was probably still in gear and trying to turn the engine. I moved my attention on to the clutch, where the slave was quickly attached. This solved the problem, once bled. As soon as the clutch was depressed the engine rotated back and the gear selector removed out of reverse! It was difficult to get into gear, but soon smoothened out with some fiddling.

Next up was the exhaust. The LCB that I had painted was going on, so I attempted to fit it. It was a pain in the backside to get it down behind the engine, it needed to be rotated around the side and then I would JUST squeeze behind and down into place. I tried to place it over the studs, but it wouldn't fit. The bolt holes in the budget LCB seemed to be out of place. I'm not sure if it was because it was a budget LCB, or if it was just a dud. What ever it was, it wouldn't fit. So I borrowed a 13mm drill and drilled out all the holes on the manifold. After some persuasion and filing the LCB fit, the centre section followed quickly and the whole lot was bolted on.

I connected up the strap that goes on the bottom of the differential casing and fitted the 'Y-piece' that joins the two pipes. Once this was done the whole lot was clamped together and attached to the back of the differential.

The rest of the Exhaust system followed, with only a small hole required to fix a joiner to the rear sub frame.

Friday 15th August 2003 - Finish connecting up

I popped down to the shop again and got new a new break pipe with the right connectors on this time.

With almost everything in the car things were going well. I finished fitting the break pipes and bled the system; I also fitted the carburetor and got some more water pipe from the club shop to connect the manifold up to the cooling system. I connected up the starter as well and tried to crank for oil pressure. To my relief oil pressure was obtained quiet a few times over! ( I had to check several times)

I put the battery on charge for the rest of the day whilst things were tidied up. A leak began to form from the break union under the clutch in the engine bay. I had to take that off and reseal the adaptor. It's a fiddly job, but I eventually managed it.

Nick popped over, as it was his last day around for some time, he was on holiday for the next two weeks. He was quiet keen to see me start up the car, but I didn't have time to connect up the timing in time for him before he left.

Saturday 16th August 2003 - Started engine

I finished off assembling bits in the engine bay, like fitting the ECU and connecting up alternator and other electrical components in the engine bay.

Not really getting anywhere with the ignition/distributor/getting a spark, so decided to give Dave a ring. This turned out to be a good move; He was able to pop round in the afternoon. I got the doors on the mini and more or less prepared it for going out in the car park as the garage rent ran out on Monday. Dave helped me do this and in return I gave him a hand in fitting his exhaust.

Later on in the evening we went to look at a Midget that Dave was interested in buying. I was quiet surprised when he said the price tag was only £200 and had already been taken apart for an overhaul. The car looked surprisingly good for a classic car with a £200 price tag, particularly when the guy said he'd accept lower for it. Obviously it would be a disgrace to break it, but the money could be made several times over in parts if necessary. It didn't need much thinking about, especially for £100.

We returned to the garage to have another go at the electrics in the mini, armed with the metro Haynes this time, this helped a lot. We managed to ascertain that there needed to be some more connections between the distributor and the coil to produce the spark. This was part of the electronic ignition in the metro. Previously the spark was timed by the ECU, but since the ECU didn't have the flywheel feed it couldn't produce spark timing and wasn't functioning properly.

After fitting some more wires to the distributor I began the starting procedure again, cranking for pressure first then reconnecting the coil and trying to start. Oil pressure was reached without me knowing it. The vacuum advance chamber was fouling the switch connector, so it didn't turn off the light. After cranking for some time, we suddenly realise this and tried to start the engine.

Turned over and BANG. I had filled my trousers and a bloom of black smoke came out of the exhaust. I suddenly remembered that the timing hadn't been set-up correctly. We corrected this and set the distributor roughly in the correct position. Cranked for pressure again, with the light working this time!

Turned over with the coil connected and BRUM, It went…. Wahoo…. Dave manned the accelerator whilst I had a 'Mini Ho-Down' and danced around the garage. Blinking heck it was loud though. The large bore exhaust wasn't helping at all, but the engine was very… very… loud. Dave commented on how smooth it was running, it sounded loud, but I suppose it was running well considering.

Sunday 17th August 2003 - Mini in the park

Yay! Mini in the park day, it was also my brothers birthday, so had arranged for my dad to come and pick me up after the event, which wasn't far from where we lived in Northamptonshire.

Dave and Myself both went, was a good show with a lot of Mini's there. The site was much bigger than Himley that we visited earlier on in the year. I managed to find me some suspension dust covers that I mangled up when I split the ball joints. I also got a dash and a water temp gauge as the one in the car wouldn't work now that the injection manifold wasn't there. I also got a new switch cover with the choke cable in and a throttle cable as the injection one wasn't long enough.

Monday 18th August 2003 - Moved more stuff

I got dad to pick up some more of the boxes of stuff I had collected in the projects life. The amount of boxes was substantial and I wouldn't have ever fitted them all in the mini.