Engine Fitting 2

Tuesday 19th August 2003 - Fuel problems

With the garage now nearly empty it was extremely important to get the car out ASAP. Not only to save money, but to save my sanity as well. After 5 long weeks of working on the car in my free time, I was beginning to get a little tired.

I tried starting the car again; I found the fuel pumps behaviour to be very erratic. When turning on the ignition from fresh the pump would activate for a few seconds. It would then cut off and not restart. Obviously when the SPi engine turned over it reactivated the pump and kept the injector pressurised. However, this wasn't happening with the carburetor engine, maybe the ECU controls it on engine speed or something, I'm not sure.

After this few second charge period when the fuel pump turned off, it wouldn't activate again. To get it to turn on the ignition would need to be turned off for 10 seconds. A relay would switch and things seemed to reset. The pump would then restart for that initial few second charge period.

After a little persuasion the car started again, but as before would begin to struggle and cut out after about 30seconds or so. It was clear that if I wanted to keep the electric pump I needed to sort something out to keep it running with the engine.

I consulted the Haynes electrical diagrams for some time, trying to work out if I could get the pump to activate properly. After a lot of searching I eventually found that there is a fuel pump relay in the relay box in the engine compartment. I found which wire activated the solenoid to switch the relay and cut through it. After looking at the diagram I worked out that if I grounded the wire and the ignition was switch on the pump should activate. So attached the wire to an extension and grounded it on the bodywork. Switching the ignition on did indeed now turn the pump on, which began to sound a little strange when left on for a while.

Started the car again to see if it had worked and it did seemed to work for a while. However, after a while longer, the pump was sounding rather I'll and the engine simply staved.

Wednesday 20th August 2003 - Cleaning up

Spent today fitting the tie rod bolts I had forgotten about. The car couldn't really be moved in its current state because the bolt was just pushed in from the top. I battled with it for some time, but gave up and cut the old bolt off. Fitting the new one wasn't going to be easy, so instead of doing it with the hub on, I removed the lower ball joint and slipped in the new bolt. Then I popped back the hub and re tightened everything. It took quiet some time to do, but it got the job done. I didn't fancy trying to remove the boot like it says on some websites.

I spent the rest of this evening just reading through the circuit diagrams trying to find some more information on the fuel pump and cut ignition systems.

Thursday 21st August 2003 - Fitting mechanical pump

I had pre arranged to have the day off work, with the evening already booked up I needed to get the car into a drivable reliable state by late afternoon. I had decided that the mechanical fuel pump needed to be used since the electric one was blatantly struggling.

Off came the water pipes, fuel pipes and regulator. The carburetor also was removed, to allow access to the backside of the engine. I removed the cover plate that I was using, off the SPi engine, and proceeded to fit the mechanical pump. This was an extremely difficult procedure with the exhaust in the way, but I desperately didn't want to remove that as well. Fortunately the LCB left for a little more room to move than the old cast unit, I could just about fit my arm down in between pipes. The fuel pump was fitted eventually along with all the removed components. The same fuel line was used; I presumed that that would be the one with the filter on (from the electric pump). I decided to leave off the regulator since its main purpose was to sort out the electric pump, not the mechanical one which was used fine before.

After all the components were refitted and the electric modifications were disconnected, I tried starting the car again. The car started fine and to my great relief kept running past its usual 30second, or so, starvation period. The engine was still sounding rough, but I think that was more to do with the fan than anything else. It appeared to rub on the radiator housing as it turned. The exhaust was blowing as well, I think this was from the manifold where it didn't quiet fit onto the back of the cylinder head. The retaining nuts didn't really fit in to the inlet manifold and therefore failed to clamp the exhaust on as a result.

After a few minutes or so, I switched off. Well the ignition was switched off, but the engine kept running. We had found this to happen before when we first got the engine running, but thought it was something to do with the timing. The rest of the time the engine starved before it got a chance of switching off, so it was less apparent. The engine kept running and running almost as though I hadn't turned off the ignition. Then all of a sudden it stopped, dead as could be. This was very confusing.

I checked out the fuel lines and water connections, and found them to be well sealed. There was a slight leak from one of the water pipe joins, but it wasn't severe and looked like it would clear up. I started up the car again, this time with the intention to let things fully warm up and pressurise.

As stated in all the 'run in' guides out there at the moment, the engine speed needs to be constantly changed to allow the rings to bed in. If the engine is left to idle for too long, a step could be formed in the bore. In light of this I stood in front of the car with it running, and manually tweaked the throttle. This worked well, and with the engine warming up nicely everything seemed to be going very well.

Things were starting to get hot and I couldn't see a leek from the join, where there were a few dribbles from before. Quiet strangely, my trousers seemed to be getting quiet warm as well. When I looked down I noticed an extremely fine jet of water shooting from the thermostat housing. This jet of water was angled perfectly at my trousers, so it looked like I just wet myself. I stopped the engine to investigate further.

Once again, the engine didn't appear to turn off when the ignition was turned off, although the engine stopped immediately after 10seconds. This needed further investigation, but had to wait till I had sorted the water leak. Looking at the housing it would appear that it was going to require sealing between the lower housing and the upper pipe section. This is exactly the place the thermostat fits. I may have twisted it when I fitted the whole lot, so took the top section off and cleaned up the join. A also realigned the thermostat and added a small amount of grease to clean things up a bit and hopefully allow it to seal.

On second attempt at warming up the engine, the leak came back. Not so bad as before, but still a little too fast for my liking. It was good enough to drive the car though and took the car for a spin around the car park for the first time. At first it was difficult to select a gear, it didn't crunch, but simply refused to go into gear. After a couple of laps of the car park I returned to the garage to assess the leak.

To my surprise the leak wasn't too bad, but the water level had dropped. In light of the time situation I packed up the car with bits and took another few laps of the car park. I left the car in front of the garage ready for tomorrow.

Friday 22nd August 2003 - Finishing off, sorting a leak

I had the day off work again, but after the previous nights indulgence I wasn't in the mood for messing about. I had booked out the ramps to put the car on. The main task was to under seal some of the floor that was exposed and to reattach the battery line to the sub frame.

I took the time to check for loose bolts, I had driven the car around the car park many times to warm the car up and to continue faultfinding. The water leak was still there, although a little more subdued. To my relief the only bolt I found to be a little loose was the tie rod nut on the front of the sub frame. This didn't to concern me, so just tightened it up so each side was more or less equal.

After running the car for a while on the ramps I quickly found out that the leak was going to be a bit too bad to drive home with. So I started to take the housing off to apply some of the gasket sealant I had purchased from the club shop. This stuff was introduced to me as being the 'Rolls Royce' of gasket sealant. With this in hand I returned to refit the housing. To my surprise the stuff was the same as on one of the gearbox's I had got second hand off E-Bay. I was encouraged, so continued to refit the housing. After a failed attempt it became obvious that the stuff wasn't going to seal properly. The gasket that I had initially used was too warped to form a proper seal, so some replacements were needed.

Having a think about the situation I decided that it would be in my advantage to try and kill two birds with one stone, so setup to take the train home. My intention was to remove the leaking housing and get another couple of gaskets from a mini shop back home. I would also take the time to modify the inlet manifold to take the bolts so that the exhaust would seal.

After removing the offending items I suddenly realized that I couldn't leave the mini on the ramps, since I only had the ramps for a day, so proceeded to push it off. I had completely forgot that there was such a steep incline in front of the garages and didn't get very far trying to push the mini up. I decided that moving out the side where the gain in height was less would be the option. I got the mini to the door and swung it round, but got stuck in a rut. After letting it swing forward again I had quiet a shock. Instead of returning to the garage door, the car swung back straightening up and ran clear into the garage doorpost. With many profanities flying around the garages I proceeded to push the mini around the corner. I didn't care this time if it got stuck; it was going up that damn hill! When I eventually got it to a suitable parking spot, it was too dark to inspect the damage, but it appeared that I had broken the headlight glass and maybe moved the headlight slightly back into the wing.

Pic below shows ramps with the migit on:

Saturday 23rd August 2003 - Trip to Mini Spares

After the previous days trial, I needed an easy day. Things working would be easy, but I couldn't see myself getting it all my way.

I needed some gaskets to do the job properly; I could also do with another bolt. After checking out the net I found that there were two possibilities to get the parts I needed. These were London Mini Shop and Mini Spares. Both based in northern London area. I fancied popping over to the London mini shop, but quickly ascertained that they were closed for the bank holiday weekend. A call was made to Mini Spares, who were open and had the parts in stock that I needed.

I trundled off to potters bar, where mini spares are located. They were an extremely helpful bunch, both previously on the phone and in the shop. They had a small, sparsely populated showroom, but had a few interesting bits there. After getting the parts I needed I headed back to try and get things working.

After returning back to harrow, I worked out that the studs they had given me were actually long rocker studs. They didn't have any of the long housing bolts in stock. After fitting the housing with a little help from Mark I had a go at setting the distributor again. My first attempt, in the garage, was a little half hearted since the main thing was that the engine was running. This time I had a proper go, but found it to be less than convincing.

Never the less the car was running and with few leaks than before. This time I could have a go at driving home. In the end the car made it home with few problems.

Sunday 24th August 2003 - Sorted an oil leak

I spent the afternoon trying to remove the fuel pump and refit it, as I hadn't fitted the gasket properly when I put it on in the garage the first time. A second gasket was made up from some sheet and the whole lot bolted on in quick time.

My attention turned to removing the broken bolt in the thermostat housing. This was going to be quiet a difficult job. I needed 2 gaskets to finish it off, but I only had one. I made up another couple of gaskets out of the same material and proceeded to fit the housing again. This time the broken section of the bolt was partly removed; I also cleared the hole with a tap. Dad helped with this since I didn't really know what I was doing. I used long rocker studs instead of the normal bolts to refit the housing. These had shorter threads on the end and in the event of not having any spare bolts I didn't have much choice.

They did the job though and the housing was soon sealed using a lot of red Hermatite and some persistence. With this all done, I finished off and set back to harrow with few incidents.

Monday 25th August 2003 - Fitting exterior trim

For the entire journey home I had heard a tapping noise coming from the front of the car. I stopped shortly after setting off, but couldn't see what it could be. After thinking for a few minutes I presumed it must have been the tags of the cable ties used to hold the inner CV boots on. In my haste in fitting the engine I hadn't finished it off properly and cut the remaining section of tag left over.

When I awoke in the morning I found that the drivers side tyre had gone flat, I suddenly realise that the tapping must have been the head of a nail.

After fitting the spare, I resumed to fit the grille surrounds and bumper. Although the grille and bumper had been fitted, they both rattled somewhat, so I needed to sort that out. The problem had turned out to be that I hadn't fitted washers to the under side of the bonnet and the surrounds held the grille in a little better.

Tuesday 26th August 2003 - Sorting electrical problems

This evening has been spent trying to fit the halogen headlights I bought some time ago from the Himley Hall show. Removal of the old units was quiet easy, but on fitting the new units I realised they didn't fit so well. Looking at the units they had a flat front, which looked a bit strange on the car as well. After consulting one of the mini gurus on the forums I found out that this was a common problem with this type of headlight. I think these will be sold on.

For the entire time I had the car the front two lights never worked, when the car was in the garage I managed to solve this problem, but on fitting the engine the problem had already re-occurred. The solution I used before didn't work this time, so something else would need to be done.

After playing around with some of the earth wires under the front panel I realised that some of the connectors were loose. After applying some wd40 and some patience the front lights were working again. I thought these might help to improve the 'candle light' effect that the headlights had, but alas they didn't. They do produce an intense spot of light on the road though, which can help to spot obstructions/debris on the road.

Wednesday 27th August 2003 - New electrical problems

It had been raining for the whole day pretty much, first time it had rained since I started in the club garages. With the air intake system not connected up to the cabin there was a real chance of getting wet feet when driving along, since the ducting goes through the inner wing to the cabin just above the pedals.

Since wet weather was on the way I thought it best to connect up these vents. It wasn't a hard job, just a case of putting the pipe on the connector and twisting it till it engaged.

Took the car for a drive after fitting the pipes the car still felt 'edgy' which I hoped would be solved after a tune up at a proper garage. About halfway through the drive, just a quickie around the block, I switched the wipers to do a single sweep. Nothing happened. The heater fan also cut out along with rev counter. I pulled over immediately as I thought the engine was going to cut out. On turning off the engine the rev counter cuts out on turning the ignition off even though the engine still runs for a further 10 seconds. I thought I had broken something or it had shorted the system out, but the engine kept running. A little bemused I returned home carefully.

After turning off the engine and playing around with wires in the engine bay I returned to the car to give it another go. With a bizarre array of flicking and switching on and off nothing much happened. I couldn't be doing with random electrical problems like this, so I left it for the evening.

Friday 29th August 2003 - Ignition timing

Battled with the car for sometime this afternoon, spent a long time 'mincing' around trying to get the timing up to scratch. Timing and tuning goes straight over my head, but a colleague had described one of the tricks to doing it. This basically involved setting the distributor very retarded. Then you turn it, with the engine fast idling, clockwise to advance it. The engine revs rise from about 20° BTDC till they eventually reach a plateau. According to the advice once it's reached a plateau you then knock it back a couple of degrees and set it there. I attempted this a few times with vague success. Each time I drove it around the cul-de-sac to test for pinking.

This was a bit of a waste of time. It didn't really get me anywhere and I ended up wasting a lot of time. According to Nick this was supposed to be done with the vacuum advance off, whoops.

Saturday 30th August 2003 - Mini in a mess

The car was still in state after coming out of the garage. It had black fingerprints on the roof from me jumping in and out trying the cables and connections. The whole car was basically in a state. I hadn't connected up any of the air vents or even the reversing light, so I had to watch myself.

Sunday 31st August 2003 - Lots of parts left over

With the car mostly assembled there was still a surprising amount of parts left over. In the whole project I had acquired many boxes of bolts and other random brackets and items. I decided that until the engine was completely run in with no further problems on the horizon I would keep the SPi engine in one piece. This, in current state means I have a pile of parts and boxes staked in the corner of the parent's garage. In the next year I planned to remove/sort these parts into things I absolutely needed and things that would be going in the bin. With the emphasis being on BIN.

Attention also began to turn to what I was going to do with the SPi engine as a whole. Since it was worth more to me than to anyone else, selling it wasn't really an option. I still wanted to produce a more ambitious engine to go back in the mini. Something that was quiet fast, driveability didn't matter too much since I would be buying a second car. However, easy cursing would be essential.

Finishing Off

Friday 5th September 2003 - Last night in harrow

Last night in London, so a monumental Night out ensued.

Saturday 6th September 2003 - Drove Home

Stacked the car to the absolute max, I don't think I could have fitted much more in. with the passenger seat out it left substantial room to put larger boxes such as computers :)

Sunday 7th September 2003 - Left Harrow

My last day in harrow, not too bothered to be honest. Londoners are a bit too fraught and frantic for my liking.