Midas Cars Forum - www.midascarsforum.com

Sometime next year I would like to start building an engine for the Mk1 and I will have about £700-£800 to spend on a half engine (hopefully will have a decent stage 3 head by then - a friend has one that I have my eye on). Am not desperately worried about all-out power and am not bothered if not a 1380 engine - I just want a nice torquey engine with a warmed-over cam - say about 80BHP with similar torque numbers. I plan to be using an HIF 44 carb (rebuilt) and would like to use Megajolt.

My question is this: Should I aim for a half-engine kit from one of the more well-known Mini Engine suppliers or do I go to a more local engineering shop that might not know Minis that well? I currently have a standard Metro 1275 lump in bits (it was how it came with the project) that looks in pretty fair condition (I think it had done 60k miles before one piston seized - at least that's what the previous owner told me). The bores appear unmarked and the crank looks ok too.

If I was to use this engine I would be using a new set of pistons if told a rebore was unnecessary, but is it really necessary to re-do the old engine when I can simply exchange it for one where all the work is already done?

I have seen these from Jonspeed: http://www.jonspeedr...re.php&cID=2096 - are they worth talking to? When I was in the Mini scene in the mid to late 90's I don't really remember them being at the forefront of the tuning scene although I could be wrong.

Also Minisport seemed to be a good place to go for an engine kit but I can't seem to find one on their website. Do they still do them?

I'd be interested to hear your thoughts Guys and Gals as I am totally unsure of the best way forward.

I've never been too enamoured with Minisport to be honest. Everytime I have needed to use them there have been problems. I used to keep giving them a chance (as they are local to me) but they always managed to cock something up.

I would go to a local engineering shop, tell them the spec of bores you want and get them to do it. If you need a regrind on the crank, they will be local too to sort it out.

It worked out a lot cheaper for me doing it that way, doing a self build. All the info on the A series is in the Vizard bible....which is quite easy to follow if you can are confident using spanners and protractors.

Good suppliers are the likes of MED (but expensive).....but even they screwed up on one of my engines stud threads meaning I had to helicoil (myself) one of them.

manifold wrote:...if you are confident using spanners and protractors....

For some reason I read this as "spanners and potatoes". I really must get more sleep (and an eyetest).

Jonspeed get mixed reviews on the Mini forums, I'd suggest conducting a little research.

My engine was built by ACDodd who has an account on here, might be worth a PM.

I agree with David, I've had unsatisfactory dealings with Minisport in the past. Minispares have been ok though.
The last time I rebuilt my engine I went to my local engine rebuilder/machine shop. There's nothing to beat talking to the time-honoured engineer who will be doing the work on your precious bits of metal to make sure you get done what you want doing.
Find one who takes a pride in his work, and marvel at how he can take a 10th of a 1000th of an inch of metal off a journal!
Plus you get that wonderful smell of engineering oils that takes me back to my fathers garage when I was small.

Agree with above comments re readymade engines and Vizard etc. Will admit to buying an Oscelli unit many years ago and was very good indeed: are they still doing? A Bill Richards engine I drove was probably the best. Is Bill still around?

Yes he's still going http://www.billrichardsracing.com/

Thanks for your help guys. I think I will stick with the Engineering Shop option. Coltec Racing are local to me (about 5 miles away) http://www.coltecracing.com/profile.html and I have met Richard Coles before. He is a very nice guy and really knows his stuff. He used to work for Holbay before they sold up - he bought everything they had but they would not let him keep the Holbay name; what you effectively see at Coltec is Holbay but under a different name.

I will box up the bits and take them down for him to give the once over to and to ask him his advice.