Mk 1 Project Zippy. Looking Like a Car.

[MrBounce]

All this was in the oilways...

[Geoff Butcher]

On the road this summer, Bouncey?

[MrBounce]

I will say no, but you never know... Taking it steadily, step by step

[MrBounce]

More engine stuff today; some bits went well, others less so...

I knocked out the remaining three core plugs and used my trusty wire coathanger (with some rags) and some bottle brushes to spend the best part of 2 hours cleaning every last piece of crud out of the water jacket. The amount of "old flaky" that came out didn't surprise me, as I believe this engine to be about 27 years old and never been apart before. The state of the old core plugs certainly showed that. That said, the majority of the silt build up was around the end core plugs so once that was clear the water jacket looked more than capable of working properly again.

The new core plugs were gently thumped into their new homes by means of a 7/8" socket, and once this was done I turned my attention to gapping my rings. That is I would have done, but my feeler gauges hadn't been used for 10 years or so. They were a little bit (read VERY) rusty. I got some new ones from the local Machine Mart. Then the gas for the heater ran out. Welcome to 2014...

Rusty old core plugs. Nice.



The crud that came out. Yum.



Much cleaner water jacket area with new plugs ready to go in.

[MrBounce]

Block looks prettier already. Does this count as "new bling"??



One of the reason I am not gapping my rings today...

[MrBounce]

I have decided that I don't like Mondays. My piston rings have now been gapped correctly. As I was midway through doing the last piston (which happened to be number 3 - just the way they came off the bench!!) and putting the second ring back on to the piston, it snapped. And of course nobody in the world wants to sell a single piston ring. Off I trotted to various engineering shops, met mostly with a shake of the head. That was until I dropped into P Seager in Ipswich. They had a set of +020" rings - whilst they weren't the correct type for my piston, the second ring was identical. Of course I had to buy the whole set, but it was significantly cheaper than ordering a new set.

I gapped this one without incident then hot-footed it out of the garage before I was tempted to set fire to it.

Mondays. Thing like this happen. You don't want this to happen. It's expensive.



Then great people like P Seager Engineering have these kicking about in the depths of their workshops.



Crank unwrapped. Where's the assembly paste??

[MrBounce]

I am a very happy boy. As I had all the necessary bits I thought I may as well drop the crank into the block and leave it there - it was taking up space on the bench after all. So, utilising my Christmas present (cam lube) I smeared the followers liberally and chucked them in their respective holes. I don't have my cam yet (that's coming at the end of the month hopefully) but I may as well install the followers whilst I'm messing around with the block.

Part of my recent Mini Spares delivery included the oil gallery plugs, so in these went as well, with a gentle tap from a 1/4" socket. Then it was time to turn my attention to the crank, the bearing and the main caps. Having made sure everything was scrupulously clean I blasted it through with compressed air (I don't have a compressor so I used one of those cans that IT blokes have), then used plenty of oil on the bearings and pushed them home. Adding loads of engine build lube, I then carefully lowered the crank into place. It fitted beautifully. More lube, and in went the lower thrusts (that's sounds SO wrong...), followed by the middle main cap with the other thrusts attached. Then on with the other two main caps and a shedload of lube. I tightened it up and it was a smooth as you like. I then torqued it up and double checked then crank turned fine. Beautiful!

Followers in, covered in Torco MPZ. Which is VERY messy.



Oil gallery plugs in one end...



...and the other.

[MrBounce]

Bearings lubed up.



Crank in place and torqued up. 'Tis a thing of beauty.

[MrBounce]

Back in the Manroom again it was time to fit some pistons. Apart from one small problem. No piston ring compressor. And surprisingly, none of my Mini friends had one, except one. But he wasn't sure where it was, and he happened to be in Wales for a day. I bought one instead.

As the rods and caps were all marked, I was able to carefully clean, then oil, press in the new bearings, lube everything up and then compress the piston rings. Each piston went in with no problems at all (apart from when I tried to put the first one in the wrong way round - beginner's error!), and in what seemed like no time I had four of them smoothly in their bores. Success!

Halfway through...



And 4 pistons snugly in their new home.

[Hans Efde]

A large hose clamp will also do nicely for compressing the oil rings.