Project Zippy (Midas Mk1 Coupe) Engine In!

[MrBounce]

I have started to rebuild the steering column; I say started - the top bush has been greased and put in, but of course the bottom felt bush needs to be soaked in oil before using it, and ideally it should be overnight. 45 minutes is NOT enough. For everyone saying "why don't I use a plastic bush?" I am not convinced that the older columns can use them (I have read conflicting information about this) and there was a brand new felt bush that came with the car; why spend extra when for a little bit of work you already have what you need?

As I was waiting for the bush to soak, it was time to start putting some suspension bits on the front subframe. My mate Matt came over but had conveniently forgotten to bring his cone compressor. Oops. Still, we could get the lower arm pins, lower arms & tie bars fitted. Or so we thought. One side of the car was no problem at all; However as usual, the bits on this car never cease to amaze me. We were able to bolt everything up on the offside but the nuts was no tightening up. We discovered that the lower arm pin had come apart. I have never seen this before. I don't have a welder. Have to get a new one...

And whilst going through various boxes to have a sort out, I pulled out the timing cover to put with the other engine stuff, to find it's got a hole punched through it. Merry Christmas and all that.

Bush soaking. (Stop sniggering at the back!)



Nearside bolted together.



You have to be kidding me!!



Timing cover with extra ventilation. Matt thinks he's got a spare in his garage. I hope...

[MrBounce]

Another small update; I popped to the East Anglian Mini Centre and they sorted me out with a spare lower arm pin so I could finish the driver's side. A little gentle persuasion with a rubber mallet and some Copperslip so it doesn't all rust together and everything was done. Cone compressor next so the Hi-Los and doughnuts can go in along with the hubs.

I also had a wonderful struggle getting the felt bush into the steering column. It's now all together but of course I scratched the new paint so had to give it a quick blow-over. And I had forgotten to paint the bracket that goes with it. So that's now primed.

Driver's side lower pins, arms and tiebars now in.



Oops. Didn't mean to do that... Now repainted.



Bracket primed.

[MrBounce]

Well, Christmas has been and gone, and thankfully my family & friends did listen to me! A whole host of "little but useful" bits from Mini Spares along with a new tool box and a couple of tools to go in it as well ! No excuses for not getting back out into the Manroom then...

The engine has been sitting under my workbench (all wrapped up) for long enough now, so I did my World's Strongest Man impersonation (poor, I know...) and took the block outside to get it clean and ready for paint. It was not given a chemical bath when the machining was done so I have a bit more work to do. I gave it a coating of Father-in-law Steve's special degreaser (works well on bus engines!!) then set to work with an old paintbrush and a toothbrush. Much time later once it had been hosed down, I took it back inside and used my special bracket to put it on the engine stand. Works perfectly! I then gave it a coat of blue paint (same as the radius arms and calipers).

Once the paint had dried a bit, I popped out the two core plugs on the clutch end (I say popped - I really mean struggled manly for several minutes with each one) and also managed (after a hell of a fight) to remove the 4 oil gallery plugs (2 at each end of the block). I was then able to clean the oilways, using that most useful (and elusive) tool: the wire coat hanger with a bit of rag on the end. Unsurprisingly there was a load of crap in there. Several applications later it is beautifully clean. I will of course be blasting it through with an airline on numerous occasions before any engine building commences...

Christmas prezzies!



Dirty block.



Cleaner block!



Beautiful blue block!



Hmmm. This may need a bit of a clean out.



Oil gallery plugs gone.



All this was in the oilways...

[Wazzzer]

Nice to see that you've sorted the cracks properly and not just skimmed over them like most people would

[MrBounce]

Thanks Wazzzer - it was seeing the bodge jobs that previous owners have "repaired" that made me want to do it properly; I have not worked with fibreglass before but I read up on what to do. I am not at the stage of making moulds and panels, so did it the easier way!!

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 2 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.



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.



Bearings lubed up.



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

[Horney]

Pretty much the only thread I come back on here to read. Top work fella.

I once forgot to check the anti freeze in my mini and it popped 2 core plugs. No other damage though which was lucky!

[MrBounce]

Cheers Nick - that means a lot 

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.

[MrBounce]

As I am between jobs on the engine (waiting for funds for the cam amongst other things) I built up the rear brakes. When installing the rear cylinders I found that one of my backplates had the hole for the cylinder locating lug on the wrong side (or was it the cylinder that was wrong??). Out came the drill and a new one on the correct side suddenly appeared. Gaskets went on and then I had the fun job of getting the retaining clips on. I have NEVER been able to do this whilst the backplate was on the car (never had the special tool). However, on the bench it was a cinch. I was able to lever the ends over the cylinder before tapping it down using a socket to get the lugs into the ring. I then put in the adjusters & tappets with plenty of Copperslip. In went the shoes, the springs and the handbrake levers. I tried getting the hubs on, but because I had bought cheap bearings, when torqued up to the correct setting, the hubs would not turn at all. My bad. New ones on order from Mini Spares. I HATE having to re-do jobs.

To keep me busy I dug out the cylinder head and gave it a once over with my Father-in-law Steve's evil degreaser. This made it a fair bit cleaner. I then dried it and gave it its first coat of paint to match the block. Hopefully I will be able to start lapping in the valves soon.

Backplate with locating lug on wrong side. Drill sorted this.



Lovely new brakes with lots of new parts!



Dirty head, ready for a clean.



Not very presentable, but a LOT cleaner.



First coat of paint. Looks SO much nicer!