Today decided to take the mini for a drive to the city and was driving fine on local roads below 70kph. Joined the highway reached 100kph after a minute or 2 it started losing power and kinda spluttering a little so went on the emergency lane stopped and idles fine.

Drove and tried again as soon as I reach speed over 70kph and on 4th gear same issue. So back to the side and switched it off and started again and I managed to get to the nearest higway exit.

It was fine driving on the local road so went ahead towards the city using the local roads 60kph. after maybe 20 mins of driving and in the city the car is getting hot and wants to stall, even though I held the accelerator pedal it stalled on me the idle was very erratic.

Parked it on the side, poped the bonnet and there's a big steam coming out of the overflow hose from the expansion tank. Everything in the engine bay was hot. So let it cooled down a bit and tried starting it again and the engine is idling fine again but rather high 1200-1300rpm.

At the end I got it towed back to my house as I dont want to risk of blowing the headgasket if its not blown yet. I checked the dipstick, rad cap, rocker cover cap and no milky stuff. Radiator is kinda dry but there was coolant there before I drove off.

Please advice.

Cheers (sorry for the long post)

sounds like a head gasket, but could be anything. If you havent driven it for long in this state there would be no milkyness.

Ryan

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Ryan Filippi
Minis In The Gong
[email protected]
www.minisinthegong.com.au

Sounds like it might have simply (yeh right) been an overheating issue.
When you have a motor too hot, it will lose power and won't idle, and will die.

Sounds cooked to me.

PLEASE get a temp gauge!!

How was your oil pressure? If you don't know, please get an oil pressure gauge!!

Good luck
Matt

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68 Deluxe.... it's shiny..... I like shiny!!

how do I check if I have a blown head gasket? aside from milky kinda residue on radiator/rad cap, dipstick and rocker cover cap

Compression Test?
what is the normal figure?

Cheers

When I did a head gasket, it was too early for milky stuff, but i had bubbles in the radiator. I guess it depends where the gasket blows.

Do a search as there is heaps of posts on compression (and how to do the test properly) and head gaskets.

where's the oil level guide on the carby dashpot? mine might be dry or needs more oil

fill it only to the top of the piston rod.

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DrMini- 1970 wasaMatic 1360, Mk1S crank, 86.6HP (ATW) =~125 @ crank, 45 Dellorto (38 chokes), RE282 sprint cam, 1.5 rockers, 11.0:1 C/R.

This is how I always check any cars I am looking at. Depening on how badly it is blown, it may be foaming or you might just have a steady stream of bubbles.

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Before you judge someone, you should walk a mile in their shoes. That way, when you judge them, you are a mile away and you have their shoes.

I checked yesterday if its bubbling in the radiator and its not
still no milky like residue on the common spots

hopefully I'm lukcy that its not blown HG

Check when the car is running whether you have a lot of smoke coming out the breather hose, or take the oil filler cap off to check. My mates car (not a mini) just got this problem, and I think it is a blown head gasket that is allowing combustion gases to leak into the oil. This car also blows the dipstick out and sprays oil around the place, and the oil pressure is reading much higher than it should be, so it would be pretty easy to tell from the symptoms whether your car has the same issue. I don't know how hot his car is running though, because he hasn't been driving it.

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Before you judge someone, you should walk a mile in their shoes. That way, when you judge them, you are a mile away and you have their shoes.

Before you judge someone, you should walk a mile in their shoes. That way, when you judge them, you are a mile away and you have their shoes....quote...Omar Kyam: I once complained I had no shoes....until I met a man with no feet

Yep sounds like a head gasket....more investigation required

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"Show me the Mini!"