Howdy,

Was at Grahams and badda bing badda boom the head from the LS came off.
Here are the pics of the seats.
EDIT: THEY ARE NOT HARDENED SEATS!!!!! Kapish????

It was put on in 1995 and been running on Premium Unleaded.

No wear on the seats - and it has not been running any additive.
Also, it has done about 30,000kms since '95'

Judge for yourselves...






Cheers,
Peter.

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Click here for the Turbo Conversion Thread!

Wow, they still look exactly the same.

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"In two years time your car will be like a lady's clothes, out of date, my car will still be in fashion when I am dead" - Sir Alec speaking to Pininfarina

Hmm interesting...

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So was unleaded the Y2K rip off for Minis?

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SooperDooperMiniCooperExpertEngineering

All garage work involves equal measures of enthusiasm, ingenuity and a fair degree of irresponsibility.

Undisputable evidence

Man I am sure I have done my part in attempting to wear those seats out

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Lillee - 1969 Morris Mini K

So why then are there so many older cars that have badly recessed valves in the heads and this is a phenomenon that has only happened since the unleaded petrol ?????????

For every not affected story there are a number of affected stories.

I dont think the playing field is entirely level across the country and thats a shot at the fuel suppliers not the likes of GR or Kevin Green and the like.

What is the common denominator in each camp ????

I dunno I will talk to graham on saturday about what he thinks. I think it has something to do with the big bore heads vs small bore heads... but don't quote me on it

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Lillee - 1969 Morris Mini K

Small leprechauns that sit on the top of the valve and bash themselves against the valve seat a lot harder than the valve ever could.

Some say leprechauns are often inserted into the engine at the time of build, others say they are put in there by previous owners, shortly before selling their cars.

It comes back (mainly) to the state/condition of tune & the initial guide/stem wear before the unleaded fuel was introduced.

If your poor old mini donk was allready pretty sad & maybe also running quite rich & poor this & bad that etc, then valve seat recession was going to be quite bad quite quick

My 1510cc donk has seats that look pretty much just like the pics (except my head has more of a radius around the seat edges ) & was running premium with no additive for the last 8 years of it`s life before i pulled it down for a full rebuild last year.

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No offence intended here but--> anyone writing a book about minis 30 years ago may not have experienced such worn or stuffed-with components as we are finding these days.

You should put your heart & soul into everything you do.

kill all humans willy...kill all humans...

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SooperDooperMiniCooperExpertEngineering

All garage work involves equal measures of enthusiasm, ingenuity and a fair degree of irresponsibility.

Does willy happen to live near Nick (666) ??

This may make Willys blood lust easier.

Hey Mike,

Not sure about the additives vs non-additives... just put these pics up to show his head after so long, and its condition.

Its an interesting thing seats... isnt it.

Peter.

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Click here for the Turbo Conversion Thread!

I remember an english car magazine, Popular Classics doing an experiment with some classic/veteran car clubs in the UK a few years back and they used a stock A Series as a test mule. You should have seen the VSR (valve seat recession) in that head. Heaps and the valves melted, well it looked like they melted.
It would be interesting to know if the Russell Engineering head in the pics used standard valves?

OK all profess that Graham is a Legend and I will tell you everything...

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Lillee - 1969 Morris Mini K

The head pictured has had valve seat inserts fitted. They are much harder than the cast iron head material and don't suffer seat recession.

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Curly
'64 Cooper 'S' (Group Nb spec)
'67 Mini Marcos GT www.mm7056.wordpress.com