Hi guys,

I'm gonna get to work tomorrow on the mini to work on a long overdue list of things. I've fixed all my oil leaks, and bar the crappy valve seals, I'm losing oil through the oil cap. You can see where it has blasted out around the cap and the engine bay smells like oil.

How can I seal the oil cap to keep the vapours in?

Hg.


Edit: question 2: what thread size are the rear bumper mounting holes (78 clubman)? Someone's painted over them and I need to retap and mount the bumper properly. (After some drunks tried to lift my car by the bumper while I was trying to sleep inside -_-)

Maybe you have the wrong type of filler cap. Different models had different caps (vented/non-vented) depending on what engine breathers were fitted.

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1967 Cooper S - new front bearings to do.
1965 Cooper S shell - Slow progress. No time or money!
1966 Deluxe- next rustoration!
Mk 2 & XJ6 Jags. Less said the better.

your problem is that the vapours have nowhere else to escape, which would also be why you've been getting oil leaks - the engine needs to breathe.

If you've got the rocker cover with the bulge thingy on top, check it's not blocked, and check where it's connected to isn't blocked

If you're getting really excessive breathing vapours, then you're getting piston blowby and your compression rings have had it - I know - I've had it twice in the last 12 months



they're going to be either 1/4 UNF or 5/16 UNF - one of the two

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did I tell you that I won a trophy?

If it's blowing oil out the cap either your breathers are blocked, or the piston rings are shot.... as Simon said.

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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.

Ok, I did a compression test today, here are the figures (dry/wet):

125/143
119/149
125/150
125/145

So that pretty much means my rings are shot right? How long will I be able to drive it like this?

My PCV circuit is like this: water-pump-side-breather-can + rockercover outlet -> carby after filter + charcoal canister in driver's corner.

+ = T-piece

I disconnected the line to the carby and plugged it at both ends. Went for a drive and the engine bay doesn't smell as much of oil anymore. Not much else different. Probably explains why the air filter always gets so oily. I think I'll just leave it like this... hopefully the charcoal canister doesn't fill up with oilr or something...

that'd explain it....

had the same trouble at the beginning of last year, I put a 3l orange juice container on the inner guard, breathed into there, and out into the PCV - put a litre of oil in there in a month

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did I tell you that I won a trophy?