Hi All,

Looking sometime into the future, I can see the inevitable engine rebuild occuring. Hopefully later rather than sooner. Current engine is fairly fresh @ ~ 7000kms old. 1293, HIF44, runs great blows no smoke, no leaks.

BUT Mr K's little experience with his diff spider gears disintegrating has got me thinking about being prepared for such an event...

The main reason I'd like to be prepared in advance is to spread out the costs involved.. The missus would start asking questions if I have to buy everything at once!

Advancement on mini engine parts is fairly stable, is it not? I mean, I could go out and buy a decent set of pistons/rings etc now, put them on the shelf, and have them not be "out of date" or superceded in two years time by a better product?

What other parts can safely be bought knowing they will fit, before the engine is stripped down? Bearings would be a bit difficult not knowing current state of the crank journals I'd imagine

I'd like to put in a RE13 cam, do I need a certain type (spider drive, key drive etc), or is this drive type only dependant on oil pump type?

Any other bits and pieces that can be bought in advance would be great! Is it worthwhile looking out for a good condition 1275 primary gear (the one that goes over the crankshaft).. and maybe a spare crankshaft itself..?

Or should I just put some cash aside once a month into an engine rebuild account?

Thanks

Tim.

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tim
68 Deluxe 1293, HIF44, megajolt/EDIS4, daihatsu alternator..

'a mini is for life, not just for christmas!'

Hey Tim,

Perhaps why noone is answering is because the list is quite extensive. It depends on what your rebuild will require and also depends on what level of tuning you want to do when it is time to rebuild. It's a difficult one to guess but that said, there's no problems with buying some of the items now.

I'd avoid buying things like pistons, rings, bearings simply because you won't know how badly worn down your crank will be and how much grinding it will need. And same goes for the pistons and rings, will going to 1310 be enough? do you want more cc's? How bad are the valves now? will you need new valves or just regrind the seats? If you buy Maniflo medium bore LCB extractors, will this be optimum for the build that you want in the end?

There will certainly be some parts that you will buy and not use because it's not needed or it's the wrong type/shape/size/style/tune for your build.

Then comes the performance questions... standard hypatech pistons? Forged pieces in case you want to turbo? or something special like GR's pistons? Rimflo vlaves? double valve springs? 1.5 or 1.3 rockers?

That's just the top end. Gearbox is another can of worms. But a good start for gearbox is a std gearbox rebuild kit from minispares. I got one of those and was not disapointed.

If you are doing most of the work yourself you can get away with it all for around $1000 - $1500 in parts depending on how bad the 1293 is right now, so it's not a huge investment (for a car!! lets be serious!) so maybe that's not too many sleeps on the couch

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Lillee - 1969 Morris Mini K

I definitely find lots of little charges to the credit card are easier to hide than one big one



if my wife didn't keep such an eagle eye on finances, this is what I'd be doing!



there's only one type of oil pump readily available, and it's the spade drive type (has a spade shaped dealie that pokes into your cam) - Dr Mini sells adapters that go into a spider drive cam instead of the spider, so as long as you've got one of them then you're safe

But if you happened to find an A+ 1275 spade drive cam, then why not grab it (just check that the dizzy drives are compatible with someone like Josh @ miniimports). The cam can be wrapped in oily rags and won't go off - but what if GR makes an RE14!!

I had planned to buy and install the 4 pin diff later on this year, which would have been very handy to have in my cupboard right now. That's something I would have bought earlier on. Likewise I've passed up a few sets of S conrods that I now wish I had bought at least one set of

I've got one spare 1100S motor that I have robbed bits off - the primary gear is one item that springs to mind...

I'm always on the lookout for more 1275 bits - having plenty of spares is almost as good as cash in the bank, sometimes better because it can be hard to find that necessary part when you need it, but no fun when you have to cash out to pay for something

like Chong said, don't go buying pistons, rings, bearings because there are too many variables - if you buy .040" pistons but need to go to .060", then you're stuck with them

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did I tell you that I won a trophy?