hi guys,
just a quick question,

I hooked up my radiator yesterday and filled it with coolant. This morning i noticed that there was coolant in all 4 cylinders, it had leaked! argh
so Ive taken off the head.

after getting the head back from being milled a couple of months ago i noticed that the surface wasn't smooth, it has concentric grooves and feels a bit like 800 grit sand paper. I was told at the time that this is fine and it was from the old machine they were using...just wondering if this is the case.

thanks,
steve

I think that sound too rough - I'd prefer it to be dead smooth

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David L


My greatest fear in life is that when I die my wife will sell my Mini and tools for the price I told her I paid for them!

Yeah should be smooth.

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDMkVq1jRGU

What did they surface it with ? An angle grinder ? Take it to someone with a proper machine and that preferably knows what they are doing when it comes to Minis.

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DID I MENTION THAT I AM THE BEST SUPPLIER FOR MINI ELECTRICAL PARTS AND REPAIRS?
"Let us remove your "SHORTS"

You can mill em or surface grind em, either way the head must finish up flat all over and have a decent finish.
I mill them, GR does too.

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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.

The following method was featured in a car magazine technical section i read once.

To surface the cylinder head, get a rear wheel drive car with an open diff.

1. Jack one side up so one wheel is still on the ground.
2. Wrap sandpaper around the tyre that is in the air.
3. Place cylinder head under said tyre.
4. Start car up and put in gear to spin said tyre up.
5. Lower the car until the tyre comes into contact with the cylinder head and move the head forwards and back until the desired amount of metal is taken off.
6. Job done!


Ok so the technical section was just a joke, but it was a really good read. It also had some interesting techniques for decking the block and some other things.

Easy way to check, put a quality steel rule on it's edge across the face, no light should get through. When i was doing engines the finish was more like 2000 grit, no problems (we had a good mill)

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Dean Hutton's first car was a Mini.

ha,,, that`s nothing , you should check out Spag-dot-com,,, he ground down the bottom of a rover V8 block by stting on it & dragging it along the concreat footpath with a motorbike towing it along ,,, true!!!!

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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.

if your in SA...... bring here, me fix

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Jut as a side note,,, What type/brand of head gasket was used??? Some of the early "monotorque" head gaskets (sivler with the blue lines) had an issue where the thickness of all the blue sealing lines varied greatly & lots of them leaked watwer out the sides

Another thing to look out for is to make sure that (sometimes) after heads have been machined "too much", & while tightening it down, the thread bottoms when the cyl head nuts on the studs (or bolts) & obviously then it wont be pulling the head down any further & may not be actually clamping the head down enough to seal,,, check thread depths & head thickness & add hardened steel washers if need be to combat that problem

I really don`t mind a swirly machined surface,,, it helps the gasket bite,,, just has to be clean & flat is all

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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.

I use a surface grinder on both the block and head for a smooth and flat/level finish. The engine is turbocharged, never had a problem and I have reused the head gasket 3 times without tearing it (Metro Turbo Group A).

Daniel

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Videos - Turbocharged A-Series on Dyno & at Wakefield
Mafs waz not my strong subgeckt at skkol

another problem solved, thanks
gonna start it up tomorrow, should be fun

Related to the post above, pull all the studs out of the block and wire wheel the top threads. Otherwise, when you tighten the (now thinner) head down, the nuts can bind in the old paint/rust/crud left in the previously unused threads.
If you don't want to pull all the studs out, run a 3/8" UNF dienut down them to clean the threads.

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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.

done and done
cheers