oh also, the rings went in in 2005, but the bores were not honed, they look good, but rings shouldnt wear down this quickly?

_________________
78 Leyland Mini - Prince

the rings could have broken. when u put new rings in, did u put new pistons in aswell?

_________________
i like to drive on rails

Mate you look exhursted

that could also be the problem... i wasnt actually involved with the rebuild, dad and his dad did it with time off work. im using the same pistions and the cylinders weren't honed, it was a poor mans rebuild.

i was driving the other day, this is what is happening when the car is in motion (apart from the lack of power and the oil guzzling)

lots of smoke onn start up. also, rough idle means low revs, seems to puff more smoke in this situation. theres a puff of smoke when i change gears, the actual time of the puff is after i have selected the new gear, as i release the clutch.

chhers for your help so far, hopefully we can solve the problem! tax time coming up soon

thanks mike

_________________
78 Leyland Mini - Prince

All motors have an archilles heel and the mini motor is no exception.

The throw of the piston in a mini motor is such that it wearas the bores in two directions - ;

Firstly it wears the bores off centre and secondly it wears them into a conical type taper. Just simply putting new rings on old pistons is a recipe for problems. The rings tend to break in the bores and you have compression and oil control problems.

While you have it apart, you need to take it to a machine shop and have the bores etc measured and make decisions from there. New pistons (with rings ) are less than $300 and about $100 for a rebore. Then you have no smokey problems.

i reckon thats the go! especially since the gearbox is only 2 years old or so, and the head has only been on there a few months...and tax time...

_________________
78 Leyland Mini - Prince