We seem to get this question asked quite often so here is my experience.
I have a 1275 that needs a reco. I have not included the crankshaft grind as I had a newly ground crank already.

MACHINE WORK
Block clean, bore, fit new cam bearings and welsh plugs and lighten flywheel $396
Fit pistons to rods $41.80
Cam regrind $120
Balance engine and resize rods $286
Head reco including unleaded conversion $550

PARTS
Big End Nuts 36.80
Push Rods 73.44
Timing chain 16.07
Various bushes/thrust washers (inc Primary gear bushes fitted) and second hand nuts and bolts $180.00
Romac Balancer $350
Cam followers $31.12
Thrust washers $10.12
Big End Bearings $29.37
Main Bearings $34.00
Oil Pump $51
Clutch kit $98.60
Pistons & rings $175
Valve Springs $104
Exhaust Valves $75

So there you go. Add in labour costs to assemble and it's no wonder a recon 1275 cost so much.

Parts costing not to bad and most of the machine work is a good price apart from the cylinder head seems a bit high. Did you have any porting work?

The cost wont vary much for a small bore motor. The parts are similar cost and the machine work is the same regardless of the engine size.

Mike

yep.... it all adds up

some of those bits are too cheap - and are not going to be good enough quality... like those cam followers, depending how hot your cam grind is (IE RE13), you'll want to get isky style cam followers - GR says so.

Also, if you're going to reco everything, you really should replace the timing gears - they're a consumable, and should be replaced when doing a full rebuild... if you're doing things like lightening the flywheel and fitting a romac balancer, using dodgy old cam gears is a big step backwards

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did I tell you that I won a trophy?

RE Headwork, I did a little myself. Just smoothing out the casting marks.

I actually was given a new set of gears years ago but I lost the chain.

Some food for thought:

Could save some dosh on pushrods if you have a set of good ones... they are plentiful!
Timing chain - get a good german one (can't remember the brand name, ask a mini specialist) as the cheap ones are crap (hope you are using a duplex!)

Bin the romac balancer, if you want to spend money like that for balancing / harmonics call Link Automotive and get the one they make for their supercharged engines... it's around $250 or $300. Romac balancers are just bling and (am told) they are worse than a standard two-piece mini damper. If you want bling, speak to gafmo

Also the pistons will probably need to be decked to the block height for your compression ratio ($). Also add a set of viton valve stem seals to the inlets.

"some of those bits are too cheap" most bits from Karcraft

you probably feel like you're being shat on for sharing and answer to a common question - sorry if you are, it wasn't the intention -

what I meant was that some of the parts mightn't be the best ones for the job - in particular I was referring to the cam followers, GR recommends (almost insists on) the Isky style ones that Minisport SA have available, and they're about $120 for a set, a far cry from the $32 you've paid, but better quality and life

likewise for the clutch - if I recall, KC's price for a borg & beck is more than $98, but is worth the extra - I think it was about $150

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did I tell you that I won a trophy?

Isky style followers are OK, Graham says so are the Minispares lightened ones Kc sells.
Watch the cheapies that are about... some are just not OEM quality.

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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.

As others have said use a good quality double row timing chain,$16 seems to cheap and the isky cam followers are the way to go as you are fitting a re-ground cam. In regards to balancers, the Romac ones work very well and i have used them many times on different applications and am yet to have a drama with them as they work very well. 9 times out of 10 when the bottom end is balanced they dont need to take any weight out of the balancer and if they do it is Very Very small amount! Ive had only 1 of many that has ever required any sort of balancing and it was the smallest amount.



smiling_simon in regards to the balancers, I dont mean to offend you or start an arguement but IMHO i think you have been fed a whole load of rubbish for what ever reason and have based your opinion from another persons story. Thats all i'll say from here or Poeee could get into trouble.

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

That is also my experience

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Steve

Romac harmonic balancer was perfectly balanced according to the engineers.

I use Romac for their reputation. Good enough to make 'em for 1000+ hp engines good enough for me.

One of the Nb race guys had a Romac one fall apart, so I sold him my last 2 piece S one a few years back.
But one bad experience doesn't mean much.

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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.

Where on the other hand, whenever I've run the 2 piece S damper, always come loose despite correct torque + locktite 262 + lockwire! Not been the same damper/pulley each time and always been balanced. I won't use them on a race motor now. Never had this problem with Romac and other non S dampers.

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Steve

I`ve only ever had one std mini dampener come adrift (as in it seperated itself, was still bolted on nice & tight, but the rubber has just given up)

when using std ones--> I have only ever used either brand new std ones or very very good looking 2nd hand ones -- as in like new, but only ever had the one give up the ghost,,,, & i couldn`t count how many engines i`ve built over my time, crickey!!!

i`ve never had a problem with Romac balancers at all & i`ve fitted plenty of those in recent years

Getting back to the original topic tho--> All engine bulding costs vary from engine to engine,,, some are cheap as chips asthey can be like new internally... but some are totally stuffed in every dept

I`ve recently built up a 1330 for a customer & his block was the only thing salvagable,,, everything else inside was rooted... no cost that lot up then & see what you end up with

Funny tho as his gearbox wasn`t really bad at all & only needed the usuall

But then we spent shitloads on the cyl head It`s a really really nice head tho

Ty has done a good thing & tabled a pile of the usual bits & pieces,,, listed what he allready had & costed up most of the usual consumables,,, some donks will need more, others will need less

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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.