to save hi-jacking the other thread where JC askes who he should get to build his engine, it thought i`d start another thread for some hard-core engine building stories

on JC`s thread , a couple of people shared the fact that their own mega engine went bang very early in the piece, in a very short period of time,,, so i figured it would be awesome to hear what other have had happen to their engines???

So,,, here`s a story about someone, somehwere, having a really really good little hotty road engine,,, running it around for a few years thrashing it having fun & then suddenly bit of a communication problem-->

All it takes is some carby shop to set-up the weber jets real lean,,, it then "Obviously" starts to burn valves & seats ,,, & generally runs like sh!t,,, & then when it`s on the Dyno at a mini show it runs like crap (Obviously) , only making 56hp at the wheels at 5000rpms (it was making over 70 at 7000) & then some other sleazy mini mechanic takes a look at it & blames the original engine builder for the problems,,, For some reason the owner neglects to mention that it was all running really well for quite a few years """Flogging WRX`s a plenty""" (un-quote) but also negelects to mention recently taking it to said dumb-aR$ed carby shop for a tune-up because it was running a tad rich... then he (the new mini mechanic) says to the owner that the head was crap so he books it in & says he`s changed the cyl head & says that he had to port out another one,,,, & then when he`s busted lying about that he lies about that again & changes his story & then says that he fixed the original head (whatever) also lies about having to do other repairs (that didn`t take place at all) & then lies about there not being a limited slip diff in the car,,, that is actually already in the box (fitted brand new by the original engine builder), but the new mechanic is too stupid to know that,,, & then the original engine builder, being soooo passionate about his job,,, his life,,, his love... actually falls into a bit of a depression & cries lots & quite often doesn`t sleep because of it all ---> & all simply because the owner "didn`t talk with him about taking the car to some idiot carby shop,,, also didn`t mention anything to him before taking it to the mini show for the dyno-run, the original engine builder is so gob-smacked with the lack of communication that he just gives up on the owner & lets him do whatever he wants to & leaves him in the clutches of the new sleazy mechanic who is obviously just ripping twice as much money off him for whatever work he gets done, some of which he only said he was doing,,, but isn`t

ah well,,, just a story about how easy it is to have it all go pear shaped when you have the wrong people working on your car,,, experienced or not!!!

sooo,,, what`s your storys??? no names,,, no need for that hey>? this can just be an open book for all to read, to share stories about your engines going bang or how your tune ups went wrong,,, or your gearboxes/clutches turned to crap

a bit like the "what did you do on your mini today" thread , but with a twist

what crap has happened to your engine??? & Why???

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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.

Way back in the 60s my 1st best mate was rebuilding his stroked (with 1100 crank) 997 donk a week before the annual trip to Bathurst (as you do).
I get the phone call "maaate, she won't turn over, even with 2x 12V batteries (= 24V) hooked in series".
I thought wtf?
Anyway, long story short, he had fitted ALL the rod caps the wrong way round. So the big end bores were misaligned, she no turny over.

It cost him a new set of bearing shells, but it went back together this time and ran.

ps. it's a trap for young players, you need to watch the centre main cap is right way round too.
Tip- the location tabs on the shells always go adjacent to each other.

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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.

I love my engine builder/mechanic. I trust him 110%.

The only things that break on my car are the things that I don't get him to touch.

Eg, when rebuilding the gearbox I didn't get him to do the diff. Guess what happened? The diff went.
When rebuilding the suspension I didn't get him to do the cones. Guess what went next? The cones.

Nothing he has touched has broken. And he is always very transparent with what he is doing. He will often get me in to look at things before he does the work, so that I know what is being done, and often he gives me more than one option.

Find someone you can trust or do it yourself with the knowledge it may not be perfect.

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Ryan Filippi
Minis In The Gong
[email protected]
www.minisinthegong.com.au

"""when rebuilding the gearbox I didn't get him to do the diff. Guess what happened? The diff went."""

it`s the things like this that get up my backbone

he "Should" have done the diff while he was there!!! simple as that!!! i won`t build a box without making sure the diff, clutch, drop gears & all things related in that same area are done too.

it`s exactly this type of thing that i talked about in JC`s thread

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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.

Waaay back in the early nineties I built my first power unit up from a short block I mail-ordered from somewhere in NSW (memory escapes me now). Up until this point I'd been running motors which were, basically, shagged - big ends rattling, no oil pressure to speak of (even with HPR50 and thickener additives, no more than 20psi at revs and nothing at idle).

So I finally saved up enough $$ for a short motor, had it delivered and set to work installing it on my (probably shagged, I can't remember) gearbox.

The old engine came out easily, separated from the head and box easily, and the new one went together easy as pie too. How hard can this possibly be?

A couple of hours to get the newly assembled power unit back in the car, then the big moment: let's fire her up!

She started pretty easily, but wait a minute, where's the oil pressure? (No, I didn't know nearly enough about building engines at this point to know I should have primed the pump and turned it over without the plugs, but that was the least of my problems).

Let's see, maybe if I give it a little rev the oil pressure will come good?

Nope, hmm.. maybe I should stop it. OK.

*thinks*

Let's try again. Start, run, rev, nope, no oil pressure. Sure is sounding odd by now, though...

Dammit!

It's about now that I found the oil pump gasket, on the bench... oops!

Needless to say many expletives were spent pulling the motor back out, stripping it down far enough to get at the oil pump, and installing the gasket. When it finally did go back together again, it ran... but never did make very good oil pressure and if memory serves me correct didn't last very long.

Expensive way to learn a very simple lesson...

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Simon

The adventures of an owner builder in the Tallarook Ranges

Slight variation to the title
So I'm driving home from MiniKing yesterday, buzzing along the M7 at about 100kmh and I notice that the torque steer seems to be getting worse
I accelerate and the car moves to the right then take my foot of the accelerator and the car dives to the left. I'm thinking this is probably dangerous
So I try a few different manouvers and yes it is dangerous
Maybe it's due to the 13x7 wheels
So last night I'm thinking of what the problem could be?
Diff bearings now did I measure that preload correctly
Steering rack nah the doc built it so should be ok
Any way I decided to do some checking today and jacked the front of he car up to try and find one thing out of place, so the drivers side is all good, the wheel is nice and tight, so are the ball joints and so I move to the other side and bingo
Something is very loose, which I tracked down to be the tie rod arm on the hub is slightly loose and also the tie rod nut will tighten a little more
So I tighten up the two bolts holding the arm to the hub, they only needed about 1/2 a turn, and then knocked the lock tab back put the wheel back on and went for a drive.
WooHoo!
Problem solved and what a difference considering the bolts were e ver so slightly loose.
And while I was under the car I also checked a lot of other nuts and bolts, but all good.

Still trying to work out why the bolts were loose as I usually check every thing twice and I would have checked these a few times prior to locking of the lock tab. Maybe due to the paint?
Any way it was broken and now fixed

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1969 Cooper "S"
1967 Mini Deluxe
1973 Clubman Van (the fleet spare)
1978 ex 1275 LS ("Wizard" Eaton Supercharged)
2015 HSV GenF GTS(occasional drive & tow car)
2019 MINI F55 Cooper S

Not quite my engine, but related...

Trying to put the drive shafts back into the cv joint as the engine goes back in (hope you are all following my vague description). Lying on my back under the car when a little grease covered ball bearing fell on my forehead. Gave me a real suprise as I wasnt expecting that. Heavy little thing too...

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"Beware the lollipop of mediocrity: lick it once and you'll suck forever" Brian Wilson

I was about to ask if it was painted before assembly.
You need to remove paint from the mating surfaces and under the heads of the bolts and nuts before tightening.

Bought a 'package' of a Clubby rolling shell, sidedraught webber, second hand exhaust and a 'rebuilt' 1275 that had just been run in (before being pulled back out of that Mini). I was also given the use of the workshop to put it all together. Built the car, tested compressions etc and everthing seemed good. Took the car to get it Dyno'd and tuned. Everthing came back sweet and I was happy. Tidied it all up at the workshop and it was finally ready. The throaty sound of the weber and the feel of the 1275 was gooooood!
Then..........
Left the workshop and she pulled through the back streets nicely. Got to the Main Road. Pulled off on first with some nice torque steer. Quick change to second and opened her up. Clutch in, grab third, let it out and squeeze the throttle ... BANG.. Engine dies, wheels lock and I knock it into neutral. Tried to fire it up and it sort of turns over but sounds very weird.
I had snapped the crank. The result was a damaged block, cracked gearbox casing and pretty much dead engine. But the real kicker was when I bought the engine I had stupidly agreed to buy it second hand 'as is' with no warranty. Found out down the track that the rebuild only consisted of rings and bearings with no rebore or machine work. Learnt an expensive lesson with that one.

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1975 1310cc Street Mini Custom
1974 Leyland Mini daily driver
2008 Cooper S R55 Clubman

From the JC thread. Now with a little more detail. Paid a motza to a Brisbane Mini expert. Dropped a rod, ruined the block, rebuilt gear box, cam, crank etc etc All effed. When Pulled apart I found the rod bolts not torqued down.

The bloke that did it is no longer around as far as I know.

well i did a few silly things back when i had my old clubman . i pulled the radiator out amongst a few other things for a reason i cant remember. then i put it all back in good started it up, took it for a drive, hmm seems a bit warm. got it back in the shed, hmm, forgot to put coolant in the radiator .

then one time i changed the rubber cross uni joints as they were all stuffed from oil leaks. got them in fine, dropped the car down, took it for a drive. it sounded really bad, like i hadn't tightened the ubolts or something, so i limped it slowly back home as i couldn't do much on the road. it got louder and louder and i drove slower and slower. then as i was driving along our long driveway.... one of the front wheels fell off. forgot to tighten the wheel nuts, not the ubolts..

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Tim
Dusk Blue
1964 850

You are Mr Fail!!! lol

haha, i was only 19 at the time. haha.. i got the jack under it eventually and put it back on and it was as good as new.

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Tim
Dusk Blue
1964 850

Just last week I pulled a head off a 'professionally' rebuilt 1275 that was barely running.
It was suposed to be a 10.5 : 1, High performance job.
Head and block drilled for 11 stud, but the 2 extra stud holes were drilled 4mm out on the block, the head gasket butchered to suit, and the head holes bored out.
The oversized valves had clipped each other in two cylinders, not helped by flogged out guides, and all breathing through standard ports.
The head eneded up being cracked between the valve seats.
To top it off the pistons were AE 8.8 CR sitting nearly 2mm down the bore.
At least the ring end gaps were easy to check, you could see them clearly through the large piston to bore clearance!

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How can it be rusty when it's covered in so much oil?

He wanted to, but at the time, I didn't have the money. The diff was actually ok. When I say it went, i should clarify, it was just a bit of the bearing cage that came away.

so basically, what I'm trying to say is that you should trust the professionals to do there jobs. If i had of listened i wouldn't of had a problem.

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Ryan Filippi
Minis In The Gong
[email protected]
www.minisinthegong.com.au