Craig's mini engine Re-build. 1380 NA this time!
Turbo Mini Forums

good progress mate

are those rockers shimmed? looks like valve steam and rocker arm might be a bit hear and there? maby someone else can conform this if it matters?

nice looking valves with the steam blended into the back face and the top cut as well

Theres a shim underneath the rockers if thats what you mean buddy, I put it back as I found it, still need to set the valve clearence up however

more so the roller tip and valve steam contact as in shims between the rocker post and rocker arms
correct me if im wrong the contact position just looks different from one valve to the next might just be the pic

I forgot to update this previously, Long story short I have the engine in now and it runs (sorta lol)

So we got the engine back down the unit:



Got everything out of the car that we would need to get it back together:



Empty bay soon to be filled:



And put it in! Got all the mounts connected





Connecting everything up:








So we spent all day trying to get the car in one piece so that I could try to fire it up, to the point where I was rushing it and made some very silly mistakes. I didn't have my new rocker cover gasket to hand so re-used the old one that came with the engine and it ended up pissing at least 1/2 the oil I put in the engine down the block and on the floor. I connected the battery and luckily it didn't show any power at all! I got really pissed off because I had spent all day working on it and had nothing.

I left the car for a couple of weeks, I was down the unit last weekend picking up my fuel pressure gauge for my dad and thought I would take a quick look at it, I decided I would remove the inner wing solenoid and clean it up thinking it was a dodgy connection on the brass pole. I then noticed a spade connector with a brown wire was sat dangling in the air and I remember the brown wires go to/from the alternator, I put him back on and it was really really loose - which explained why before I would have power some times and not others, re-shaped it with a pair of pliers and it fitted on really tightly, but hte battery back on and instantly power with the key on ign.

Being really excited I checked the oil and could see it was halfway between the bottom of the dip stick and the min marker, so I left the car (although I was REALLY tempted to give it a go) and ordered some more millers CTV and went on holiday on the Monday. Ended up buying both mini magazine and mini world while I was away because I was excited that I would have him running again!

Came home from hol yesterday and spent all day on it again today - got the new gear linkage rubber mounts put back on, connected that all up and then decided to put the new oil in. put 1.5L in and it only went up to where the min was on the stick I thought that's odd and put more in (2L now) thought mmm how strange and then noticed a gold liquid on the floor. FFS!!! So I hadn't put the driveshafts in and it was leaking out of the diff covers fuck!! 2L of expensive oil on the floor :( put the shafts in quickly and then put the hubs back together finger tight and then topped the oil up (only took about 1L lol)

Went to fire it up turned over perfectly just didn't even fire, kept trying and nothing checked the spark and yeah it was there! checked for fuel and yeah it was reaching the float chamber in the carb must just not be going through into the cylinders - bit of easy start and it started for a short time - a few attempts later and it would fire up without it. I guess it must of pulled the fuel through using that.

Had a bit of a tinker with the idle mixture screws and the idle speed screws and couldn't get it to idle without stalling - I have put two videos below, one shows it will idle for a little bit and then when you open the throttle it will go to about 3k but won't come back down if you loosen the idle speed screw then it will slowly - even if you adjust the idle mixture screws it won't change anything.



The second video shows it back firing through the carb - I am pretty sure this is because it is running lean? Any thoughts on what is causing this would be great!



I am pretty sure it just needs a proper tune up to suit this engine - that said I know this weber came off a 1380 before so I was kinda hoping it wouldn't be too far away from what this engine needs.

Thanks for reading guys and any thoughts on whats causing the odd idle and the back firing would be great!

do you have a fuel reg i think webbers get shitty when the dont get what they want?

checked for vacuum leaks?

do you have a fuel reg i think webbers get shitty when the dont get what they want?

checked for vacuum leaks?

Yeah I do mate re-using the turbo one just with the boost pressure line not connected to anything - the idea being it returns fuel to the tank as I am still using the leccy pump (spi)