mains shells
Turbo Mini Forums

i have a runabout daily driver, its a 1275 mini, i'm quite sure that the mains have worn, the oil pressure light stays on until about 1500 rpm, and there is a rattle coming from the engine.
what i want to know is, can i get away with just fitting new shells or is it not worth it? would the crank have been damaged?

““A turbo: exhaust gasses go into the turbocharger and spin it, witchcraft happens and you go faster.”” - Jeremy Clarkson

get a regrind, would be a pain to fit new shells to find you have to do it all again properly after a week

"Turbo's make torque, and torque makes fun"

"did you know you can toast potato waffles?"

Hi,
Have you checked the pressure relief valve? Although it may be too late. You'll need to assess the damage to the crank when you get it out...
Cheers,
Gavin :)

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ELB engineering in Sudbury, Suffolk do cranks & will order your shells in. Good advice too.

I once was in this situation a few years ago with my daily driver 1293 mini.

What I did was to get hold of another crank, and have this ground and get all new bearings/oil pump etc together whilst the car was still in use, at the time it was before the days of owning a fleet so it was my only means of transport.

Then with the help of my mate we hit it starting 9am sat morning driving the car into his garage.
Engine out, split, cleaned all the debris from the knackered bearings (be warned there will be quite a bit potentially) then built all the new bits into it, put it back together and put it back in the car. By 10pm that evening it has oil pressure and was ready to fire up, and the only reason we didn't was not to piss off his parents and neighbours, as I'd taken the opportunity to fit a 286 cam (big mistake BTW!) whilst it was in bits so the folowers needed knocking in for 20min at 2500rpm.

Anyway, in answer to your orignal question, if it has been knocking/rumbling then YES it will definately need a crank grind and shells, and probably an oil pump too.

Tom's advice is VERY good.

You will never know if your crank needs a regrind until you've removed it and measured.

hmmm... not the answers i was hoping for, but i think i will go with toms idea of getting a spare crank and getting it ready before i take the engine out.
its only just had a new oil pump, due to the gearbox giving up in a big way, so i should have checked the mains while i had the chance!
that will teach me!

““A turbo: exhaust gasses go into the turbocharger and spin it, witchcraft happens and you go faster.”” - Jeremy Clarkson

Yes watched the Garage the other night on Discovery in comes an Escort Cabriolet knocking its socks off - cannot afford new engine lets put some new shells in! ( Thta'll work I think - not) Fits big ends starts up perfect - roadtest then dagger dagger (knocking - you get the idea!)

On 5th Sep, 2011 Vegard said:
I stand corrected. You should know

I got away with just a polish up. Think it was only £20ish.

If you got away with a polish, then your crank wasn't worn, thusly you had no knocking or low oil pressure.

Centre main was shot to bits...think it was just more luck than anything that crank was ok.