engine fitting help
Turbo Mini Forums

sorry but there may be a lot of questions this week as im on holiday and working on mini all week.....im rebuilding my engine up this week and was wondering if its better to refit in car with head off or as a complete unit...i was thinking it may not be possible to put head on with turbo unit on with the block installed because of clearance problems...any feedback appreciated

regards mark

I usually fit the whole lump assembled. it can be done out of car though, check out the pics of Jon replacing his head gasket in the car park at the RR

Hmmm, following that experience, My recomendation is to build the lot up on the workbench / garage floor (but without the starter or dizzy (or just remove the dizzy cap and rotor) and drop the lot in in one!

Remember to leave the two long 1/2" AF bolts through the passenger side engine mount loose to aid lining up the holes...

Edited by turbodave16v on 28th Jun, 2004.

Has to be said it didnt look much fun!

Yeah leave of starter, alternator and dizzy cap and refit them all before fitting the engine steadies as you can make more room at the front by rocking the engine back.

I prefer dropping in as a whole though but i recently did it half and half and it wasnt that bad, its just the drain on the turbo thats a pain eh dave?!

managed by myself to install the turbo engine already in the subframe with running gear in to a non-flip front from underneath - it isn't that difficult. The only help I had was a small ?20 trolley jack! I did find out part way through that you HAD to remove the alternator, starter and dizzy cap to rock the engine forward enough for the turbo to clear.

Speedster turbo under construction

just fitted my sons engine went in complete
no probs just take your time.

put my fully assembled engine in with the following items removed
Removed the Dizzy Cap
Removed the Starter
Removed the OIL filter plate

It went straight in, but had to be rocked to get the clearences needed , so i worked the hoist and my mate was doing all the rocking !!

Be care ful thouugh as I let it down to quik and hit my wiper panel with the blooming Plenum

Good luck mate

S

TurboLessTosser

i left the starter on and everything else, apart from the altenator which i looseneed and tucked in, and had to take the dizzy cap off. Only thing to be carefull of that i found was that when jacking it up to manoover it in place, i almost bent my scuttle pannel jacking the plenum up into it!

Previous Engine: 1040cc Morespeed engine, 1275 turbo head T2 Turbo Mirage Manifolds Megajolt
Previous engine: STD metro turbo, megajolt
Drives: 399bananahp (flywheel) Honda Civic Vtec b18c4 T28 Turbo 1968 Mini

Megajolt maps to download: http://www.jamesfawcett.co.uk/cms/index.ph...&gid=3&Itemid=3

do you need to remove the brake servo to take the motor out, is there enough clearance?

you can do it, i managed it. just need to tilt the engine and rock it about as its coming out.

nice one cheers ! BUD666

front subframe with engine will fall straight out the bottom with the servo still fitted, but you will need to disconnect the front brake pipe from the reduction valve to the O/S brake connection.

Speedster turbo under construction

if you do it out the top though then there's no need to bleed the brakes after. i hate bleeding brakes fiddly annoying nipple breaking job.

i pulled the servo appart ; you can remove the middle part ; the big disc shaped thingy
and pull the front part * resivour across to the wing;
this way you get the best of both world
no need to bleed the brakes, and engine out through the top !!!

its only 4 bolts one side and 2 the other of th ebig gold servo thang !

steve

TurboLessTosser

Install fully assembled.
If you've ever tried refitting the oil return pipe for the turbo, then you'll understand why

Its easy getting that on as long as you leave the steadies off while fitting it

if its all done though with steadies etc its a pain, ckeck out the pics of dave doing jons at the RR