it's amazing how much better one of these cars drives with new front end parts, and in this case getting up off the bumpstops too! Most of the frontend was in pretty good shape, I only replaced the upper control arm bearings because the one side was starting to wear into the shaft slightly.....and I had them off the car anyway. The bushings were tired, the ball joints were loose and the tie bars were bent, so all new stuff there, plus being adjustable for good alignment will help. I just eyeballed the settings but it looks pretty good now that it's down on its wheels, and it drives pretty straight. I think the 7" wheels are too big but he likes the look. It does have the fiberglass arches, and they look pretty stout too. I have to get him on the 1500 mile oil change program, so much of the old oil stays in the torque converter that it looks dark almost immediately. I got him a couple extra filters too. Some small good news, it doesn't seem to be leaking oil from anyplace, and the transmission shifts smoothly and well. I'm thinking it was the oil filter o-ring after all that was leaking. Today I flushed the cooling system thoroughly, I even ran some radiator cleaner thru it and flushed that out too, then filled it with the right coolant mix. It runs right at the temp it should. I also made a few trips around the block to make sure it ran and shifted OK, and it does. Drove pretty well too considering I just guesstimated the suspension settings! I have an appointment Wed to get the alignment done, then Friday it goes home to Boston. Last things I need to do are put the sump guard back on, install the grill and bolt the bonnet back on, then she's done. Before and after pics.
Just barely, Fed Ex might tho A friend of mine locally just bought a new enclosed car hauler, he uses it mostly to haul his race car to the track and home again but when there's no racing he helps pay for it by hauling cars. If you have something to move I can give you his contact info - I think he's very reasonable.....
Nothing to move, but I'll keep him in mind if I hear of anyone who needs a move done I'll contact you.
Well, just when you think you have it sorted. I ran it extensively yesterday, drove it around the block a bunch of times and when I parked it in the shop overnight, this morning not a drop of oil on the floor. So I went ahead and buttoned up the front grill, installed and adjusted the bonnet and then put the sumpguard back on under the engine. Fired it up and took it around about a 10 block run and came back, parked in the shop and sum-of-a-beach, there's a damn oil puddle on the inside of the sumpguard! Right in the center where the oil filter is too.....so now I'll pull the grill and sumpguard back off and see if I can determine where it's coming from. Why in the hell it didn't leak all day yesterday is beyond me.
Sorry Dave. I know LBC's leak, but that's not supposed to happen for a while. I'm sure you'll figure it out, I have faith in you.
So I pulled the filter housing off again, I could not find anything wrong with it but it clearly was leaking. There was a fairly massive puddle under the car (well, 7" around or so) and I could follow the trail down the front of the transmission. So I cleaned up the housing off the 998 engine I'm building and swapped out the filter for a new one, I found a small burr on the edge of the transmission housing face and cleaned that off, then used some good gasket sealer on a new gasket and bolted everything back together and fired it up. I ran it for 10 minutes with no leaks, but then I ran it for over an hour plus drove it around the other day and it didn't leak then either, so..... It's bucketing down right now so I won't be able to drive it till tomorrow.
So today I drove up to the alignment shop to have the front end aligned.... This car is well received at the shop, all the techs wanted to get a good look. The car looks tiny on a rack built for modern pickup trucks! The tech is the same one that aligned Don's Pup, so he was somewhat familiar with Minis, but of course this one is different than a Mini Tec front end. He did a great job, starting with height adjustment, and when done getting the steering wheel exactly straight. I took the car for a short drive on the highway, about 10 miles, and the car drove straight and smooth.....perfect job. When I got home I parked it in the shop and did other things for a while, when I came out......well, that's part 2
Part 2..... After a few hours time I went back down to the shop and saw this.... I can't find anything wrong so I tightened the cannister up a quarter turn and took it for about a 5 mile drive, so far not a drop has fallen - so I hope that's it at last.
Here’s hoping that you that you don’t find any drops on the floor....although an engine that drops money, especially larger denominations, would be quite a find.
Dave I was wondering how much adjustability the Mini's suspenders have. Is toe-in-out about it or is there more to it?
Chuck, normally toe and go is all there is, but I added some new pieces that are adjustable, so now you can set caster, camber and toe, as well as balance ride height and corner weights. We didn't do the latter but we did everything else. Car drives really well now, I'm sure he'll be pleased. Here's a pic of the adjustable arms I added...
This morning there was one drop about the size of a dime - he said he'd live with that. But no dimes......
Pretty neat that you can update a suspender design from 1959 into one with so many more advantages. Science!
After all the frustrations with the oil leak I thought I finally had it whipped. Drove it around the block several times, had already driven it up to the alignment shop, about a 5 or 6 mile run on the highway and not a drop. So Monday morning Clancy was on his way to pick it up to haul it home, I backed it out of the garage and again drove it around the block and when I came back I noticed a trail going up the street - this is what I found when I walked back in the garage..... It was clear that it was coming from the oil filter o-ring again. So I pulled the housing off -again - cleaned everything up, put a new o-ring in - again - and a new gasket between the housing and the engine - again - tho it wasn't leaking there. I find it easier to just remove the whole housing so you don't dump all the oil out of the cannister all over the engine trying to get it out. Not that it mattered much at this point since so much oil had already spewed out all over the road on my drive around the block. Anyway.....I gently filed the end of the cannister to make sure there weren't any sharps or nicks, put yet another new o-ring and gasket on and put it back together and ran it on the rack. Dryer than a popcorn fart - tho I've been here before. I also had to remove the sump guard which was full of oil and clean it too, then put it back on. This morning it was still dry after I started it so I ran it around the neighborhood some more and let it run for about 20 min in the driveway...... perfectly dry. So we loaded it on the trailer and it's headed home today. I think he plans to be there by Friday.
Well here is hoping it full of oil after the end of trip to the owner, nice work, interesting frustration. I have to ask, do they make a remote oil filter system for these engines that you can fit if room exists in the engine bay. I know the MINI is rather tight for space around engine. Just asking for future reference. Take care and get back to it when you can after that surgery, next week right? Don
I was wondering if you could just put a spin on filter on there or is there some reason on a transverse engine you can't. All the A series engines I owned got one. Cursed those farkin canister filters #%!.
It only leaks when it's running....and for a little while after you shut it off! To answer both questions....no there is no room for a remote on one of these automatics with fuel injection....nor do I know of anyone who makes one. Also, which answers the second question, the oil pressure on an automatic as measured at the filter is well over 110psi, more than any spin on's I know of that will fit this car will stand. Plus too and also, there would be a lot of drainback with it installed sideways. Bottom line - cannister it is. I've installed hundreds of these over the years....the early cars all had cannisters too - tho not for the same reason - and I've never had one leak before. This was seriously causing me to doubt my abilities. Can't imagine what the owner was thinking! (He says it's cool, he's seen it all before ) Oh, and later standard shift Minis all have spin on filters (mid 70's on I think), and of course there are kits to backfit the early standard shifts with the spin on.