Most liked posts in thread: 998 Automatic Engine Rebuild

Yes, they were.

If he would have been happy with a "standard" color I could have done it in single stage enamel for $20 in materials, but he wants this special color so we're going this route. I'm not a painter, so I may have a buddy who is come shoot it for me. I don't want to screw it up and have to start over, but I got enough paint that I can if I do mess it up.

 

Here's what the cans look like....



and here's the bottom where you insert the red cap to push the hardener into the color.....


another paint store wanted to sell me the individual paint components and a reusable little electric powered sprayer (which costs $8.00 ?!?!) but the total cost was more than the 4 spray paint cans - might have been easier to use tho, as I could have mixed up a little at a time instead of shooting everything at once. It says on the can in very tiny print that the pot life is 8 hours once you inject the hardener - which is quite a bit longer than I expected, so if I get an early start I should be OK.

My painter buddy says you want to shoot the color over the epoxy primer before it cures out or it won't stick.

This whole thing will be a good adventure in learning.

 

I'm hopeful this week things will get going again on this build......both the cylinder head and block should be back to me by mid week, and the last few parts I ordered 10 days ago now should also be here by Friday - things have really slowed down in the shipping world. I understand that FedEx has warehouses full of packages and UPS is running as much as a month behind on deliveries..... DHL has gone from their usual 3 days from England to me to more than a week. I'll actually be surprised if the parts get here on Friday.

I also had the header ceramic coated, and I'm eager to see how it turns out. I asked the owner if he wanted black, grey or silver and he chose gray as the other two were "too plain", when I got to the coaters they offered black, silver and one other color - NOT grey. So I made an executive decision and it will be "not plain"!

We'll see later this week on it too......

 

Transmission is now fully built, I need to work out how to seal it off as the owner wants it painted to match the engine.....







I also got the rest of the bits back from the powder coaters.

I took this header out to have it ceramic coated - the owner said any color except silver or black, he was thinking grey but I chose this - a metallic bronze. I think it looks a lot like the Inconel SS used in F1 - and the owner liked it!




The color is actually darker than it appears in these photos - I took them out in the sun so the color would show better.....the green on the paint can is the color that will be used on the engine.

Next up I need to do a lot of final cleaning and tape off/seal up all the openings. Then I'll set up some Workmates in the back yard - I also bought a 10X10 pop up tent thingy to maybe keep the sun off me while I'm painting. It's really hot these days.

It's supposed to rain Friday so I'm planning to paint on Sat. so I mowed the grass today and I'm spraying bug killer today to knock down the flying nits population.

 

Tomorrow is paint day at last, we were supposed to have rain all weekend and today, and didn't get a damn drop - so much for the weather guessers - so I could have done this on Sat and been that much closer to building it up and getting it running. Oh well.....

I got the tent set up in the back yard and tomorrow I'll spray for bugs to keep the nits out of the works, then set up the block, head, trans, rear housing and a few small bits like the water pump and thermostat housing and spritz away.



Weather is supposed to be cooler tomorrow too and I'm looking forward to that, but it's only going to last one day so I'm taking advantage! Once everything is coated I'll let it sit overnight to cure out a bit then bring it back inside and let it set up for a week or so to really harden off

 

Another setback.....

The block appears to have been bored 40 over - pistons are 60 over.

Maybe if I get a bigger hammer........

The guy who did the work is coming by this afternoon to pick up the block and pistons and try again.

Hard to get good help these days.....

Actually, he was very surprised when I contacted him last night and told him the holes were a little too small. We'll see what he says when he comes over later today. Too bad, I was really hoping to have the engine all assembled and ready for the engine stand this weekend.

 

Block came back this afternoon, and he had an interesting story to tell about what happened. I had the deck surfaced after he bored it and he said that distorted the cylinders slightly - they were out of round. He was able to clean them up with the rigid hone and only took about a half thou out to clean it up.

Now of course, I have to completely clean the block up again before I can assemble it....first scrub out the bores with a stiff bristle brush and solvent, then clean them with 409 on another clean brush, then with some penetrating oil, then with regular oil, each time wiping out with a clean white non-shedding cloth. If the white cloth comes out with no black on it - it's good to go.

 

Yeppers.....

If you've ever seen one of the surfacing machines, it has a large spinning head like a big dinner plate to which the cutter is attached - just the one - the head is large and very heavy so the cutter will cut and not set up a vibration as the wheel turns over it and cuts the deck.

My guess is that as it passes across the deck surface it slightly distorts the bores - makes them slightly out of round....especially at the top. At least that's how he explained it to me......

All I know is that when he brought it back the bores were nicely honed and the pistons seemed to fit perfectly.

Got the pistons and crank installed, now I'm working on setting the cam timing.

BTW, I don't reuse those nasty rusty screws or bolts, I replace them with new, usually grade 8 hardware, tho not everything requires that strength.

 

Last thing I need is the gear that fits inside that black housing, then I can button it up and put it in the engine stand and make some noise! Still have to go thru the starter and alternator too, and install the dizzy and set the initial timing. So, plenty to do yet but it all hinges on getting that gear, it's supposed to be here today....

 

I'll run it some more in the am, get the timing set and the carb tuned properly. Then it will set overnight to cool, retorque the head and reset the valves then final tune. then load it in the box for the ride home.

 

2nd test run of the 998 automatic. I changed out the carb needle and now it sounds much better. I can't find the adapter that lets me use my mechanical temp gauge so I just screwed in the sender for now, I was going to use my infrared thermometer to keep an eye on the temp but the batteries were dead so I only ran it for about 5 minutes. In the meantime I fixed my temp gun so I can run it longer now. Still some more minor tuning on the carb to do but it's coming around.....since I drained the torque converter, it's taken 8 qts of oil to top it off -I may need another 1/2 qt yet to get it full!

 

No, modern kits use the same Eaton 45 that R53 MINIs use, you can get them with an SU, a sidedraft Weber or even fuel injection! Kit's run about $2K, complete.....more with FI.....from England. Moss gets about twice that.

This place sells them

https://www.vmaxscart.co.uk/

 

The box arrived safely at the shop in Boston, now to get it installed.

 

The owner has this motor installed in the car now, and should be driving it by next weekend - I'm eager to hear what he thinks of it once he gets it on the road!

 

Yes, he complained that it just didn't have any power - and yes I know that could be down to a number of things other than needing an overhaul, but this is what he wants to do. so I'll rebuild it and make sure it's being all that it can be and send it back to him.

 

Well, I found out the car is an earlier version than I thought, so I may have gotten the wrong rear seal, he says it has a two bolt subframe, but the engine number is from a later car - so I'll just have to see when the parts show up. One curious thing, it does not have "Park" - which is the way the early cars were, later cars did have Park. possible someone put a newer motor and trans in it, but that seems unlikely......who knows? He's trying to find the vin off the reg or title and also checking the car for dates on the wiper motor and rear latch.....

 

BTW, a Top Tip.....never use red rags to work on your automatic transmission......they leave an unbelievable amount of red fuzz behind which will quickly clog the filter. I learned this in the 60's, working on - you guessed it - a Mini automatic - of course they weren't "classic" Minis then!

 

Yes, I have a stack of surgical towels, and I do wash them separately with no fabric softener. However, Harbor Freight sells the "white" towels along with the red ones, and I find the white ones are made out of something different and they don't leave fuzz either. The red ones seem to be treated with something too, something that feels almost waxy - doesn't matter if you're using them to clean up grease and oil but it makes them almost waterproof. White ones don't have this film or whatever it is on them.