Most liked posts in thread: 998 Motor and Auto Trans for Pup

Meh, things still hurt....I'm still going to PT long after I thought I would be done. I'm only good for a couple of hours on my feet a day, then I'm done, so things are not happening quickly in the shop.....and I'm so backed up! But, it's just going to have to wait.....

 

Today I went ahead and installed the pistons and rods and the crankshaft, I did the cam bearings yesterday....those were a bit of a PITA.

Turns out there was a nick on the block that damaged the front bearing as I drew it in, once in place I knew something was wrong because the cam wouldn't go in. So I pulled the bearing shell out - saw that it was damaged beyond use (fortunately the front shell is the same as a 1275 and I always have a set of those on hand) and inspected the hole - found the nick - so I took a file and cleaned it up, then a light bit of 1200 to make sure there were no file marks and tried again with the bearing.

This time it rotated on me so I had to pull it back out again - but it wasn't damaged, so I carefully lined it up and drew it in again. This time it was perfect - there are bore holes in the shells that have to line up with the holes in the block. You can fudge a little bit, but not a lot.

Once that was done I cleaned all the bearing surfaces in the rods and mains with scotch brite pads and solvent, then dried it all out and cleaned the shells too. A nice coating of assembly lube and it all went together normally.

I'm stopped on this one now till the transmission gets back from California....loyal readers will remember that I had to send the cam out to have it reground because of the unique drive used on the oil pump, which runs off the back of the camshaft.

I heard from the guy who rebuilt the trans a week ago and he said it was done and ready to come to me, but I haven't heard a peep since or seen anything of a truck. I messaged him today so we'll see if he just forgot to send it or if he's waiting on the cam to be reground.



Oh and my friend Clancy called today and wanted to know if I could build him a race engine by this time next month! I explained waiting for parts and machine shop time etc, so we'll see what he decides to do - if we're gonna go he needs to get me the block asap and we need to get parts ordered like yesterday!

I also have a guy bringing his car down from Cuba, Mo sometime next week for I have no idea what.

When it rains......and boy howdy is it raining! Literally and figuratively both!

 

This afternoon I shot some etch primer, color and clear on the head. The weather is so warm that it cured out really quickly - by tonight I couldn't even make a finger nail imprint in it.

Since the paint cured out so quickly I went ahead and assembled the head, installed all the new studs, new valves, springs, collets and keepers, as the later model lead free valves use the three ring keepers and the earlier small blocks valves use one.





With the head done the last thing I did was paint the cast iron end cover black, and popped in the new pot joints, the old ones were pretty done. I also found a better set of block to transmission gaskets as the ones that came in the kit Nick supplied didn't fit very well.





Tomorrow I'll mate the block to the transmission and carry on with the assembly.....

 

Thanks Scott, and to everyone who reads my drivel!

I'm waiting on parts so I've started another project so that I can keep things moving thru the shop. Once I'm thru the glut of work that piled up while I was out of commission I may get a good breather. Everyone wants their stuff built over the winter so that when the weather clears they can go drive - ME TOO!

But that means things slow down in the summer, which is OK with me as I like to do some Mini events too - in fact I have one I'm trying to make at the end of April - to the Texas Hill country outside San Antonio.

 

Waiting on a bearing and circlip that didn't make it back from the transmission shop with the gearbox, other than that this one is ready for final assembly and to be loaded into the engine stand for start up.

Goes in the hole right below the crank gear, and the intermediate gear that goes between the crank and trans rides in it.....

 

So, got some more done on the engine today, in between other jobs. Had to order some more bits from Spares today, but if everything gets here I should have it running by next weekend. Assuming I can find the missing parts in MY shop too......sheesh. I have no idea where this stuff goes......

 

Dave, yes all the Mini automatics can be shifted manually, as far as modifying it to take more HP - not sure. The stock trans was strong enough to handle twice the HP the early cars had, and by the end of production the factory had an updated version and those engines were making about 70 hp - vs the original 34 or so. He may have changed it over to Hardy Spicer joints instead of the original rubber ones.

The only thing that killed those transmissions was lack of oil changes. Where the stock engine called for 3,000 mile intervals, the auto's needed it at 1500......and they had to use the correct oil. Later, modern oils don't play nice with the clutches and bands in one of these - I use motorcycle oil.

 

Absolutely! I wonder if I could have just given it a good bop on the end and not had to take it all apart, but I might have damaged something else in the process. I have now been completely thru one of these automatics - but I really don't ever want to do another......

BTW Scott, my first new MINI was an '03 electric blue JCW.....really liked that car. It had "stuff" too!

 

Got it loaded into the test stand, probably won't get to fire it up till Sat, my brother is coming to town for the weekend......

 

It's ready to run, all wired up, gassed up and so on, however I found late tonight that the choke isn't working correctly - so I guess I'll have to take the linkage apart and see what's up......I need to modify it anyway so the kick down link will work....I'm starting to wonder if this is actually the carb I sent to Joe Curto or if the reason I got such a quick turnaround is that he swapped it for one he already had done?

I'll take a good hard look at it tomorrow.....

 

Wow, hard to believe it'll be a year Nov 21st on this build. I hope I get it installed and out of my shop well before that time.

This engine is going into a Mini pickup, my brief is only to install it - as in bolt it in the chassis and install the axles......no hoses, pipes, wiring or anything else, the owner of the car will be doing all of that and finishing the rest of the restoration. my understanding is the truck is in primer but has the bottom painted and the subframes and all the suspension and brakes have been done too.

 

The Pup may be showing up this weekend if my partner can arrange his work schedule to fit, otherwise it will be at least another two weeks before I see the car.....

 

I wasn't sure it was going to fit, especially from the top - the factory puts them in from the bottom....




But after some creative maneuvering, it's in da hole!





I still have some odds and ends to button up, but it should be ready to go home this weekend - unfortunately unless something happens the truck won't be leaving till the 6th of November......

 

Motor all buttoned up, re-arranged everything in the bed for the trip. All I have left is to install the axles and tighten everything in the front end up. Clancy will be picking it up fri or sat next.



I had to do a major cleanup and rearranging of the other side of the garage so I could get the green Mini inside, we had big rainstorms coming thru and I wanted it inside - plus my insurer insists that it be garaged.

 

It's coming along, but he still has a mammoth project ahead, it needs paint and body work, a full wiring harness, lights, trim, interior, dash, instruments and so on.

The last big thing I need to do is install the axles and tighten everything up in the front end - Dan left everything loose at my request as I knew I would just have to take it apart to get the axles in place.

So, Dan brought me two of the wire retaining clips - but it takes 4 - luckily I had a pair also.



I installed the right axle in the outer CV first as I thought that would be the easier way - ummmm.......well, it sounded good anyway. Before I was done I wound up getting out my cone compressor and winding the cone up so I could get the axle lined up straight, then everything went together just fine. I think the short side (left) won't present the same issues.



So, right side is in and buttoned up, still need to put the Mister Kotter pin in and then once I can put weight on it I can install the little rubber droop bumper. Once that's done and the left side axle is installed and buttoned up it's ready to head out of town.

 

Musta been a fairly dry barn, huh?

The owner and I talked today and he wants to go whole hog on this one, make as much HP as it will and still be reliable, so that's what we'll do!

 

I'm going to go ahead and pull the transmission off this engine next week and get it crated up and shipped out to California to be rebuilt. He won't be able to work on it till January, but he can go ahead and get parts ordered from England - hopefully before the end of the year as Brexit kicks in then and I have no idea what's going to happen to shipments after that date. Already some small suppliers have said they won't be shipping anything overseas after the first of the year due to the uncertain rules and additional paperwork required. No idea what's going to happen, but it could make a huge difference on my parts suppliers.....

I'll be using the Fastenal shipping to get it there as they are by far the cheapest way to ship a pallet across country.

The engine work will have to wait till after my knee gets replaced, probably late Feb or early March before I'll be back into the shop - I'm hoping to get the white Japanese Spec car done before then, but I'm down to about 3 weeks left now.

 

OK, so back on topic....

The White car is done and ready to go home so I started in on the 998 engine again.

When we left off I had just stripped the transmichigan off the engine, that went pretty well....I'm really happy with this lift table....it gets the engine up to a good height for my back. I use the engine hoist to move it around, turn it over and so forth.

Over all this engine clearly hasn't run for a very long time - it's rusty inside especially in the water jacket and head. It has dished low compression pistons that I'll be swapping for 40 over flat tops so it will up the compression a bit.




After finding the star drive situation, we discussed various ways to fix this......the problem is we want to get a better camshaft for it, and all Spares makes are slot drive cams. I had already bought an Evo1 cam for it when I found the pump problem, but no worries I'll use it on a subsequent build.

Somerford offer a Kent cam kit in star drive but it's really spendy - but I think we're going to have to go that way. The other choice was just to reuse the original cam as it's in surprisingly good shape but he's looking to up the power, so in for a penny.......

I'm going to do a little port work too, to try and get it to breathe better with the new cam.

My friend WillieB made me a tool to remove the cam bearings - I had two press tools for the two smaller cam bearings but needed one for the large one on the chain end. It came in the mail the other day and today I pressed it into service and it worked perfectly to remove the bearing shells. it will make putting them back in not only easier, but more accurate too as you have to line up the oil pressure holes between the shell and the block. Big props to WillieB for making this tool - it was perfect.




Next up, send the trasnmission off to California, and the block and crank to be bored.....and then once I'm done with it the head will go down to have hardened seats and guides installed, then a good three angle valve job and a light skim to give a good gasket surface.

I also need to get a bunch of parts off to the powder coaters, including having the header ceramic coated.

Once that's all done I'll be out of the shop for a month or so while my knee heals.

 

I'd be happy to change out the oil pump to a slot drive - but no one sells one for an automatic, which is completely different than the oil pump for a manual transmission. I've cast around for a used one but to no avail.....