Wow those water passages remind me of the way the Titanic looks. Crusty crusty crusty. Having the block & head hot tanked will take care of it. Couldn't you change out the oil pump to a slot drive & save a headache? Or maybe I'm missing something.
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.....
Well that explains it. I knew there had to be a reason, but for the life of me I couldn't figure it out. Thanks for the explanation Dave.
A friend and fellow Mini owner came down today to pick up some old parts I had for him, and while we were in the shop he helped me engineer and build a crate to ship this transmission out. It turned out great and is really strong, so I have no worries about it making it to California and back undamaged. Nicholas at Boot 2 Bonnet is also going to rebuild the oil pump to make sure it's up to snuff, as this trans looked like the oil hadn't been changed in a dog's age - although the camshaft itself and the rod/main bearings looked to be in pretty good shape. I'll run it up to Fastenal on Monday morning and he can get started whenever he's ready. I'll be out of the shop for a good month I'm betting, so some of these jobs will be done while I'm out, then when I'm feeling better I can get back to work with parts here and sub-work already done. The block and crank will go to that shop when the new pistons get here sometime next week, then after they've mic'd the crank (I'm thinking it will need to be ground at least to 10 under to clean it up and cure taper) I'll order the right main and rod bearings. In the meantime I'll soak this head in some rust remover before I send it down to the head shop. the block will get hot tanked before and after it's bored so I don't need to clean that rust out of the water jacket, they'll do it for me. Sawdust made a mess in the shop, but it was 30* today so I wasn't going to cut wood or try to build this thing outside!
Transmission left yesterday evening for California. It was scheduled to ship Tues morning but he showed up just as I got home from the doctor's at 5 pm so I shuffled cars around and he loaded her up. I'm waiting for the new pistons to come in so I can send the block, crank and head off to be machined. I'm not sure they'll get here before I go in for surgery in a week. They still haven't shipped yet.... After next Tuesday, everything goes on pause for a while.....
Thanks for all the good wishes, I know I'm in for a couple of weeks of "healing pain" as they jokingly called it, but the results should be worth it to end ten years of unrelenting pain.....assuming I survive the operation!
I have today and tomorrow to get everything ready to go to the machine shop, so I did a few more jobs today. I took the pistons off the rods - there are held on with circlips instead of having the pins pressed into the pistons. I got them all marked up so the end caps won't get mixed up too.
Next up I had to do some work on the cylinder head - I have never seen one as rusted and crusted up as bad as this one is. the water jackets are completely blocked with rust and scale - I had to dig them all out with a small screwdriver, then I'll soak it in some rust getter outer and see how it turns out. Before I could do that I also needed to remove two studs that simply would NOT come out using any of the usual methods - double nuts, vice grips etc. So I got out the acetylene torch and got them cherry red then took the vice grips to them again - it still took some persuasion, working the stud back and forth then out a little, then back and forth again till it finally wound out. I'll run a tap in every threaded hole before I put it back together again. I also run a drill bit and a wire brush down thru the stud holes, the last thing you want is some grit coming out as you're putting the head on and getting between the head and the gasket.
Nice work Dave. That there is a lot of FeO 2, the most I've seen inside an engine. There is a product called evapo-rust might come in handy. https://www.homedepot.com/p/Evapo-Rust-1-Gal-Safe-Rust-Remover-ER012/206639586?MERCH=REC-_-pipsem-_-300214902-_-206639586-_-N
OK, so I'm back on my feet - somewhat - and have started going down to the shop now that it's 40* outside and not -10! I am walking without assistance and although not smooth I'm getting there and I decided it was time to get up and get moving again. Today I'm just cleaning and putting away tools, then organizing parts and getting set up to do some work. We're supposed to have 60* on Tues, then fall back into the mid-40's for the rest of the month and early March, but I can deal with those temps! I have the 998 head soaking in Evaporust (well halfway - that's all that would fit in the bucket) and in a few days I'll pull it out turn it over and drop it in for another few days. Judging by the color of the liquid, it seems to be doing it's job! I have most of the parts I need, tho I haven't heard from the machine shop about the crank so I can order bearings. I'll call them Monday, but chances are good they haven't gotten to it yet - it's only been 2 weeks! I have a bunch of parts at the powdercoaters ready and waiting to be picked up too. The owner isn't in a huge hurry to get this 998 and since I sent the trans off to California I haven't heard whether he got all the parts he needed yet either. I'll call him on Monday too Lastly, the car that this motor is going into is still being painted, so I have a little breathing room. But, I can see a lot of jobs that are going to become time sensitive in a hurry now that the weather has changed. I have two Sprite race gearboxes to build ( all the parts are here for those) two Mini gearboxes to build and three Mini engines to build. A LOT of work to keep me, the machine shop and DHL busy delivering parts! Once the car is done, it will be brought up to me to drop this motor in, but that's as far as I'm going with it - the rest is up to the owner as it's a bare shell - no wiring, instruments or anything. Of course, I want to get going on my electronic fuel injection project too! As my wife says, I'm a complete failure at retirement!
Spent today sorting thru the parts I have on hand for this engine build and seeing what I still need to order. Have to wait for the crank shop to let me know if they had to turn the crank and how far.....spares is out of standard bearings so I kinda hope it had to go 10 under - they have those in stock! If it was ok to just polish out then I'll have to find another supplier.....I sure miss Victoria British!