Most liked posts in thread: Mini Innocenti 1300 Export

I cleaned up and painted the calipers - a coat of etch primer and the stainless steel topcoat went on well and dried quickly, allowing me to install the new seals and put them together tonight, and add them to the pile of parts ready to go back on the car.

 

I finished all the Moke suspension and brakes - front and rear - and the owner came and got them, freeing up a lot of room in my shop.

Next up I tackled the carbs off the Inno...I was amazed how badly they were stuck together and gooed up from the old gasoline! I had to use a hammer and drift to get the main jet out of its holder. once apart I took it all over to a friend's and used his fine glass bead blaster to clean everything up and brought it all back to the shop for reassembly. I had a complete rebuild kit on hand so I had all the gaskets, new main jets and needles I needed. Took a while to figure out how all the linkage bits went back together but it's done now.

Next project - either tear the motor down or swap the steering rack - haven't decided which way to jump just yet,....but I may do the steering rack first so I can stick the front subframe back in place while I do the engine. When you have a small shop you have to do things in a sequence that leaves you enough room to work.

some before/after pics

 

That's what I'm saying Dave, then you can just sit in a comfy roll around chair and it's eye level.

Got most of the front suspension installed in the subframe. More to come later....

 

Calipers installed, CV's repacked and new boots installed, and I changed the u-joints in the Hardy-Spicers. I wasn't sure I needed to as they felt fine, but as there's no provision to grease them I thought it would be a good idea rather than have to do them 100 miles down the road - shouldn't have bothered tho - they were like new inside.

I was hoping to be able to paint some of the ends and odds I still need to do today, and it got warm enough, but the humidity was about a million per cent and it spit rain all day.....I'm hopeful it will be nicer tomorrow as I have to work on Monday.

 

This morning I managed to get the pedal cluster installed, I had to remove the accelerator pedal assembly as the end didn't line up with where the cable comes thru the firewall, a quick trip to the vise and a little bend and all is good now.

Next up was the steering column and the upper bracket - had to loosen the steering rack to get it all lined up properly, then it all went together as it should. I installed the column switch and stuck a late model steering wheel on it just for grins - it doesn't fit the turn signal switch so it's just sitting there. Dan found us a standard Hellbore steering wheel and hub assembly so it will all fit properly when we're done.

I also trial fit the master cylinders - as you can see the new master is made for a right hand drive car - the pipes come out on the "wrong" side, so it will be interesting getting it all to work - I bought the special brake lines that have a metric fitting on one end and the English on the other but figuring out how to run them will be interesting - before I bend them. I've been using coat hangers to mock up how I'm going to run then, but without the carbs in there it's all just a guess. The clutch master will require a really tight bend in the line at the top then the other end has to work around the engine steady and heater hoses.

More as it happens...….next up I'll mount the heater and run all the wiring to the steering column switch and remount the ignition switch. I'll also have to repair a few wires that the insulation has cracked on in several places - no idea what caused that - they're not burned like they shorted out, just cracked and broken insulation.

 

I decided while I had the dash all exposed to go ahead and start checking out the entire electrical system, so I installed the battery and turned a few things on.....uh-oh.

Nothing smoked but some things are definitely not wired up correctly.....headlights only come on when I use the turn signal switch and....well I stopped there to look at the wiring diagram I have, but it doesn't seem to be quite right for this car. There is a relay on the left front inner fender that I think was for driving lights but the wires attached to it are for the fuel sender - according to the wiring diagram.....some more sleuthing is definitely in order. Also, there is no switch not being used, so I can't find what those wires and relay would be controlled by.

I did find another wiring diagram that was posted just this month, I downloaded it to a thumb drive with the idea that I'd head over to Kinkos and have them print me out a BIG copy - but they're closed.

There are also two unused wires that again, the diagram indicates are used for something completely not possible on that end of the car.

God forbid I have to trace these wires one at a time and sort out what they do - that will take ages.

Better now than when the car is all assembled tho……

Edit:I got a wiring diagram I can actually read!

 

I'm just gonna build a new front harness complete....the other side was just as bad.

Next weekend it's going into the body shop to get prettied up and get the interior installed.....

 

Down on it's wheels again, ready to go to the Spa tomorrow.....

 

Loaded up and ready to roll in the morning.

 

IT'S..... A……. LIVE! Innocenti engine hasn't run in 10-15 years.



Good oil pressure, nothing's leaking, and it sounds very good....no smoking, knocking or other nasty noises either. I haven't run this carb on anything before so it may not have the right needle for this engine. I also haven't set the timing, that's why it tries to run on on shutdown.

 

I've decided not to pull the head, rather I'm going to change the water pump and clutch, I can change the diff without splitting off the engine from the trans and I'll do the shaft seals and oil change then too, give it a good tune up, clean and paint the block and put it back in.

 

Hmmm.....I may be changing my mind on tearing down the engine.....even tho it has good compression and oil pressure, I didn't run it long enough to simulate a highway run, the oil pressure could fade on a long run.

My thinking is this, first of all - it does have the correct block, based on the block number, thick flange and some of the stuff I found inside - more on that in a sec.

Obviously the head has been off as it's been thoroughly ported and worked on.

This sucker leaks oil from everywhere it can, which makes me think the block, seals and internals are original - if so they have 75K miles on them. And while that's not the kiss of death on a Mini engine like 100K is, it certainly is a lot of miles and wear.

It has the correct duplex timing chain, which is showing some wear, and the clutch was pretty much worn out, as well as being oil soaked.

So, maybe just a quick cylinder hone, new bearings and oil pump, new timing chain and of course all the gaskets and seals. While I have it separated from the trans put in the center oil pickup, change the final drive and replace the synchros as I'll bet #2 is weak.

There isn't even a hint of corrosion in the water jackets - I've never seen one this clean before - makes me wonder what kind of antifreeze they were running in it - cause we know it has sat for a very long time and that stuff deteriorates over time and turns acidic.

OTOH, maybe it has good compression and oil pressure because it's already been done, and boiling the block out for the overhaul is why it's so clean inside. I'm thinking the next step is to pull the head and see what pistons it has, if they're oversize then we know it's been rebuilt and it's probably fine as it is. Of course, we still don't know anything about the transmission. But......if the engine was rebuilt, why is it leaking oil so badly and for so long?

More as it happens...…

 

Crankshaft woes...…

The crank expert said it was fixable....sort of. The place that was bad was under where the primary gear rides, so the plan was to machine that down to a good finish, then get a new primary gear (which has a removable full floating bushing instead of the pressed in, reamed to size one) and then have a new bushing made that would be correct to the new inside diameter. Then, given the wear patterns on the bearings, we figured the journals were probably tapered - which happens in shops that don't maintain their equipment - which meant machining all the journals too. The rods were 10 under and the mains were already 20 under......but with all that done we would have a proper working crankshaft.

Or...…..we could take the new crankshaft I have and simply machine the rod bearings down from 1.75 to 1.625 and run new standard sized bearings and a normal unmodified primary gear.

The tipping point was the surface the flywheel mounts to was fretted badly, and while I could clean it up, it was showing some wear, and the new crank was..... well...…..new!

So we decided to go the new crank way, it should be done in 10 days or so. That will give me time to order bearings, primary gear and other bits from England.

Given the other things I've found I know I'll also be getting a new cam and lifters, new oil pump, and we're discussing a lightened flywheel. Once I know how the block is going to turn out then I'll know if I need new pistons too or just some new rings...... I should hear from the block guy in a few days.

In the meantime I'll be cleaning up the other bits and tearing into the transmichigan….debating on changing the final drive to 3:1 from the 3:44 it has now..... and of course I'll need to change all the seals and gaskets and clean everything out thoroughly.....so plenty to do yet in the shop.

Also, here's what happens when you don't run ZDDP in pretty much any engine made before 1990, and all classic Minis....these lifters tell the tale. And this cam bearing.....

 

Here is the crank out of the spare engine, it will have to have the rod journals machined down from 1.750 to 1.625, but other than that it's in great shape.

 

Today I got the second coat of paint on the Inno block, looks pretty shiny now! I had missed more than a few spots up under the bosses so this time I laid it over on it's side so I could see all the nooks and crannies.

I also separated all 8 of the pistons and rods, removed all the piston rings, cleaned them all up so they're ready to go to the balance guy on Monday if all the other parts get here. The pistons from the Inno look great, the ones out of my spare block not so much as I found more than a few stuck rings, those went into the trash - tho I saved the rods as those match the original Inno crankshaft.

The piston pins on these are a press fit in the rod, free floating in the piston, so you have to be very careful when pressing the pins out that you don't damage the piston - same with putting them back in. Once the pin has gone thru the rod journal, then you have to make sure it's lined up perfectly before pressing thru the rest of the way, then you have to stop so the pin is centered in the piston when the rod is.

Still have a few thousand more pieces to clean and some to paint.....still waiting to hear on the cylinder head.

Edit: Cylinder head shop hasn't touched it - they swear they'll tear it down tomorrow and get it back to me asap. We'll see.

Dan and I are definitely planning to put both the Inno and his blue car on the dyno once I'm done.

 

At dinner Sat night...the whole bunch minus one family who were local and headed home instead with their three small children.

Sunday a few of us met up at the shop to load up various bits and then headed off to home. Our trip home was uneventful, sunny skies, light traffic and warm temps

 

Yeah, and DHL did not deliver today even tho they said they would "by the end of the day" which is as close as they come anymore to giving you a delivery time. I checked tracking and it said "EXCEPTION" so I called customer service and they said they could not get to my door. This is the second time in a row they've said that - it's an excuse for a lazy delivery guy to me. Then they sent me an updated delivery notice that said I asked for a change in delivery date!?!?!? If it doesn't hit me tomorrow, Ima call them and get loud!

 

Yeah, I hope to have it back in the engine stand and running by next weekend, depending on when the crank comes back.

 

I got the crank back today from the cranky guy and have started some basic assembly. Before I go there I took some pics of where he had to take metal off the crank to get it balanced. One of the rods was considerably heavier than the others and it took quite a bit of metal off to get it balanced out. I also made a little video of checking the thrust bearing clearance.....the clearance spec is 3-5 thou, we have 4.




I also did a short video about how to check your thrust washer clearance....

 

Well, we decided to go with option 2, reinstall the original stroked crank and rods....to that end I did the 2 hour round trip drive back to the crank shop so I could find out if our crank was any good - it is - and whether he would have to grind the mains or rods, or both - he doesn't. I also double checked that the mains were 20 under and the rods 10 under before I order new parts again.

Now that I have that all confirmed I went ahead and ordered the new primary gear, new rod and main bearings and a bunch of other small bits and bobs - to the tune of $300!

Once this stuff comes in I'll schlep it all back up to the shop so he can grind the crank end to fit the mew primary gear bushing, then go ahead and re-balance everything to the new crankshaft. While I was going thru all these parts I found the rods I will be using are a good 60 grams lighter than the other ones - so we've added a little more lightness to the rotating mass. It shouldn't take a lot to balance it out since everything except the clutch and flywheel were in there before.

Here's the sign on the front desk of the crank shop.....


I also contacted Newton Commercial and they confirmed my interior is still another 4 weeks out, so there's no way this car is going to make t to the show in Snowmass this summer. So I'll need to spiff up the Racing Green Mini before I head west in late June for the mountains.