Most liked posts in thread: MINI Max has a new little brother, Buzz

Today was master/slave cylinder rebuild day. There's a 4th one not in the picture - the booster. I did it last week.

 

My self imposed goal is driving by next weekend.....that gives me two weeks to get the initial miles on it and debug whatever I missed before I leave for my 1500 mile trip. :fingerscrossed:

I still have a huge amount of work to do tho......huge! :crazy:

 

Well, Victoria British let me down this morning, they didn't have the rockershaft, and wouldn't for 3 more weeks. So I started looking at the usual suspects and their price was 2-3 times higher!

So I consulted the wise and powerful Google-Fu and found one at a Toyota/Jaguar dealer in Michigan, of all places, and for even less than Victoria British charges! On top of that, the place is staffed by a VERY knowledgeable woman, who's been selling parts for British cars for over 40 years! Yay, finally a person who knows their way around British cars parts...actually that's not fair, all of the people I deal with at 7 Enterprises, MiniMania and even Victoria British are very good but she was extra sharp and easy to deal with.

So, in the meantime, on with other things. We just got another big rain storm blown thru here and the humidity is over the moon, so painting is out for another day or three but I still have parts that need cleaning, derusting and so on. I also have two axles to put together and some new wheel bearings to install in the hubs. Lots to do......

I still haven't decided on where I'm going to mount the electric fuel pump either....... I need to carry on with lots of electrical work yet actually....the heater fan doesn't work and I haven't wired up the aux electrical port I installed for my Garmin and phone charger. I also have a pretty nasty rattle in the left door to find and cure.

 

Yes, well I'll get on that right away........:biggrin5:

Today I modified the rear crankcase to take a breather assembly that Ruder gave me. I think part of the reason it was leaking was too much crankcase pressure, I'm hopeful this will alleviate that.

First I had to drill out the casting, being careful not to drill into the clutch side of the housing - then bore and tap two holes to mount the breather to the crankcase. I also made a gasket for the base.



Then I had to open up some holes to allow the vapors to escape the crankcase and flow up to the breather can. The breather has an oil separator (which is nothing more than a chore boy stuffed into the can) that will help trap the oil part of the vapors and drain it back to the crankcase.



Once done I could mount the breather onto the crankcase. I also installed a new crankshaft seal, then mounted the crankcase onto the block and transmission.



Next it was the flywheel, and then the clutch assy....however, no sooner than I had the clutch cover tightened down I remembered I hadn't bent the locktab over on the flywheel retaining bolt, so off it came again. Installing the clutch is very fiddly on these cars with the early style clutch - part of it is behind the flywheel, and part of it is on the back side, you have to bolt them together without losing the plot....it can be a bit of a PITA. Later cars have a normal clutch like pretty much most cars use. Anyway, once that was done and the clutch reinstalled, it was time for the cover and the starter.



Once the rocker shaft gets here (tomorrow I hope) then I can torque down the head, adjust the valves and it's pretty much ready to go into the subframe and into the car.

I still have some suspension work to do before that can happen tho, so I'll start on that tomorrow while I wait for the postman to ring twice.
I also have to go pick up a case of Brad Penn oil that I sourced locally - I'm undecided whether to go with 10W40 during break-in, or just go with 20W50 that it had in it before. it carried great oil pressure even with a block full of worn out parts, maybe I don't need the thicker oil now?

 

MCS02, I don't know why not having a filter would call for non-detergent oil, seems to me you'd want the detergents, dispersants and so on to carry the dirt out with it when you change - which I assume you do pretty frequently? I would contact one of the big oil sellers and ask them, I'm no oil expert.

The main "need" for this type of oil in older engines is to protect the cam - my cam with supposedly only about 5K on it was worn out - no zinc in the oil being the culprit according the guy who did my engine machine work.

Metalman, the only people I see stocking Pennrite is Summit Racing? I can get Brad Penn locally at Parker Oil Co. - It's only a few miles down the road, and since this is hardly a racing engine, I doubt I need anything much heavier duty than this.

It's interesting - a lot of people don't understand that going to 4 valve heads improves not only the volumetric efficiency of the engine (better breathing) but by using smaller, lighter valves and more of them, you can lower spring pressures and lighten the wear on the cam and improve fuel mileage and performance via less friction - win/win all around.

 

checklist, schmecklist.......never use them. :biggrin5:

I hear you on the eyes and hands thing.....I can't seem to find a spec on what the clearance should be, so I may have to just rely on their expertise.

One of my "students" at college (an older retired guy who only goes to school to work on his own stuff in the school's shop) overhauled his Porsche 914 motor this past semester and had four three ring notebooks of instructions to himself, including torque settings, pic of the parts in-situ and so on. He still wound up taking a few things apart and re-doing them, including having to helicoil an exhaust stud in one of the heads after the engine was all buttoned up and back in the car when he noticed he couldn't get that last exhaust nut to tighten properly.

Point of the story, it can happen to anyone, but it generally doesn't happen to me.

Guess I'm getting older too......:blush2:

 

I don't know where all the angst about Lucas stuff comes from, I've owned a lot of British cars over the years and never found their electrical stuff to be any worse than that of their contemporary Italian, French or German counterparts. In fact it's oftimes better!

Anyway, having owned my Jag for the last 25 years and not had any electrical gremlins in it, I think I can say I'd rather have Lucas stuff than Magnetti Marelli, Ducelier or even Bosch!

God knows what we'll think when we start getting Chinese stuff......hell, we already are in our computers and TVs.

This particular fuse box is considerably better made than the one I got at VB, the metal tangs are made out of thicker stuff, the rivets are stronger and installed more accurately, the plastic is slightly thicker and more substantial......bottom line I just ordered another one from Jeane at English Parts!

 

Well, she says she's been selling parts for British cars for over 40 years, shall I ask her to send a pic? :biggrin5:

 

When last we left off our intrepid hero, Spaceman Spiff, had just returned from the KC Engine works where they'd reamed his rockers, we pick up the story there.....

I returned the cylinder head to KC Engines because I'd changed out the springs and left in the shims that they'd used, we decided to double check the spring pressures and modify the shims as needed. Once again KC Engines came thru for me with a quick turnaround, and best of all - no charge! I did take them a box of Krispy Kremes the day before, so I considered us even! :lol:

Now I could re-install the head and the rocker assembly. Once I did I noticed two of the rocker arms were really off center to their respective valves, so I pulled the rockers off again and added a couple of hardened washers to space the rockers over for a better fit. Once that was done it went back on and the head finally could be torqued down. Next I adjusted all the valves to .015" clearance (seems like a lot to me, but that's what the cam mfr calls for) and finally put the valve cover on. I installed the spark plugs too after I chased the threads to get any paint out of them and that pretty much buttoned up that side of the engine.



I also popped in the inner stub axles, but I haven't added an grease yet. Once the engine's about in I'll grease the pot joints and assemble the shafts, that way it won't get contaminated.



I also finished assembling the subframe today. I painted the parts for the right axle yesterday and I was surprised to see the paint had cured enough that I could handle the parts without leaving fingerprints, so I went ahead and tapped in the bearing races, packed the bearings, installed them and the seals and torqued the stub axle nut. Then I packed the CV joint, installed the axle shaft and boots and she was ready to go into the subframe. Last I added the caliper, new hoses and all the brake lines that attached to the subframe.



Don's coming over tomorrow and we'll marry up the two parts and see about sliding it into the car. After that it's wiring, more wiring, and then some wiring before she's ready to crank up oil pressure for the first time. I did go down and pick up the Brad Penn oil too - I'm going to try it with 10W40, at least for the break in period.

 

All righty then, electric fuel pump is mounted and plumbed, just need to run the power lead to it. I bought new rear brake hoses but I'm going to wait to install them till I pull the rear subframe to clean and paint it, that may be a project for the winter....it'll probably need rear shoes by then, but at least they aren't leaking.

 

There is another filter at the carb, this is just to keep the crap out of the pump - the tank is clean inside.

Today I'm in wiring mode again......the plastic connector at the alternator had three wires in it, one was connected solidly, one was broken off and one had burned thru the connector mounting tab. Sheesh.

So today I'm on a quest to find a female flag-style crimp-on push-type 3/8" non-insulated blade connector - HAH!

Failing that, I can get a straight rather than flag style from Victoria British on Monday - if they have one - they show it in the catalog. Failing that, I may have to repair the burned one somehow....

And of course, I'm also repairing and running the other new wires for relays, horns, lights, fuel pump, auxiliary connections and so on....plus tidying up the existing wiring so it's not such a hodge-podge mess and will actually work.

 

Finally!

Figured out my main electrical problem at last - just as I suspected, I was getting a backfeed. Turns out the new fuse panels are not made like the old ones, on the back of the new fuse panel two of the terminals are bridged......so I can either cut the bridge out or use my old fuse panel. The bridge was between a terminal that's hot all the time and the on position of the ign switch - tho why it also turned on the high beam indicator I have no idea, so I may still have an issue somewhere......

But that takes care of the dash lights, now I have to figure out why my rear fog light is on all the time regardless of the switch position - I never could get it to light up before, now it won't turn off!

It was doing that before I changed the fuse panel, so I'll have to look elsewhere for that one....worst case I can simply disconnect it till I get back from this trip.

Progress - I may hear it run today after all!

 

So, you haven't read the whole thread then? :biggrin5:

Sorry, I couldn't help it!

That's exactly what I did.....mounted in the rear on the subframe on rubber standoffs so it won't make noise, close to the gas tank and no return line. And I agree with your thinking about pressure preventing vapor lock..... what usually causes it is trying to pull vaporized fuel thru the line, not pushing liquid. I also used a pressure regulator mounted up close to the carb so it wouldn't overwhelm the needle and seat and cause flooding.

I also wrapped the header to keep the heat down...see pic in post #267



Of course when I posted this pic I got all sorts of grief about the dirt on the back subframe and bottom of the car!