MINI Max has a new little brother, Buzz

Oil made the "old" way..... :biggrin5:

Brad Penn is a brand of oils formulated to let old style flat tappet cams live . Modern oils don't have zinc in them, which acts as a high pressure lubricant between things like cams and tappets. Modern engines have roller tappets, so it's not needed. About the only oils that have ZDDP in them any more are racing oils and stuff like this. It costs about the same as synthetic does at Wally World.

Here, read all about it....

Welcome!

The Brad Penn® Penn Grade 1® High Performance Oils contain the higher level of anti-wear (ZDDP – zinc dialkyldithiophosphate) and enhanced film strength so critical to proper high performance engine protection. The Penn-Grade 1® oils “typical” 1,500 ppm Zinc (Zn) and 1340-1400 ppm Phosphorus (P) content provide the needed anti-wear protection to critical engine parts, such as piston/cylinder walls, roller cams under heavy valve spring pressure and especially those that employ a solid “flat tappet” type system. As important as the chemistry is to the Penn-Grade 1® oils, it is by no means the whole story. The unique base oil cut used to refine the Penn-Grade 1® High Performance Oils maintain a tremendous affinity to metal surfaces. This naturally occurring “metal wetting” characteristic enables the oil to stay put on your highly stressed engines and makes the Penn-Grade 1® High Performance Oil resist slinging for an extended period of time. Also, rest assured in knowing that the Penn-Grade 1® High Performance Oils are 100% Made in the USA.

 

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.

 

Today I got the shaft.......make of that what you will.

Sure enough my parts showed up today, but......it seems the bushings in my new forged rocker arms have to be reamed to fit the shaft, I can buy a set of adjustable reamers from Harbor Freight for only about $50 with a coupon, but reading on the machinist's forums tells me they're just not accurate enough.

Or I can wait till Monday and take them down to the engine shop I used and he'll do them precisely, but charge me a bunch of money and of course, it'll be the middle of next week before I get them back - or later.

On top of that I just found the oil slinger that goes in behind the flywheel lying next to the engine......<sighs>

It's gonna be one of those days I think....... :roll:

 

Yeah, now that I think about it I remember reading somewhere that you had to ream the new bushings to fit, problem is I don't know to what spec and I can't find any info on that. I'll talk to the engine guy on Monday and probably just have them do it for me....it's only money, right? :frown2:

In the meantime I'm going to install the new wheel bearings and complete the two axles, then tear down the back of the engine again and put that oil slinger in. What ticks me off is that I looked right at it and put the flywheel in anyway.....it's not like I didn't know what it was! It makes me second guess what I've already done, wondering what else I forgot that might come back to bite me later.


:crazy:

 

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 thought my foray into body work and paint turned out OK, but it took a while to get there, that's for sure.

DaveO, nothing more frustrating that to get to the last step and realize you have to start over.....but the next time you'll do it better no doubt, and it will look great!

Yesterday I took a ''mental health" day and spent the day on honey-do's and such, mowing foot tall grass (jeez, it's only been a week since I last mowed it!), cleaning out the gutters and taking the dogs for walks.

Today I'm back at it again, I'll button up all the suspension bits that I can and get the subframe ready for the motor. I also have to do some more wiring, remount the electric fuel pump and wire it and so on......I also fixed a ground cable, the ends were barely crimped on and taped over, I re-crimped them tightly and used some shrink tape, cleaned the paint off the body where it lands and now it will make a solid connection. Lots of little stuff like that still to do......it all takes time too.

Still on target depending on how long it takes the machine shop to ream me.............I mean the rocker bushings and get them back to me.

 

I'm going to talk to the machine shop tomorrow before I do anything else with the rockers, then I'll either go buy a reamer and do them myself or drop them off at the machine shop - if his price and completion time are acceptable, I'll probably let them do it for me. Still ream a mans rockers and he never learns, if he buys a reamer and does it himself he'll always be able to do it......

Today I worked on suspension, and got one side completed, I only tore down one side in case I had to refer to it on re-assembly but it all went together so well and easily that I probably should have just done them both. Since I didn't I now have to tear down the right side and clean and paint everything, but they claim they'll have the bead blaster at school up and running again tomorrow, so that will help. I'll get it all torn down and degreased today, and I could be painting things tomorrow afternoon.....then I'll have to let them cure out a day or two before I try to put it back together.

I started by driving the new inner bearing races into the hubs, I use a brass drift here because brass is softer than the race and it won't accidentally damage it if I miss.



Then I packed the bearings and installed them and the grease/dust seals. Once in place I slide the stub axle with the outer CV joint in and put the disc/hub on from the other side and hand tighten the axle nut to hold it together. Next I pack the CV joint with grease too. Yes I know what the disc looks like - just call it my version of drilled/slotted rotors. I'll have to replace it soon.....



Before I put the axle into the CV joint, I need to install the boots - first the inner one. You slide it on then turn it inside out and install the tie strap, the reverse it over the CV joint and install the outer boot. Then the axle goes into the CV with a good tap from a dead blow hammer to overcome the retaining clip and drive it into it's proper place.







Once it was all together I put it onto the subframe, hooked it up to the control arms, then added the brake caliper, new hose and installed the pads and she's ready to go. I won't tight everything down till the subframe's back in the car, especially the control arm bushings - you don't want to tighten them till the cars sitting on it's wheels.

 

This morning I took the new rocker arm shaft and forged rockers down to the engine shop - KC Engines - and they used the big Sunnen hone to machine they .005 bigger than the shaft - I could not have gotten that kind of precision with a hand reamer, so it was time well spent.

They charged me $0 since it took him all of 10 min to do it!

Later I took the head back so they could check the spring pressures with the new springs, I took them a box of KK's to thank them for doing the rockers.

I'll get the head back tomorrow sometime - I sent off to MiniSport to find out what the cam specs are and what spring pressure they should have - I was surprised I didn't get any of this info when I got the parts - I expected to need a degree wheel to set the cam timing rather than just align the dots on the cam gears. Because of the time change I won't get an answer from England till tomorrow - if at all.

 

I report, you decide..... :biggrin5:



I did turn them where I could read them tho.....

Actually, this is a new fuse panel I bought from Victoria British and I'm going to return it, the tangs have no pressure on the fuses at all, they're positively loose in there.....this is the second or third part I've bought from them that was cheaply or poorly made. Gotta watch this stuff......

Everything I've gotten from MiniSport has been good stuff, and I bought another fuse panel from English Parts.com that was an actual Lucas part, and it was made well.

If you're looking for parts for older English cars, call Jeanne at English Parts.com (866-467-1776) - she knows her stuff and their prices were better than anyone else I've found online - she doesn't sell Mini parts per se, but most anything for an A series crosses over - I also got my rocker shaft from her.