[ame=http://youtu.be/JbcgHCoptaU]MVI 2817 - YouTube[/ame] Cautious optimism...this little snippet of video was taken after 20 min of running this am..... The culprit turned out to be a bad condenser in the dist. I've had them go bad before, but it usually just results in short life for the points, I've never had one that caused the engine to start and stop like this. I put a new set of points and condenser in it this am - which took a while to do as I had to make some leads up and they were different - and once done it fired right up and ran perfectly. After a few minutes all the smoke cleared out of the exhaust giving credence to my thought that a bunch of gasoline had gone down the pipe when it hydrolocked - still don't know for sure what caused that unless I just left the darn key on for a long time without realizing it. Anyway, this afternoon I'll redo all the things I undid while troubleshooting and if I have time take it for a quick spin around the block, then tomorrow up to school for the alignment - then take the run to Lawrence. If all that goes well I'll start having some confidence that I can make the trip next wed. Fingers crossed. Edit: Chkmini called it, but I had already fixed it by the time I read his post today - but he was right!
Hooray Mark..... You nailed it... Damn.... Everything looks brand spanking new..... Nice work Dave...
I'm happy for you Dave! Better gold plate that bad boy put it on a plaque & send it to CHKMINI. Is a Petronics setup looking better now?
I put an electronic ignition on my old Jag in the early 90's, mostly because it was so awkward to get to the points on it - but it has been dead reliable ever since so a similar unit is in the cards down the road. There's no reason to fear points tho, they've been used on millions of cars for over a hundred years..... Every time I've started it today, it's popped off in less than one rotation of the crank, and it sounds sweet. Now I wonder how much of my running issues on the way home from Baltimore and on our fun run back in March could have been due to the points and condenser? At any rate, I'll have a spare set in the toolbox on the road, but I seriously doubt I'll need to mess with them again. I do need to double check the timing tho - I'll do that in the AM before I head off to school to do the alignment. A few final fiddles on Buzz tonight.....I built this bracket to mount the fuel pump to, it sits on some rubber standoffs now so it makes no noise. But....putting it there instead of in the back where I originally had it means there's no place to mount the washer bottle and washer fluid pump. After all the wiring repairs I had to do, it's nice to see that things I fixed like the wipers and heater blower are working properly now I also made a "cold air intake out of some heat riser tubing....this is pretty much the final arrangement - at least for this trip to MEmW.... Here's where the relays for the high powered high beams and driving lights wound up - the labels will help me remember which is which!
You are right points are nothing to fear, but eliminating them removes one maintenance item. Looks great Dave, pretty as a picture. Time for some break in miles.
Took my first real test drive up to school today, the engine runs sweet and has good power - it feels so much stronger than it did before. Now it feels like I remember a Mini should run! I'm really happy with the gearing choice I made - I was second guessing myself after seeing what RPM I'd be turning at what speed, but I'm happy to report that it's a non-issue. On the way back from school we jumped on the highway for a couple miles and it pulled right up to 70 very easily, and I only ran to 4K before I shifted, plus I didn't have it wide open. Plenty of power, plenty of acceleration and the engine's just loafing along at modern car highway speeds - that's exactly what I was after in this whole project. Don was following me and said it didn't smoke or smell rich at all....I think he was surprised how well it ran on the highway too. Before, the engine just felt like it was dragging itself up to speed, and once it got there it didn't seem to have much torque, it would definitely lose speed on longer uphills - now if I step down on it it immediately pulls on up - even on hills. I also was concerned about driving in town at city speed, but it pulls 4th gear beautifully, even as low as 15-1800 rpm. Buzz is still living up to his name as there are multitudes of rattles and buzzes still there - the exhaust is hitting in two places, and two of the saddle clamps are less than 1/8th inch away from the body - I'm going to try and find some band-clamps and replace those. There are still dash rattles, the speedo doesn't work - which is a real disappointment since I spent about $200 getting the right gears so it would - it worked before so there's something not hooked up right with the cable - I'll see if I can fix that before we go, but that's why I have a Garmin. Overall, the engine is so smooth that it's nothing like before. Now to the springs - so far I'm calling them an unqualified success. The ride quality is better than in my modern Mini - definitely not as harsh, and when I cross those bridge expansions that used to break my back and rattle my teeth - it's a non-event! I have the ride height a little high right now as I think they'll settle down a bit over the next 1000 miles or so it's not as solid and planted as some, but I'm OK with that - I'll give up a little handling for a significantly improved ride, especially on a long trip like this. It runs a little hotter than I'd like to see, but then I don't know the calibration on the gauge, it runs about 1 -2 needle widths above the middle of the gauge - I have no idea what temp that relates to so for now I'm not going to worry about it, but I may go ahead and pull the radiator and re-install the electric cooling fan, just in case. I haven't driven it far enough , long enough or on a hot enough day (today was only about 80*, tho it sure felt hotter than that to me) to know what it's really going to do, so I'll have to investigate a little further. I borrowed Don's infra-red thermometer so maybe I can find out what temp it's really running first. I wish I had a week to break it in before we head out instead of three days, but I'm feeling a little more confident each day. We tried to do an alignment at school but one machine was completely down and the other wouldn't boot up one of the laser/cameras so we just did it the old fashioned way - with a tape measure. That got it pretty close, but I have a friend who can align it on Monday if I decide to. I'm definitely going to invest in some adjustable lower control arms. That's today's report /end of line
Seems almost odd to see it with its hood.................erm, bonnet on again! Tomorrow I'll do the 100 mile run, we got stormed out today.....
Today I made a camera mount so I could get some video along the way, after one of our Mini guys lost his GoPro camera to one of those suction cup mounts, I prefer something more solid....and inside where it won't be as easy to steal. It does limit the views I suppose but I think there should be plenty of others taking vids too. Don's taking his Quad for some aerial shots too.....should be fun! Today I'm going to finish tidying up the interior, give it a good vacuum - I'm not going to bother washing it as it's raining again today and I would not be surprised if we got some wet on the way up either - but I'll clean all the windows on the inside at least. We get in Thursday evening and there's not a lot scheduled for Friday, so I'm planning on using that day to get polished up for the car show - we're supposed to have indoor parking and wash facilities at the hotel. I'm still tweaking on the ride height in the front, still a bit Baja pre-runner looking right now. I'm also still looking for the sources of some of the rattles in the dash, I can't believe there are any left as much as I've done - there's not much in there after all! I also need to see if I can find what's wrong with the speedo, I'm sure it's just the cable not seated right but it's such a PITA to get too that it may go unfixed till after we get back - I'll have the Garmin for speed and mileage on the trip - it's easier to see too! Now that it's driveable, I still find myself trying to climb into the left side door! do you ever get used to driving on the right? Of the 4 cars in our group, 2 are left drive and 2 are right, on the way home we'll have two more joining us, both right drive....where Minis are concerned, the lefties are far outweighed by the home team!
More troubles...... I took it out for a hiway run tonight - it's only 85* out tho it feels a lot hotter cause the humidity is close to a million % - anyway, in a nutshell - it runs too hot. It got within a needle's width of the red zone in only about 10 miles. The block is clean, the radiator is clean there's no good reason for it except not enough radiator - that's my guess. I even tried some Water Wetter just to see, made little to no difference. When I drove it back from Baltimore it was only 40* or so and it ran fine, since then I haven't tried it on a day warmer than 70 or so and it's been fine, but now - no way I could drive it 1000 miles like this......so I'm looking at high performance radiators - nothing like doing this stuff at the very last minute! If I overnight it it will be here Tuesday, we're supposed to leave on Wed. in the AM. <sighs> In town the electric will keep it OK, but on the highway it just starts inching up till it's too hot for my comfort. Oh, and the camera mount won't work either, it sits too low, all you'll see is the Garmin and the dash......
You are making much more power than you did before the rebuild. That power = more heat. Hope the new rad helps you cool off it sure won't hurt, other than your wallet. How is the timing, running a lot of advance can make temps rise. Also running lean can also cause that, may turn the jet a flat or 2. You are making more power & running a higher performance cam. Just thinking out loud here.
I reinstalled the electric cooling fan and wired up a manual override switch, the weather has cooled off exactly as they promised, so I think we'll be good to go. We'll meet for breakfast in the am and then hit the road, see you all in Milwaukee! Look they all fit in the garage!