Racing Green 89 Mini

[MiniDave]

No, I decided to leave it alone for now....

Working on the front now.....what takes the most time is cleaning all the sealer and gaskets off before you can put it together again.

Clearly it's been picking up oil from somewhere - the fan had oily residue all over it and the radiator is coated again. Lots of cleanup to do!

I haven't found anything obvious on the front of the engine that could have been leaking - no smoking guns.....so I guess I'll pull the front of the trans off again and see if I can figure anything out there. Also both inner CV joints have been letting out grease, so I'll replace the nylon tie straps with metal clamps.

No way I'll get this all done and back in the car in time for our trip tomorrow, so it will have to be the Blue MINI instead, but that's actually OK by me.

Edit: Don just reminded me today is Wed, we're not going till Friday - I might make it after all!

[MiniDave]

Well, I think I may have found my oil leak.....there was a pinhole in the bottom of the breather cannister. I didn't think there was that much oil accumulating there, but it makes sense in that I could park the car for days and it didn't leak a drop. But when I drove it and parked, the next day there were be a puddle - and it may explain why there is so much oil on the radiator - being thrown there by the fan. Also the fan was coated in oily dirt.

I checked my spare timing chain cover and it leaked just as badly and in the exact same spot, so it seems they must rust out from moisture in the fumes!

I cleaned it up and put a little JB Weld on it till I can get a new one. It's not easy to change one of these in the car, but it is possible.

With that and the shift shaft seal that had a nick in it, I hope I've finally cured at least the worst of the oil leaks.

With that done I'm hoping to get it all back in the car and driving today, we leave tomorrow for the race track, it would be nice to drive it some this afternoon to shake it all down, but night comes early these days.....we'll see. Worst case I drive my MINI Clubman instead.

[MiniDave]

With everything buttoned up again I decided to fill it with oil and see if it was going to drip......forgetting that I don't have pot joints in. I soon discovered that and spent half an hour cleaning up the mess. Put a fresh cardboard down and cleaned up the rest of the oil and dirt that's been blown all over the block. Now I'm going to leave it for a while and see if it drips. The few spots you see on the cardboard are from the solvent I was using to clean the block......

If it's dry tomorrow I'll start the process of getting it back in the car......but not till Monday after I get back from the track.

[MiniDave]

No joy in Mudville tonight.......one small drip from the right side stub axle cover, and I used a new oring. Maybe I'll rob a cover off one of the other transmissions I have sitting under the workbench.

Glad I'm not trying to drive it to the track tomorrow!

[BruceK]

As much as we all work on cars, we have all, at least once, put fresh oil in an engine only to find it running out on the garage floor!   It's just a little way of being humbled.  Last time I did it was just several years ago when I was replacing all the fluids on my truck. Somehow I forgot the drain plug and poured 3 qts of new Castrol through the engine onto the garage floor before I caught myself. 

[MiniDave]

Well, here we are, weeks later.....the motor is back in the car and it runs (yay!) and so far no drips, but then it's only run 20 minutes or so.

I put a clean sheet of cardboard down, we'll know in the morning whether I've finally tamed the beast.

Still have to bleed the brakes, put the grill and bonnet back on and a couple of small tidy up things but she's ready to go to the KC Mini Club event tomorrow. 70 cars are signed up so it will be a nice turnout. This is our annual benefit for the local Harvesters and Pet Project groups. We meet up at 9, then head out for a poker run and meet back up at the dealership for prize handout. Weather should be perfect, low 60's and sunny. We had one hell of a rainstorm yesterday and it was cold as hell this morning but it's going to warm up nicely over the next couple of days.

I went back to the straight pipe and Play Mini SS muffler (rear box) and I have to say it def has more bark now, we'll see whether with the 2.76 gears it's OK or annoying.

[94touring]

I was thinking you were going back to the 3.1.

[MiniDave]

I kicked it around, and I still have one if I decide to do that but I want to run it some more on the 2.76, and take some longer highway runs in it too to see how it behaves up hills and such. This engine only has a couple hundred miles on it since the rebuild, so I want to get some more mileage on it too. I don't remember Buzz having any issues slowing down on hills with a 2.76 so I want to see what this will do too.

While I was at it I pulled the plugs and adjusted the valves and it all looks really good.

I'm also considering switching to 10W40 since I have an adjustable pressure regulator on it, I may do that at the 500 mile oil change.

So far so good, not a drop on the floor under the car, tho it only ran for about 20 min.

When I get home tomorrow from the run and park it, if there's nothing under it on Monday morning I'll consider it fixed.

[MiniDave]

Well, no drips on the floor this morning, but then I didn't expect any given that it only ran about 20 minutes. I backed it out of the shop this morning and it started and ran fine, so I'm off the the KC Mini event - but - the clutch feels weird.....I hope I make it.

Always some damn thing with these cars, isn't it?

Clancy's Moke is on the lift now so I can do a few things to it.....when he ran it at the Lake Garnet GP last month the radiator was pissing water out. Turns out the fender had rubbed a hole in the end of the aluminum rad, so I pulled it and he took it to be welded. He brought it back a couple days ago so I'll swap it back in and do a few other things. He wants to drive it in the veteran's day parade on Sat in Lawrence, so I have to at least have it drivable for him.

Edit: Clutch is fine, I just forgot what it's supposed to feel like I guess.

[MiniDave]

News!

I dropped my green Mini off at Dan's a while back so he could fix the fender and hood where it got damaged, he did but the paint we ordered according to the code came out way different than what was on the car. (Didn't keep it from winning 1st place in its category at the All British Show) So we made arrangements for him to go ahead and paint the rest to match the front end.....

Today I went and picked it up from his shop and Wow! it looks terrific! I had to move the hot rod outside into the driveway as we're supposed to get a hail storm tonight, but she's home and dry now.

Everything went swimmingly on the drive down in the Blue Clubby and until we got about an hour from home when it felt like it was down on power.....wasn't running rough or anything but it definitely wasn't making the normal HP and the yellow check engine light came on. I drove the rest of the way in and as near as I can tell I no longer have any turbo boost. Possibilities include a turbo that has locked up or one of the control valves or hoses has come adrift. I decided to let it be tonight, and as I'll be out of town tomorrow it will have to wait till Friday.

More news as it happens!

The green paint feels like glass now, and the metallic really sparkles in the sunlight! Thanks to Dan for a terrific job!

[94touring]

Much improved look.  Will be great at the mini meet.

[MiniDave]

Some pics.....

Yesterday while on FaceTube I came across a 5 sec video of me and Don in the blue Clubby as we cruised past a Chebby pickup with the green car in tow (of course, they spelled it toe!) It was pretty interesting to see yourself in a video! I wish I could post a link but it seems you have to be a member of that page to see it.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/642996692459608/posts/7244249845667560/

[94touring]

Looks good in the sun  Have you taken it for a drive yet?

[MiniDave]

Trying to find out what happened to the blue MINI's turbo boost......code reader says "boost value implausible"   

Well, no shit sherlock!

[cstudep]

Car looks great, but there is plenty of evidence out there that we should not expect anything less out of Dan's work.

Not real familiar with the newer MINI's but in the Audi/VW world the "boost value implausible" code usually means an electrical issue, and not an actual turbo issue. Most of the time the problem lies with the boost control position sensor and/or wiring to such. Might be worth looking into to see if the MINI has a similar sensor that could be the issue, they are both German engineered cars after all.

[MiniDave]

Yes, same setup I would bet.....along with an extra dose of "BMW-ishness" just to help complicate things.

I checked the turbo by taking off the intake boot, I can spin the impeller easily and it turns smoothly with no play. However this style of turbo (also used on VWs and many other small displacement cars including my Audi) is known for having the waste gate hanging up and causing this issue - apparently the shaft the waste gate pivots on is simply sent thru a hole in the cast iron body of the turbo and when it wears it binds. They say there's no repair, but it seems to me that a small bushing would do the trick, no idea why they don't use one already.....

I'm not there yet tho.......the weather went from 75* to 25* and tomorrow it's supposed to be 70* again, so I'm on pause till tomorrow.

So far I've checked all the hoses - including all the vacuum hoses that operate the various boost controls and sensors, you can't see any of them of course, as they're mostly under the intake manifold on the back of the engine....so first I just felt around to see if anything had come adrift - no joy there so I pulled the intake manifold off the head and rotated it enough to see that everything that's supposed to be there is (there are 4 small vacuum hoses under the intake, and a few larger ones) and is attached. So once it's warm enough I'll put that back in place and start pulling stuff off around the turbo.

I have a friend whom I used to teach with at JCCC who also was a line tech at the local MINI dealer, he's still at the school and said he's happy to help me when he gets back to work in a couple of days, so I've got some backup there.

To me it's odd that it just dropped the boost while driving like it did, no warning, no degrade in performance first, no weird noises, and in fact it still runs just fine - that's how we got home on the last hour of our trip - just no boost.

Worst case new turbos are available online for about $1K

[94touring]

Time to upgrade the turbo!  Ha

[94touring]

Reposting these in here from my other thread.

[MiniDave]

Pretty pics!

Anyone have any extra Lucas solder on wire ends? The new taillight assemblies come with regular old crimp on butt connectors, but I like to keep thing original. I have plenty of the connectors but I'm out of the ends.

[MiniDave]

I decided to go with the normal lenses instead of the clear ones that are on the car, and I noticed the reflectors looked pretty well......non-reflective, and since I had a set of complete new tail light assemblies - those are going in.

I pulled the new tail light assemblies out of the box and noticed that all they had were bare wires, so I dug around in my bits box and found exactly 8 Lucas bullet ends. Got out my small torch and soldered them onto the bare ends.

Today I pulled the right side off (I have to remove the fuel tank to do the left ones) the car and found - oh crap - it has a molded end with pin connectors. The lights came with a small note in the box and 4 crimp connectors - you're supposed to cut off the connector and crimp it onto the new wires, so that's what I did. Cut off my freshly soldered bullet connectors and crimped on the new wires, then used some heat shrink to seal them off. I also tested them to make sure they all still worked!

Now the fun part, the assemblies come with new body gaskets and they seem to be a little bit smaller than they should be....trying to stretch them enough to get the light assembly base into place is proving to be a right PITA!

[94touring]

What else is left to do with this car?

[MiniDave]

Not much, door cards and interior furniture, add some seat extenders, and one more little project that I want to write up after I figure out if it will work or not 

Probably need to check the oil, I'm pretty sure it's fresh, but I can't remember for sure when I last changed it. 

We've been getting a lot of rain, and today it may even snow so I don't mind leaving it indoors till things clear up. Supposed to be in the 70's again later in the week.

[MiniDave]

I could not get the rubber gasket to stay in place long enough to get the assembly bolted into the car, so I bought some black 3M super gasket adhesive and glued that sucker down, keeping it in place with spring clamps overnight. Today, even tho it was 27 freaking degrees outside, I pulled the clamps off and stuck it in place, the glue held long enough to get it tightened up correctly, so one down.

After that small victory I glued the other one down the same way and it will be the next victim - however, in order to get the left one out and this one in I have to move the fuel tank first. So I'll probably wait till tomorrow to do that. Supposed to get to 50* tomorrow too which will help as I'll need to have the garage door open due to the fumes.

Tried all the lights and they all worked, but I will have to get an electronic flasher as even tho I have a regular bulb in front it still didn't pull enough juice to flash. If it had I would leave the fronts alone, but since I have to change the flasher anyway I'll go ahead and make the front lights LEDs too.

Speaking of LEDs, I decided that even tho I rarely drive at night anymore, I'm going to put some LED bulbs in my Hella H4's.....why not?

I found some door clips so I can mount the door cards back on, and I have new door seals to install too. I haven't located my set of seat extenders yet, but they're here someplace.

Don and I have a Sunday run planned as the weather is supposed to be nice and the following Sunday we have a 300 mile trip with the KC Mini Club, so we both want to make sure everything is up to snuff before we head out on that trip. Since my blue car is still not running right (Rain, freezing cold weather have conspired against me the last week or so and it's outside.) I don't have a way to tow it home if it dies.

Trying to decide if I like the clear lenses or the tri colors better - I think on this green car the triples work better.....

Edit: That is some kinda shiny smooth paint, isn't it?

[94touring]

I prefer those lenses over the clear ones too.  Wax must still be keeping it's smooth shine.

[MiniDave]

I managed to get the fuel tank out of the way so I can get the left tail light assemble changed, getting the tank back IN again was the tough part, but I managed at last.

I thought I had some door card clips but I don't so I'm looking for 20 or so- it takes 9 per side and I might break one (or more). It did give me a chance to lube the winder mechanism and tracks so the window goes up and down better now.

I have some new door seals to install too.

Sat my LED headlight bulbs will be here, and I'm changing the front T/S lights too, so I'll be LED all around - I think I'm going to look into some for the dash as well as those lights are downright dim. All this might just be complete overkill as I don't remember the last time I drove this car at might, but I should be well prepared if I need to at some point!

I also cannot find my damn seat extenders!

I also got the electronic flasher (Thanks to MPlayle for posting the part number at Autozone) as even tho I still have regular bulbs in the front T/S they won't work on the regular flasher.

Don and I are  taking an hour's run on Sunday as a preliminary test drive before we do the 300 mile run on Sunday next.