Vintage Minor Register

Well, it's taken me long enough to start a thread about the old girl, but i had some rather exciting news over the weekend..... it would appear that the 'new' heart for here is very near completion, and i will be collectin it next weekend, and doing the heart transplant in hopefully the next month or so...... i have pictures of the heart in pieces, during it's overhaul, so once i have pictures of the new heart i shall load them all up and with any luck we'll make an appearance at this years rally with a few more horses in tow..... well, any would be better than the none it currently has...... drove about 20 miles yesterday, i had forgotten just how 'flat' the old girl is..... even the slightest incline is a struggle at the moment!!

Hello Ronald,

Good to see more cars on the forum.
Hope to see lot's of pictures on your thread.

Halbe

Excellent. I love to see pictures of other peoples minors being repaired, it gives me hope that we are all trying to keep our cars in usable condition and also shows detail that isn't often seen in photos of complete cars!

Apolagies for the hideously bad pictures, but they are photos of photos if you get my drift....

this is how the block was when i took it to 'my man'.....
Bored, sleeved and rebored to suit a set of new pistons which i already had.... which would later prove unusable....


How the block looked after initial checks, clean, and paint.....



2 pictures of most on the new shiney bits that sadly wont be available for veiwing....... as they'll be covered i oil....
these two pictures contain most of where the money has gone, those of you that have undertaken similar projects will know only too well!!!





On top of what you can see here, i have also had the carb rebuilt, dynamo, distributor, starter, clutch etc...... basically, we have now had another entire engine built up, and it's currently sat on the test rig, having been run, the intention being that i can simply unbolt one engine, and bolt another in.... well, thats the plan!!
Had i had slightly more intimate knowledge of the internals of a Minor engine, i'd have undertaken the job myself, however, i think i'm glad i didn't.... it would never have got done... now if it were an A series i'd have had it done in my lunch hour....

Hope fully more pics, and maybe even a youtube video of the engine running next week..... hopefully collecting it on Sunday!!

Great news Ronald, but wouldn't your Dad be shocked - if fact I expect he is, and smiling to himself. I can imagine him thinking that in spite of all the work and money spent, old MT won't go as fast as it did in my hands! No way!
By the way, next time you try to take photos I suggest you ask your Mum to undo her permanently installed bird watching camera and take them for you!
Ken

So good to see other cars on the forum.
I enjoy the pictures Just before i loose my vision i can just see where the money went.
keep them coming , and stay focused

Halbe

Ken Martin wrote:Great news Ronald, but wouldn't your Dad be shocked - if fact I expect he is, and smiling to himself. I can imagine him thinking that in spite of all the work and money spent, old MT won't go as fast as it did in my hands! No way!
By the way, next time you try to take photos I suggest you ask your Mum to undo her permanently installed bird watching camera and take them for you!
Ken

Indeed Ken, dad wouldn't be struck on a lot of whats been done, and certainly not the bill!! however, as i said to mum when we learnt what it was gonna cost, all they'd been doing for 40 yrs was wearing out old bits..... ....... the only slight downer with this engine, is that it's a later 'fat dynamo' block.... which obviously isn;t the correct one for the car, however, i gave the engine builder two bored blocks, and said to use the best of them..... so it is what it is.....
Re the bad pics, the reason they're so bad, is that i was taking a picture of a photo the builder sent us..... but yeh, no doubt mum could have done better.....

Right update time....

The engine is now complete, and sitting in my garage, we collected it from it's re-maker today.... heard it running and everything...... the video will be posted shortly...!! along with a few decent pictures.... just for you Ken.... mum took them...

It's sat on a kind of frame, on a trolley, awaiting a weekend when it'll be slotted into it's new home...!!

Just a quick update, old knackered engine is out, eventually.....

engine bay has been cleaned up, i reckon there was less oil in the engine than spread everywhere else.....

New engine is awaiting fitment, new exhaust is currently being made..... by me!

it busy for the next 2 weeks, so will hope to have another update when i get back to it...!!

Quick update, engine is in, but not fitted up yet.... will do a little of that tomorrow, then i'm busy again for at least 10 days..... have also decided not to do the summer rally this year, we get back from the States 2 days before the rally, it all adds up to simply too much to try and do...... hey ho!!

Tricky isn't it. Why do all these little jobs seem to take so long... Good luck.

IT RUNS>>>>>> all be it very briefly, and without a silencer, just the downpipe bolted on, but at least it's a start...... no pun intended!!!

Hoorah! Can't wait to start YGs new engine too.

Right, MT is now basically back together again, the home made exhaust sounds great, i've got a couple of crappy mobile pics of it before i fitted it, but i was so keen to start it again i failed to take any decent pics....!!

Once i had the exhaust on, and the rad in position, i filled it with water, and started it,.... running nicely..... then for no obvious reason the engine revs slowed, and it seemed to get 'tight' for a moment..... so switched it off, and checked a few things, seems ok, started it again..... seems ok.... started and stopped it maybe 10 times after that, didn't run it for long though, through fear of nipping a ring or something, the plugs looks a little wet if anything, not seriously, just a little...... and a bit dark...... would running it rich make it too hot..???? i would have thought lean would, but not rich...

Any ideas...???

Rich will make it run colder, lean hotter, so that does not sound like the problem. It would not be too unusual for a newley rebuilt engine to get hot the first few runs, but it should not keep on doing it it may still be early days yet.

cheers
Jeremy