Clubman reincarnated

[Miniac]

A lot of work being done to this Clubby

[Jared Mk3]

A lot of work being done to this Clubby

A lot of quality work.

[Miniac]

I was actually going to say meticulous work but looking at the posted pics they speak volumes for themselves of the workmanship that Phil puts into every car that he touches.

[GTSPhil]

Hi Guys

Thanks for the kind words.  The pics does try to explain that to build a engine and gearbox properly takes more than 15-20 hours of labour.  On top of that since I work alone every bolt and nut and each part that needs a refurb or careful cleaning takes even longer.  The bottom line is that eventhough a client might only pay a third of the labour hours vs how long the actual job took.  I need to be able to stand back and say I did my best and have pride in the finished product.  Lastly I do this for the love of the classic mini and not for the money as some of my competition out there take on too many jobs and then the quality of the final products is left lacking.  Also collecting and buying every tap and die nut of all the sizes and most of the special tools to do the job properly does take some time and even more money.


Below is the final product.  The client swapped me his 10 inch wheels for 13 inch wheels, this set was just laying around in my shed.

   


   

[Vinay-RS]

Lovely attention to detail on the build. That engine bay looks so clean after the rebuild. Wish he would have stayed with 10" wheels though.

[Miniac]

I hope you put the rad cap and air filter back on before returning the Clubby to its owner

[GTSPhil]

So the car was delivered and I specifically instructed the owner, we agreed to use used 1098 pistons with new rings etc so he should take it easy and run the car in properly,  check the oil and water before each usage.....  The excuse for an exhaust was replaced with a new system from the branch backwards.

I also during the rebuild recommended a new radiator to replace the used item the client opted not to heed my call.  Further the suggestion to replace the mechanical fuel pump with an electric unit was also shot down and dismissed.

Then three weeks after the car was delivered I got a call that the car is not running correctly.  After getting the car to the shop, it smoked like a locomotive.  A compression test was done and all cylinders was within spec of each other, although somewhat down from the initial readings.  Black oil was seeping from the spark plug holes.  I immediately recommended the engine must be stripped and inspected, the client was very reluctant to comply with my request due to wanting to avoid further incurred costs.

I took the cylinder head off and found the head gasket still in good nick.  The hone marks was still visible on all sleeves.  I inspected the valves and their seats and also them to still be good.  I did the electric fuel pump conversion and blanked the mech fuel pump off in the block.  These measures was taken due to the client not wanting to spend more cash on the car.  After replacing the head gasket and setting valve clearances, the car fired up again, but IT WAS EVEN WORSE SMOKING EVEN MORE.

   

I duly informed the client of my findings.  Now it became apparent the engine will have to be stripped again after removal.  The client asked I must find a buyer for the car in its current condition, they just wanted to cut their losses.  I advertised the car for 4 weeks and no proper offer was had.  I then decided to step in and buy the car, so a deal was struck.  As the new owner I took the engine out.  As I drained the oil I found much more than 5 L was in the engine about 7.2L to be exact.  It became very apparent that the mech fuel pump's diaphragm had failed and pumped raw fuel into the engine.  Further investigation proved the piston rings was toast.  No 1 Piston also got damaged very badly.  No 1 sleeve was also damaged once we took the micro meter readings for all the sleeves.

[GTSPhil]

After careful consideration of all my options to fix the engine, which was trying to find 40 thou 1098 pistons that will be used or even bigger vs the mazda/nissan piston conversion and cutting the block down or making the car a 1275.  I made the decision to stop struggling with used 1098 pistons and bit the bullet and took out one of my spare 1275 cranks.  The engineering shop confirmed that it could be used after resizing the big ends and mains journals.  Brand new 1275 40 thou pistons was sourced and fitted so now the engine is a 1310cc after completion.  So the gearbox was cleaned from all metal particles.

   


The new pistons fitted to the conrods and crank machined.

   


I stripped the head and lapped the valves just to be sure.  I then masked and painted it.

   

[Miniac]

You've gotta love when that happens, someone tries to save a penny here and costs themselves a pound there instead. Good on you for taking on the challenge and making yourself a little gem out of the coal that you were handed.

[GTSPhil]

I had to machine half a set of 30 thou thrust washes down to size to get the crank end float into spec.

   


The new pistons waiting to be fitted to the newly machined block.


   


The engine completely rebuilt before fitting the head and studs back.


   

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Hi Miniac

You are right and what sucks the most is having to deal with a client after such a mess has occurred and then I kind of feel responsible (Had my warnings been heeded about the radiator and the fuel pump things could have been much different). The bottom line is the car drove very well before delivery, as I took it to a windscreen specialist to fit the chrome beading for the windscreen and back screen rubbers. That day I did about 50kms with the car and it drove very well. I suspect the client rode the poor car too hard without letting the rings and pistons settle like the instructions said and also maybe a little bit of a over heating did occur, but I am undecided about the overheating though. Non the less, the car is all back together and being a 1275 now has much more torque than before and the new pistons has 4 rings so compression is superb.