Greetings from Cape Town

[BRAAAP]

HI ABRI !!!!

[Miniac]

Love the Benelite grill, not many of those around SA.

[abri]

HI ABRI !!!!

Hi MATTHEW!!!

So I wrote a long reply about what I've been doing to my motor, posted it and then it all disappeared. WTF!!

Thanks again for the kind words and compliments. 

Regarding the Morris S' motor best to list what has been done:
Crank cut +0.010"on mains
Crank re-nitrided (after 10thou the hardest part of the case hardening is off)
Crank straightened and crack tested (it warped during plasma nitriding, apparently not completely unusual)
Crank, flywheel/clutch assembly and crank pulley balanced
Rods balanced
Block line bored
Block sleeved to std (after a long fruitless search for +0.020 rings for the original BMC pistons that were in there)
NOS BMC four ring pistons std
ACL trimetal main & big end bearings
Cam bearings
Core plugs
Full gasket set
BK450 head gasket
Minispares EVO AEG410 oil pump

The gearbox received some minor attention as well:
New Minispares laygear + bearings
New 3rd motion bearing
Center oil pickup

This little lot has added up to an eye-watering amount but we're assembling it tomorrow!!

I plan to find an unmolested GTS head and do some porting, gasflow and nice seats for this motor. It is unfortunate that I had to sleeve it back, but the reasons for it is a long story. Basically, the original four ring BMC +0.020 pistons that the motor had could be re-used, but none of the usual suspects sell rings for it. I went on a wild goose chase to find rings which I eventually did but at 110GBP I decided to rather look for a set of NOS +20thou pistons with rings. I found these nice Hepolite nogal, on Ebay in Canada, got them shipped over only to find they are std BMC pistons in a +20 Hepolite box . If I'd known this, I would have just gone onto Minispares and bought a new set of whatever modern stuff they recommend at +20. So despite me wanting to make this one a bit more sporty, I'm actually de-tuning it unfortunately. I'll still do the head though. Now to find an engineer who has heard of David Vizard 

[Miniac]

Sounds like a really good spec motor you're building there Abri.

[abri]

Update on the progress. The motor has been assembled, everything apart from the head. I discovered on Thursday that there is severe wear in the valve guides and on some valve stems. All this after the head was supposedly checked out by a reputable local engineering company. I would not have known this if I hadn't stripped the head myself and had a good mechanic to check and advise. Either way, another delay and more money to throw at it. I have also chatted to some knowledgeable people about performance in the mean time. Some bits that are on order and plans include:

New set of inlet and exhaust valves
New manganese bronze valve guides
Three angle valve seats to be cut
New set of high lift rockers
Maniflow standard bore LCB

I'm now running out of things to replace on this motor, so hopefully after this round it will all be done...but I've said that before several times. 

I also discovered that the spare GTS head I bought off Gumtree from a local racer a few years ago is basically scrap. I bought this before I knew much about minis. The plan was to fit it on my 1275E at the time. So I guess I was ripped off. Anyone looking for a boat anchor, speak to me!

[Dion]

Who you getting to do the head and what is wrong with the GTS head?

Ps. Sounds like your Mini is going to perform very well with the engine you building.

[abri]

I chatted to Stuart after your interesting discussion on the whatsapp chatroom. My idea was to get the head properly gasflowed, ported and have the seats nicely done. He suggested that for a road engine like mine it would be wiser to spend my money on the rockers and LCB. This was before I knew the state of the head on my motor. Since I'm now having to get a new set of valves and guides and since the seats need to be cut, Dennis asked Mike (Engineer who works a few shops up the road) if he could cut three angle seats seats. So that is the plan at the moment. This is the first engine build I'm involved in and I hope to get a modest performance improvement and reliability.

The spare head has been massively ported, skimmed and has too much play in the valve guides. The seats have also been badly cut and the valve are badly worn. I was advised that it is not worth spending money to try and get it right.

[Dion]

Sounds good, have you decided on what cam you going to use?

[abri]

I'm going to stick with the standard AEG510 cam for now Dion. It was apparently recommended for rallying by Special Tuning back in the day, according to some documents I found online, so it can't be too bad. I'm hoping the high lift rockers will do some of the work a sportier cam normally does. That way I keep it tame enough for traffic as well. I'll see how it goes.

[Dion]

Love to see it when it's all done....