Engine P2

Following on from engine P1 where some of the castings and sump was removed.
I had spent a least a couple of days trying different methods to remove the crank pulley but didn't have the tools to hand to stop the crank turning until I had a thought of bolting the crank into place at the flywheel end. This worked well and I quickly had the bolt off the end of the pulley.

Using my pulley puller I set it up on the crank the best I could as its a little bulky for the job and a bit cheap too. A problem quickly arose from this puller which caused me some trouble, as this pulley is rubber dampened I found that I managed to pull off just the outer ring of the pulley which was held to the rest of the pulley with rubber, I decided to cut the rubber and just get that part off.

With the outer ring of the pulley off I then set about removing the inner part, this was a little easier as I could get the claws of the puller around the pulley, I also placed a small cut through the ring to allow it to deform as it was stretching the rubber like the outer ring had already done, this helped a lot.

My main success came I added a pre-load to the pulley puller and left the blow torch hanging for about 5 minutes, suddenly the pulley jumped 5mm which was excellent to see

With the pulley now off I felt relieved as was about to pack up when I decided to carry on and strip the block down. This was a fairly easy task too (unlike the pulley). I set about removing the oil pump and cam timing chain, and cover. As I did it I turned the crank to be assured that all the cam timing was correct, glad to say it all aligned as I thought it would have been, always good to check though.

I then set about removing all the bolts from the lower end of the engine, this all came out very easy with no problems, the bolts came out and I was able to lift out the lower casting with the bearings in place, I did see some very light scoring on the bearings, I do plan for new bearings so this isn't a problem but they look good enough to go back even though they are not.

The next job was to remove the bolts from the con rods and to take the crank out, everything came undone and lifted out with out any issues, I then placed the crank on the bearings of the lower casting to ensure it was not damaged

 Lastly I removed the oil sprayers from just below the cylinder bores and went to remove the pistons, not sure why I did this next part but it was stupid, in excitement I grabbed the con rod and pulled piston 1 out of the cylinder, as soon as the piston rings had passed the bore I realised the piston wont come out that was and it was now stuck. A little while of shouting etc passed and I had managed to compress the rings and push the piston out the right way. Feel a idiot for doing that and not sure why I did... Any way the engine is now stripped ready for cleaning and modifications

Until next time, thank you for reading

Digitising the blower P1

With the snow falling outside and my car frozen I chose to spend some time in the office, I though it would be nice to start working out the brackets for the supercharger. The way I do this is to place the blower in a place on the desk then using the digitizer I own scan it into the CAD system. This provides me with a full CAD model which when I have time I can scan the engine and virtually work out all the brackets saving me time and money. Once the designs have been made they will be sent out for machining. I will be producing stress calculations on the parts to ensure that once the brackets are made I know they are good enough for the job and applied forces, it will also help me reduce the mass of the brackets making them lighter.

New bumper and bonnet

With a large choice of bumpers available off the shelf I decided that I wanted something different. I decided I wanted a rear euro look bumper. This had to be smooth but still have some shape, with help from orrange performance I acquired a set of GP style rear lip and arches and fitted it to a cooper bumper, the plan is to remove the chrome strip and fill this to a smooth finish.

First I cut the chrome section out of the bumper

With the section removed I set about fitting the side arch

I then set about fitting the lower lip and the other arch, I am really pleased with the look and can't wait to see the centre part filled

With the bumper at this stage I had a look at my new grp bonnet sourced from orrange performance, this bonnet is over half the weight of a metal bonnet so will help when it comes to the track (I hope). The bonnet is a really good fit and placing it there really excited me thinking that the car is slowly moving forwards

Time to tidy the pillars

Over the next few weeks I am planning to get the car ready for the roll cage and then onto the roof skin and be done with the roof chop fabrication.

Starting with the A pillar I worked the metal to a ready to paint finish, as a lot of work had already been done there finishing it was simple. The most time consuming part today was spent with the B pillar and C pillar.
The B pillar turned out really well and I am very pleased though it took me most of the day to get an excellent finish and now just needs a quick polish prior to any filler and primer.

If I can get all the welds and pillars to this standard the car will not need as much bodywork prior to paint. Lucky for me that all the panels which I am welding actually go behind glass or plastic so its not too important, but I will know about it so its got to be good! Of course the roof skin is going to need some major work to get it perfect - roll on Christmas holiday and 2011..

I picked the coldest weekend to remove the petrol tank

With temperatures of -7.5 I set off to the unit know it was going to be a chilling experience especially as my overalls where at the unit and I would get changed into them there...

Well I had the heater on and decided that I was going to need to move the car so set about attaching some castors to a pallet which I intended to put the car on so I was able to roll it around. Before I could put the car down I needed to remove the fuel tank and anything else from the bottom of the car, firstly I removed the remaining heat shields, then the gear stick and linkages, then I quickly popped the hand break cables out.

I then moved on to the fuel tank, I carefully started to remove the fuel lines and as soon as I could smell petrol it was time for the gas heater to go off. It took 3 hours to warm the unit and was cold within a few minutes, however I continued to remove the tank which felt quite full. after removing the connected pipes I carefully dropped the tank down and decanted the 5L of fuel for the lawn mower. With the tank out I left it outside so I was able to put the heater back on and enjoy the warmth it provided.

After the tank was out I put the car onto the pallet and was surprised how well the car moved around, the home made trolley cost me £15 rather than the £190 for a normal car creeper.

With another cold weekend approaching I intend to spend it welding providing there is too much snow to get there, being in the UK people can't drive if there is more than 1" of snow...

Engine P1

Over probably many posts I will be re-building the engine which I am sure will be testing and also great fun for me. I am going to be building this in my shed and I have kitted it out so I can get on with it both in the dry and also unlike my unit close to my house.

I know that the engine does indeed have new oil in which I added just to keep everything from rusting so please excuse the tub under the engine catching the fluids.

With engine turned over slightly I let the fluids drain out of the engine through all the open holes and removed the lower engine mount which is the metal bracket with 4 bolts.

After removing the bracket I then moved on to removing the oil cooler this unit is normally water cooled but I am not sure yet if it will go back as air cooled or water cooled...

With the oil cooler off I then moved my attention to the next section which was to remove the sump, I took the photo with the two larger bolts sticking out as a reminder that when it goes back together all the bolts are the same with the exception of the two longer bolts.

After removing all the bolts I then took the mallet and tapped the sump to break the seal, once done I had the chance to see the bottom of the engine for the first time and it is in very good condition, there are some contaminate within the sump and they look like the plastic from the chain tensioner though I will investigate that later.

The sump strainer was very clean and looked brand new which is good. The next step was to remove the strainer so its out the way. The oring stayed in the block but I removed the oring and placed it on the strainer to remind me to put a new one on later.

With the engine in a situation where I could not continue any more without a puller I decided I would work on the gear box and split in half to start the build and install the LSD

Also while working on the gearbox I started to use the drimmel to remove the oil, carbon, and oxidation which look like it was working well until it ran out... I then continued with removing the bolts of the gearbox which lasted till the torq head bolt snapped the tool... so until this is replaced I will not be continuing - trip to the unit is required.

I then with some excitement offered up the twin screw supercharger I intend to fit. looks lovely, here is a photo of it off the car

Well I hope that with the correct tools I can continue with this shortly.

Roll cage design P1

With the custom nature of the car buying an off the shelf roll cage is not an option, leaving me with a couple of options which are to pay someone to design the cage or to design the cage myself. Having all the CAD and needed facilities to virtually test the cage I have decided to give it a go myself first and then proceed from there.

Firstly I took my microscribe arm down to the car to measure the body. The points for fixing are marked on the car and then the arm is used to measure the points to ensure that the cage will fit in the car.

With the points in place I then built up a construction wire frame in the CAD package.

With the cage wire frame I then took the tube size chosen I then moved to modeling the tubing ready for when I have time to do an analisys (FEA study)

This will be the cage until I have some more spare time to get all the stress worked out and decided if I need to add more material or remove material

If you fancy having a look at the current design in 3D click the link (you will need adobe pdf reader) 3D PDF

Rear assembly drop off

Its been a while since my last post, been busy with work and not had the time to play...

With all the frame welding finished I decided that I would start making the car ready for a new paint even though that wont be till next year. I decided that I would drop the remaining rear sub frame, suspension and trailing arms. A nice simple job of removing each part and placing them in a pile.

Difficulties came in the form of corrosion, which was mostly on the brake lines which meant I needed to cut through the steel lines which needed to be replaced anyway.
Suspension dropped out easily and the struts and springs are in excellent condition.

With the sub frame out it became apparent that the fuel tank is full so I decided that I would tackle that when I have something to disperse the 40 odd litres into. Really I should have removed it prior to any welding as the fuel lines are open. Never mind.

I then moved on to measuring the car ready for the roll cage design which I will be doing myself, along with designing the roll cage I will also be using a microscribe to measure the engine in order to make the brackets for the new supercharger. The shed has been rebuilt at the weekend to become an engine build room so I am really looking forward to that.

Engine on a trolley

Needing to get the engine out of the garage I went out to machine mart and purchased an engine stand which will enable me to rotate the block and work all round the engine.

Before lifting the engine on there I had to remove the cylinder head, clutch, and flywheel. In my normal manor I managed to drop the old flywheel on my knee and as per usual it was the sharp tooth edge which graced my knee. Why does it always have to be the sharp side and not something blunt?
Best way to remove the mini flywheel is to place a flat bladed screwdriver on the teeth to stop it rotating as you undo the bolts, a friendly hand always makes life that little bit easier.

Next to remove was the cylinder head. The cylinder head on the mini is quite easy to pull apart, with very few bolts to undo, just make sure your crack and break them in the correct order or anti clockwise. By removing the head studs I then set about removing the chain guides and tensioner. Once off this allowed me to lift the head off the block, with the exception of some soot the head and block are in very good condition and I would say this was a relatively low mileage engine.

Then to get on with taking the engine out of the garage and into the shed to start the build. I bolted the trolley head to the engine using some m12 bolts through the gearbox side, then knowing there was no way I was going to lift this on my own we laid the trolley on its back and almost tipped the engine on the trolley and then lifted it up in one go. (Thanks to BG for the lift)

Finishing structural welding P1

From last week I had started to remove the supporting frame from the car. Now that the roof is solid I no longer need any of the supporting frame.
Today I wanted to remove most of the frame so that I am able to move around within the car and finish off the welding and also to make enough room to grind and polish the metal.

Firstly armed with the angle grinder and a new cutting disc I tackled the box section holding the car together. The box section frame has been a pain the whole build having to crawl between the bars. Working on the inside of the car without the frame will be more of an enjoyable experience I hope...

Some pictures of the car with the frame removed.







With the frame out I decided that I would add an additional plate to the B pillar as was done with the drivers side. The extra plate is used to attach the roll cage too as will be seen later in the blog.



After welding the B pillar I decided that I would start cleaning and polishing the welds, I started with the A pillar and plan to get all the welds to a similar appearance ready for painting and where required I will use body filler to ensure I have a good finish

First bar out

Having spent quite a lot of time on other peoples cars this week I took it really easy and not really sure where the time went.

I managed to finish all the body welding so structurally the car is sorted. I still need to clean all the welds and add extra plates to the A and B pillar for the roll cage. Once the support is removed from the car I will be able to get custom cages round to measure the car.

towards the end of the day I removed the first part of the supporting frame and plan to remove the rest before I start to clean up all the welds.

Just a bit of body welding

With the tailgate in place I decided that I would concentrate my time on finishing the frame of the car ready for the roll cage and the roof skin. Within no time the final B pillar was welded and in a state ready to be polished smooth.



My plan now is to get all the welding done so that I am able to remove the supporting frame as the movement within the car has now become difficult. Partly because I am not getting any thinner and the car is feeling a lot smaller with the roof skin back on.

Once the B pillar was completed I moved the the A pillar and decided that I would finish the inside, I knew this would be easy and hence I had left it to the last thing to weld. Within no time this was welded into place.



Now that all the welding has been done for the moment I have decided that I will remove the frame from the inside of the car and spend some time cleaning all the welds and will have to plan the roll cage.
I would expect the next few weeks will really see the car looking more complete and I may even have time to start working on my plans for the rear lights...

Another tailgate and the start of roof trouble

After fitting the tailgate decided that I was simply not happy with the fit and finish, it wouldn't sit as I wanted. It would appear that this is not a stock item but a copy part and would not fit correctly. I decided that using another tailgate I would have another go.

To ensure that I get the hatch in the perfect position I decided that I was going to take another approach to the problem, I decided that chopping the roof skin and placing it on the car. This however was not as simple as I would have wished, I first had to fetch it down from the roof space which on my own was tricky, with the roof skin down I started cutting it which it almost immediately lost its shape so I can already see that this is going to be tricky to out back together so lets hope its not too hard.

First I placed the skin on the car too see the size difference, as you can see in the picture the car is a lot bigger.



The roof skin was then marked out ready for cutting, I decided to do this outside where the grass would soften the sheet metal falling as it was cut.



With the roof cut into 6 sections, I then started to place the sections onto the car. The 4 outer sections sat on the roof and the middle needed the central brace welding in.





With a few cuts I was back in the same position but this time the tailgate fitted the way I wanted it too



I then set about to joining up the tail gate