Mini Pick-up restoration project!

The Mini Pick-up restoration project seems to be again getting underway.  The program started almost 2 years ago when I got tired of seeing the decay on the family pick-up getting worse just sitting there.

The first step of restoring the body got underway with a bang and looked like it could be done in a couple months.  But now it looks like only a couple MORE months and it will be done and ready for the next step. A visit to the body shop with camera in hand shows the progress.  While it is best described as SLOOOW- it will indeed be fantastic when it is done,  While it is hard to tell from the pictures, but a ’skim coat’ has now been applied and we expect it to have it first coat of primer by next week.

With an assurance from the shop that they will be ready to give it back to me by the end of the year I have started to ask myself a few new questions!!

My original plan was to install one of the Mini Mania VTec conversion kits into it.  Keeping it as stock as possible with 10″ wheels, etc.    This was to become a daily driver that simply had the torque and performance of a very stock VTec.  Mini Mania has sold hundreds of these kits and it felt like a good idea at the time.  But recently I have considered that perhaps the value of the Pick-up to the next generation would not be the same and besides Mini Mania also builds 100’s of 13800cc A+ powerunits.
But now for my Ultimate confusion- We anxious to see completed the development of a production kit that will allow the average DIY Mini owner to convert his Mini into an “Electric” Mini.  This looks like it is going to be a fantastic option that will allow you to convert yet still maintain the option of being able to switch back to a conventional engine if desired.  The kit will use the standard Mini transmission and will fit into the engine bay with no modification.  It may be another six months off till we have our first running sample but family pick-up has been laid up this long- what is another 6 months!

Looking for opinions:  which way should I go?
Electric?
VTec?
1380cc?

New T-Shirt Designs from Mini Mania

These new T-Shirt designs can now be found on the Mini Mania Mini Cooper website.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What should you use for SU Dashpot oil?

I had always used ATF whenever I bothered. In ref to stumbling on accelerating, increase the richness of the carbs and see what happens. Or maybe lean the carbs and see what happens. Think about what’s happening:  No oil in dashpots causes the piston to rise suddenly which inturn allows too much fuel to be dumped into the air stream.  The converse can also happen. I never bothered with oil in the dashpots; couldn’t discern the difference. The oil is just utilized to act as a damper to facilitate a smooth transition from idle to acceleration.

Not quite right: absence of oil allows the piston to rise to soon, allowing a momentary lean-ness. The daspot is supposed to increase the amount of fuel as it rises and pulls the needle out, yes, but that proportion is in relation to the airflow past the bridge and orifice of the jet. When you put your foot in it, the throttle opens but the flow of air takes a bit of time to get moving… in relation to the increase in rpm. But before your foot goes down, there’s a big amount of vaccuum in the intake, which will suck too much air in if the piston goes up to soon, resulting in leanout because the flow of liquid fuel hasn’t caught up yet. The damper holds the piston down, keeping too much air from coming in. The vaccum pulls on the jet, causing a spurt of fuel, providing the accelerator pump effect. The vaccum is also trying to lift the piston, and as it does, the mixture evens out. Too light an oil results in lack of accelerator pump action (lean condition). Too heavy an oil results in too much pump (rich condition).

The rest of the story can be found here!
http://www.minimania.com/web/startreturn/11/MaxReturn/10/StartPage/1/threadid/99301/msgthread.cfm

The best time we’ve had behind the wheel of a Mini!

Great weekend despite the Monty only completing 2 laps Had a WHOLE string of things go south.. First, lost the clutch in turn 1, lap 1 (adjustment screw backed out, stupid thing to happen) Then poked a whole in the header on lap 2 turn 14, with one of the tranny nuts. Then blew a Head Gasket by turn 2, lap 3. Towed in, pulled the head off to find the #1 piston cracked too. I guess the monty REALLY didn’t want to run this weekend, lol. So what made this weekend so good? Well the “Bumble Bee” as we’ve nick-named it ran way better than expected. Saturday morning qualifying, it ran every lap with My Dad behind the wheel. Although it had MAD, MAD oversteer, it completed the session without any issues. As the Monty was done for the weekend, My Dad offered to let me drive the car in the race that afternoon. First time in the car, starting the race, a bit daunting, and the car was just a ‘loose’ and then some from the morning session. But I managed to keep it on the track for about 4 laps when the fuel filter clogged up with sediment and forced me to pull in. But we were truly amazed at the front grip of the car. It simple would not push AT ALL. Don’t think either of us had ever driven a mini with so much steering. But despite this we needed to dial out some of it, as it was flat-out dangerous in traffic. We decided to take off the rear sway bar, and modify one of the rear camber plates to add some camber & toe to one of the rears that seems a bit off. We also replaced the distributor as the motor was falling flat at 6k RPM.

Sunday morning it was decided that I would once again drive the car for the morning warm-up session, and my Dad would drive it in the race. Once the green flag dropped, I knew by turn 2, that all of a sudden we had a real race car! The handled like a dream now, with just the right amount of steering/oversteer. The car still would not push for anything, but was very stable. The car also revved to nearly 7k RPM now and had a lot more power than before. I had an awesome FULL session. Next was the race, and my Dad was now behind the wheel. Unfortunately we started pretty far back due to not finishing Saturday’s race, but that would just make it that more fun to move up the field! Once again the car performed great, and my Dad had an awesome race dicing with multiple Porches throughout the entire race. He had a grin on ear to ear when he came off the track! For sure one of the best time’s we’ve had behind the wheel of a Mini!

One bonus of the monty retiring early was it released 2 additional video cameras for use. So we had 4, count them 4, video cameras running IN-CAR that allowed us to capture some great video! I’ll be editing it asap and will get it posted hopefully later today or tomorrow.

-Dennis

video here

Up to 80% off on Classic Mini Parts & Accessories

Hurry, Limited to Stock On Hand!

Almost ready Vintage Race Mini!

Exactly one week untill the Yellow Mini of John Unsbee is scheduled to run it’s first race in 3 decades.  While lot’s of work has got done over the last couple weeks, it seems like almost an impossible task to get it done it time. Saturday morning was suppose to be the start of the downhill task and the first one was to simply start the engine for the first time!
In todays modern racing we have to meet maximum noise requirements and The Mini as it was run back in the early ‘70 apparetnly was never required to have a muffle of any sort.  Friday, I picked up a 70″ long straight 2.5″ diamter straight pipe with a flang on one end with hope for a quick and dirtly installation of a flanged Supertrap that I borrowed from a friend.  This was the first step Saturday morning and it did not go bad except for the fact that the car is so low to the ground that the end of the muffler is only 3 or so inches off the ground!  But I deceided it would work. I just needed a clamp big enough to get around the muffle.  I had no room for anything other than a solid mount to the body (it is sure to last for at least one race?).  It was now time for my first trip to the local auto parts store for the oversized clamp and a new master power kill switch to replace the defective original Lucas one discovered the over day.
The battery we put into the Mini was an old spare one laying around the shop that I thought would be good enough. That was one of my many errors in judgement during this crash reminder in how much work it is to get a ‘Almost ready to race’ car back on the track.
I solutioned the battery problem by simply stealing the battery out of the Mini Clubman (it always starts great).  A week or so ago I thought I had checked the fuel system.  I had replaced one of the two fuel pumps and actaully pumped fuel out of the tank into a bottle to insure it worked and looked clean.  I noticed at the time the rubber fuel line looked a little old but thought  I could get away with it this one time.  Afterall, this effort is intended to simply get one race under our belt before the winter restoration is started in ernest.  Well, I was wrong again about the fuel line! 
When I though I was again ready to start the engine, I dumped a can of new race gas into the left hand tank (it has the dual tanks from a Cooper S), hit the power switch.  The smell of fuel lead me to the rear of the car where I found a growing puddle of new race gas.  Opening the boot of the Mini, it had almost a inch of fuel on the floor.  After lots of rage to clean up all the fuel, I discoved that a old rubber line it not take well to the pressure. With this complex set-up of dual tanks and dual pumps I found it was much easier to simply remove the boot lid to work on all of this.  Then found I had to make my second trip to the local auto parts store as almost 4 foot of fuel line needed to be replaced.  After I returned, I discoved not only did I have to pull the right side fuel tank to clean it out but the rubber line had deteriorated so badly from the inside out that it actually melted and plugged all the metal unions used in the input and output of the fuel pumps, etc.  Although I tried for 30 or 40 minutes to clean the unions I finally resolutely made my third trip out of the shop, this time to the local harware store for new unions.

After replacing all the rubber fuel lines and gas tank, it was time for a simple task of replacing the master kill switch. Wrong!  The whole was the wrong size, it was too close to the edge and thus required almost an hour worth of custom fabrication on the lath!  At least it is in and now working. Time to try to fire it up again.  Crank, crank, crank- no fire, nothing!
Quick check- opps, no rotor in the distributor and none on the shelf.  Rather than make another trip to Mini Mania, we borrowed one out of Dennis’s
daily driver! Crank, crank, crank- still nothing!  The Mini came with a set of apparently rebuilt twin H2 carbs and thus it is what we installed.  John said he ran the car with a Weber but had sold it some time ago. So, the easy answer was to simply install the Weber.  Still nothing!  Then realized we had not checked the valve adjustment or distributor timing!  OK, so now everything was right and Voila- Power at last!
A quick drive up and down the driveway showed us how we close are (or how much we have yet to do) – tomorrow!

More pictures can be found here:  http://donracine.miniowners.com/comm_MyGarage.cfm?galID=700

More of the story can be found here: http://www.minimania.com/web/threadid/101045/msgthread.cfm

Whats your best way to flush a radiator

As reported on the Mini Mania Community Forum

So, my car is getting too hot so i decided to flush the system, got it normal temp drained it, green brown color..im guessing rust and coolant. let it cool then refilled with clean distilled water, warmed it up, drained it, slightly cleaner. i did this about 4 times until it ran clear, filled it up again and put in about 1/3 pint super coolant(green version of water wetter). its doing a little better but still getting a little warmer then what i would like. does anybody have anything that works well for them??

built2grind@gmail.com

My method of flushing typically involves me taking off the top rad hoses, rad cap, thermostat, and heater valve hose.  Then I take a garden hose and blast inside the radiator from both openings on top, and I’ll blast directly into the head through heater valve and where the top rad hose would connect into it.  Then blast the line going to the heater core.  Depending how you hold your hand over open lines you can get more pressure to different parts of the system.  Eventually the brown stops coming out and you can flush it out with distilled water and go from there.

94touring

Some of the parts houses sell a two part cleaner, i have used it before and it will clean the cooling system but it can also cause problems if your cooling system, freeze plugs or head gasket are very old it can eat away scale, rust, etc

alan45

I made a little adapters out of PVC pipe and fittings that allow me to plumb garden hoses directly into the top and bottom hoses. Works a treat. Will take pics if I can find them (it’s been a while).

mwalsh

As a footnote to your question about flushing and concerns about running hot….

Do  NOT assume your temperature gauge is accurate.  Get an infrared thermometer and check the temperature of the thermostat housing and the top tank of the radiator.  It’s not at all uncommon for Smiths gauges to be inaccurate.  I have a new radiator in my project Spitfire because the previous owner had disconnected the gauge’s voltage stabilizer which made the gauges read way hot.  Check the cheap stuff first.

dklawson

Mini Clutch Slave Cylinder installation

From the Community forum at http://www.minimania.com/msgthreads.cfm

“I am changing out the slave cylinder on Rufus the 850. It had a verto cylinder with no return spring. So having done this job a time or two, I decided to take a slightly different approach to installation. With the short hose attached, I opened the bleeder, mounted the cylinder vertical in the bench vise and on a bit of an angle so the height of the short hose end was about the same as the cylinder. Then I carefully poured fluid into the hose until it started coming out the bleeder. At this point, I shut the bleeder and took the whole assembly to the car. I mounted the hose first, leaving the cylinder to dangle. After attaching the hose, plunger, and cylinder, I attached the mighty-vac to the bleeder built up a little vacuum and then cracked the bleeder. Bubbles and fluid came out for about 2 seconds. I closed the bleeder, and the clutch pedal was firm. Wow! I’ve struggled for days with past change-outs. So next, since the geometry changed with the non-verto cylinder, I needed to adjust the stop nut. No helper, so I got a 1 x 2 about 3 foot long and a spring clamp. I used the stick the push the pedal all the way down, then used the spring clamp to clamp the stick (and hence the clutch pedal) in position. It worked! The stop nut was adjust per the spec. Clutch works great. I’m pretty sure this pratice has been done by others on the board, but maybe some nuwb will benefit.”

Special Thanks to Wes Stewart

Aluminum Radiator for Mini Cooper

Finally installed the new Mini Mania Aluminum radiator for the Classic Mini Cooper today. It was all very easy and a perfect fit.  The stock radiator shroud bolted directly onto the new rad with short 6X10mm bolts.

Super trick alloy radiator for all Mini applications except MPI, weighs only 4.75 lbs. If you want the best of all worlds- this is the answer! Great cooling, light weight and fantastic looks!
This new alloy radiator is ideal for all Minis after the MK1. It includes the lower front threaded hole required if you car uses the electric fan switch (SPI) and comes complete with a screw plug when the switch is not used.

Labor Day Sale! 18.99% Off!!!

Mini Mania is having a Labor Day sale. From now until Labor Day we’ve marked down our entire inventory! (well, pretty close anyway) Don’t miss this chance to save BIG!

go shopping