73 Mini Innocenti 1300 Export

[MiniDave]

Except the new ones are different than the old one.....and we didn't have one on the other side. I'm a ways away from doing that. Need to get some butyl rubber seal to stick down the new plastic inner membranes, and I'm going to do the same under the rear parcel shelf to keep noise/smells from the boot from coming into the car.

Fortunately the new door cards came with the holes for the clips, door handles etc already punched out.

[MiniDave]

Yesterday, I drove the one hour up to the crankshaft shop to see what the heck was going on, since it's been a month or more and I still didn't have the crank. The last time I was here they asked me when I was going to get them the gear they needed to match the crank too - I was flabbergasted as I had delivered that gear to them weeks before.

They said they would get to it "sometime this week", but this morning I got a call that it was all done (!?!?) , so I drive up there again.

They bring out the crank and flywheel assy and I ask about the rods and pistons. They ask did I bring them up? Crikeys! They've had those since day one! So while I wait they go all over the shop looking for the box with those and find them amongst the parts for another car. He says he'll balance them while I wait and about an hour later they're all done. He did say they balanced out nicely, so this should be a nice smooth motor when it's done. I know I'm going to find something missing that I desperately need still, but for now it's all home and back in my control.

The seats are also supposed to be done by Friday, so there is some progress at least.....

[MiniDave]

Back to work on the Inno engine again today, first I had to clean everything again as even tho I had it covered with shop cloths it got pretty dirty. Once cleaned I installed the lifters, cam, oil pump and the crank. Before I can go further I have to assemble the pistons onto the con rods.....Once that's done then I hope to see pistons right at the top of the block!

While I had the crank out I cleaned off all the fretting on the end of the crank, ran a tap thru both ends to clean up the threads, fitted the flywheel and put some valve grinding paste on and lapped the flywheel onto the crank end.

More as it happens.....

[MiniDave]

Time for me to get stuck back into it, too many distractions of late...…

Went up and checked on the seats, he's had them for three weeks and gotten one cushion installed so far...….he's slow as hell but at least he's expensive......

[Willie_B]

he's slow as hell but at least he's expensive......

Uhhh Ok...

[MiniDave]

Back to work on the Inno engine, installed one piston, now it comes right to the top of the bore, a casual measurement before I put the dial indicator on it shows about 8 thou to the top of the block - Perfect.

Next up, install the dial indicator to find TDC, then set in one push rod on the #1 intake. then install the degree wheel and check the cam timing.

I had ordered a 2* offset keyway, and with it the timing is right at 106.5*….should be perfect.

[94touring]

Looking much better!

[MiniDave]

More progress.....

Once the cam was timed in I installed the locking tab, torqued the nut, installed the gasket and cover and the front pulley, locking tab and bolt.

With that done I stood it back up on the blocks and made sure the top of the block was completely clean, then ran the new studs into the block. Added the copper head gasket and fit the head.... installed the washers and nuts and cinched it all down. It's not torqued down yet as I'll need someone to hold the block while I torque the nuts. Note too that the 11th stud is actually a 5/16" bolt.

 I also need to look at the positioning of the rocker arms and make sure there's no interference with the stands and that the arms are centered as much as possible over the valve stems. I may have to pull them off again and add a shim or two before I'm done.

But...….progress.

[MiniDave]

I didn't like the way the bypass hose (the rubber bellows style) fit, so since I hadn't torqued the head down yet I went ahead and replaced it with a cut to size chunk of silicone hose. Much better fit now and it should last forever. The only real way to get a new hose in there with the head torqued down it to remove the water pump.

I had to notch the edges of the valve cover for clearance for the head nuts and bolt - I also had to notch out the cork gasket to fit. I was going to use a silicone gasket but I did not want to try and take a notch out of it.....

[Willie_B]

That is one sweet looking engine from any angle.

[Scargo]

Makes me wish I still had the engine stand that I gave away a few years ago....it would be heading in your direction if I still had it.

[MiniDave]

Thanks for that, I have one but my shop is just so small it's difficult to use it....

[MiniDave]

Today's jobs.....

Torqued the cylinder head and adjusted the valve clearances to 15 thou.....I put the old valve cover back on as I don't have any new seals for the aluminum cover.

One of the problems with the carb/manifold setup used on the Inno was there were no locating tangs, holes, studs or anything else to center the manifold to the cylinder head - so I took the carbs off the manifold and drilled some 1/8" holes for some roll pins, transferred to the gasket and used that to locate the pins to the cylinder head. I then drilled the head (carefully, the holes are aimed right at the pushrod tubes) and checked the fit - looks really good. That should make it easy to install the manifold once the engine is in the car.

Some more boxes ticked.

Seems like progress is really slow, but between my back and the other things I have to do (mowed the south 40 today too) I'm going about as quickly as I can. I hope to have it pretty much done by the end of July as most of it is assembly at this point, I'm sure there will be delays as I find bits I need.

[Scargo]

I'm looking at the intake manifold, it seems you have a ton of carburetion in store for this engine. Excuse me for coming in late on this thread, but in order to save me from going back and reading all 23 pages to find this out, what is the engine build-spec.?

[94touring]

1410cc high comp monster build.

[MiniDave]

Twin HS4's, good cam, worked over head, high compression - should make lots of torque.

[Scargo]

Ok then, that makes more sense. The 4-bolt pattern of the intake was the reason for my question. I was wondering why you were prepping for twin HS6's or HIF's.

[MiniDave]

Excuse me for coming in late on this thread, but in order to save me from going back and reading all 23 pages to find this out, what is the engine build-spec.?

You should go back and read all 23 pages, it's full of good stuff!   

[Scargo]

I will, next time it rains.

[MiniDave]

New seatbelts installed, next up I'll put padding and sound deadening for the carpet on the floor, then install the carpets, then I can install the inner seat belt anchors.

The engine is ready to go back on the transmission, basic timing and valve adjustments done. Once I get the transmission rebuilt I can marry them up and set it in the engine stand for its first test runs. That will be a big day in the life of this Inno! Can't wait to hear it make some noise.....

[MiniDave]

More electrical success, the horn now works from the steering wheel (with a jumper, we haven't found a horn button yet - well, we have but he wants stupid money for it, still looking for one with a reasonable price) all of the headlights work correctly from the switch on the column, the parking lights work correctly, both in the headlights and in the T/S assy's, the turn signals work, dash lights work including the low fuel light and I found the wire in the loom for the reverse lights and once powered up they work too.  As this has a switch on the transmission instead of the shifter, I'll have to run the loom out to the gearbox, but that's an easy chore. All of the gauges work so far, I still have to test the oil press, speedo and water temp and the tach will have to wait till the engine's in.

I left the extra power wire off the ignition switch in the car so if we want a lighter socket adaptor for Garmin, dash cam or phone charger power it's there, but I'm not going to add one of those sockets just yet (originality and all that) the car does have a working cig lighter so we can always power them from that with an adaptor.

The only thing I discovered that doesn't work is the dome light, and I found the wire for the door switches broken, so that's an easy repair too and I'll have that done today.

I was at the upholsterer's on Friday and the seats are almost done and do look terrific. Rear is all done, bottoms of both fronts were done and he was working on the backrests, so I'll go ahead now and start installing the interior fittings. with the seatbelts done so I can go ahead with carpet pad and carpets. Slowly coming together.....

Edit: Speedo, temp and oil pressure gauges all work, speedo is even smooth...of course, it won't be right unless I change the drive gears as I'm changing the final drive ratio - and it reeds in Kilometers anyway! 

[MiniDave]

Seems like every time I get electrical things working something else quits - this time it's the right front turn signals, worked before but now the wire is dead. Found a broken wire that goes to the rear harness. Found I don't know how many wires with split or broken insulation. So - instead of continuing to beat my head against the wall I found and ordered a new wiring harness....can't believe someone actually HAD one (Bull Motif), seems to be all the right color wires too just looking at the package online. Fairly reasonably priced too - especially compared to the one I found on MM - which was right at twice the price, plus shipping.

It's on the way.

In the meantime I still have plenty of stuff I can do.

[Jimini II]

I have often said the best money you can spend when restoring a 40 year old vehicle is a new wiring harness.
It takes so much frustration out of the build having something work like it should not to mention the man hours spent chasing silly bodges by po's from years ago.

[94touring]

New interior, new suspension, new engine, new electrical, new paint.   Just a little refurb 

[gr8kornholio]

Sounds like mine. Just fix this then that then color matched arch cracks and.....  boom into a thousand pieces and full strip and repaint.