Building an engine test stand

Started by MiniDave, April 29, 2016, 05:45:38 PM

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MiniDave

When will you have it running again?
Complete failure at retirement

1989 Cooper Racing Green
2009 Clubman S
2014 Audi Allroad

94touring

Soon hopefully.  Not much else left to buy for it really.  Waiting on a new flywheel to come in and h20 injection. 

MiniDave

#77
What does one of those weigh all built up?
Complete failure at retirement

1989 Cooper Racing Green
2009 Clubman S
2014 Audi Allroad

94touring

Well not much in short block form, I was simply building it on a work bench.  After I get all the manifolds, flywheel, turbo on, it will be too heavy to man handle by myself.  I'll have to google final weight, kinda curious myself. 

94touring

#79
"All the Mazda rotary engines have been praised because of their light weight. The unmodified 13B-MSP Renesis Engine has a weight of 112 kg (247 lbs), including all standard attachments (except airbox), but without engine fluids (such as coolant, oil, etc.)"

Edit:  tranny weighs 112lbs for a total of about 360lbs.  A mini engine and trans weigh 330lbs. I'll make about 400hp more with the same displacement in my rotary vs my 1275 you're building.

94touring


MPlayle

Interesting concept.  The engineering to mate a transmission to drive the Mini's front wheels would likely be tricky.

A bit out of my league in price and complexity for the Moke.

I'll likely end up doing mods to my existing 850 in the Moke.


MiniDave

#82
Got the 1100 to crank over today - making progress!

I spun it with the plugs in and then took them out to run compression. On the second crank I got almost 60lbs of oil pressure!

Compression test #1-145  #2-145  #3-135  #4-135 and that's cold without even checking valve clearances.

I think it's actually in pretty good shape internally, just needs a good clean up. Next up I'll finish the wiring and see if all my gauges and switches are going to work. Then plumb up the fuel system and see if it pops off.

Parts still needed: Lower radiator hose, distributor cap for a 25D (top entry not side) and I think that's about it, I had a rotor and wires in stock.

I could not get the top hose to work no matter what I did, and I even went down to the parts store and bought a couple hoping I could cut a section out of one but nothing would work. I had a spare thermostat housing and when I compared them I could see why, so I changed it out and with a little more fettling it all came together.

Here are a coupe quick vids....I was holding the camera in landscape but it still processes in portrait....anyone know how to turn it on it's side?





Complete failure at retirement

1989 Cooper Racing Green
2009 Clubman S
2014 Audi Allroad

MiniDave

#83
A few more bits arrived from MiniSpares today, the lower radiator hose, the 25D distributor cap - however it seems the rotor I had on hand doesn't work with this cap, so I may have to trek up to Victoria British and get a different rotor bug. All the wiring is done and everything now works, all the gauges, cooling fan, fuel pump and so on.....just need to tidy things up with some Zip ties. I need to make a coil mounting bracket tho, the one I have won't fit my coil...wish I had thought of that when I made my MiniSpares order! Once that's all done I'll roll it over by the door, point the exhaust outside and see if it will run!

I also got some of those rubber kits for the engine stays, I decided to modify mine so it would have a bit of compliance in it rather than be hard mounted as it is now.

Susan's car is back for the weekend so I can build her a tow bar, get her heater to work and put a speedo cable in. I'm also going to see if I can wire her in an aux port so her Garmin will work and make the new style fuel sender work with her MkI wiring and fuel gauge.

Lots to do this weekend, it's supposed to warm up by Monday so I can get Rose's Audi to run, (hopefully) it's been dead in the driveway for a week now, good thing we have a fleet of cars to drive! I think all I have to do is change out the coolant temp sensor, but of course I have to disassemble half the damn car to get to it, and when it's under 20* outside it's just going to have to wait.

I've been driving the racing green car as my daily and it seems to run better the more I drive it. Sure starts easier now than when I leave it sit for a week or two.
Complete failure at retirement

1989 Cooper Racing Green
2009 Clubman S
2014 Audi Allroad

MiniDave

#84
Got the last bits installed, I even built a wiring harness for the alternator.....all I need now is some gasoline and some warmer weather.

I got the right distributor rotor and bought a new coil with a bracket - the one I was going to use was off of Buzz, and while I think it still works OK I decided to just buy a new one.....hey, it's only money, right?

I was rummaging around my old parts bins and I even found the correct radiator stay bracket, along with another thermostat housing - I knew I had one, I just couldn't find it! Like JG, I keep all sorts of weird Mini parts, you never know when someone will need something - or me!

I also bought a blanking kit for the bypass hose between the head and the water pump for the racing green car, I'm going to see if it makes any difference on cold weather running...the theory is that the bypass allows cold water back into the engine so the thermostat can't really do it's job. Not sure I agree with this thinking but it's easy enough to change back again. On our drive up to Lawrence I completely blocked the entire grill with cardboard and that did help get the engine up to temp, but then it warmed up in the afternoon and I was concerned it might run too hot, so I removed it again.

OH, and a thank you to Dan for sending the header and muffler, and a big shout out to Bikewiz for sending the box of goodies, as you can see I'm using a lot of them on this build. However, I'm sorry - I used the clock in my Racing Green car, it just went so well with the triple clocks Vikram gave me from his car, and the other two I bought from MiniSpares.....hope you don't mind!
Complete failure at retirement

1989 Cooper Racing Green
2009 Clubman S
2014 Audi Allroad

MPlayle

The bypass hose between the head and water pump allows the pump to draw water from the head while the thermostat is closed.  The theory as I understand it was to provide some circulation in the head/engine to reduce the "hot spots" near cylinder #4 before the thermostat starts opening.

The later cars that had the inline heater valve (versus on the end of the head) had a convoluted hose arrangement that did the equivalent from the sandwich plate.


MiniDave

My car has the heater valve inline, but uses the same lower hose arrangement as the earlier cars.....

Like I said I'm not convinced it's going to help either, but I do not understand why the car won't come up to temperature on a cold day - seems to me the thermostat should be closed tight until the engine comes up to temp - but it never gets there, and I'm running a 180* thermostat.

The other thing I'm going to do is plumb the intake manifold for hot water too - it's really easy on this engine as the hose for the heater comes out of the tap on the end of the head where the heater valve used to be, and runs across the head to the inline heater valve. All I need to do is cut the hose and put the loose ends onto the pipes in the intake....easy peasy.

I figure any time I need heat in the car, I need it in the manifold too - and opening the heater valve runs hot water thru the intake as well. Since I'm running a K&N filter there's no way to pump hot air from the exhaust manifold, maybe this will help.
Complete failure at retirement

1989 Cooper Racing Green
2009 Clubman S
2014 Audi Allroad

MPlayle

Years ago when I was living in Ft. Collins, CO, I had the same problem getting the 1275 engine in my Clubman Estate to warm up in winter.  I wound up using scrap lexan from work to make shields to zip-tie to the grill to block most of the upper grill.  That seemed to do the trick - allowed the cast iron block to actually build and retain heat.  Otherwise the hard, cold air in from the grill kept chilling the block and no heat pocket would develop.

Since your heat comes off the head above cylinder #4 and not from a sandwich plate under the thermostat housing, you have the transition format plumbing.  It is most often seen on 998's of the late 1980's Minis and did indeed use the same lower radiator hose as the earlier Minis.  Your style setup with the inline valve is much simpler than the later style setup using the same valve and feeding from the sandwich plate.


John Gervais

I made a cold weather shield plate for behind the grill from the top of a large plastic Euro Box shipping/storage box.  It blocks around 2/3rds of the grill, and it's reversible so I can block off the radiator end or the #4 cylinder end, depending upon which works better.  If you've got grill buttons holding the grill on, it's really easy to install or remove.
- Pave the Bay -

BruceK

Okay, it wasn't really "cold" in the northern sense, but it was about 40 degrees here when I drove my Mini to and from C&C this weekend.  I used the heater for the first time since I got the car and it worked great!   Nice warm air, no leaks at the heater valve, and a quiet fan.   Got toasty pretty quickly too. 
1988 Austin Mini
2002 MINI Cooper S
1992 Toyota LiteAce (JDM)
1997 Jeep Wrangler Sahara

MiniDave

#90
I've been driving mine to school twice a week on these cold winter days and it works pretty OK - the heater door rattles like crazy tho, one more thing to fix!
Complete failure at retirement

1989 Cooper Racing Green
2009 Clubman S
2014 Audi Allroad

MiniDave

#91
OK, so I kind left this alone for a while, but Dan is coming to get his engine this weekend so I decided to see if it would all work.

I still have the old 1100 engine mounted in the stand for my guinea pig, I bought a used HIF38 from a friend and a new intake manifold from Mini Spares, Dan came up with the header and muffler and the rest is cobbled together from old bits I had laying around, like the old fuel pump from Buzz that quits every so often! I don't have a clue how the carb is set up so I'll have to fiddle with that as I go along....assuming it works at all!

So today I hooked it all up, checked the timing, plugs, put water in the radiator and gave it a go!



The smoke off the header is just from my oily paws when I put it together, it should burn off. I only had a little bit of gas in the gas can, so that's why it died....you can hear the fuel pump clicking away. Next I'll go get some gas and warm it up thoroughly.

My only complaint with it so far is that it's difficult to get the dist cap off in the stand, the "dashboard" is too close, other than that it seems to work just fine. I was so busy keeping it running I didn't even get a chance to see if the instruments were working!

If anyone has an old pancake air filter they'd like to contribute to the cause, let me know.
Complete failure at retirement

1989 Cooper Racing Green
2009 Clubman S
2014 Audi Allroad

BruceK

1988 Austin Mini
2002 MINI Cooper S
1992 Toyota LiteAce (JDM)
1997 Jeep Wrangler Sahara

MiniDave

#93
I took a second video of the engine running and the gauges....I bought this carb used from a guy and it's clearly messed up - the only way the engine will run is with the choke on fully, that's why it's running so fast - I did manage to get it to idle down to about 1500 rpm after I stopped recording this.

I'm pumped that all the gauges work. This engine seems to be in really good shape internally, I pulled the valve cover off to fix a small oil leak (needs a new gasket) and it's clean as a pin inside, carries good oil pressure and runs up to temp just fine. I told Dan I'd be tempted to drop this is one of his cars and use it just as it is.

All in all a successful test, once I get this carb or another sorted out so I can run Dan's engine in properly I'll put his hot rod motor in the stand next and give it a go.

Complete failure at retirement

1989 Cooper Racing Green
2009 Clubman S
2014 Audi Allroad

MiniDave

#94
I think I found the problem with the carb, the needle was installed incorrectly and it also is damaged - there's a section of corrosion right up in the idle section of the needle, so it will need a new needle at the least - probably a new jet too. Even so I was able to get it to idle without the choke now, although it's erratic and will die sometimes......I also found an unused opening in the throttle body after the throttle plate and temporarily closed it off with a bit of gaffer tape...that had to be making the too-lean situation worse.

Speaking of needles, this one has an ABD....there are two sizes of needles for the HIF carbs, one for the 38 and a different range for the 44 throttle bores, this is the correct range, but I can't find it's use in any of the charts I've found online. I'm thinking of going with the standard needle for an 1100 even tho that will be a bit small for a 1275, I don't think it will matter for what I'm doing as the engines are not under load. If anyone had some needles lying about (bias style, with the boss for the spring on top) I could use one....several different sizes will work, anything with a three letter designation starting with "A" will probably work just fine.

I do have a needle and jet for a 44 carb, I don't know if they will fit this body tho and I don't want to take it apart again till I have some new parts for it. With the correct needle and new jet and it should run OK. All I need then is an air filter, one of those pancake style would work fine.

Edit: found the ABD needle was used in a 72-74 MGB with the HIF38 carb
Complete failure at retirement

1989 Cooper Racing Green
2009 Clubman S
2014 Audi Allroad

John Gervais

If you change the jet to 0.100" as per HIF44, you can use 0.100" HIF44 needles in an HIF38/HIF4 carb and vice versa.  This gives greater flexibility when choosing needles, especially if one has a penchant for a, or normally work with a, particular jet size. 

I sometimes advise/assist at a local MG/Spridget/Mini service center & race shop where 80% of their business is with 0.090", but a high number of their track-day clients use 0.100"-type carbs (HS6 & HIF44), so he's begun using only 0.090" jets/needles to keep his needle inventory low.  On customer pickup, he orders the proper 0.100" needle for their existing 1.75" carbs.

http://mk1-performance-conversions.co.uk/technical_carb.htm has a function where you can compare various needle diameter station's annular areas between 0.090" and 0.100" needles.
- Pave the Bay -

MiniDave

Thanks John for confirming what I already suspected - that the jets would interchange.

I found an ABD needle in Michigan for less shipped that the big "2" wanted just for the needle - on top of that they've already shipped it! I figure since this came on an MGB - well two of them - (1800cc) it should be fine for a 998 just as it is. Again, since I'm not trying to dial in these engines for ultimate performance - rather just to get them to run, break in the cam, check for leaks and set the timing I don't need it to be perfect. Also, I don't have a dyno and the engines are not under load so the mixture won't be critical.
Complete failure at retirement

1989 Cooper Racing Green
2009 Clubman S
2014 Audi Allroad

John Gervais

- Pave the Bay -

MiniDave

#98
I got the new needle installed in the carb but it still doesn't work the way it should, however it does start easily and if I run it with a little bit of choke it idles down and runs smoothly enough - at least for what I'm doing - I'd rather have it work correctly, but this will do for now. It still acts like it has a small vacuum leak but I've covered all the open ports and nothing changes anything...I know the float is set correctly...there's not a lot more to these carbs.

I think this 1100 is a good motor and ready to be used - it does have a little blow by, but nothing much and it does not smoke. All these Mini engines sound a bit rattly and thrashy when you video them, although this one clearly needs a valve adjustment. Now I'm ready to pull it out and put Dan's engine in for the run up and cam break in. More as it happens.....

I think the next thing I want to do is rig up a better fuel tank setup.

A quick video of it idling.

Complete failure at retirement

1989 Cooper Racing Green
2009 Clubman S
2014 Audi Allroad

94touring

Ah we're tearing it down still! Lol. 1098 monster build!