Due to arrive soon

Started by 94touring, August 07, 2020, 01:46:39 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

94touring

Yeah it is!  Eventually though those vinyl stripes will come off and it will be light blue from the windows down and white on top.  For now it looks good enough as is.

94touring

#426
What a day.  Got this oil cooler on. Of course I had to drive all over town to find appropriate hose.  Took some time pondering where to mount it, which took some doing. Then I also moved the oil filter to a more suitable spot.  Then it was finding where to run all the lines.  Once it was all in I let it run a few minutes to make sure I didn't have any leaks, and of course I did off the thermostat 180 degree oil bypass junction,  which was buried deep behind as much crap as possible.  Had to take it back out, which meant spilling oil all over myself when I popped the lines off to redo the problematic fitting.  All back on and no leaks.  I bought some kind of household duct work at the hardware store to fashion a duct to the oil cooler rather than run a fan.  I forgot to get a picture but it fit perfectly and hangs down a few inches into the air flow. Put some rubber around the edges to make sure it doesn't saw through the cooler and a little racing tape later (gorrila tape) I had a perfectly sealed little vent box.  Later on in the day I got it up to 88 mph and not only did I not time travel but the duct stayed on.

My main jets came in that were a smidge smaller than the 115 jets in there.  Easy to swap in but damned if it wasn't lean as hell.  Confused I figured I'd pair it with a richer idle jet, which are a royal bitch to get the rear jets out and in.  It was richer in transition but still lean.  Suddenly a light bulb went off and I took the 115s out and compared them to my box of jets I bought. Well the 115s eye balling them had been drilled out to the 130s in my box!!  SUPER happy I took out the perfect idle jets.  Tossed in some 125 main jets and let her rip and right in the upper 12 air fuel range at wot...till the air correction jets come in at 4k rpms and now I'm lean up top.  But those are easy to swap. Part throttle low rpms is now rich since the idle jets are rich. Mid range cruise is better and should improve with the idles back.  Should be a matter of going back to the idles I had in, keeping the 125 mains, and probably going from the current 205 air correction down to a 190. 

Oil cooler test on the drive home was good. My little hot warning light that has consistently come on at 225 degrees and stayed out never flickered at all. 


MiniDave

Whew! A lot of work!

But you almost have it all dialed in, right? what's left to do?
Complete failure at retirement

1989 Cooper Racing Green
2009 Clubman S
2014 Audi Allroad

94touring

Quote from: MiniDave on May 21, 2021, 08:20:36 PM
Whew! A lot of work!

But you almost have it all dialed in, right? what's left to do?

Well just fine tune and I'd like to adjust the tow hitch, but that's low priority.  Oh....new shift mechanism without worn pin and new beefy upgraded urethane shift coupling will be here soon for improved shifting.  I have a proper sized cylinder head temp sensor for these smaller spark plugs to swap in. That won't be easy unfortunately but I need to do it because the way I have it now it reads low.  It gives me a good idea of what's normal but I'm hoping for accurate.

94touring

Snapped a pic of the air scoop.

94touring

The bus saga continues.  ::)  Oil temps are great and I got things fine tuned and air fuel is nuts on.  However I sprung an oil leak.  At first a few drops, then a waterfall.  Narrowed it down to the doghouse oil cooler above #3 cylinder.  Pulled the engine out to inspect and assumed it was the o rings type seals that mate to the oil cooler.  Reading online they give a lot of problems.  Tighten things down, inspected various other things, got it back in, and still leaking badly.  Called the engine builder and I've gotta pull it back out and pressure test the oil cooler.  The positive is I can pull the motor in about 30 minutes and I don't even need to undo oil or fuel lines.  Work is sending me off tonight so this mess will have to wait till June.

cstudep

Thats a bummer, at least pulling the motor is pretty straight forward. As frustrating as it is, it can always be worse I suppose.

94touring

My garage floors have never been messier lol.  Puddles of oil everywhere trying to track down this leak.  I was able to get my arm behind the doghouse with my phone and video the oil coming down from the bottom of the cooler.  It did make swapping the idle jets back easier and the proper sized sensor under #3 plug would have been impossible with the engine in.  Final tune ended up with 47 idles, 125 mains, and 190 air correction.  I don't know how or why I read about 55 idles being the right size. Unless you like pouring gas and fouling plugs. 

94touring

This oil leak turned out to be a real headache. Swapped oil coolers and seals with zero luck. I did however buy a block off plate to remove the oil cooler adapter and cooler itself. Well after pulling the motor for the 2nd time today (in 15 minutes flat!) I blocked everything off and sure enough no more leaks!  Tomorrow I'll button everything up with the hopes for a weekend road trip.

94touring

#434
Took a weekend trip to the lake and put a couple hundred miles on it. Ambient temps were 96 degrees on the way there and 90 by time we arrived home today.  No more oil leaks and the oil temps never came close to setting off my 225 degree warning light, which I was happy with considering I was driving it as hard as you're going to drive it in temps as hot as you're going to tolerate.  Cylinder head temps stayed very stable and it was interesting to see how load and rpms effect the cooling.  I'll need to pull the mini this week to see if I'll need to slow things down to keep it cool in 90+ degree weather.  Only mishap on the drive home was some random ignition breakup for a 5-10 minute period of time.  Got home and popped the engine compartment and found the coil had come loose and fell down on the bottom shelf. 

MiniDave

Complete failure at retirement

1989 Cooper Racing Green
2009 Clubman S
2014 Audi Allroad

94touring

Err duh typo!  Now that would be something if the dizzy popped out!

94touring

Gave the mini a 30 minute tow in 90s ambient temps. Seems to like 60-65mph to keep head temps stable amongst the rolling hills here.  I did fashion up a cool air ram pipe to the engine fan after the fact, which testing yesterday in 97 degree temps kept head temps down a little more.  It ran cooler at 97 than the week before to the lake at 90 degrees.  The engine bay when I pop the lid after a drive is cooler as well.  Currently fiddling with vacuum advance which I knew ahead of time would be finicky with twin weber 40s.  It just doesn't want to pull steady or enough.  Since I run timing from a blackbox and can monitor from my laptop it shows it dancing up and down the map.  I bought a recommended pulsation damper which did stabilize it, but also reduced vacuum so much it's too close to WOT advance for me to safely trust it. I can create a block of advance and keep it stable, but I need a little buffer so I don't go from 28 degrees WOT to 38 degrees if it should creep into the vacuum advance cells while flooring it. 

BruceK

I think it's pretty impressive that your VW - which isn't exactly aerodynamic - is able move itself down the road quite well but also have enough grunt to pull a Mini along.   4.gif
1988 Austin Mini
2002 MINI Cooper S
1992 Toyota LiteAce (JDM)
1997 Jeep Wrangler Sahara

94touring

Quote from: BruceK on June 18, 2021, 07:31:44 PM
I think it's pretty impressive that your VW - which isn't exactly aerodynamic - is able move itself down the road quite well but also have enough grunt to pull a Mini along.   4.gif

True!  I wasn't sure how it would do.  My mini is a little lighter than standard which helps I'm sure.  I'd say the bus is comparable to the stock 1600 in performance with a little more oomph when towing. 

94touring

Just passed 1500 miles on the new motor so gave it the final break in oil change and valve adjustment.  Of course nothing is ever easy so I ran into some problems.  Upon taking the 3-4 side valve cover off the one nut and stud that holds the rocker assembly on, which the valve cover also bolts to, backed itself off.  Took the rocker off to thread the stud back into the head.  The rockers themselves are fiddly because the tips have to sit just right for this flat part which rolls around to hit the valves.  They're like roller rockers but not.  This is done on your back under the bus of course.  Once everything was aligned it was time to torque the rockers to the head, but since I had no idea of torque specs I checked the 1-2 side and matched the torque to that.  Well I broke one of the studs on the 3-4 side as a result.  50.gif. Since my old engine is laying around I took the studs off it and did some research on what the torque values should be and finally got it all back together, and adjusted the 1-2 side to what the specs should be.   Fast forward a couple hundred miles of driving to find any more gremlins before the big Colorado trip in the end of July and I developed a small oil drip off the one rocker cover which conveniently hits the exhaust, so you smell burning oil.  Managed to re seat the cork gasket to stop that.  Then I was doing a drive and ran into a fuel starvation scenario. Managed to limp back to the shop using light throttle and going slow.  After verifying the jets weren't clogged I crawled under to look at the fuel filter.  I had made these tanks but cleaned them extensively.  Apparently not good enough as the filter had a fair amount of debris and one big hunk of rubber that lodged itself into the filter inlet. I could barely blow air through the thing.  Hopefully that was the last of whatever junk is in the tanks. Runs great with a new filter.  Last but not least is the drivers door has always been difficult to close. Something with the latch is funky.  Tried adjusting the striker but no dice.  After investigating and looking at the passenger side came to the conclusion it's simply worn out and needs replaced.   It's so bad that it will open on it's own taking turns too fast.  Should have the replacement in before the big trip and I won't have to hang on to the door when turning right!

MiniDave

I'm glad you're getting all this fettling done well in advance of the trip, so you travel with peace of mind. Nothing more stressful than doing repairs on the side of the road or wondering if you can make it to the next town.
Complete failure at retirement

1989 Cooper Racing Green
2009 Clubman S
2014 Audi Allroad

94touring

I have a pretty good sized bag of tools and some additional parts for basic emergency repairs too.  At first I wondered if my fuel pump crapped out, but it's a good piece of mind having the 2nd pump if that should ever happen 77.gif. Might go for an afternoon drive later on.  At least the weather has been nice.

jeff10049

What a nice bus this is turning out to be. Love to see a picture of it all set up towing the mini.

Just something cool about a classic bus towing a mini. I world full of 45-foot RV's towing full-size trucks, jeeps, etc.

94touring

Quote from: jeff10049 on July 02, 2021, 04:31:09 PM
What a nice bus this is turning out to be. Love to see a picture of it all set up towing the mini.

Just something cool about a classic bus towing a mini. I world full of 45-foot RV's towing full-size trucks, jeeps, etc.

I'll be sure to take several.  The roof rack will be loaded up too.  Should look pretty cool.  Oh one thing on the tow lights...  I had to buy a 4 wire to 5 wire adapter thingy to have driving lights and brake lights functional at the same time. Then had to buy led tow lights as the harbor freight ones wouldn't work with the adapter.  One last thing I did was buy a portable ac unit to sit on the passenger seat, venting out the drivers window.  Found the smallest one available that will work perfectly and will make camping cool in heat should we ever need it.

94touring

Giving it a test today parked out in the sun.  A cool 70 degrees inside and a muggy 88 outside.

cstudep

Those portable AC units do work quite well. We have one we use in our popup camper if we plan to go somewhere we may need it. Not as convenient as a roof mount unit, but we can also use it for other things if need be and since we generally camp at elevation we don't usually need it so it stays at home which allows me to put the kayak on the roof of the popup instead.

Looking good!

94touring

#447
Let's see where did I leave off in here 2 months ago before the crash...   well I did a few things like exhaust work and taller velocity stacks.  Prior to the mods I did some speed test between points in 3rd gear, doing 30-60mph pulls and some 60mph 4th gear full throttle pulls up a steep hill.  The exhaust situation that I probably posted about was me modifying the current exhaust and adding a 2nd muffler for a dual exhaust setup.  They sell twin exhaust but in a smaller pipe/flange than what my headers are.  I put my welder to work and made a twin large flange.  End results are I had to rejet the carbs because it runs a good bit leaner up top on my wideband.  The taller velocity stacks also made a difference as I tested them separately and then together.  The end results are I'm consistently 4-5mph faster between markers on the 30-60mph pulls in 3rd and the hill climb a smidge faster.  Granted the hill climb I'm below the fat part of the powerband at around 3000 rpms.  All my torque is around 3500-4000 rpms which is also best for fan cooling anyways.  By time I hit 64-65mph in 3rd I'm done at 5k rpms which is the redline. Speaking of fans I did comparison runs with that Andrig fan that just hit the market and well it's junk.  3600rpms steady state 70mph back to back test comparing the stock style fan and the Andrig fan on a 6 mile loop showed about 20 degrees hotter with the Andrig.  And when I used the stock fan it was actually 3 degrees hotter outside.

94touring

2nd Colorado trip underway.  Only hiccups on the drive were I got a nail in the tire and the one carb throttle body started sticking on me, requiring an additional spring until I get home to most likely just having to realign the throttle plate.  It's always been sticky on that side and apparently it's a common problem on these. Otherwise drove great. Had one section where it struggled but it was about 45 minutes of slight uphill grades, 90 degrees out, and 35 gusting 50 knots!  The wind was a royal bitch.  I was creeping along at 55mph to keep head temps within my normal operating range.  Maybe it can run hotter but I don't want to accidentally find out where it drops valves.  Anyways the tent is a major win for camping. Got down to 30 last night and we didn't even close the bus doors to the tent. With a couple space heaters going the whole setup was toasty. Makes it nice in the morning to sit inside and make breakfast, drink coffee, and relax.  In the afternoon when it warms up the walls all go up. 

BruceK

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