Jan '02

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1st Jan, Limited action

Spent a few hours fiddling about with the engine trying to start it, but gave up due to a lack of electricity.

The rebuilt engine seems a bit harder to turn over with new rings, bearings and a fixed compression ratio - at least for a 1/2 flat Mini battery anyway !

5th Jan, Action

Bought a huge 700 CCA battery to assist with the starting efforts. With a little help from a scissor jack the battery box in the boot should 'stretch' the allow the battery to fit ;-)

With a few more amps to help my VD (volts drop) the engine turned over much better, but sadly refused to fire. Ignition checked out OK and fuel was getting to the carb, but no go.

Apart from almost all the insides of the engine, the only thing to have changed since the engine last ran was the carb. So I decided to put the horrid twin Solexs back on.

Vroom v8mini.wav he he :-)

When I have sorted out the timing and the engine has loosened up a bit I will have another go with the Weber.

8th Jan, V8Mini.co.uk

Bought a new domain for the project, and a bit of server space because the 20MB of V8mini stuff was hard to cram into the free space from a freeserve & BT account !

Hopefully the new site will be easier to maintain and a bit clearer to navigate. Despite a nasty accident on the message board where I deleted the first 3 messages it all seems to be going OK !

11th Jan, webstuff

New Tech Files section added for downloads and scans of various bits

13th Jan, Action

The plan for the weekend was to continue with the subframe mods by permanently attaching the brace bars, and seam welding the gaps in the original BL construction.

After a serious degreasing with Mr Muscle & the pressure washer I discovered about three and a half miles of 'edges' still to be welded. Suffice it to say that this somewhat thankless task is taking far longer than expected!!

The seams are not finished yet, but the strengthening bars are attached and the Hammeriting (black) is well underway.

Click for pics

20th Jan, Action

Woo Hoo! The subframe welding is finished (at last)! Another coat of thick creamy Hammerite was also applied as a finishing touch.

Then on to another job that has been nagging me for far too long... The exhaust system. I have (for no real reason) decided that I fancy twin exhausts. This will mean running 2 pipes either in 1 7/8" tube or 2" tube (if it will fit). I bought a pair of Jetex silencers from Merlin Motorsport + a few 45 degree bends for luck. These are about the size of the existing RC40 but in 2" bore (which is nice).

Original plan was to fit them side by side under the centre of the boot floor... But then I discovered thwe would probably fit across the car behind the subframe - leaving the space under the boot floor free - in case the radiator needs to be somewhere around there !

Having decided on the rear side exit plan, a quick twin 90 degree elbow thing was welded up, painted & baked in the oven - just to make sure !

The weather was starting to be a bit less fun, so I retired to the kitchen and played with the carbs a bit more.

Click for pics

26th Jan, Action

The lovely Lynne (bridesmaid/trolley jack bird) and her Dad have finished the crank adaptery boss thingies :-)

So Saturday was spent removing the transfer housing and pulling out the flywheel and temporary epoxy adapter.

The new adapter was then test fitted on a spare crank with the flywheel, then all bunged back into the engine, and the clutch was assembled. The heads on the allen bolts I am using are a bit tall and foul on the pressure plate springs, but when I fit 'normal' bolts that won't be an issue.

The engine was dropped back in and a couple of attempts were made to start it up, but the weather was too wet to be too much fun. So that game didn't go much further :-)

Pics of the new adaptery stuff

27th Jan, Hardware

At the request of a 'friend' I went out to get some EFI parts, not because I want EFI myself.... Or so I thought ...

A quick bit of measuring shows that the plenum chamber sits about 25-30mm lower than my DCNF set up.. So it could be an option. Especially with a nice custom home programable ECU.

Looks like stage 2 of the V8 project is begining to form !!!

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This page last modified 04/02/2008.