Bought a MINI to use for auto-x rally-x etc.

It's in rather rough shape, needs mostly common first year MINI stuff.

First order of business is coil, plugs, wires, pcv valve. Also I'm fairly certain it needs a head gasket.

Electric PS pump is dead (as usual) so I'll be heading to the dealer to see if they'll really fix it under those new warranty terms. If not I'm deleting that and going manual with a little conversion plate.

Motor mounts are dead, again as usual, so those are going poly

I have some cooper S suspension bits off another project for it.

Interior is trashed, but it'll be gutted anyway

Pics:

 

looking forward to this project!

 

Curious what your plans are for the interior...

 

Those floor mats might be slowing it down...

Looks like a great project.

Motor on!

 

Those floor mats are something...

As for the plans on the interior, I'm pulling almost everything. All carpet, door cards, panels in the back, truck panel, back seats, glove box (latch is already busted), headliner, center console shifter covery thing.

Driver's seat is kinda shot, recliner mechanism issue? Either way got a seat that was sitting around in a buddy's shop

Also scored some 15" rpf1s off a VW guy who does that stance thing, he needed something with more offset I guess. Paid a little over the price of 1 for the 4

I'm driving to the dealer on Wed, see if I get a PS pump. Then maybe I'll gut the interior over the weekend, depending on temps.
If I'm feeling super adventurous I'll get the Marauder out of the garage and do the head gasket real quick. Not likely, but you never know.

 

Adventurous....... I hope you got the car real cheap.

 

Got it for two grand, so not a bad place to start a project.

The only pressing thing mechanically before the spring race season is the possible head gasket, which is a cheap fix, nice gasket kits are pretty cheap on rock auto.

Oh and the motor mounts, and I'm just going to buy a pail of 80A Poly Urethane and fill the voids in the OEM rubber. A pail of the stuff should be $30 and I'll make a few sets out of used parts.

Only semi expensive part will be that if I do pull the head I'm not going to want to just slap it back on. I'm going to deck, port and polish it, and get a cam for it. Most of that I can just do at home, but decking and lapping will be an machine shop thing.

On that note though, any recommendations on cams? High rpm band is fine, it's not a daily driver or anything like that. Saw some regrinds out there that look rather interesting, still snooping around with the search function for now though.

 

Sounds like fun. Keep us posted on your progress. Thanks.

 

Took a chance with the PS warranty thing... Apparently they aren't going to warranty it. I'm not particularly shocked, I was more shocked when they told me on the phone that of course it would be covered.

 

Take them out and 5+ hp gain.


Good luck on the project and if you need anything:

www.ecstuning.com


Bring it back to life. That BRG and Cordoba Beige ( Tan ) are a great color combo. Very classy.

 

Still waiting on a buyer to get his stuff together on a different car so that I have space to move the MINI inside.

I did figure out that I do need to pull the head after a compression test, but I kinda thought that would be the case anyway. Not a big deal, the felpro gasket kit is not very spendy.

I did end up pulling out most of the interior. All panels, back seats and carpet, headliner, glove box. I'll think about how much more I want to take out. I was going to take out the front carpet, but I saw why it is usually left in, lots of bracing, not a flat floor pan at all.

Also mounted the new seat.

Hopefully I sell a car this week so I can pull the head this weekend.

 

Finally got caught up on my flower gardens and firewood, started working on the MINI again this weekend. Got some 205/45/15 Nittos for it, and finished the wheels bronze.

Then I pulled down the front, deleted the power steering, drained the coolant. Inspected the front suspension, made some notes on what to change/adjust. I'll prob only do a couple hours at a time, but at least I've started.

Also, MINI really should have put a drain on the radiator, that was annoying.

 

Have you tried driving with the p/s delete? Just asking because I've tried it with no power steering and looping the steering rack hoses and there's no way I'd drive this on a track. It's slighty better than a dead pump, but nowhere near a true manual rack with proper gearing. For me, it would remove most, if not all, the fun of driving on a track. I'm on stock 16" rims by the way.

As for the interior, I removed the carpet on mine (after it got soaked by a leaky evil sunroof drain tube) and ended up cutting the driver side section and use it until I stop being lazy and make myself a carbon fiber plate. It's crazy how thick that carpet is.

 

Good pics and nice to see its coming back to life.

 

We'll see how it goes with the PS delete. When I bought it the pump was dead and it didn't really bother me that much. I'll be running some light 15s, so I dunno what's gonna happen with it. If it's a pain with the delete block in place I can re install it, was a pretty simple deal. It may even be cheaper to see if I could do something interesting with the rack gear... but that's really something for later on.

I did get the head pulled, it was really pretty easy once I made a little space, a couple hours a night and I had I had it done in like 3 nights. That includes pulling to front access, removing everything but the motor from the engine bay and getting the head off. It's actually been quite relaxing.

I found a couple funny things, the best of which is that the bushings for the shifter cables went bad, and so someone just wired the cables to the linkage. That tickled me pretty good.


The unfortunate part is that after pulling the head it turned out that the issue is burnt valves... buuuut the cylinders look fine, and it's not really that bad of a fix $$ wise for my machine guy.


So I'm trotting right a long, may even race this season... Valves should be here on Monday, and I'll take em over to the shop.

I have the ball joints and control arm bushings for the front. I have some cooper S take of springs and struts. I have some low mileage shifter cables. I also have a can of poly fill for the motor mounts. So if I stick to working on it every now and then for a couple hours I can prob be ready some time in July.

 

Looks like at hack fix on the cable.

Great thread BTW

 

If the cylinders look fine, that's always good news.

Really stoked on this project. I love the wheel choice too! We have the same one's on our MINI and I run Enkei on my personal car too for my race wheels. Keep it up! Looking forward to seeing what's next.

-Luccia

 

I actually have valves and the front end stuff on the way from you guys right now

 

Awesome! Let me know if you have any questions or need any help. Looking forward to watching the progress with your MINI!

-Luccia

 

Been a while since I updated. Taking it slow, I only really work on it a couple hours at a time here and there. Keeps it fun instead of stressful.

Got the head back, and put it all back together. While I was at it I pulled the front cover and set the timing since the head had def been off before I bought the car. After finding the shifter "fix" I wasn't in a trusting mood. I also deleted the A/C, filled all the motor mounts with urathane, and installed a WMW crank pulley.

It's just about ready to be started, but I'm going to change all the font end bushings while I have it torn apart... soooo maybe this weekend or next weekend I'll be done.

Pics:

 

Things are looking good!! Glad you're keeping the work done on it fun and not stressful. We call one of our specialists here the "Level 12 Zen Mechanic" as he always is so mellow when working on the cars. He says that if he ever gets stressed, he walks away and comes back with a clear mind. Keep it up! Almost there!

 

Man this is an awesome thread
I'm staying tuned for more!!!

 

Congrats on the work, sounds like a great project.

The photos dont show up for me so I reposted them and they still dont work, photobucket does not like to work with NAM. Do you have attached pics you can add ?

 

Strange about the pictures, I'll use the upload feature going forward.

As a test here are the filled engine/trans mounts:


A/C gone:


WMW Pulley on:


Timing set:



Motor 90% back together:


Bonus, painted my tow dolly to match the Cooper:

 

Small update. Finished rebuilding the front end. I'll probably work on the car a bit this weekend. I want to change the passenger axle while everything is torn down. My plan is to change the axle and put the front end back on. Maybe it'll be ready to run on Sunday.