Getting Gwen the Mini to Run.

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DanClarke said:
OK, I am stuck for the moment. I can't turn the engine over (as I said above).
I tried to jack it up but none of my jacks will even slide under it so I can't turn the engine over to #1 10° BTDC by putting it in gear and turning a raised front wheel. Thinking Cap On time. :D
Click to expand...

Put it in gear and rock it back and forward ...
 
DanClarke said:
Now I know It might be fair to accuse me of a "cop-out" but I have decided to not try and get this running on the current dizzy (which has no vacuum advance system). Reading a few internet forum things leads me to the conclusion the current dizzy is intended for mad-boy racers who want to tear around in a screaming hurry with the revs constantly up through the roof like they are on a permanent "track-day". Well, that's not me.

So, I am going to buy a Lucas 65DM4 Dizzy (has vac advance) and supports 1 Ohm high power coils (means you can have a 35 thou' plug gap if you want to). So I will order one today and restart the "fixing" when it arrives. I don't really want to be grovelling around on the floor too often doing all this at my age.

My reasoning is that I could spend a lot of time bringing the timing back into line so it "basically runs" only to find that without the vac-advance the experience is a really grim one.

A complete new Dizzy + cap etc. etc. is c.£80 so it isn't a huge outlay to bring the thing back towards "standard".

BTW I noticed a light coating of mayo inside the rockerbox cover, but that is most likely to be because it hasn't been run for any extended period of time in order to get up to a proper temperature in there for some while.

Please bear with me while I regroup. :D
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Just a brief reminder from post #14
Stanleysteamer said:
You can read the section in Vizard about air filters. (!)
As he says a A+ engine has a physically different drive shaft for its distributor so it needs a 49 D4.
Ideally a vacuum advance helps a car drive smoothly and a bit more economically.
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Driving a car without a vacuum advance does not make it, on its own, into a vehicle which is undriveable unless at wide open throttle.

So the dizzy you are getting will fit, which is good news. Once on and you have the engine running it'll be fun to temporarily disconnect the vacuum advance tube. If you do you will find it is hardly any different, EXCEPT that you'll possibly find the lumpy cam making it very difficult to drive.

I really am hoping that after rebuilding the carb you find it running at least reasonably.
But I expect to get in more usable you will end up having to change the cam.
Best of luck
Stan
 
Dippypud said:
See, just what I said ... ;)
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Ha Ha!
Your name isn't "Liz " is it by any chance???!!! 🤣 🤣 🤣

When I was about 10 my mother had an Austin Somerset. It had a flat when she went out of the house to drive off somewhere with me and my bruv.

I knew she knew how to change a wheel, I knew how to change a wheel, but she still called the AA. I couldn't believe it!
Aghast I asked her "WHY!?"

She just couldn't be bothered getting herself changed, dirty etc.
 
Last edited:
Stanleysteamer said:
Just a brief reminder from post #14

Driving a car without a vacuum advance does not make it, on its own, into a vehicle which is undriveable unless at wide open throttle.

So the dizzy you are getting will fit, which is good news. Once on and you have the engine running it'll be fun to temporarily disconnect the vacuum advance tube. If you do you will find it is hardly any different, EXCEPT that you'll possibly find the lumpy cam making it very difficult to drive.

I really am hoping that after rebuilding the carb you find it running at least reasonably.
But I expect to get in more usable you will end up having to change the cam.
Best of luck
Stan
Click to expand...
Well the Dizzy is a brand-new one from Powerspark and is a copy of the Lucas original but with solid-state instead of "points". It is specifically for a range of vehicles that have the A+ 1275 engine (different dizzy drive arrangement from the straight "A" I do understand).
I am hoping not to have to change the cam, isn't that an "engine out" job? :(
I have no garage, no space, no facilities here for such a task. If it did need it I would pay a garage to do it.
But I will take it one step at a time and see how we go. :)
Thanks for all the help and advice, it is much appreciated.
 
DanClarke said:
Well the Dizzy is a brand-new one from Powerspark and is a copy of the Lucas original but with solid-state instead of "points". It is specifically for a range of vehicles that have the A+ 1275 engine (different dizzy drive arrangement from the straight "A" I do understand).
I am hoping not to have to change the cam, isn't that an "engine out" job? :(
I have no garage, no space, no facilities here for such a task. If it did need it I would pay a garage to do it.
But I will take it one step at a time and see how we go. :)
Thanks for all the help and advice, it is much appreciated.
Click to expand...
Yes, with my heart in my mouth I did check that your Dizzy is OK to put in an A+ engine and, phew, it is.
I have never changed the cam on either an A series or a B series engine but yes, I think it is an "engine out" job.:(:(:(
Even changing the cam on a Pinto engine is a "head off" job, unless someone has cut a hole in the bulkhead for you. (It has to slide out through all the bearings, I did know one kit car builder who DID cut a hole in his bulkhead so he could do this at will! :rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes:.
I'm beginning to think you may need to join a classic Mini owners' club and cultivate peeps there with garages. ;););) Many peeps like that will be willing to lend stuff and space and give you a hand, members of my club were always doing this. I have both had help and given help in this way. tools being lent, etc also.

If you were to go the "take it to a garage" route it might almost be an idea to get a recon complete 1275 engine for an MG Metro or similar and ask them simply to swop it over. Fewer hours therefore cheaper in labour. I have had a look around the web for guaranteed low mileage engines and recon ones. They ARE out there.

But this is putting the cart before the horse. Changing the carb or sorting it out, then or after sorting the dizzy and coil out, you may find you can put up with the cam.
You will also prolly find that the compression ratio has been raised and "work" done on the rockers etc. In itself raising the comp ratio will not have made it harder to drive.

But I totally get where you are with all this. I too would want just a simpler engine, like I have mentioned before, so that you can drive it in traffic no problem.
 
Stanleysteamer said:
"Yes" is the short answer. It was stated to have a "lumpy" cam.
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Lumpy cam needs more advance at idle and low revs, best setting your distributer up measuring max advance. 33 to 35 deg when it has maxed out its advance prob at 4000 rpm. You'll need 15 deg rather than 10 static as long as it doesn't max out at over 35.
If Dizzy is a 10 degree then it'll advance 20 deg mechanicaly (engine spinning twice camshaft speed) then add your 15 static giving 35
Hope that makes sense
 
landowner said:
.wirh engine out you can turn it upside down to keep cam followers in place an draw cam out of block
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That is certainly one way of doing it.
Vizard then recommends putting the block on its end before slotting the cam in.
Sadly @DanClarke appears not to have space or facilities for doing this sort of "engine out" work.
I am just hoping that with a DTI, a magnetic base and his engineering skills he will be able to measure his cam to see exactly what he has. Without needing to extract the cam. Or the engine.
His book by Vizard will help him do this.
 
Stanleysteamer said:
That is certainly one way of doing it.
Vizard then recommends putting the block on its end before slotting the cam in.
Sadly @DanClarke appears not to have space or facilities for doing this sort of "engine out" work.
I am just hoping that with a DTI, a magnetic base and his engineering skills he will be able to measure his cam to see exactly what he has. Without needing to extract the cam. Or the engine.
His book by Vizard will help him do
Click to expand...
Cam is stamped on the end so could take timing gear off and have a look
 
@DanClarke do you have room for a pergola outside your place and an engine hoist like this?
Or one of them?
The only other thing I needed was a more powerful torque wrench to deal with nuts on the hubs.
I seriously wish I lived near you as I have so many bits of tooling that would be of use to you. :(
 
Stanleysteamer said:
@DanClarke do you have room for a pergola outside your place and an engine hoist like this?
Or one of them?
The only other thing I needed was a more powerful torque wrench to deal with nuts on the hubs.
I seriously wish I lived near you as I have so many bits of tooling that would be of use to you. :(
Click to expand...
A tent-pole style pergola you mean?
Probably not, and with the winds we get it might not be there very long. Ha! Ha!
That's very kind of you to think of me and my current issues. Let's see what the new dizzy does for starters.
It might be the answer, the Raffle Co. might have been spinning a big yarn to make the car more attractive to boy-racers to enter the raffle for all I know. The guy before me had it as his family motor with 2 young kids and Holidays to Cornwall I have spoken to him. All I do know is that it struggles to start & run right now. Parts-cannon has been fired, lets see if the shots hit their mark. :D
 
landowner said:
Thing is, if it's lumpy its more than likely a 286, next one down is 276 which is relatively smooth, 286 not too bad but it may overheat a bit without vac advance on the dizzy
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Good job the dizzy I have ordered has vac-advance then. ;) What is on there now does not. :(
I don't think the carb float/valve is goosed because there is no petrol coming out of the plumbed-in overflow so I guess it must be shutting off like it should. I will put the new dizzy on and see what happens, I think the needle in the carb is BBE/D but I have no idea whether that's appropriate or not. I will hoik it out to check. :)
 
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