1967 Austin Cooper 998

[12345678]

Picked up a ‘67 Austin Cooper that has been a display car for a long time (dyson office in chicago as a example of great design). Car is originally a Canadian export, still on working hydro, and running. The car had a significant oil leak coming from the radiator side (crank seal is my initial thought), and I’m planning on pulling the engine to refresh it / see what if there is any damage. Ideally I’d like to hone the block and rebuild it with new rings keeping the d top pistons, but I’ll need to figure that out once I get things apart. This post is mainly to “keep me honest” as I’ve been slowly sitting on this project in my garage as life doesn’t allow for a ton of tinkering time, but looking forward to the expertise and support of this forum.

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[mk1coopers]

Very nice, at least it was in good 'dry' storage

Is it running spacer'd rear drums as in the top picture the rear wheel looks like it's out of the body line

[12345678]

Is it running spacer'd rear drums as in the top picture the rear wheel looks like it's out of the body line

Interesting. I will say I never noticed that. I put the car on jack stands and never really noticed but I have not removed the rear wheels ever. Climbing around the rear underside of the car I never noticed anything that stuck out to me other than some slight decay in the battery box (probably from a leaking battery).

In pulling the front driveshafts / brakes / etc, everything up front seems 100% stock. Maybe I’ll be surprised when I address the rear brakes!

[Peter Laidler]

Somebody will correct me but I have a feeling that '67 was the start of fitting slightly spaced drums to the rear of the little 998 Coopers in order to accommodate the slightly wider tyres from Dunlop. Not wide spacers as per the S but approx 1/2".

[mk1coopers]

Might be just the photo but my first thought was standard wheels with S spacers on the rear

[12345678]

Somebody will correct me but I have a feeling that '67 was the start of fitting slightly spaced drums to the rear of the little 998 Coopers in order to accommodate the slightly wider tyres from Dunlop. Not wide spacers as per the S but approx 1/2".

This could possibly be the case as it’s an August ‘67 build in which there were some changes at the factory like getting rid of the piano hinges on the rear windows. I looked it up recently but I think it was one of the last 900 or so 998 coopers based on engine number

[colonel mustard]

Hi 12345678,
Welcome.
Mine is a 67 Cooper and it also had the slightly spacered rear drums along with later door handles with safety bose and the omission of the piano hinges from the rear quarter windows.

[swindrum]

Somebody will correct me but I have a feeling that '67 was the start of fitting slightly spaced drums to the rear of the little 998 Coopers in order to accommodate the slightly wider tyres from Dunlop. Not wide spacers as per the S but approx 1/2".

This is interesting as I have a set of these drums and have wondered for a while where they would have been fitted originally. Mystery solved!

[12345678]

Finally got around to pulling the engine. Wasn't too annoying but definitely took much longer than the experienced members of the board would have done. Here are some pics...the engine is extremely coated in oil on the timing/radiator side which is why I planned on pulling it. Pretty sure it was the crack seal but we'll see when I start breaking it down. Hopefully nothing is damaged to the point where I can't refurbish (would like to still use the d top pistons / keep it as close to stock as possible), but we'll see then readjust.

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[12345678]

Also had a "fun" discovery in the remote shifter housing when I dropped it...how / why would this end up in there?

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[12345678]

Here's the head casting

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Is the transmission not original? Not sure based on the casting number

[iain1967s]

Nice to see the original pressed steel exhaust manifold is still in place.

If possible, please can you take a photo of the area where the 3 branches are welded to the downpipe ?

[IslandBlue]

Also had a "fun" discovery in the remote shifter housing when I dropped it...how / why would this end up in there?

Do you mean inside the housing itself? Or was it lodged on top somehow?

It's very easy to drop screws, washers or tools down the back of the engine. It's another favourite Mini game - you drop the part and then listen carefully hoping to hear it land on the floor, if not you know you're in for a search....

We found a small screwdriver when removing the engine from my '69 Cooper, it wasn't mine so had obviously been lodged somewhere down the back of the engine in the diff/remote area. There's also a nice gap between the back of the subframe and the body to lose small parts in.

[12345678]

Delete

[12345678]

Also had a "fun" discovery in the remote shifter housing when I dropped it...how / why would this end up in there?

Do you mean inside the housing itself? Or was it lodged on top somehow?

It was inside the housing when I dropped it to disconnect the shifter fork. I didn’t think anything could really get in there unless it was opened up but maybe I’m wrong? Or it worked it’s way up to the end of the housing from the cabin shifter area? I guess I should check it out more and see if it came from the factory. Haha.

I’m interested to know more about the transmission case as based on my minimal knowledge it’s not original which is weird based on the head/block. Being such a late car in production could they have used whatever the had laying around?

[Peter Laidler]

When the remote housing is off the car you'll see how much room there is inside. So if a screwdriver gets dropped inside - or as in my case, an unknown set of feeler gauges, it can stay there unseen and undetected while you assemble the box up. And stay like that for years - providing that it doesn't jamb-up the mechanism as mine did. NOT the feeler gauges, but a fuel bowl screw that dropped down, through the smallest little hole and caused the remote to jamb-up big time. That small aperture INTO the top of the remote housing is the arch enemy of minis. Additionally, it is JUST big enough to take an exhaust manifold nut so be warned

[12345678]

Nice to see the original pressed steel exhaust manifold is still in place.

If possible, please can you take a photo of the area where the 3 branches are welded to the downpipe ?

Is this what you're looking for?

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[AndyPen]

Just to say what a lovely little car that appears to be - not many like that when it comes to rebuilding

[IslandBlue]

I’m interested to know more about the transmission case as based on my minimal knowledge it’s not original which is weird based on the head/block. Being such a late car in production could they have used whatever the had laying around?

According to my nearest reference book 22G382 is the case for 3 synchro B type gears for 848/998cc cars - these could have either magic wand or remote gearchange (depending on the diff cover/housing). This sounds correct as 4 synchro boxes only began to be fitted from some point in 1968 - even early Mk2 cars still had 3 synchro boxes.

That small aperture INTO the top of the remote housing is the arch enemy of minis. Additionally, it is JUST big enough to take an exhaust manifold nut so be warned

I'd forgotten all about that!

[12345678]

Been Months since pulling the engine and I've finally found some time to start tearing it down...a toddler and house projects will push car stuff to the side

I will say that everything has come apart pretty well and I'm thinking the 15k on the clock is A) accurate and B) the engine hasn't been apart before. Let me know what you think. Here's a photo dump...pretty cool to see the piston stampings still in tact and the cylinders in good shape. Cylinder 1 has a bit of surface rust that doesn't seem like a big deal, right? Original hope was to be able to clean / hone the block / reuse the d tops and not need to bore / go bigger.

I'm a novice so let me know if there are any pictures you want to see / anything sticks out. Any idea what's going on with the exhaust (?) valve on cylinder 2?

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