MK1 bodge to Cooper replica

[coopersean]

I believe the early brake drums had the date cast into them on the inside. May help give an idea on the build date of the car?

[Philsa]

Hi coopersean

I did have a look at the pictures I took when I fitted the rear spacered drums, no such luck.

[AndyPen]

Hi AndyPen

Yes just lined the die nut up and carefully started to turn it by hand and then with holder to the bottom of the mounting stud.

Thanks, a bit nervous about it but has to be done

[SMOKE GREY]

It looks to have its original rear subframe. Pre 63.

[Philsa]

Thanks for the info Smoke Grey.

So next I did a compression test and the cylinders was mostly 120 PSI each so all good. The tappet clearance was 0.55mm which was naturally adjusted to the correct setting.

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Next I had a pesky misfire that only occured sometimes, so it turned out that the top mounting stud on the inlet manifold was partially stripped so I fixed it by fitting a insert.

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[Philsa]

The Cooper S brakes was the next item in the list to be fitted.
I have built a set of new hubs fitted with new wheel bearing kits and ball joint kits. New cv joints and MS 7.5 calipers and new hoses later.
The original items looked really bad and the 4 cv boots was split...

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Fitted new drive flanges to skimmed discs.

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All fitted.

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[Philsa]

Then I made the mistake of wanting to route the brake hardline running to the back of the car in it's correct place....

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So I wil just drop the sub-frame a little and route the hardline correctly, atleast that was the initial plan. Then I saw the massive u-bolts that the steering rack was fitted with and the other problems, so ....

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Now the offending pipe can be viewed clearly. The sub-frame spacers was also not present, so this will be rectified.

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The removed item vs what it was replaced with.

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[Philsa]

Same goes for the sub-frame tower bolts, atleast the wrong items was too short to ruin the threads completely.

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A tap and some patience later problem solved.

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The clutch side engine mounting holes suffered so was replaced.

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Cleaned thread up in the cover just to be sure and sure enough one bolt was too short so 3 new items of correct lenght was fitted.

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[Philsa]

Due to the radiator fouling on the inner wing cowling I wanted to change to the correct style bottom radiator cowling.
The one thermostat stud was stripped and I found no thermostat fitted, which is a normal south african thing on most incorrectly built or restored minis.

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And the bottom bracket on the lower cowling had a part missing and was coming loose from each other.

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Fan blade was fitted with two studs normally used on the heater takeoff valve, the waterpump is the tin impeller type which I do not like to run on my cars as I prefer the cast impeller type. Also removed the starter and timing cover as I wanted to fix the oil leak on this side of the engine and inspect the timing chain. The fact that the crank pulley bolt was fitted with no locktab was interesting. Well the timing chain had seen better days.

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[Philsa]

Wire wheeled the engine mounting bracket, starter, timing cover and backplate. Ready for some new paint.

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Starter only had marking of seemingly previous repair job.

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Fixed threads in backplate as per standard.

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Same treatment for the block threads

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[Philsa]

After a bit of a cleanup and new gasket later backplate refitted.

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New timing chain fitted.

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Had to clean crank thread up and fit another crank pulley bolt, the oil flinger was also not present previously.

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[Philsa]

Fitted new oil seal to the timing chain cover and back on the engine.

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New waterpump, fan belt and correct radiator cowling later. Now just need correct top radiator bracket and call it done.

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[Philsa]

So I was offered some better discs with EBC green stuff pads and Cooper S steering arms.

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Then I saw what had happened to my oil gauge pipe.

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Nailed it.

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[Philsa]

So long time no update.

I fitted a 90 deg motorcycle throttle cable to replace the standard item. I also changed to a early style rocker cover with a new gasket and bushes.

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I also reverted back to the older style central speedo setup seeing as the bulk head does not have the 6 captive nuts to hold the later binnacle.

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I got tired of looking at the incorrect number plate light, I had this clubman type item so I cleaned it and fitted it with new bulbs.

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[Philsa]

I tried various things to try to get the car to perform like it did before I removed the one piece inlet/exhaust manifold. I knew the problem was inlet manifold related. So I fitted a new distributer cap and boughi cords. Then I have been collecting some twin SU parts for a while to build a proper early Cooper S setup, so I unpacked all the hidden gems. Decisions, decisions....
On the left 1275GTS items that was highly modified and run K&N filters, on the right some Cooper S AEG347 inlet manifolds with the correct carbs.

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On the left some more Cooper S items on another AEG347 inlet manifold, on the right 1275 GTS carb bodies AUC871 and AUC870 items with another Cooper type inlet manifold.

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Finally some mg/midget items that I decided against.

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Decided to use the RH manifold, but it had some weird long threaded makeshift studs fitted.
Turned out to be M10 x 1.5 items, so I bought some proper exhaust studs with that tread and fitted it.

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[Philsa]

Fixed thread that was fiddled with.

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Proper items vs what was removed.

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Sourced some new locating rings and fitted them.

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[Philsa]

Replaced the throttle spindles, throttle discs and jets on the carbs.

New SU jet on the right old hitachi type jet on the left. Found and fitted some EB needles as a baseline and red piston springs.

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Also needed new carb link pipe, some rubber hoses and throttle bracket and cable holder and new throttle return springs.

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Balanced the carbs.

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Had a modified GTS air filter housing that was fitted with some new air filters.

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And finally just need a second wing nut.

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[Peter Laidler]

That modified filter case is a VERY efficient way of getting air flow into carburettors. That, together with Unipart (which are/were Coopers air filters in any case) came out better than all of the other after-market stuff including X&X. Users seem to forget that there's TWO parts to an air filter. Clean air of course with as little restriction as possible PLUS getting the air to the filters in the first place

[Philsa]

So now we are getting to the good stuff.

I have been collecting parts for quite some time now (+-5 years), BUT the options that I have does make the choice very difficult to make indeed.
I did however still need some bits to make a second engine choice viable in the end, so once I sourced these items now the dilemma....

First choice a 1071 Cooper S engine that will most probably need to be taken to 60thou oversize to make work. This was bought with a crank that is on 10/20 oversize or something like that. A set of conrods was also part of this deal.

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[Philsa]

The second choice is a thin flange 1275 Cooper S engine that is currently on 20 thou oversize. I have had a 1275 EN40B crank for yonks, but the second set of conrods was only very recently bought. The latest set of conrods is also AEG177 variety. I also have a 22G333 gearbox that I stripped.
So now the choices, do I build the 1275 engine or the 1071 engine. I also have a whole bunch of Cooper S correct items like correct cam, correct date distributer, Steel duplex gearset, pressed steel exhaust manifold and the like, OR do I use the 1071 block with a modified SA 1098 crank that I have highly modified and build a serious engine that can jump. The head that I most probably use will be a 940 Vizard modified unit.

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