Engine fitting Q

[1071 S]

Ian, have you got a pic of your modified rad shroud? Sounds like a great idea

Hopefully this works ...seems to in "Preview"

This is one I prepared earlier ...before I found out that S shrouds are not the same as "ordinary" ones....

Cheers, Ian

[floormanager]

Okay, I'll bite. I can see you've removed the lower corner. How does this help getting the rad out with the fan on?
Thanks
Paul

[Peter Laidler]

I'm not a frequent mini engine remover and replacer and helped my friend take out and replace his a couple of years ago. We didn't use any of the fancy lifts and adjustable hoists. Just a TIRFOR winch as the crane from a stout roof beam and used a couple of substantial lifting strops around the engine. That way we were able to rotate the engine and box to virtually any angle in order to clear pretty-much any obstacle in the way. The engine was able to slide easily back and forth in the strops

No servo fitted on 998 Cooper of course but we'd already decided to remove and refit the engine less everything we could. Being able to rotate the engine back and forwards as required made life so much easier when fitting carbs and exhaust.

[1071 S]

Okay, I'll bite. I can see you've removed the lower corner. How does this help getting the rad out with the fan on?
Thanks
Paul

Sorry Paul, got distracted..

The problem with the full lower shroud is that you can’t lift the radiator (even with the shroud unbolted) as the lower hose fitting sits under the shroud which in turn sits under the fan.

Unless you remove the fan there just isn’t enough wiggle room to move the lower shroud aside in order to lift the rad out.

And, as I use an old Mspares 4 core, removing the fan with the rad in place is a total PITA.

With the lower corner removed, you just remove the top shroud, the remaining bottom shroud bolts (at the front), undo the top end of the bottom hose and lift the rad out. The bottom shroud and fan can remain insitu- or there’s now plenty of room if you want them out as well.

Cheers, Ian

[mini_surfari]

The original S / freeflow exhaust manifold has the same overall ’stick out’ as the remote diff flange, so can be lowered into place already assembled to the head of you have the Sykes-Pickavant tilt bracket.

What position is the car in when you drop the engine back in?

Getting the Van engine in / out is so tight with the remote box.

Normally have the car up on 4 axle stands and level? Or does it make things easier have the front higher etc?

[iain1967s]

I just had the front on Jack stands and the rear on the ground.

[MrNoo]

The engine comes out of my rally car up to 6 times a season and so I do use the captive nut lower mounts (obviously originality isn’t the main concern). The big tip though is to drill out the holes in the subframe to at least 10mm and use larger washers on the screws.

I take it in and out fully dressed except for the carbs and exhaust manifold (and sometimes it helps to remove the oil filter) . I’ve got the time to extract it down to under 2 hours (as long as the LCB Y-piece detaches easily) and a little more to re-fit. Other competitors recon they can get theirs out even faster.

Andy

Yes, I take mine out with rad etc on, just remove the LCB and carbs. I use original mounts and TIG weld the nuts on the back face, use a Philip head screwdriver to line the holes up. Never had an issue.
With the Mini Se7en race car, I could take the engine out and have it fully stripped in two hours, but no front on the car and bolts were clean/lubricated and like you, did it so often you could do it with your eyes shut.

[Lakeland997]

I recently modified the LCB to a sliding fit with retaining springs in order to speed up removal and fitting

[rolesyboy]

That is ace! Love the ingenuity of that idea.

[timmy201]

It’d be a great option to use double slip joints on the two LCB pipes to eliminate the dodgy clamp

The double slip design removes the need for the clamp around the diameter

[agricola]

A long time ago I made the mistake of removing the engine on the subframe never again I decided. Then 5 years ago I went to the range rover factory. Now along comes the shell then on trolley the front subframe with engine transmission and the lot. While the shell is lowered fancy air wrenches spin up high tech bolts that drill cut a thread and torque the special bolts. RR engines are removed by lowering the subframe. This has me thinking I only have Ss with all that cramped engine bay, hardy spicers (Knuts help), radiators etc. Car lifts used to be 4 posts and a luxury as you also needed 3phase. Then along comes cheap single phase hydraulic 2 post lifts so if you have the headroom why not? mine was 2nd hand.
So we have a vertical parallel lift. 4 long 3/8 rods threaded 3/8 unf in the subframe towers as guides and off the lot comes??
Any thoughts?

[floormanager]

The first mini engine I removed, I removed with the subframe, as I did not have an engine hoist but did have a couple of mates to lift the shell. It might be the confidence of youth or a fading memory, but I do not recall it being that difficult.

[Peter Laidler]

As floor manager says....... You could remove and replace the engine ON the subframe by removing all the extraneous extras that clutter up the engine bay, Hydrolastic pipes, undo the subframe mounting bolts and lift the car body, rotating it rearwards slightly to clear the engine, gearbox and sub frame. The body is quite light and easily liftable with two blokes.

Assembly is the same. Sit sub frame and engine onto wood blocks, tilted to the rear and lower the body onto the whole unit.

Similar to what you are already doing but using a lift instead of a couple of friends!