mk1-forum.net

Dissappointed now rich I was going to lend out the engine a public apology might sway me

I think someone mentioned having Andrews engine ages ago in another thread I put on noskooljustcool. Small world Hugh never said what happened to the engine out of mine beyond it being sold on, though I do still have the mesh box for the bonnet to cover the trumpets I did get some engine parts to go with the car;


The packaged cam is an 8 port rally one, the other a std Cooper one. There is another better set of 521 rods but the fourth one for that set took a few months to turn up!


It's a thin flange 1275 block that had been bored +60 then left on the bench and never used Believed to have come from a rallycross car going by the mud still stuck to it! There's a crank too which I had checked the other day. It does need grinding but is std size at the moment so not too bad.

And this;




Turned up in the local free ads! It's an old Mini Miglia head that I got from a chap in Norwich who'd pestered it out of the racer (Tony Harding I think, but don't quote me on it!) for a project that never happened. If I remember rightly it had been relegated to being a spare when he changed to one with inclined valves. It was borrowed back at one point on the condition it was rebuilt before it was returned. Apparently he was gutted he sold it as he was virtually on the same pace as with his new head
Ebay has also provided a slightly uprated Cooper / 1275 GT gearbox, which is the one thing it does desperately need. The current one has gone from occasionally popping out 2nd on overrun to occasionally firing out of 2nd when you're revving the bejesus out of it I've been getting away with it at Marham because it's a fast circuit and I can do it all in 3rd and 4th, and on the road it just needs a firm hand to make sure it stays in, but I think its days may be numbered.

Nice few bits there!

A few pictures of Andrew Wheldon's car, early 1980's. The guy who I bought the 8 port engine off remembers that car in the barn when he acquired the car in the pictures in about 1980ish.

Awesome story........ 3rd picture down, it's wearing an Austin Super grill......

fantastic pictures Graham!

M

Thanks mark just aquired the homemade expansion tank and some protective mesh off the owner of that car .the series it's running in was metro breakers .the car was later sold up north somewhere apparently it won a few trophys and written off in the late 80s .

Fantastic find, and so good that it's still wearing its original paint / decals. Don't paint it!

Well, been awhile since I’ve updated this . So what has been happening? Not a great deal until lockdown kicked in if I’m honest but I’ll start roughly where I’ve left off!

I did a Marham track day and whilst me and my brother ( brought along because he had a towbar and I didn’t ) had fun it was clear the old girl was getting poorly. 2nd was unusable, the clutch barely cleared and, although the engine was quiet and ran well it was taking a worrying amount of time to get oil pressure on start up. In the end we parked it and took my brothers Rover 75 round, much to the amusement of the marshals
Once home I decided to try and finish the S motor rather than spend time and money on the old MG Metro engine in it. I was slowly getting on with it between other projects but 2016 had a couple of surprises in store. My wife became pregnant, which was great until her waters broke at 29 weeks . A couple of days later our little ( all 2lb 12 of him) Boy arrived and amazingly despite warnings he seemed to be doing well. However, at five days old he suffered circulatory collapse overnight. We got a call at five in the morning to pack an overnight bag and get there ASAP as he was being prepped for transfer to addenbrookes neonatal intensive care. It was touch and go for some time and it was about 12 weeks before we got to take him home, and he has cerebral palsy and stage four kidney disease as a result. And then my boss decided to be less than understanding about this so I had to change jobs as well .
I moved the engine parts home figuring it would be easier as I could nip out when I had a few minutes, but in practice any spare time I had I usually used to give the Mrs a break! I’d done a dry build of the short motor, checked cam timing and bits and pieces, but usually I’d find I was missing something, needed something machined or the little’un would be back in hospital and it would be months before I got back to it.
Come March this year though I find myself furloughed and all my projects are 7 miles away in my workshop. Except the Mini . So, finally time to blow the dust off and crack on.

First picture shows not everything went to plan; putting the head on for the final time and bang! Bloody stud pulled out the block I think the neighbours learned a few new swear words that afternoon and I was stuck for a week waiting for the helicoil kit to arrive!