Next project - ‘62 997 Austin Cooper

[Charlynsane]

Very nice project

Your 997 doesn't have the body number on the front panel ?

[Dearg1275]

Yes it does.

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D

[Dearg1275]

Having fiddled an engine mount into place enabling me to get it back to work on (rather than being sandwiched against the wall), as ever, wiring continues. It’s beginning to feel like there is fresh air at the end of the tunnel or is that just the easterly blowing under the door.

Until the extremely expensive LCB manifold for early small bores arrives I’m a bit stuck for progress but this is where things have stalled.

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The carbs are only on while I scratch my head as to what to do about air filters. I could put a nice pair of period trumpets on but I’m trying to keep the noise down with this one. Not keen on the K&N pancakes. The H4s put them further back and they are a pain to take on and off. Anyone got any bright ideas?

D

[m1cH1]

Hi D!

Nice Project and nice looking engine bay!
Probably also hard to mount/unmount, but maybe still worth a thought, because they are period correct and nice looking: Period H4 Pancake as used by Downton, Link to Holden.co.uk

Cheers, Mike

[NZmember]

What is the extremely expensive small bore lcb?
What size is it?

[Daz1968]

I have the Holden filters on mine, but they are awkward to take on and off, I use stainless socket heads to hold them on and a ball ended Allen wrench, but it’s still difficult, they look period though, some have modified a std air box to fit, this would be easier and quiet. Although the Holden filters are not too loud to my ears,

[Dearg1275]

What is the extremely expensive small bore lcb?
What size is it?

This is the medium bore Maniflow unit for minis with the rubber cruciform UJs. Over £200 plus delivery. OK not over the top but a deal more expensive than the run of the mill stuff.

D

[Dearg1275]

Hi D!

Nice Project and nice looking engine bay!
Probably also hard to mount/unmount, but maybe still worth a thought, because they are period correct and nice looking: Period H4 Pancake as used by Downton, Link to Holden.co.uk

Cheers, Mike

Have you tried them in your mini. They have a greater diameter than the usual Cooper ones. I had thought of these but they don’t do an awful lot of filtering and I do use and abuse my minis. I would hate to buy a pair and find they don’t fit.

D

[m1cH1]

I´m sorry, I have not tried them yet, as my car is just a pile of parts at the moment.
So at the moment and for the foreseable future I can just report about their nice look...

Maybe Daz knows more about their performance, as he stated in Post #265557 that he uses these?

[Daz1968]

Can’t really comment on filtering as not had them long enough but they fit ok, just awkward to access bolts, they are close together but fit ok

A18A14D7-E7EB-4A2B-AC3F-2B9E6DE62AEC by darren carr, on Flickr

[m1cH1]

Phew, that took me some rummaging around, as I remembered another possibility beeing posted here in the past, but couldn´t find it fast...

If the little bit more modern look of K&N filters does not disturb your aesthetic feeling, forum user velopackrat showed a nice alternative for his LHD H4 set in 2016 in Post #120641 and Post #120682. His H4s use mounting flanges / flanged stub stacks mode from Delrin or Nylon (could of course also be made out of aluminium) and conical air filters from K&N, which should to my knowledge be K&N RU-4410. Such flanges would be easy to turn for somebody with access to a lathe or for someone who has a friend with a lathe. As the filtre elements are installed by means of a hose clamp, they should be easily removeable and refitteable for maintenance/cleaning. Only downside is, that these filtre elements are priced at about £40 - £50 per filter.
There is another guy in the USA, using a similiar setup on his CRX90B works tribute car, albeit also LHD. He posts a lot on his Instagram, you can find various pictures of his setup overe there, and for convenience I´ve linked one below.


Picture 1: K&N air filtre setup as posted by user 'velopackrat'.


Picture 2: Mounting flanges as posted by user 'velopackrat'.


Picture 3: K&N air filtre setup as fitted to Dennis’ car

[timmy201]

I used some Ramflo filters on my HS2 carbs (& also my Dellorto). There is room inside for a little stub stack & they look old enough to suit a mini. Mine have the carb central to the filter backing plate, but normally you fit the offset ones to give you a bit more room to the bulkhead

https://www.lynxauto.com.au/catalog/pro ... gory/1532/

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[Dearg1275]

Great ideas here. Thanks for the input. I have Ramflos on twin HS6s so may borrow one to see what it looks like. They are really a Southern Hemisphere item though. All sort of things were cobbled together in period and that look doesn’t bother me. The average club driver didn’t rush around having stuff bespoke machined.

D

[Dearg1275]

That expensive manifold arrived this morning.

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Expensive because -

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It’s just a cut shortened and re-welded unit for the tall 1275 blocks. Hmmm.

I always check the centre pipe clearance with the inlet manifold and it needed a slice of the top to allow the inlet to seat properly.

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This pipe was also fouling the subframe such that it wasn’t quite seating itself. With any engine rock it would kick up a fair din. A bit of tape gave me a witness mark -

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To know where to aim the hammer. It took some bashing.

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Job done but not quite what I expected for the price.

D

[roger mcnab]

hi d
the exhaust is a
n item that i am not looking forward to as i will have to make it as i go so it will fit without banging on things which there a lot in there and not much room for a cockroach let alone a mouse but taking time will get some thing done a lot of small bits of pipe and the pipe bender will get it done
well cheers roger mcnab

[NZmember]

I haven't bought a manifold for a while, but sad to see they've gone the same way as camshafts. The last Maniflow LCB I bought was about 50 quid. Always seemed a decent price.
I was hoping you'd found an appropriate manifold for small bores, but your expensive one is just a cut down standard diameter manifold.
I have a mildly tuned 850 and used the Cooper Freeflow, but the 1968 Tuning the Mini (850) article states:

I will just have to live in sin...

[Dearg1275]

I haven't bought a manifold for a while, but sad to see they've gone the same way as camshafts. The last Maniflow LCB I bought was about 50 quid. Always seemed a decent price.
I was hoping you'd found an appropriate manifold for small bores, but your expensive one is just a cut down standard diameter manifold.
I have a mildly tuned 850 and used the Cooper Freeflow, but the 1968 Tuning the Mini (850) article states:

I will just have to live in sin...

That was exactly my disappointment. The bore for my engine is probably OK as it is stretched to 1082cc. I have a Cooper Freeflow on another 997 and have not been disappointed. I guess it all depends on the state of tune and where in the Rev range you developed power. With a mild cam dumping exhaust gases into an over large bore perhaps produces an element of stagnation .

D

[Dearg1275]

The rust and dust is gone but I can’t get my crackle to crackle. I never had trouble before. I’m using the VHT stuff. I’ve tried twice now. The instruction say to do it in low humidity <60%. No chance of that here at the moment. What am I missing?

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And the non crackle crackle.

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I wanted to get the ears and face done, so they match, before sending off for some screen printing. Frustrating

D

[kevs 1961 mk1]

i had the same bother till i painted my parts directly in front of a gas super ser portable heater ,paint crackled then ,hope it helps mate

[Dearg1275]

I’ll stoke the furnace and have another go.

D