Classic Mini Cooper S engine teardown and... uh oh | Redline Update
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- čas přidán 5. 12. 2021
- Davin finds a few surprises as he completely disassembles the 4-cylinder, 1275-cc engine from our 1965 Austin Mini Cooper S. The first surprise comes when the thermostat is removed, but the real issue presents itself when the cylinder head is removed.
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These little engines are giant killers in the right state of tune plus a mini can out handle most cars,I passed my driving test in my grandmother's mini and I still have a huge respect for them, everyone should atleast drive a mini once in their lives to experience just how amazing they are.
You are so right; I have raced against the mini in a Tr6 and using a Stag and simply could not keep up with it in the twisties. They are as agile as a fox.
Yeah they're great cars. Lots of fun an surprisingly spacious inside!
Closest 'modern' thing I can think of is the 1990's Nissan Micra. Very similar wheelbase, packaging and drivetrain - 1250cc 4cyl front wheel drive, about 80hp and 750kg... huge fun. Rear seats fold flat making it the ultimate urban delivery/parts vehicle. I loved mine!
The handling isn't shocking.
Extremely light weight car, with wheels almost at the corners or the vehicle itself. It's not an exaggeration when people call them "go carts".
Davin: Well it’s a small simple engine, it shouldn’t be much of a problem-
Mini: Hold My Pint mate’ -
Back in the 70s my brother built a Cooper S replica from a standard 850 mini, scored a complete 1275 engine unit from a wreck, and went on to pick up a few club-level trophies for rallying, as well as being his daily driver for many years. He let me drive it when I was old enough, it was the first car I ever did 100 mph in. Nice choice for a project Davin.
It's nice to seee you point out all the issues and details on this tiny engine! I can't wait for that timelapse rebuild video :D
A GENUINE Mk1 Mini Cooper S is worth its weight in GOLD!!!!!!
Classic British motors are always fun to see get rebuilt! So many quirks and features.
All vintage brit engines look like they were made in farm shed
@@juhomaki-petaja That's because they were.
@@triggrhaapi I was about to say the same thing!
I had a 1970 Austin America with the same engine. I never did engine work on it but it is nice to watch someone do it. I retained the manual for the car with all of the engine specs if you need it.
Wow even a top-flight engine builder like Davin takes pictures to remind where parts go. I do that whenever I embark on an engine build. Pretty cool. I thought I was a dummy for doing that. I feel pretty good about it now.
Nah, you're still a dummy 🤣
I'm interested in seeing what the machine shop says about the block. Might be weldable - but the way it interfaces with the combustion chamber seems to be a real problem. Great video. I always like when you detail the issues that arise. Reality is always best.
They'll just slave the cylinder after welding ;)
JB Weld LOL
@@SzwarcuKX5 I wonder if this is possible.
@@blanchae taryl putty
@@blanchae would be interesting if that would hold up to the cylinder pressure
When I was stationed in England in the 70s, I drove a 76 Triumph Spitfire. Whenever i took in for service in Banbury (You probably heard about their cross) I would "hire" a Mini for the day. There was a long hill going up into Oxford . I would start at about 60 MPH at the bottom and be doing about 12 at the top!. BUT, they were fun to drive.
This was my first car I bought , didn't even have my drivers licence then. A 1000 cc mini with a 1275 engine someone had already swapped . A' 74 car. Very quick , did have the drumbrakes up front. Sweet memories , drove like a cart. Nice to see what the engine looks like on the inside . Greetz John.
There tonnes of parts availability for these great A series engines. I've built a heap of them before.
Pistons come in plus 20,40,60 and larger again. Aim for compression ratio of between 10 and 10.5 to 1 for good performance. A great road camshaft is a Ac dodd rs camshaft from the UK. Use viton valve stem seals in the head please. Get a new Romac harmonic balancer. Get the flywheel assembly balanced as a complete assembled unit.
Original Cooper S cylinder blocks are very rare these days. You should try to save it if you can.
You know Devin is serious when the glasses come out
Removing the centre of the thermostat is a standard mod to reducer overheating & maintain correct flow around the head, it looks like the hose to the water pump bypass has a bolt shoved in the end as well (another common mod) never seen damage to a block like that, it must have been form a previous bad rebuild, if you shim the block & grind out the head you can keep the compression ratio the same - check out David Vizzards book on tuning the A series
Shimming it was a consideration! We'll have an update in next week's episode when we're at the machine shop!
@@Hagerty cleanest and probably best fix is weld the grooves with SS filler rod. the penetrated iron will be converted to mild steel and ready to mill flat and assemble.
Wow just found your channel from here in London, your presenting and explanations on what you was doing for a novice like me were first class 😀congratulations on a great channel and well done, 😀😀 stay safe David 👍👍
Super excited to see the rest of this build!
That's the new way i remove and install a camshaft. With the shaft straight up to pull it up and out. Then lower it down straight into the hole, not dragging and bumping it over the cam bearings. Thank you!!!!
I'm from argentina and always is a placer see your videos!
The same good Davin. Always great to watch and listen you man!!!
You make it look so easy. Can’t wait to see the finished engine!
It's a pleasure to watch Davin work
Pleasant surprise rebuilding a mini engine
David is one fantastic mechanic. It would be an honor to have him rebuild anything I owned Plus a pile of cash LOL. I sure enjoy watching him work. I thank Hagertys for having such a great program .
Can't wait for the final build on this ( plus the music it makes for a 4 cylinder )
Awesome, back to the good old days of engine teardown and rebuilds
The post production sound person or persons sure picked the appropriate background music for the period of the car being worked on.
love the 1965 style music on this vid
I love this series. Classic European car!! !
Well, classic UK at least. UK is not the rest of Europe. They drive the wrong side of the road, they have different electrical outlets, they have the best rock and heavy metal bands ever, and they eat strange things. Pretty much completly different of Europe in fact.
That's going to be a fun little car when all's said and done
I think there may be enough meat on those pistons that you could mill the same amount off those (since they are concave) that you mill off the deck of the block as long as you have enough valve clearance. You would even gain some power by slightly increasing compression.
My thoughts exactly, I'm curious for what they will come up with!
Wide variety of replacement & overbore pistons.
Those old pistons are jalopy town, unskirted and 3 compression rings, whew
We already know the block needs bored but the new oversize pistons are the ones that would have to be milled down the same amount as the deck of the block.
All the other kids had Countach and F40 pin-ups...I had a Mini Cooper lol
Ya never know what ya got till ya take it apart. Great video Gentleman. Hopefully you can find some bigger slugs 4 that little motor. Take care and hope you had a great turkey day.
It is good to see another engine rebuild 👍👍👍
🤔 certainly looks like angle grinder marks on the block.... if it's not the original motor I'd see if I could source another one depending on cost... but I'm interested to see what the mechine shop says and if they can repair that block 👍👍
Hi Davin, don’t forget to include a compressed head gasket when calculating your compression ratio.
I generally don't care much about anything that's not American muscle but you do such a great job of making these videos I'm interested in seeing it back running again.
I'm definitely interested in seeing what can be done with the block. I've got a few scratches on mine that I'm *hoping* can be milled out, otherwise I'm going to be running into the same problems.
I wouldn't call that a microphone malfunction. All it did was help us remember that Davin is in the shop. The sound of being in a large room fits with being in a large room.
cool project as usual! great content.
Missing the Old snowball race car.. hopefully we get a video on it soon
Mercy, that's one messed up little Briggs & Stratton ya got there Davin.... 🙂
Sorry, couldn't help it.
This is actually a great little engine for folks to learn by watching you on.
BEST DAMN SHOW ON HAGERTY, RIGHT HERE!
- Ed on the Ridge
For fixing that galling marks on top of the block I'd go with one of those 'cold' welding Ni-Fe rods for cast iron repairs (cold means you don't have to preheat the base material, which might be tricky or potentially destructive for engine block). I've used Esab NiFe stick rod on cast iron balancer pulley that had hair thin crack. No warpage, no further cracking, easy turnable. You can either use it in stick welder or strip it out of insulation and use it as a rod in TIG welding if you're feeling fancy.
Farmer fix I've done was Stainless rod on a cast iron block/head/manifold. TIG it in with Stainless, grind it down, and get it decked. I've repaired tractor heads between the combustion chambers and had it hold up for years. Is it right? probably not, but it works!
@@jimt9661 stainless sticks just fine to cast iron and steel so I'd say it's fine. For bigger repairs it might have different expansion and shrinkage rate temperature wise
I am going to say “point to it” in that bubbly tone for the next week.
That shiny paintwork is hiding a multitude of sins. The block damage looks very strange. It also seemed to be running incredibly rich when you tested it so not just oil burning. Will be interesting to see how it all turns out. There are some informative comments below too. Absorbing viewing as always.
I honestly have this goal to purchase a motor with the idea of stripping it and replacing whats needed and rebuilding it i know there will be many mistakes made..but i see that as learning..
When the head pulled off and the copper spray on the head gasket is a indication recent repair - found block bad reseal and put up for sale.
Install hardened valve seats..its called a "hard head" after the hard seats are installed..Our petunia juice petrol today needs some lead or hardened seats..and MOSS Motors out of Goletia, Ca. is your supply point for Anything British!
Great start on the tear down. 😎👍🇨🇦
deck the block as much as needed, measure the compressed thicknes on the HG if it's thick enough to run the pistons with a slight protrusion you can set the engine up for tight squish.
if it's to much maybe machine the piston top down slightly also, looks like the top to top ring is pleanty to take 1mm off . tight squish and more compression, send it... it'll be right hahaha
I've never seen that kind of erosion on a block. Only seen cylinder to cylinder. Looking forward to seeing how the machine ship resolves it.
Curious...those grooves in the block seem terribly straight for simple erosion... although maybe they are following some casting flaw? (says the person who has done one engine in his whole life)
The cylinder head has been modified with much bigger valves, it's definitely not standard.
So much better watching someone else working on it, on another continent, with a whole ocean between. I quite like Minis then!
Yes I taught my apprentice to take pics with his phone. He's a master now.
As I remember in my "flathead" days, we brazed washers on the top of the water outlet on the top of the head to RESTRICT the flow of water in the race to help the cooling. Water without the restriction moved too fast without them causing overheating. The fast flow did NOT allow for the coolant to dissipate the heat. New thermostat should help with cooling.
Great video and informative
These are great cameras with a great phone option.😄
Nice looking front load rotary table washer at about the 15:00 minute mark!
Always awesome
Way back in the early '70's we used to use Polaroid snapshots when we did teardowns, A handy little tip for measuring a curved surface is to use a ball anvil mic but if you don't have one place a BB between the depth gage and the depression your measuring and minus the diameter of the BB. Also it might be possible to send the block to someone that specializes in spray welding to build up those depressions prior to machining.
Polaroids! Absolute life saver back in the day!
To measure the depth of the groove you could use dental putty and an optical micrometer. Mix up a bit of the putty, push into the groove ensuring it fills the deepest part and spreads out over the surrounding surface. Place something flat on top of the putty and get it as level as possible. Once the putty sets remove the flat piece of material, using a sharpie pen put a dot on the flat surface that was surrounding the the groove and a dot on the highest( deepest) part of the groove then just use the optical mic to measure the difference. Did this a lot in aircraft maintenance.
Hope you check main bearings line up, these A-series blocks can 'sink' in the middle and need line boring and machining on deck face to. Had to skim 040-050" of the top of one block before it was flat. Oh and its a genuine S block!
Great video, thanks….
Nice job
Ouch,just a small imperfection,can't wait too see what the magic master can come up with,tee,tee, the camera crew are just phenomenal, when you tear down a motor, and put it back together again,never seen a clutch an tranny like that before, pretty ingenious
Good to see you getting stuck in, hopefully you can skim the block and sort some pistons that will work. I’m not sure about welding a cast block but will be interesting to hear what the machine shop have to say
cast iron can be electricaly welded using a stainless steel filler rod. The iron which is penetrated will be converted to mild steel.
Great vid.................. 👍👍👍
I always wanted to drive an old Mini Cooper, especially the older S models. Don't see many of them on the road here in northern Alabama.
Unless you're trying to build a full blown race car, determine how deep those gouges are, deck the block as much as you safely can to remove them and then consider offset grinding the crankshaft with a shorter stroke. This will lower the pistons in the bore 20-30 thousandths or more. Sure, it'll reduce displacement slightly, but I believe that all the updates and upgrades you do will counter the loss of a couple of cubes.
2:36 I heard Click & Clack once advise someone with a little British car, that was overheating often, to remove the thermostat.
Have it flame sprayed, we used to do that to engines when I worked at caterpillar
Muito bom vídeo 👍👍
TIG the gashes then deck the block and bore the cylinders? Maybe a thicker head gasket is available? I'm sure some English lads know what to do
Hmmmm, maybe a guest appearance by one of the noted Mini-Cooper specialty shops that air on CZcamsr???
"Gott schütze uns vor Regen und Wind....und Autos, die aus England sind" 😉😄
I’d say those gashes are from seized head studs and someone has had to cut them to get the head off and marked the deck.
You may be right. I've rebuilt scores of these since the 70s and never saw anything like it.
As a quick way to measure the depth of that grove, just hammer a piece if brazing rod in the slot, when flat with the top of the block, take it out an mike it. Should be very close.
In my mind can we fill with brass and skimmed back flat . Just that in my mind to ask you
Safety issue: When striking a puller press bolt wear safety glasses! Ask me how I know. Love Davin want him to have 20/20 not just 20.
How do you know?
Aye aye, skipper.
I’m no mechanic but I thought you could weld a bead on it & then deck it but it appeared to have been sleeved
*IF* they can weld it (or braze it, I dunno), they could certainly resleeve the cylinders & get a good seal.
Aha redline is back!
Приятно смотреть как делается классика👍
Machine the piston tops down to allow for decking the Block.
We're considering it!
Time to call Cotter from Barn Finds!
If it's at 9" then you can buy a 3" oversized thrusts which will bring end float down to 3" and that will be spot on!
After that its 30" oversized and you have to machine them down.
Good times
Saya suka video rideline
Doubt that is the original engine as the plate with the engine number on it is missing should be in front of the number 4 cylinder held on by 2 rivets you can see the remains of them in the holes I have a 66 and a 74 mini in my garage and a mechanic of 35 yrs
That block should be an easy fix, at least from my thinking. deck the block as much as necessary to remove the gouges and to true the surface. Bore the cylinders as much as needed to clean them up. Those pistons from factory have an extremely tall deck height. Order custom set, or off the shelf as close as possible with a lower deck height to make up for the shorter block height. walla
With the grooves in the top of the block I thought they might be brazed before machining the top of the block .
You might have to check with Singer Sewing Machines to get a replacement motor. 😉
In 1982 my mothers mark2 ran a 12.01, no lsd and road tyres.
I have a guess as to those grooves (if indeed they were caused by erosion). Someone removed the cylinder head, and possibly put scratches in the deck with a screwdriver/prybar/etc, trying to get the head off. They left the scratches there, and the combustion gasses followed them, eroding the block
That's what I was thinking myself . Sometimes those heads with studs can be very difficult to remove , seen a lot of heads and blocks severely damaged . The head came off very easy for Devin , seems it has been off recently .
That is not erosion. Someone has previously tried to take the head off using an air chisel. You can see the dig marks from the repeated impacts all along the furrow it created. Note that it has an original AEG163 head which are super rare.
Pistons look very clean wonder if they been washed with coolant
Well....so much for my comment on the last video that it was something simple like the pcv diaphragm. Fooled by the nice paint job on the engine once again.....I can tell you this....that 1275 engine you have there is a low compression motor out of a non-S Mini or possibly a Midget or Sprite with a mini crank installed....dished pistons on aa 1275 are usually low compression 1970's smog era pieces. Someone's definitely been there before and not for the good of it by the looks of things. You guys should be able to get it back up to snuff though.....if help is needed along the way, there are plenty of sources out there to help with info, but the best guy to talk to on the subject of a BMC A-series engine in David Vizard, and he resides state-side now, has his own CZcams channel and everything....
An inline engine is useless on a mini gearbox. The oil pickup is in the wrong place. Only the S had access to the cam followers. But someone has been inside this motor before as seen by the removed engine number. Graham Robson wrote down the history on the A-series.
Used to machine couple worse renault 4 engine blocks, so that mini's block aint too bad :) I managed to get 17 extra hp out of that renaults engine.
All old British cars need a upgraded radiator blown head gaskets are normal done so many with my dad lucky the owners clubs can point you in the right direction for parts as most issues now have a part to fix the problem
If you consider improving safety, there’s couple of lads in Shropshire who could probably give some tips on keeping the Mini as original as possible.