Once again Ivan and John have made huge progress on the 1959 Mini. Ivan has worked his magic on the engine or has he? Anyway the engine is in the car and it's time to start it. Plus a little musical interlude from Ivan.
22 A 76 is a machined gear case in "Elektron", which will be the magnesium alloy, made from a 22A77 casting. 22A 102, 150, 364 or 1286 gear cases are aluminium alloy.
You made a happy man very old with that start up. It was a point of honour to set it up by ear then use the Crypton machine to confirm how clever you were. Those were the days!
Back in the day I used a 731 cam in my supercharged 1400 mini, the blower made 22lbs max boost and the engine produced about 200 hp with incredible torque (wheelspin in a special very high ratio 4th gear), it was a lot of fun and I drove the car all over the country but I gave up on it after a couple of years as it would often break gearbox final drive pinions if I gave it large off the mark and the wheels didn't spin up easily (high grip road surfaces), I took the blower off and sold the rebuilt now NA 1400 cc engine to my college mate Pat Watts for his Mini, if you recognise the name this was the Pat Watts who later competed in the British Touring Car Championship, this was back 1975/76
I remember Patrick Watts at Cadwell Park, where I was also racing in the pouring rain. He won outright in a turbo charged Fiat, which should have been totally outclassed - but in the wet, Patrick paralysed them
The rockers are SINTERED. The steel is powdered into a dust, then compressed between dies and heated so the dust almost melts. The advantage is that is more accurate and lighter than forging and more able to produce intricate shapes that mostly do not need machining afterwards. I think the baulk rings were sintered too as there was less waste of material. Varying the powder size and die temperature, the structure can be made semi-porous so that fluids and gasses can pass through. Modern examples are some filters that sit in the nozzles of oil burners. As an engineering student apprentice, I used to sit next to the sintering expert at Longbridge, Fred Matty. He was tasked with trying to sinter as many parts a possible. He had a box of parts that did not make it!
Ivan, my eighty yr. old brain farted and I thought, I would have used a triangular needle file instead of a round file. Firstly you would loose less in the way of threads per depth of cut and you would get more oil to lube the ball end. Have a happy holiday season.
Great job Ivan, you always bring back happy memories for me as I did my apprenticeship working for a BMC dealership, we did loads of the loose final drive nuts and did hundreds of gearbox sycro rings and gears under warranty. We were also agents for Alexander conversions changing heads rockers and camshafts etc.,to boost engine performance. We always glued rocker box gaskets onto the cover to reduce oil leaks and fitted new rubbers to the cover nuts to improve the pressure exerted on the gasket to head joint.
On the Datsun A12 engine (a better copy of the A series engine!) I always glued 2 of these cork gaskets together...and glued the doubled gaskets to the head... This made the double gaskets a "coffer dam" which stopped all the leaking from the rocker cover area... and allowed absolutely trouble free removal of the rocker cover.. plus the screw down force which normally bent the sheet metal edge of the rocker cover could be much reduced...
back in the 60's we used Evo-stick, small blobs on the gasket touching it on the rocker cover then remove it and let it get tacky before sticking the gasket to the cover, this kept it perfectly aligned and stopped it sliding out when the rocker box was tightened down.
Hi Ivan great to hear the story of the starter motor on the elite at le mans. that was one of my dads cars Clive Hunt when he owned team elite 62 and the chief mechanic was Ron Bennet. I remember as a youngster been told that very story. p s love your channel keep up the great streams fantastic.
Love that at about 43mins Ivan is doing his piece to camera while John wrestles with the seat in the background making a hell of a din! Such great content enjoying every minute!
This has to be one of the best episodes yet. I loved the little musical interlude in the middle. It’s just so informal and relaxed. One thing though, we know what you two look like and you talk to Tania a lot, borrow her camera for a couple of seconds and show us what she looks like? Then we know who you’re talking to. Good fun though.
Great job men ,reality and honesty ,we have all hit a roadblock in our lives,it's how we handle it and move on that defines them,you both are of the highest quality,teach on men
We initially had a lot of problems developing our Ford CVH race engine back in the day where the brand new Kent race cam and new genuine Ford solid lifters would self destruct themselves within minutes of first starting the engine, mainly caused by the pressure of the very heavy race valve springs we had to use in order to cure the rocker and stud reliability issues caused by 'valve bounce' and to get the RPM needed to generate the 190 bhp these little 1.6L engine could make, these heavy double valve springs were about 50% heavier than standard and were supplied by Kent Cams. The brand new genuine Ford RS1600I followers we always used came standard with a 32" convex radius ground on their ends which was supposedly a very important feature to cause the follower to spin as the cam turned in order to even out the wear, also the Ford followers had a very smooth lapped finish on the working face. Well with all the issues I was having with follower wipe out I decided to experiment on the follower working face by grinding the ends completely flat and using a coarsely sharpened grinding wheel and fast feed to impart a very rough finish on the working face of the follower which after grinding was left untouched, (the reason being that I thought the coarsely ground surface would hold oil better than a smooth finish and this theory was proved to be exactly right. These mods and the use of a high ZDDP Zinc content mineral 20W50 oil (Valvoline Racing, which we always used in all our race engines) completely cured the self destructing wipe out issues, in addition the followers still used to spin perfectly in their bores as the cam turned and the wear pattern between every cam lobe and it's follower was always completely immaculate, even the tappet adjustments stayed good for the whole years racing after initial engine break in! Added to this the top end of these usually highly problematic CVH race engines as a whole was completely reliable over years of use even with a much abused rev limit of 8.5K imposed by us and with engines often revved past 9K for the entire race in the heat of battle these things just kept going and were proved to be almost bomb proof!, in fact I never saw one of our race CVH engines with cam or follower trouble or any other cylinder head related issues in the years that we produced them. Roland, HT Racing Ltd
Great video .as usual . If you haven't found a silencer , take the silencer off your Fordson Major and use that . They are usually " straight through " . we used to use them on everything back in the day , cheap and cheerful . Paint it black and the car will go even faster !
Yes, did that! Built a 1275 mini in the farm workshop. Thinking about the exhaust system I spied the Fordson Major standing there......... However, I got a piece of tube that would slide inside, and cut saw cuts two thirds of the way through spaced around 4" apart from opposite sides Cut some thin steel plate slid them in the cuts and tacked them in place...thus made a baffle tube. A single 5/16" bolt held it in place. Baffles in for MOT- out the rest of the time!
The best and it's still easy to get, is a Mk1 Sprite one, that's what BMC recommended back in the day. They were straight through and fitted straight onto the mini exhaust having the same diameter tubing.
Rocker spacer tubes were available from BMC special tuning, part no C-AEG 392 and the washers to go with them are part no AEG-168.You needed three tubes and 6 washers. Those proper works spacers weren't plain tubes they had flanges on their ends, quite a complex piece of machining. All this, and more on rocker shafts and how to modify them is described in BMC's speciat tuning department's sheet A-5 issue 3. Special tuning provided lots of these sheets describing how to modify their cars. If you can still get them I suggest that you get yourself a set. I got mine when I worked there in the early 1960s.
Your enthusiasm Ivan for this Mini is contagious. Love to listen to you and how you go about things. Just some old school common sense from years of experience. Your stories about characters and situations you've known and lived, simply make me smile. John's a great addition too. So glad I found your channel. P.s. nice you care for the cat so well too.
That's going to be a very nice little mini indeed. A school friend bought an early mini in the 1960s and he did many of the modifications which you'e doing. I love the low moaning sound which the early Minis made, transfer gears I understand. Glad to see the cat still around and demanding food with menaces.
Sounds brand new Ivan. Fantastic. Great to see the famous cat, he slept right through my visit. Let's speak in the new year regarding the Fantic wiring. I've just about finished the old D7. Best wishes, Dean.
Love your channel, please grind the mushroom head off that old chisel :) chips can fly off or you slip and it catches your hand... an old fitter in the 1980s advice .. keep up the good work..
We are in the "shed" with Ivan and John once again, and in the words of another "National Treasure", "I'm very pleased with that". Ivan, Shed Racing videos are a highlight of my week, thanks.
Hi Ivan, some engine designers purposely offset the rocker/valve centreline to cause the valves to gradually rotate, which helped to prevent ash deposit buildup on the sealing faces. There are also positive valve rotators, which are like 2 washers with a star washer between them. They fit below the valve spring and as the star washer is compressed it causes slight rotation. Cam followers can be offset from the cam centreline to cause rotation and even out wear.
Hello ID... absolutely loved this build..I'm a retired builder/racer myself.. when we was racing our NASA class one minis back in the early days we used to try out all your tricks and tips in our racecars... mostly illegal...but that's what it's all about.. keep up the great work.. lots of love mate..kind regards Dave 😁 👍👍👍👍👍👍
I can remember that there was a company called Competition Silencers who did a straight through absorption type silencer that everyone used to use - it was called the RC40 if I recall correctly? I put one on my modified 1974 Honda Z600 Coupe, and it works a treat! I’m sure you’ll find one at Mini Spares or similar 👍🏻
Every time I have had the need to look for a "new car", I have always looked at any Minis on the market. They were always just above my budget, even to the point I have owned 2 MGBs. I have been a passenger on many occasions, but never ever driven one. May I humbly suggest a raffle??? Imagine, if you will, a day for a 61 year old man meeting Ivan and driving a Mini for the first time. Dream come true, or what?
Good Afternoon Ivan and Team. Thank You all for a very memorable video, yes I still enjoy working on Minis.. One small point - I've always installed the lower hose clip with the driving slot facing upwards. Kind regards David - WLG NZL..
Ivan / John Doing a fantastic job love all the tips and tricks,always look forward to the next video,just need one more mini and the you can do the Italian job “will it carry the gold “ yes Charlie “ yes Charlie “ GOOD well get on with it then “ Mike 😊
Great Video, lovely watching your age appropriate modifications. I have a "Restal" rear seat in my Triumph Courier which was converted at new to have rear side windows and the back seat.
Great show Ivan! You have obviously put a great deal of thought into the project. I hope everything works out to exceed your expectations! Keep up the good work. JIM ❤
When i built a 1380 A series up, for racing, regards the rockers we elongated the oil hole half way. We did this after seeing it on a 948cc Oselli 948 A series used in modified pre 57 saloon car racing A35 with a 48mm down draft Weber (DCOE type). Plus the guy I race mechanic for with a Jag Mk 1 2.4 did it on a standard A30 948 racer. They also used to drill/tap 2 extra in the block after pocketing the block for a cooper S head. The SU's look like 1.5 inch carbs (hs4?} Instead of the standard 1.25inch SU's from the coopers (and S's). I have the homologation papers for 1275 Cooper S if you'd like a copy? I can do a pdf file or print it off for you?
I Also had those carbs on my stock MG 1100 engine (with the 12G 295 head) that I put into my 63 850 in 1971. It was a great improvement all round. That was my first car. Happy memories 😁
Another great video love . I felt sorry for the lad in the back ground not saying much or no one speaking much to him .I would talk him to death in my shop lol .Keep up the great content .
Love it. As you use the single piece radiator shroud ( from a '59) you need to remove the engine to get the radiator out. They changed to a split shroud to allow for removal. With the steel fan I can't even replace the belt. 😮
I was using a bench grinder, cleaning a Lambretta scooter engine mud guard that sits under the scooter. This is approx 30cm by 7.5cm by 1.5mm. Anyway i was using a wire cup on it and the cup threw this guard around and hit me at the bridge of my nose. I suffered concussion and a "J" shaped scar between my eyes and broken in two safety glasses.
Ivan about 50 years ago I used to rebuild Torque converters..all we ever did is spray weld the damaged teeth and regrind them back to normal..I have also just knocked off the gear ring flip it over install it ...using the nice fresh gears on the other side..
I have heard that, at least on some other engines, the rockers were offset in order to make the valves rotate. I don't know that you want to center them on the valves--you might look into this a bit more, because of course I could be wrong.
Great stuff Ivan, it is nice to see very basic mechanics but done with a lot of thought. You could do a mini series, excuse the pun, of the original boy racer tweaks of the time and how they improved or not the performance.
Ivan, it might sound corny but you are a video star, you show real hands on stuff with a down to earth approach, I find your stuff interesting, and varied, keep it up sir.@@shed_racing
Canning would be correct for the polishing lathe that you mention, in the 80s I worked for a company called Morrisflex and they had a machine division, they made polishing machines and rotary burrs and Canning I think may have been a sub-division or brought out by Morrisflex.
Canning made all sorts of polishing related things from the machines down to the polishing medium bars. The very first polishing medium bar I ever saw as a kid was made by Canning. And that was old when I saw it at the age of ten or eleven. So that's 60 years or so ago
there was a engineering company 1970's in tovil Maidstone Kent that did a kit called hi-lo designed and made adjustable with a alien key, they all so made better oil pumps
I have had a rummage in my garage and have found two black flexible switch extenders and a Lucas fogranger spot light that were fitted on my 1964 Austin Mini. The spot is perfect chrome and working. You are welcome to have these for your Mini for a fair price and postage. Let me know if you are interested as I am unlikely to have a mini again to refit them.
when I raced the Capri against Noel Edmonds, he had a silly thing hanging in the rear window, which was really distracting - the scrutineers made him take it out
I think an even easier way to distinguish a magnesium alloy from aluminum, sorry, aluminium, is to clean a small spot, and put a few drops of vinegar. If it bubbles, it's magnesium.
Excellent video, ref the trick moving the ring gear round, if you were dismantling an engine could you just not mark the position relative to the crank and on re assembly move it round one or two bolts?
Ive seen rockers ground and drilled to make light. They were ground with square edges and that was where they cracked, bending up. Think they were the old tin pressed ones. Just need to stay awake when lightening things. Are the rockers not offset to one side of the valve to allow the valves to rotate ever so slightly on each push? Keep showing us all this and love the tips. Regards, Paul
That's a hack. Holds more oil so is slower yet protected. But it's 7% lighter. Makes up the difference. Faster, longer, lighter. No compromise at all. Genius hack.
I have a good story about a miny starter motor. Now and again the starter motor wouldn’t turn because it was jammed in the flywheel ring. So you had to engage forth gear and then rock the car back and forward to free it. People look at the miny trough rose tinted glasses.
Not only have i broken sintered rocker arms, i also broke a lightened lifter in an MBG engine that also was running a radical cam. I'd be interested to see how long your lightened lifters last.
Ivan, The rocker arm oil feed, when the clearance is set the screw male threads will be pulled up against the top face of the female threads leaving room for oil to pass between the lower thread faces will they not?
The problem with bashing the ring gear off the flywheel is you end up damaging the lip on the egde of the flywheel that stops the ring gear being bashed off! Reheating and refitting never seems to work either, they never clamp back on with the same interference fit. Then of course, with the standard starter motor bendix hitting the ring gear, eventually it will come off. The primary gear seal in the centre of the flywheel, is the same as a front hub seal.
The cam you have fitted to the mini engine seems to be a one with very little exhaust valve overlap. Which are fitted to engines with forced induction. If you're not super charging it, it could be too mild.
