Update by Alan Cesar to the
Austin Mini Cooper S project car
Nov 6, 2012
The guy we bought this car from sent us this photo. Always the enthusiast, he had taken the engine out in the seventies. It appears he hung a chain from a tree and did the job outside.
With the machine work done, it was time to start engine assembly.
We used ARP assembly lube on our new main bearings that we sourced from APT.
We took our block, stock Cooper S rods and crank to Gerald and Charlie’s Auto Machine Shop in Sanford, Florida. This is a good, local shop that prices their services very reasonably.
They handled all our machine work for about $300. This included boiling: the block; resizing our rods to make sure the journals are round; checking the block for flatness; boring the block .040 over, and installing new cam bearings that we got from APT. The crank was also checked and machined to accept .010-inch oversize main bearings.
All in all, our Mini engine was in pretty good shape and was very original. Next we will take a look at the head and cam.
We will be starting the Mini story series shortly, so make sure you get your subscription to Classic Motorsports magazine started by clicking this link: classicmotorsports.net/subscribe
| It was an itsy bitsy, teeny-weeny rally-winning project Mini. Subscribe to Classic Motorsports and get them in your mailbox. |
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