Restoration Part 26

Engine 1

I had originally decided to rebuild the 998cc engine as a 1040cc and use a Cooper head to created a high revving engine. I reviewed this decision as a rebuild of the 998cc engine would cost as much as a big bore engine kit from one of the specialists. With this in mind I visited the local scrap yard and arranged to have 2 1300cc Metro engines delivered at a bargain price of £130. I did not know what condition they were in but as long as nothing major was broken I didn't mind as I would be using one of them as an exchange unit thereby avoiding a £150 surcharge and the other would be kept as a spare.

The engine for exchange was stripped down to its components and the block, crank, cam and rods were packed away ready for exchange.

I decided to buy a 1400 big bore engine kit from Mini Spares in Padiham so I took a trip and swapped all my old bits for an engine kit. The kit came with all the parts required to rebuild the engine including gaskets and a laminated build manual. While I was at Mini Spares I bought a new clutch plate and water pump.

I took all the parts into college together with a white sheet and started the build.

The crank was fitted first using plenty of oil the new bearings and thrust washers were fitted and the main caps were torqued down as per the manual. The crank was turned frequently ensuring that everything was a good fit and nothing was binding.

The pistons are 73.5mm Powermax items and when used with the standard stroke crank give 1380cc. They were already fitted to the rods so it was a matter of just fitting them in the block. Care was taken to ensure the rods were the correct way around.

Piston rings were aligned with gaps opposing and a piston ring compressor was used to help insert the pistons into their bores plenty of oil was used to ensure everything went together easily. The new shells were fitted again using plenty of oil and the big ends were torqued down as per the manual. the crank was again turned after tightening each rod to ensure everything fitted OK.

The back plate was then fitted together with the cam followers and camshaft. I used plenty of cam lube on the shaft and followers to ensure that it would be protected on the initial startup.

 

Continued ........................