Morris Minor Owners Club

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Thanks for a interesting read

Hi, quick update of rebuilding:

Adjusted all valves. New cork gasket for the cover.

Front side: Drilled hole for the countersunk screws behind the double chain. The screws from the Mini fitted well. Aligned the gears (had to remove some of the filler washers) and mounted gears/chain and cover.
Fitted the crankshaft pulley. Had to improvise to use the torque wrench because the bolt is one with the adaptor for the manual start . My standard sockets are not long enough.

Back side: Mounted the new oil pump from Moss, the backplate, flywheel and clutch. Carefully centered the clutch plate by measuring from all sides before tightening the screws of the clutch. Next step: prepare the engine bay for the rendez-vous.[frame][/frame][frame][/frame][frame][/frame]

You proper mechanics are unbelievable! I love driving the old girls but if anything serious goes wrong it's down to see Richard at the local garage(£30/hr). Making me lazy but nice to support the local village, and he's MUCH better than me! And he has a ramp.

Oh, and he doesn't charge extra for listening to me going on and he gave me a 1953 Autocar London Show Guide for Xmas! How good can life get?

shame he is not in the north east!!!

Alan

SteveClem wrote:You proper mechanics are unbelievable! I love driving the old girls but if anything serious goes wrong it's down to see Richard at the local garage(£30/hr). Making me lazy but nice to support the local village, and he's MUCH better than me! And he has a ramp.

Do it yourself is 'Morris Minor triple fun': Planning and collecting parts, doing the job and driving

And with the superb help from the specialists here on the forum, it's easy

That's looking a nice rebuild, be running sweetly very soon.

Not teaching you what you already know but remember no plugs and just some spins on the starter to get the oil up first. Dont want to ruin that good work.

I assembled the pump full with oil, but could not avoid some was dripping out. Would it harm the engine if I turn it backwards a few turns by hand, while adding oil in the hole for the oil filter pipe (just above the oil pressure valve)? This way the pump would be filled up completely.

Do so if you wish - but it's really really not necessary! Just crank it on the starter with plugs out till the pressure comes up...

Engine back in the car!

Oil pressure light off after first 5 or 6 turns! Oil pressure gauge reached >20 lb/sqin.
(before all this oil light used to go out at idle run)
Compression test (all plugs out, throttle open, bit oil added): all 150+

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Getting there!

Need some help.

Filling it with antifreeze I got following problem: Leaking antifreeze at the front, 1 drop every 2 seconds (red arrow). And it appears to come out between the head and the block ( ). I lowered the water level below the gasket of the thermostat housing to exclude that. Still dropping. Put a rag under the thermostat housing (yellow arrow), it sucked up all the water, no drops any more. I excluded the small hose between de head and the waterpump.
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Possible causes left: head gasket (for me unlikely, does anyone ever experienced this?) or the waterpump gasket (no leaking at the bottom, but must be at the top then)

As I could not find the cause, took off the head ( ), examined the head (new machined, no marks), the engine block (new machined, no marks) and checked the gasket. Noticed the at the corner it is not completely flat. Compared it with another new gasket I had ('Made in England'), but shows similar irregularities. Still for me it seems very unlikely water is leaking thru the gasket.
The right one I used (engine has not been running yet), the left one from stock
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Most probable cause now: top side of the waterpump gasket leaks.

Your help is appreciated!

Did you put a wipe of grease over both faces of the gasket before fitting?

No, I didn't
Could it explain leakage of antifreeze without any pressure?

I wouldn't have thought so - but maybe the grease just makes that 'seal'.

I will take off the waterpump tomorrow anyway. I remember cleaning it thoroughly before applying the gasket. Will be back with new info. Thanks so far.

Is it possible there is an internal connection (rusted) in the head between water canals and a stud hole? Sealing of oil and water holes with gasket is taken care of, the stud holes do not have the special ring in the gasket. And 1 drop every 2 second (just by gravity) is a lot.

I remember having to file the top edge of a water pump because it wasn't flush with the top of the block and stopped the head seating properly.
Hard to tell if that may have happened from your picture but worth a look.

Just about to say the same,had it with an MGB once,the aftermarket pump casting was just touching the underside of the head ,and preventing the head from being pulled down. Quick touch with a file and all was ok. You may be able to see a mark on the edge of the head if yours is the same.looking at the photo it does look close to the head. But alsio looks like an old pump so maybe not,did you fit the pump before the head,there is a bit of tolerence in the bolt hole on the head maybe just slackening the pump and realigning.