Cemetery Road Mini Restoration

Oh well if you are having a Starmags and V8 Nostalgia moment.

Spent the day over at sean1965 place getting the V8 up and running - First job was to fit the O/S valve cover which required tapping the threaded bosses to clean up the threads due to some past misuse. With that done and the cover on it was in with the oil and water. A few lose hose clips settled the leaks and drips and it was ready to go.

Took a bit longer than we thought to get the car running due to some fun with starter motors, dead batteries and getting the V8 to prime - getting a prime on the pump is always fun with Rover V8s that have been standing, even with the pump packed with Vaseline - failed - Eventually we managed to get oil flowing by using a large volume syringe in the oil pressure gauge connection to draw oil up into the pump.

Once the prime issue was overcome the engine fired up very quickly and the idle was set for 2000/2500 and away she went - It's pretty loud - The car runs separate system per bank each just ending in straight through silencer -

Old picture from when I built it.





- but what a noise, stupid grins all round. We turned down the fan temp sensor to get the fan at a low temperature so running all the time and let it run.

An intermittent ticking became permanent and a bright 3/4" long spark was tracking from the king lead post on the coil to the -ve. The insulation had clearly broken down. Quick change of coil to an Aldon Flame thrower I had on my G27 parts shelf and away we went again sounding even stronger. Tweaked the timing a little and the engine tone changed yet again upping the sound pressure.

Once the cam run in was out of the way - garage nice and warm by this time - the idle was dropped and the grins went from ear to ear as that cammed V8 idle rumble settled down to that sound that any petrol head could just listen to all day long.
Whilst the rumble was shaking the fabric of the floor the engine was just rock steady in the chassis not a movement.

A few more little jobs to do for the spring return to the road.

Ek. Cover sills. There'll be some impressive brown cornflakes and a world of hurt under those I reckon!!

Dying to know how this goes😃
Geddit., DYING!

That's quite grave. But please, nothing too cryptic and address tomb it may concern!!

More work carried out last weekend on the B - No mini work as of yet as that V8 soundtrack has become a bit of an addiction - Who would have known - We even rolled it out of the garage and drove it up and down the drive - It's a bit of a beast - blipping the throttle results in foot long flames out of the exhaust !! and I will admit I was a little bit naughty leaving an 11 on the drive when I gave the throttle a longer blip whilst in second. Not properly run in yet so I resisted the temptation for a full burnout!

No photo's - just too busy producing excessive amounts of Carbon Monoxide and grinning like kids - and I always thought giggle gas was Nitrous Oxide - appears that they both have similar effects.

Managed to get the short video of the static over-run pooping back in the exhaust loaded - It should be fun on the road as with the same dizzy and carb set up the G27 used to pop and bang with a decent light and sound show that could be viewed from the side mirrors.

Through the headphones the mic on the phone has pretty accurately picked up the tone.




Next we will have to get a full chat drive-by sorted as there are points in the video at slightly higher RPM where there is a tone that sounds like it may deliver something to make the hairs stand.

In the absence of panel work, I thought I would do a bit on the suspension. Bottom arms cleaned and painted, both subframes sent off to shot blast and collected the today. A couple of patches on the rear one, which is a bonus. I thought it may disintegrate. The front one is fine due to A series self oiling of suspension parts. I added some more welds to the existing ones and added some gussets to strengthen the tie rod. So it may be not a lot, but I have at least started. Better stull, I have actually got around to ordering some panels from M Machine. So, things may be on the move after all.
As a bonus, I found a chap just down the road with a nice Mk 2 countryman with whom I had a good chat. Interesting bloke and still welding and fabricating at 76. Hope I can still manage at that age.