1985 Mini turbo

Lovely mini! I'm not a fan of chrome arches, but then it's not my car. Good on you for finishing thisone where someone else gave up. Some links if they help at all;

For all your mini colour needs! www.minicolours.co.uk/cgi-bin/index.cgi

For specialist help - www.turbominis.co.uk/forums/index.php

VERY good mini gearbox man www.guess-works.com/

I guess you're already aware of M&Ms at the back of bank quay station?

Also, if you plan ANY performance mods at all, seriously consider Megajolt ignition. On a blown a-series, a distributor just will not do, not even a brand new one. MJ is very straight forward to install and gives properly huge improvements. wiki.retro-rides.org/Megajolt%20mappable%20ignition%20101.ashx

correct, but most of the time, you have to replace the drops anyway as they are worn, so most people go for straight cut drops as there is less power loss. I don't think that the box has to be straight cut though. the trouble lies in the poor quality control of parts and manufacture at the factory coupled with years of normal use. good quality standard parts assembled to a high degree would be fine, but definitely put the cross pin diff in there.

can recommend guess works for gearboxes - based in Rugby IIRC

have you been on turbominis forum - thats a very good resource.

Now now calm down, clubbymatt and apbellamy!! I'll just be glad when the thing goes and stops.

Anyhow, I had a little victory tonight. I started the engine! There was barely enough fuel in the tank to cover the pickup strainer so the pump was sucking mostly air, and there was no water in the rad, but for a few seconds it ran. The oil pressure light went out too.

Just to recap, the ignition amplifier was missing, and the one I found on the floor in the car was broke. I got a new one and wired it up with help from the turbominis forum. Next up was the fuel pump / regulator. It was obvious that the pressure was too high because fuel was spurting out of every orifice of the carb. A previous owner had installed an extra 8mm line from the pump to the reg and used the existing 6mm for the return to the tank. The reg worked at the right pressure when the outlet was plumbed to a jerry can in the engine bay, so it was assumed that the 6mm return pipe was too small. Swapping them over so that the 6mm is the supply and the 8mm is the return has solved it for now.

I'm quite pleased it runs as when I bought the car the engine was a bit of an unknown quantity being a non-runner, due to nothing being wired up. Next job is to put more petrol in and try and fill the cooling system. If there are no leaks I'll try and get it warmed up and see how it sounds.

does look smart that, you wud be suprised how fast mini turbos really are....keep it looking std tho will be a real sleeper

Well, now it's got more petrol it just won't start. I took the top off the carb and fuel is just dribbling out of the main jet all the time the pump is running. Can't be good. I suspect the float valve is stuck open in the float chamber, causing it to overflow. I'll take the carb off tonight to investigate.

I stripped the carb and cleaned out loads of gunk. The float valve seemed to be working though. Put it back together - same problem. To cut a long story short, it's a faulty pressure regulator. It's dumping petrol into the plenum via the pressure reference pipe. The fuel is then entering the carb body making it look like the float chamber is overflowing.

The Metro Turbos had a special carb, which had seals all over the place.

Perhaps someone stuck a normal HIF on?

Also, I notice that your crankcase breather canister (cylindrical item next to the windscreen washer bottle) isn't connected - it should have a hose linking it to the carb base or inlet manifold. Leaving it unconnected may cause a poor idle.