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Found a nice set of Champion High Performance Ignition Leads in the shed, so decided to clean them up and number them with cable ties. Do they really give any better performance? I also fitted the new coil for now.









Getting there! I know, the wiring to the coil is poor >.<

they are usefull when you are running mahoosive spark plug gaps, mind you i'm only using some bogo standard ford items.

OO righty, so If I were to open up my gaps abit? Im on standard points at the moment... The spark plugs are at 0.025"

you want to keep them at that really. the wee points system isn't really that powerful tbh. with my mapped system i'm running .035 gaps just for a bigger spark but i'm using a coil pack.......

Okay cheers stu.

Just another small update, I have sprayed the freeflow manifold in high temperature paint. This should help it last abit longer!

Heres what I've been playing with today. I took the rockers off the head and dismantled them to the shaft, gave it a light sand and a good clean, I then individually sanded and cleaned each component in the rocker assembly. Patience is a virtue! I also filed the edges of the inlet manifold to allow the inlet and feeflow to sit nicely on the head ports. The inlet and outlets are significantly smaller than those of the manifolds. Is it really worth porting the head to match the port sizes? If so how can this be done and what with?

yes its a well worth mod porting the head. it won't be as good as if a mini shop did it but it will be better than standard. you might have to check the mixture when you've done this or even get the car rolling roaded just to make sure. nice job on the cleaning, i know what a pain/bore it can be!

Cheers stu, how could I do this myself then? Drill it out?

lend or buy a dremel, or get some decent grinding stone for your drill and some burrs. theres a few guides kicking round on the web i think

Okay cheers Stu will have a look, don't really know what I'm looking for, but might give it a go!

Today I spent the day taking the 'shoulders' off of the cylinder head ports. I matched the ports on the head to the sizes of the inlet and freeflow ports. Im not after polishing the ports to perfection, but just to match the ports. Hopefully this will have help the Mini's efficiency in some way., maybe some more donkeys if I'm lucky. Here are the photos:

Before:



After:





Sanding and polishing an exhaust valve on a lathe:

Is that your own lathe??

Its not my own no, It's a friend of mines who has been racing for many many years and knows too much

Home-made jobbie, cold air feed!

I found a knackered old Henry in the garage(without the smiley stickers, made me feel less guilty ;)) and took his nose!



I then had a plasticy ring bit in my hand, which wouldnt fit the airbox as it was, i.e. it was to big to fit in the air entry bit. (is this making sense? ) So I cut a small section out of the plasticy ringy thingy so that it would close up more and fit in the hole. I the cleaned out the hose/nose as it was full of henry poo.





Slots in nicely:



In place:



Hose in place:





Sprayed the jubilee clip black:







So far so good!

I then lowered my standards and cut the top of a 'Lenor' bottle :-/ Cut it as neatly as I could ;D Then primered:



And then gloss black:



The bottle top fits nice and Snug over the tube, and stays in place.

All together now:



On the beast:





I spy:



Done, quite proud of myself What you all think? Oh and it cost me £0.00 rather than £35 that Pipercross want.

Today I worked on the little niggly bits that p*ss you off. I re-aligned the passenger side door so my passengers don't keep slamming the door to make it shut, when it already is. Re-fixed the door card where it keeps popping out. Re-sprayed the wiper arms gloss black as the old metal bonnet used to rub and pull the paint off. Fitted my stainless twin washer jets. Re-fitted the heater air intake to the tube. Fixed the rubber back on the arches as it kept popping out making my arches look square. Used paint thinners to rid the stainless bumpers of overspray. Then I gave her a really good polish.

I'm pondering over the idea of spraying the inserts of the alloys black.