wiggle a bit

With a few hours to spare this afternoon I got the engine back in the Mini. After putting the drive shafts backs into the subframe, I decided to also place the exhaust manifold in the engine bay prior to lifting the engine back in. On the carburetor Minis I did in the past it wasn’t a big deal to attach this later. However – on the MPI Mini I had a tough time finding the right tool/angle to unscrew manifold and down-pipes.

Attaching a piece of string on the top and pulling the exhaust up with a another piece of string on the subframe it is out of the way and drop-dead-easy to attach later. Fitting the engine “single-handed” takes a bit more time – I had to wiggle the engine a bit around the manifold but after roughly 20min it was in the right place. While it was still on the hoist I used screwdrivers to align the engine mounts left and right.

Even the dreaded right-rear engine mount screw went in easily. Using a magnetic pick up tool I placed the washer, spring washer and nut and carefully turned the bolt until the nut had grip. Next I will bleed the clutch – it is easier to do this as long as the brake servo is not installed yet.