Last winter I started to notice that Miffi is not running as good as she usually did. Ever since the restoration back in 2019 the engine fired up right away when the ignition key was turned. As if the car said: ” If waited so long – let’s burn some rubber and go”. But this stopped in December and got worse this year.
I cannot even recall when I swapped Moggi and Miffi garage spots this year. After a good cleanup I covered her up and procrastination kicked in. This Friday evening I decided to do the service checks. Oil change, valve clearance, ignition timing and the whole shebang. When I removed the spark plugs for this – something did not feel good right away. Cyl 1 too lean. Cyl 2 also on the lean side – but 3&4 pitch black. A compressing test revealed what I feared. No 3 has low compression – No 4 pretty much none. Headgasket and valves come to mind – hopefully not a cracked head.
Fortunately I have a spare cylinder head from my original Mini that I bought in 1991. This was already overhauled by Peter Burgess last year to his Econotune spec. In theory I could do a relatively simple head swap – but I decided it is time to replicate the engine Mods I did for Mildred. Maxxpeeding Rods, Swifttune SW5-07 cam, +40 Piston’s to bring her to 1293ccm and few other tweaks. For this the engine has to come out.
Removing everything from the upper part of the engine did not even take two hours – shifting rod, axles and lower engine mounts are a job for next week.
Fixing C6622 
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