Sam & Michael's MPI

[Simon1275mpi]

Sam left his MPi with me to drop in a reconditioned engine and a rebuilt gear (all for beer money of course!). And why would you need to do that you ask? The following pictures may cause distress to the mechanically sympathetic.

The guts of the injection system hanging out before I removed the engine...


One MPI engine, removed as reverse gear had been been lost for a while....
and it sounds like a chain saw....
and its got no oil pressure....


Erm, guess this oil pump has eaten something... The main bearings on the crank are shot, the crank knocks around in what was a perfect snug fit in the soft bearing shells.


Bores look good, healthy running engine, the reason I love MPI's :-)


Lots of chucks of metal and a metallic sludge in the gearbox sump...


Spot the broken bits


Their they are!


Lots of eaten bits of metal, now all junk.


That was third gear


I guess the lay shaft bearing that I couldn't find eat its way out? Oh and that was first gear.


One prepared gearbox casing ready to build. The old gearbox casing is now scrap.


One perfect 35K MPI lump to slap on the gearbox. The old engine eat all those lumps of broken metal, If the engine was removed and gearbox repaired when the problem first started, the original engine would not need new bearings and a crank regrind.


Moral of the story, change the oil & oil filter every 3000miles or 6 months with 20-50 oil. Cheapest possible. Fomula one from Focus is £9.99 for 4.5ltrs!

[Miniböttcher]

you will be very drunk after all that beer money,

dont you just love gearboxes, they are so much fun to rebuild, is that the engine out you old spi.

looking good, sam is going to have a good little engine just make sure you look after it. as you know what happens if you dont

[Stephen]

Wow, shreading 1st gear is pretty hardcore!

[AntMan]

You starting a little repair workshop there simon , good to see club member's helping out other club member's ;D!

Ant

[Simon1275mpi]

And the rebuild is now in full swing

Thats a replacement 1st & 3rd gear, layshaft, laygear, reverse ilder gear, roller bearings, new thrust washers and a replament CASING!! Syncro bulk rings are 'Simon's Premium Select Choice' from 2nd hand gearboxs. Recycled main shaft bearings (new bearing set is £170 ) and a new central oil pickup. Most of those parts are 2nd hand and good to reuse.

Would of prefered to use new main bearings and spend a bit more on all the roller bearings, but thats the cost comprimise.

Engine cleaned, degreased and painted, then dropped onto the gearbox. That was the easist bit so far!

[Simon1275mpi]

A week or so ago, I got the clutch. Required as the last one was down to the pot rivets and soaked in oil!


After my learning experience I went for a standard verto 3 piece clutch. But as the MPI,SPI and carb all have different diaphragms I checked the location of the crack-sensor teeth on the fly wheel.



Saves spending out of an MPI diaphragm!


The final build


The engine dropped in


It started first time today, moved it about and surprisingly all the gears work. :-D

Sadly.... the duplex chain is fouling on the timing chain cover. So stripped it down in the car. Modified the cover and refitted. Started her up.... still fouling. Hoping thats the last niggle to sort!

Else its next the MOT prep, ball joints, shocks, tie bars etc etc