Irish Mini Owners Club

Not a great day today on the Mini. I decided to start the engine up on the bench to make sure all was fine.

The engine started quite quickly once I manually engaged the choke, and it was sounding very sweet. However, after a few minutes, I noticed a liquid dripping down on the water pump side. A quick inspection revealed it was water. I decided to check the cylinder head nut torque settings, and immediately noticed a stud was loose at the front nearest the water pump. It just came away in my hand.

I drained the water, removed the ancillaries and removed the head, only to discover a second stud had split at the front too. These were new studs and nuts from Minispares (C-AHT279A), seem like terrible quality. Fortunately, when I was building the engine, I cleaned up all the stud threaded holes in the block with a tap. The remaining pieces came out without any issues. I think it's time to upgrade to ARP and load up on a bunch of gaskets. Sigh.

Lucky you checked it now before installing it back in a fully painted shell!

This was one of the studs in my kit (C-AHT279A)


Touch wood I haven't had any other issues.

colinf1 wrote: ↑Fri Jun 20, 2025 10:10 pm Lucky you checked it now before installing it back in a fully painted shell!

This was one of the studs in my kit (C-AHT279A)


Touch wood I haven't had any other issues.

Just thinking about the bend, surely putting 45-50 lb/ft of torque on a bent stud will introduce a shearing force on the side of the stud? I wonder if mine were slightly bent when installed.

Started sanding the inside of the shell. I want to sand out the rear bins before putting on the outer sills, as some of the dirt will drop into that cavity. Not the most glamorous job to do. I will spray from the cross member back, and then do the cross member forward another time. There are dents in the cross member that need addressing. I only make up 400mm of epoxy paint at a time.

More attention than it got in the factory, day one.

Sprayed the rear floor, rear seat and bins. Inside the bins was tricky, coverage is not 100% yet. I probably need a mini gun to get into some of those tight places. I have a couple of runs too, that will need sanding out. Besides that, I am happy with the results.