Can anyone give me a comprehensive guide to adjusting rocker to valve clearances with the engine in the car. The crank wouldnt move with the rods in and I have the later type of solenoid w/o a button.

Pull the plugs out - and crank the motor by turning the fan by hand, if necessary push down on the fan belt to provide a bit more grip on the belt !

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Ben

Adjust no.1 rocker with no. 8 valve fully open.
Adjust no.3 rocker with no. 6 valve fully open.
Adjust no.5 rocker with no. 4 valve fully open.
Adjust no.2 rocker with no. 7 valve fully open.
Adjust no.8 rocker with no. 1 valve fully open.
Adjust no.6 rocker with no. 3 valve fully open.
Adjust no.4 rocker with no. 5 valve fully open.
Adjust no.7 rocker with no. 2 valve fully open.

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yea I know all of this (btw the closest to the radiator is #1 and the furthest is #8 right) but the bastard wouldnt move - I cant remember it being so stiff in the past.

Jack up one wheel, put in 4th gear, turn wheel by hand. If it don't turn, brother, you've got a problem..

"The crank wouldnt move with the rods in..."
I do hope you put the rod caps on the right way round.. bearing tabs adjacent...

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DrMini- 1970 wasaMatic 1360, Mk1S crank, 86.6HP (ATW) =~125 @ crank, 45 Dellorto (38 chokes), RE282 sprint cam, 1.5 rockers, 11.0:1 C/R.

Damn Kevin, I knew I shoul've stuck around till you replied - instead I turned the fan belt. Took me like 3 hours and all fingers but one are bleeding. I reckon its so stiff because of the double springs and the long cam (a long cam would make the valves harder to move wouldnt it?).

The pushrods are in correctly (dish upwards) but when all was done I realised that the bypass hose slipped off while I was fitting the head - the biggest bitch to put back w/o removing the head again. I ended up heating the hose to make it flexible.

If you mean `PUSHrods' all is well... I assumed you meant CONrods...!

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DrMini- 1970 wasaMatic 1360, Mk1S crank, 86.6HP (ATW) =~125 @ crank, 45 Dellorto (38 chokes), RE282 sprint cam, 1.5 rockers, 11.0:1 C/R.

Tut, you boys ave got it all wrong...
Wot u should do is find a nice man to do it for ya, problem solved...
it's cheap as well, if ya no wot ur doin'...

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Frilly & Baby
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Ahh.. thats why you mentioned bearing tabs. Yea only pushrods, I only took the head off to replace a few valves.

I just spent 5 hours trying to set the bloody hose in (fiddle sticks it gonna get some flexible silicone hose tommorow, or its today already) - would anyone allow a manof my ability to create hours of work out of the simplest tasks even touch the conrods?

Trust me here- remove radiator and WATER pump to swap the bypass hose- it's easier!

A straight piece of 1/2" heater hose or 15/32" vac hose (thicker) will outlast those concertina things... which were never used on Cooper S.

Tip- if the bypass adaptor in the head rusts out, pull it out and make one from brass. A BOC or Cigweld oxy hose joining nipple is the same thread- (5/8"-18 UNF)- I just stick a 9mm drill thru it and then turn one end down to 1/2" dia.
These last forever.

<edit> typo fixed- my bad...

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DrMini- 1970 wasaMatic 1360, Mk1S crank, 86.6HP (ATW) =~125 @ crank, 45 Dellorto (38 chokes), RE282 sprint cam, 1.5 rockers, 11.0:1 C/R.

Fuel pump? I know you mean water. Its ok now, I've got a nice blue $38/m silicone hose there - its easier to put in coz its so soft and flexible. I had just normal hose there before anyway.

Normaly I wouldnt want anything blue in my engine bay, but you cant really see it there anyways.

alternatively...
Fit an U/L cylinder head from a metro, block of the bypass on theblock and drill a hole in the thermostat - no more bypass - no more problem!

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Hybrid
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Iceberg - White Mini City

No more mildly worked 12G940 head either. I'm gonna have to put up with the hose.

Metro heads are rare as rocking horse dung out here- we stopped makin' Minis before Metros appeared in UK. And, they've got no heater takeoff..

Nothing wrong with a bypass hose, IF you use a straight one! The convoluted ones are a throwback to Morris Minors and tweed caps.. they crack with old age

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DrMini- 1970 wasaMatic 1360, Mk1S crank, 86.6HP (ATW) =~125 @ crank, 45 Dellorto (38 chokes), RE282 sprint cam, 1.5 rockers, 11.0:1 C/R.

Well its all done now, the head is on nothings leaking. While I was waiting for the head to be done, I tapped the exhaust mounting point and fixed the exhaust pipe to the gearbox with a long bolt, and some rubber and metal washers (it keeps slipping out). Also fitted a sump guard.

Now she starts fine but there's a tremendous ammount of feedback through the car, everything is vibrating especialy at low revs. I think that the exhaust vibration is much more pronounced now since its attached to the gear box, but why is there so much resonation?...
a) I know that the resonator has small cracks at the exhaust weld,
b) the carby's were tuned to 1100rpm before the head came off and without anything being done to them sent the car to 2000rpm once back on - half turn down on both the revs die, quarter turn up (so only qurter turn down from the original which was 2000) and its still dying even when hot.....very strange....and from now I'm rebuilding stuff myself rather than sending it to a "specialist" - I'm thinking if the carbys are so affected than the mixture might be too lean too adding to the vibration in the exhaust?