If you are going to weld things you may as well start with the brakes.

Actually having another look at those mounts he has used - (like these - http://www.altraline.com/pics/jul_2005/481-8108_IMG.JPG), I thought they are only really good for compressive strength. Under heavy acceleration in a FWD car/ transverse engine - the mount as he has oriented them they will be under tension and could pull apart, but then in cornering loads, the force of the engine moving laterally from left to right will evetually sheer those mounts in half !!

Unless you over engineer it and use big mounts used for a V8 or something? Landrover ones are about 75mm diamater But I also recall you can get a collar that goes around these types of mounts.

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-Alan
I blame my dad for my love of minis. I think I was conceived in the back seat of one
I also blame my Dad for me being 6' 1" - not really the optimum height for driving a Mini.

After a few weeks off the road, everything has been bolted back in and the mini is back terrorising the streets. The engine came out, bearings were checked (all good it seems) and the oil sump was resealed. The frame was re-welded with a new gusset where the crack was and a few welds were improved while access was available. Hopefully this should be sufficient to prevent any further breakages. The original plan was to make up a tensioner for the mechanical water pump but after the belt was minced on the first run with no obvious obstruction we ended up going for an electrical pump mounted near the boot. There were a few leaks that needed to be tracked down and fixed so that was also taken care of while it was up on the hoist. While everything was out all the shiny bits were treated to a quick buff. Also, once everything was back in, a wheel alignment was carried out (seems to drive a fair bit straighter now). Thanks to Scott and Nigel for carrying out most of the work for me and hopefully there wont be too many problems in the future.

I'ld be tempted to put some sort of box around that pump.

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But he's thriving and striving and hugging the turns.

Being plastic I would have to agree JC!

Good to see its back on the road though, well done champ!

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"Not Speeding Officer..........Qualifying"

I've been looking at modifying the radiator scoop so that it picks up more air when on the highway and was planning on protecting the pump at the same time.

Yep, good idea.

How hot does it run?

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"Not Speeding Officer..........Qualifying"

It used to reach 100 degrees as soon as you spent any period of time over 100km/hr with the mechanical pump. Although I took it for a run tonight to watch the test and tune at Willowbank and sitting on 110 it didn't get any hotter than 92 degrees. It could be a different story on a hot day but.