I will try the business card, or just try removing the ashtray to see if it is the noise. Thanks for the suggestion.

I drove the mini to the gym yesterday. Power is there but the PCV valve did not prevent the oil cap from spitting a little oil. So much for that idea.

Jerry

I thought butt dyno refferred to how big a star fish impression one could leave on the seat??? 

(There's an old story about starfish mark left on a seat from one of the minimeets)

And back to the annoying rattling noise...

Mu rattling noise at speed turned out to be the ashtray hinged cover that would buzz like a miniature chain saw.  I bent, not folded, someone's business card I got at a car show and jammed it into the ashtray under the cover.  No more mini chain saw.

Then don't google Stucky Popo Meter either (sorry - odd inside joke to myself remembering when I was looking up Hot asian apple sauce to find out what recipe to do with my excess apples that our unpruned tree inundates us with every season)

Jeff, i'm near the Sac area and have a dismantled set of twin 1-1/2"ers I'd let you try for a couple of years (as long as you rebuilt them and sorted them out...., I'd pay for the rebuild parts too....)

If you're really interested in fine tuning it then you should consider installing an air/fuel ratio gauge and a wideband O2 sensor.  It will really take the guess work out of the tuning.

Butt Dyno only. I would love to dyno the car. I just noticed a large increase in acceleration upon the last adjustment. The car was running rich at the partial throttle and really affected the acceleration. There was always part of the throttle that worked very well, but not all the throttle. Right now, most of it runs right, but wide open throttle is perhaps till too rich. I am going to run it a few more days and butt dyno it! If I had some twin 1.5 SU, I could slap those on and test the difference.

Jerry

//kalecoauto.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=8

 

Man, took me a couple minutes of "butt dyno" Googling and boy do I regret it.

How did you determine you increased the HP by 25%?  Was that a butt dyno measurement or did you do dyno runs before and after the changes?

A few years back, mom was going through some of my late dad's "treasures". She was about ready to toss out a small hand-made wooden box with a sliding lid. I have no idea if dad or grandpa made it but I couldn't stand the idea that it would be gone.
So I took it, cleaned the junk out of it (except for a small brass finial for a lamp) Tossed it in the back of my car and promptly forgot about it.
Months later my car started making this horrid noise under braking and accelerating. It was almost like a marble had dropped down into the door and was rolling back and forth. Searched for hours and finally pulled the box out from under the seat.

At this point, most folks would take the box out of the car.... Me? I shoved it right back under the seat.
Every time I hear that thing rolling around, I think of dad and it brings a smile to my face.
Of course, I'm crying as I'm typing but that's a good thing.

Pardon me guys i was over responding

I found light bulbs rattling around in my ashtray. Another rattle was the door to the heater. Still something else! My thoughts on the Mikuni: 1. The SU are known to run rich, have only one adjustment(two if you count the needle). So Air flow sucks through and brings the gas with it. 2. Mikuni has idle jet, lean/rich screw/ needle, needle sheath, and main jet all changeable. It also has an acceleration pump. So that makes it similar to a Weber as to adjustability but in a smaller package that will fit into the mini without moving the firewall. Understanding the carburetor makes it easier to tune, but you still have multiple parts that overlap with others. I have an air/fuel meter which helps but the driving test is true test. All the British cars I have worked on which have had SUs have required hundreds of miles to get the setting right for the engine. The Mikuni is the same, but more complicated. Would I buy it again. I am still not sure. I can see why our host would not sell it. The phone calls would be a customer relation nightmare.

Jerry

Jerry I can't remember your Mikuni story but was always intrigued by them.  Jamal at MM tells me they were never able to get them tweaked to work quite right, this might have included Don Racine as well.  This is why they don't (yet) sell them.  You should send Don an email or use the chat button at top right, I would love to hear how this turns out because they sure love them in the UK on their 7/8-ports.  

Here is Jerry's unbelieveable Healey at the last Mania Nevada City Adventure.  He is also the man behind the All British Motor Vehicle Show and Swap Meet in Dixon, Ca - a landmark event in Nor Calif. for many years.

I did not place this last year, in case anybody is wondering why I'm pumping him up so much now.

Dmitiris, Spam is the most delicious food on earth.

When I got my mini it had several annoying vibrations in the dash.  One day while driving I checked the ashtray in the center of the dash and found a penny.  One vibration down, a zillion more to go.

Doesn't it sound like penis enlargement ad? Well it is not. I drove the mini to Volcano, CA. (look it up). This is 1.5 hours away and in the hills south of Placerville. The car was running well till I hit the hills and then I was not getting the power I expected. I was also getting 27 miles per gallon. In fact, coming back I finally stopped to get gas and had to put in 5.6 gallons, That was close. It seemed to have less power than my 65 VW on a hill. So I changed the jets in the Mikuni again. Dropped the fuel flow at low throttle and increased it at full throttle. It is like a new car, a massive increase in power. I still think the full throttle is a little off, but I am getting closer. I also added a PCV valve, now going off the air cleaner and this seems to stop the oil that weeps from the oil cap on the valve cover. To improve the ride, I turned the shocks down one more setting. I now have them on setting 2 of 10 and it rides much better.

If any of you are in the Sacramento area, I would like one of you to drive the car and see how it compares to other 1275-1380 engines. (except for Todd, since he wrecked his in the last year!).

Still to find: An annoying vibration behind the dash at certain speeds.

Jerry