finally feeling good enough to go look at what I actually have in the carb. turns out I have a D7 (I must have read a thread about a 1275 that had the BDK and thought that is what I put in there 10 years ago)

Dug around in the parts bin and found a beat up carb. that had a swinging ADD needle. cleaned up the piston and used that and the spring. sounds much better. has a bit of pep now. I should be able to dial the mixture in and have it great. I did bring it up as far as it would go then down 15 flats or 2 1/2 turns. tried going 3 more flats and seemed like less power. came up (counter clockwise) 6 flats. may try a couple more up to see what that is like.

yap! although i love my HIF44 survival set up, i have right now in this part of the world. Even having the big valve 295 head. You get flat torque spots but its functional nevertheless..

I found BDK too rich for a more or less stock Cooper S 1275 motor, so BDK is too rich for a 998 IMO. Also BDK indicates an HIF44 which I think is too big for a 998.

Just tried to tighten a bit. was not able to turn the nuts by much. no change

the intake maybe a bit warped. It is a cast intake that has been cut off of the OEM intake/exhaust. was done many years ago by a PO. I have I think a BDK needle in there that worked fine on the 1275 but maybe causing issues with the 998. I know that the carb is tired and could use a rebuild. 

I could try and use some gasket maker material to try and seal the intake. see if it helps. that will be for another day.

maybe the intake just needs a bit tightening up 

Haven't been feeling too geat for a few days. just got back out to garage to check this over.

checked electric supply to coil as per an email. I do have 2 wires to the postive side of coil. one has 12 volt when in the run postion. and the other has about 10 volt when in the start postion. so I sort of have the "cold start" set up. made no changes to this.

I did turn the mixture adjustment 3 flats clockwise. runs better and can drive around block. no neck snapping power. Just for fun I took a propane torch (unlit) and "sprayed" it towards the carb. the intake on cylinder 3 and 4 made the engine speed up! I have a air leak at the intake! Just like Alex said. 

So at this point I will amke the best of it as this engine is coming out anyway and I do not have a spare gasket on hand. that and I hope in the spring I will have the 1275 back in with twins. 

That is twin carbs Willie

Yep still trying to make run. still have 2 in the garage! at least the "rusty" one is ready for paint now

Hi Adam !!  So you're still into Minis, eh?

That;'s a good thing.  Glad to see you still wrenching ! :-)

Mike

When using a alloy metro type intake without vacuum line I install the threaded plug with 5 min epoxy. Got my cyl head back from machine shop, it required .008 surface to remove the devit between 3 and 4. Replaced gasket and torqued head yesterday will get it running today. I suspect this one had a running issue for some time before it failed completely. Steve (CTR)

Checking the block with sanding block showed the area around the front 5 studs were pulled up. Once I counter sunk the threaded holes the block surface cleaned up nicely. 

Good idea Alex. A mechanic found the air leak by the grub screw on mine and sealed it with JB-weld. It hasn't moved. But maybe I should check.

I've seen several cars without them, as not all suppliers ship them with the grub screw. I prefer to use a cut down bolt with a copper washer to a grubscrew - better chance of sealing and cant vibrate down into the manifold to cause mischief.

If you have an alloy intake, it may have a vacuum port closed with a grub-screw. It may be loose or leaking. Mine had a flaw there that caused a leak.

Could be a monster air leak on the 3&4 leg of the inlet manifold.

New plugs make no differance. still can remove eiother 3 or 4 and she still idles nice pull 1 or 2 and it quits.

Have not done a compression test in the last month did one back in may and she was good across the board.

will do another one in the next couple of days.

still looking for my spare needles

Have you done a compression test?  ( sorry if I missed it above )

I am only running single carb on this one. when ever my 1275 gets back from the shop I will have twins. but that is another story.

This engine came out of a frineds mini a couple of years ago and has been in a damp barn. the carb is off of my 1275 so the needle may not be right either. It was running pretty good just started this really bad no power/missing after the last autoslalom.

I will go try the new plugs....and Willie I thought you owed me 20 ??

I have tried a different cap and rotor

I will also try and find the needles I had from the 998 and see if I have a better profile will have to check to see what is even in it now.

I have had a couple of 998s come though the shop recently. One a very nice mk2 Cooper with twin carbs and running badly. As mentioned the float valve was stuck closed on one carb (dry when lid removed) would run but not take fuel well. The other was running poorly on a single 1 1/2 SU. After setting timing and playing with carb I took it out only to have the head gasket fail completely between 3&4. After chatting with owner I pulled the head finding the head hardware extremely tight (over torqued and the threads pulled up in surface) and gasket burned though. I pulled the studs which were very tight in the block. Used a counter sink to relieve the area around the studs and hit the block with a sanding block and 120 emery. The black mark between 3&4  cleaned right up. The head clearly shows signs of having been surfaced but we know this was not done in the last 6 years. I wonder if it blew before and someon tried over torqueing pulling the threads up, the had the head surfaced and installed a new gasket. I suspect there was water leak issues with the new gasket and it was over torqued again. The current owner never drove more than a couple of miles a day and only on nice days. I also noticed the head surface was extremely smooth, I like to leave a little pattern in the surface to help bite the gasket. I'll pick the head up today after a skim cut with a little pattern. I will pitch the studs considering how tight they were. Steve (CTR)

PS. I tried to be very careful removing the rocker assembly to avoid pulling any of the lifters from their bores. As luck would have it one did pop out but I was able to get it back in place without pulling the tappet cover.

      ed... replace # 3 & 4 spark plug please ....[ with new ] ... 

     when you lift the wires out of the dist. ... the spark can look ok.... but ....under a load [ spark plug in cylinder head and under compression ]  the spark may not have enough balls .....

Are you running twin carbs?

Possible the needle is stuck on one the the other is (over) compensating?

I had an MGB that would stick a needle valve shut every so often and a tap with a screwdriver handle would unstick it and it would run at full song.

Ed. Ed . Ed.....???? 

    All right.... lets try a diff. cap n rotor on er......ok..........

   has the wife been running er...??? if so.... 

                 ps..... do you have that 20.00 bucks ya owe me...???