Thanks for that On checking the supplement at the back of my Haynes Manual (the bit that covers the verto) it says 0.26in which I misread as 26thou so thanks for pointing me in the right direction. I'll need to put it all back together and have another go. I'm still a wee bit worried that the master cylinder is moving enough fluid to make the piston on the slave pop out, though.

I take it you still have the old clutch master cylinder, did that work previously?

If your really worried about the amount of fluid displaced can I suggest measuring the bore of the old and new master. They did change slightly through the years on minis/metros. but they may be the same size the two you have. whch if they are you will be displacing the same amount of fluid.


West

Just a thought, are you sure you have the correct arm for the clutch arangment you have

I still have the clutch master cylinder that came with the car but I don't know if it's the one that came off the donor car. I can compare bores, though, but I thought that the brake master cylinder (that I'm using for the clutch) would be different from the clutch one. However, when I get it set up with the correct throw out stop setting I will have some pedal travel which will reach its limit when the throw out stop contacts the clutch cover so the piston shouldn't pop out anyway (I spent some time in bed last night lying thinking about this ) The way I had set it at 26 thou meant that there was only a few mm of travel before the pedal went solid so that's when I stood on it

The operating arm etc are all the correct ones for the Verto set up as far as I am aware - I ordered them up and compared them with the old knackered bits when they arrived and they were identical. Hopefully, I'll get it working at the weekend and I'll let you know what happens. Meantime, one of my exchange reconditioned 4 pot brake callipers has started to drip fluid so that will need to come back off too

I' ve just realised that I haven't posted anything for a while so here goes...........

The clutch problem was down to incorrect adjustment so thanks for all help with that. The engine is now in place and plumbed and wired up



The front end had a lot of time spent on it repairing previous 'work' (ie: before my time!) and here's the radiator and fan in place



The inside of the tub was painted with Plasti Dip HCF (Hard Coat Finish) which is water based and smashing stuff to work with. The radiator/fan area was painted in black and the tub in grey but their grey is far too light (not far off white) so a liberal amount of black was added to get the colour below. Being water based I could put a fan heater on it to dry it in my garage - which was at -4 degrees at the time...... You can also paint brackets etc with this paint by dipping them in and hanging them up to dry The alloy plates are to cover the bits I had to fill in after moving the (bigger) radiator to the side, the original holes were far too big anyway.



And with a few basic essentials added to see what the finished article looks like



At the moment the engine is ready to start up for the first time (hopefully!) but the ignition switch is off a late Metro and seems incompatible with the GTM wiring arrangements. I was lucky enough to find a complete Allegro steering column on ebay and it arrived today but I'm full of the cold just now so I'll get at it as soon as I can. Fingers crossed

That's spotless Raymond, where do i put my dinner

Looking good, nice to see a Rossa being done to a high standard

Neil

In the back where the engine will kep it warm

I missed putting this pic in last night - the oil filter's nice and handy now.......

HmHmmmm.... very clever solution. A+ work!

Very smart

The remote filter you used is that a Minispares/Minisport kit or an aftermarket one?, looking to do the same on my Coupe, I would be interested to know where you got the bits from

Hi Andy. It's a Mini Spares kit RFK9 and I used it as supplied except for the connection from the block to the filter (ie from next to the relief valve on the block) where I used the adaptor meant for a push on oil cooler hose. I bought a pair of these (Mini Spares part no. MOC3) but just used the one. The short adaptor shown in the photo of the kit is used for the oil filter head replacement part so there is nothing in the kit for that job anyway. I have a 90 degree screwed bend left over. I hope all that makes sense!!

Well, after many trials and tribulations chronicled elsewhere in this august forum I finally managed to get my car started It ran well enough at first considering that the timing and mixture were still to be tweaked so I left it to warm up thoroughly. As it warmed up it started to smoke a little but no worries....yet. I set the mixture with a Colourtune (I've used one of these successfully for years) and it seemed ok which surprised me considering the hassles with the carb. I was also able to confirm through the Colourtune that the choke was operating properly. As I set the timing things started to get a bit smokier and by now the paint on the exhaust had cured so it was all coming out of the exhaust I checked each cylinder individually with the Colourtune and all seemed ok with no signs of oil burning in the flame (orange flecks are the giveaway) and double checked the timing. I then checked the compressions which came out at 210, 220, 210, 215. For the record the oil is Halfords 20/50 Classic.

As it stands just now, the engine is producing lots of light blue smoke, doesn't idle terribly smoothly and actually puts a vibration through the body of the car. I have had the plugs out loads of times and sometimes there is a steam-like vapour coming out of a cylinder which so far I have noticed in Nos 2 and 4 - maybe just unburned fuel evaporating off? . There is also a strange smell from somewhere but it is hard to track down with all the other smells from hot rubber cooling pipework, engine paint, exhaust paint etc etc.

I'm wondering if, apart from anything else, I should have fitted seals to the exhaust valve stems/guides. There were only 4 in the gasket set and I was told that they were for the inlets and the exhaust didn't need them. Could oil be getting drawn down the guide into the hot exhaust and be burning off in there? Ah well, at least it's running. Head off will be next I suppose

Unfortunatly I have became an expert of engine smoking in the last couple of weeks. My researches concluded that oil can only get in the engine nex to the exhaust valve after stoping the engine. So startup smoke can be related with exhaust valves, but while running, the exhaust pressure should blow it up instead of letting it in.

Continuous blue smoke is usually down to bores and rings.
Smoke on start-up and accelerating after overrun is usually valve guides/seals.