So, I've had the Mini apart for a few months as I tinker with the transmission and it was sitting for a few years before that. I've dropped the engine back in...and it won't start. It did for about 10 seconds when I was first cranking it, then died because I didn't have the choke out. Now I can't even get it to cough with ether. The engine is about as simple as they get, a little A series with an HIF44 SU carb and electronic ignition. Here's what I know.
- Plugs are wet, I'm blowing air/fuel mixture out the ports when I crank without plugs.
- fuel is fresh high octane, I siphoned out the tank as far as possible and refilled.
- timing. The distributor wasn't moved during the work.
- firing order. Confirmed, and it looks as if the rotor is pointing towards the correct cylinder so I'm not off by 180 degrees or so.
- compression. Haven't checked all cylinders, but #1 is at 180-ish and the car did run for that brief moment. I have no reason to suspect something terrible happened inside.
- spark. I can verify a whitish spark with a plug held to the block while cranking. Voltage at the coil feed wire is 10.4v when cranking, 12.6 otherwise. Plugs are the same ones as before, the gap is good and they've been cleaned both with an abrasive cleaner and a blowtorch.
Suggestions on things to try?
Blood sacrifice to the automotive gods?
Seriously though, could it be flooding?
Check your grounds? The choke cable reminds me: on old Rovers like yours when the ground straps corroded away the choke cable became the ground. It would weld itself together from the current and the complaint would be hard starting or the choke being inoperative. Plus its the only thing I could see missing with the engine/trans out.
The ground cable was actually left off (oops) but the engine was grounding through a secondary radiator that was making contact with the body. That's been rectified, and I even tried running a jumper cable from the block back to the battery just to make sure it had a solid ground.
Choke cable appears to have survived this. I'm seeing more fuel in 1 and 4 than I am in 2 and 3, but given the weird airflow in these heads I'm not sure that means anything other than "yes, it's a Mini". All four cylinders are definitely getting fuel.
As for flooding, I'm giving it time to rest between attempts. This has been going on for a few days now.
Datsun1500 wrote:
Just because the rotor is pointing to what "should" be the correct position, does not man it is. Start from the beginning. Get the #1 piston to the top of the stroke, then wherever the rotor is pointing is #1. Firing order is 1342 counter clockwise. Repeat COUNTER clockwise. See if it starts. If it does but backfires a lot, you're 180 out, swap the 1and 3, and 2 and 4 and try again.
A lot of guys in the Datsun Roadster community get caught up that #1 should be at the 11 o clock position without realizing that these cars are 40-50 years old and a lot has been done to them. #1 is wherever the rotor is pointing at the top of the stroke, no matter where it "should" be when looking at the distributor.
Already done that. Set it to TDC for #1 with the valves closed and confirmed that the rotor was pointing at #1. I've verified the firing order, counter clockwise, and not just relied on the labels I put on the wires before I pulled the engine. Plus, as noted, we had a brief period of running so there's nothing fundamentally wrong.
Verify the movement of the carb slide, check the dashpot. Pull all 4 plugs, clamp off the fuel line and crank it to blow out excess fuel if it's really flooded.
Start over, and give it a shot of ether to see if something more volatile makes it light off.
FWIW, my Sprite w/ a 1275 motor did the same thing after a long sit. New plugs, timed about right, carb had been rebuilt and tested before it was drained and stored. It simply didn't want to run after the initial brief run. Eventually after getting it lit w/ ether, it "wanted to run" more and more, and eventually it ran continuously and I was able to dial the timing in and set idle.
Oh, is idle screw set?
Anyway - it was a mystery. I've gotten innumerable cars and bikes lit after rebuilds or long sleeps and this one baffled me.
The plugs do indeed fire when they're grounded to the block. So I know I'm getting some spark, and it's a fairly white spark too. I've tried cleaning them a couple of times. I might just pull them and let it sit for a day to make sure everything's dry in the cylinders.
I'll take a look at the carb. Given the fact that I've got fuel in the cylinders, I didn't think that was likely to be a problem. The carb was not touched at all, so the idle screw is where it was before and I had no complaints with that. I seem to remember the dashpot moving when I was playing with it on the bench, but I'll make sure. It's a pain in the butt to see and access, snugged up against the firewall...
Float valve is likely stuck, combined with all the other rude things I won't say about English electrics...
Pull the dashpot off, lift out the piston and crank it. If you have fuel bubbling up the jet, you have float valve trouble. I figure flooding for several reason, but you say it started and ran for a few moments without pulling the choke. Thats wrong as hell. From a cold start, there is no way an SU equipped car will start without choke.
Also: Always start minis in neutral, with your foot off the clutch.
Thanks Streetwise, I'll give that a try. It did surprise me when it fired up that first time. Time to learn things about SU carbs.
I always start everything in neutral with my foot off the clutch 
Fuel
Spark/ignition
compression
All at the right time.
Sounds like it is getting too much fuel. Pinch off the fuel line, no choke, hold throttle wide open. Try to start.
Streetwise wins! Well, mostly. He made me take another look at the carb. For future reference, if you hook up the fuel feed line to the overflow fitting - even if the hard lines on the car fit much better that way - the car will not start.
I blocked off the feed line, cranked with the throttle wide open and when the amount of fuel dropped to a sane level, it caught. Hooked everything up right and it burst into happy, snorty, eager life. Good god, I'd forgotten how hilarious this engine was.
Time to extricate the car from the back of the garage and take it for a run. Thank you, everyone.
Bwaa haa haa! Oh, I've missed this little manic box of mayhem.
Fortunately you either have a mechanical fuel pump, or you are really good about piping your overflow out of the engine bay. On my Traveller, when I made that mistake, the fuel just poured out of what should have been the inlet pipe and soaked the header and differential...
I did carefully attach the overflow pipe to the inlet, so it was well routed But in this case, no fuel came out of the inlet. That would have been A Clue. Instead, I was without a clue.
Now, cranking the engine with the fuel feed hose disconnected from the carb, that made a mess.
Today, I did 5 minutes worth of work. But it took me all day to figure out what those five minutes should be.
Glad you got it running, but I just wanted to mention a little trick I learned when dealing with flooded engines and wet plugs - if you have a source of open flame (not oxy-acetylen, just a regular blow torch or the gas kitchen stove when the missus isn't looking), you can use that to carefully dry out the plugs more after you let them air dry for a little while. It also heats up the plugs a little, which can make for easier starting if you drop them back in the engine and try to start it immediately.
I had to use it a few times to get some Britmobile or other started, and it was often the only way to get my MZ two stroke winter commuter started. That one was kick start only and a bear to start when flooded otherwise.
Carefully being the operative word here, unless you want to look like the kid I went to school with who checked the fuel level in his moped with a lighter...
I tried that, actually. Put the plugs in nice and hot. Didn't help in this case, but the propane torch does clean them off better than an abrasive blaster does.
The Locost liked to foul plugs every time it went somewhere new (to embarrass me, I believe) and that was one of the solutions. A running car will also help, people learned not to park their Miatas next to me or I'd steal their plugs
Those two little brass fittings do look similar, don't they?
