There are only really two ways of removing an engine from a Mini; Pull the engine up through the body, or drop the subframe and engine and lift the shell over. I’ve done the latter before, and it wasn’t too bad, so I am going to be doing the engine-up-through method next, especially after seeing an interesting result on a Poll I did on the Mini Club forum.

Before you can start pulling up the engine, a few bits need to be removed such as the radiator, dizzy-cap and a few other bits and bobs. Of course, one of the main items to get rid of are the driveshafts. There are several ways of getting them out of the way for the engine to come out, but this is my way…

My way, I find, is probably the easiest and quickest way. Its arguable of being a slow way, but I find it easy and quick. After removing the wheel, I first remove the nut on the track-rod end. Then, undo the retaining nut on the tie bar at the front, and remove the nut on the bottom arm.

The tie bar then can be removed. Then, loosen the top swivel joint and "pop" it out. I didn’t have a ball joint remover to hand, so I whacked it with a large hammer after making sure the nut is flush to the top of the thread – works a treat. Leave the nut on there for now, then remove the retaining nut on the rear of the bottom arm.

And remove it completely. Then, finally, remove the top swivel nut and let the hub, disc and calliper drop into your hand.

Before you can completely get it away from the car, the calliper must be removed somehow. Instead of undoing the brake pipes to it, instead I removed the calliper from the hub, so I didn’t have to re-bleed the brakes. Two nuts hold the calliper on, and after removing them, the hub assembly can come clean away, and the calliper left dangling. Tie the calliper up somewhere so the weight is not left on the brae pipe.