What colour is a 1275 head?

[linearaudio]

Just come out of hibernation-now the questions are coming back to me! The 940 head I fitted some while back is red, never thought much about it until I was skip surfing at the scrapyard and realised all the 1275 engines in it were black. Could I have a (late-hardened valve seat/ small valve) MG Metro head? What identifiers would I look for?

[bmcecosse]

Big inlet valves! That's the clue. Otherwise - (apart from the Turbo head) they are all the same - although later ones (with no bypass connection) are more likely to be 'unleaded' for ahwatever that is worth!

[PSL184]

The only "factory" red heads were the MG Metro. As you noticed already, standard 1275 engines were all black....

[bmcecosse]

Not at all! Many many ordinary 940s are 'red' !

[PSL184]

Oh, were they? I hadn't seen any.....

[rayofleamington]

the only red ones I've seen were MG.
All the late Austin engines were black.


on the inside they're all black or black/brown, unless you clean them

[bmcecosse]

Aye -but the 940 head has been around since I was a lad! Plenty of red - and even green ones !!

[PSL184]

Don't forget the gold and silver ones too.....

[linearaudio]

I think this is a genuine late unleaded head so I'm beginning to think I'd better measure the inlet valve dia. Was there any tidying up done to the ports on the MG heads?

[bmcecosse]

No ! They left that for you to do.