speed on hills

[bootlid]

Carluke may not be mountainous but inclines abound everywhere,my sidevalve does 50 mph easily but drops to 15 mph on almost any hill,is this normal ,i have new points,plugs distributor set to retard rather than advanced as engine is quiter when oil is hot.,maybe need a banker.

[mike.perry]

If you are prepared to attack the gradient with as much speed as possible at the bottom and rev the engine, it should perform reasonably well. Try adjusting the distributor a litle at a time until you get the best performance. Mark the position of the distributor before you start so that you have a reference point

[bootlid]

worth a try mike i have noticed some morris sidevalve engines have three distributor settingseither advanced,level with side of engine or retarded,what position do sidevalve engine owners prefer and why??

[MarkyB]

There won't be an answer that suits them all, as Mike says you need to find what your engine likes best.

[DAVIDMCCULLOUGH]

Those speeds sound about normal for a sidevalve, on mine you have to change out of first at 10mph...... It will get you most places just at a slower pace. We managed to do a drive through the Mournes a couple of years ago with the club and only had to change into first once. Also mangaed to get to Stanford Hall for the 60th celebrations in the lowlight, that was an interesting journey! After about 50miles we came off the motorways and stuck to the A roads and it was a much more enjoyable journey. Dont forget there were 2 sidvlaves and a series 11 drove from South Africia for that rally, so it will get you anywhere, eventually

[bootlid]

Thats the type of advice i like to hear from someone who has some experience of sidevalves it would be great to hear from other owners about their experiences on sidevalve motoringmaybe we could start a new thread ,"motoring with a sidevalve"my recent purchase of a series mm has given me lots of problems which need to be solved.

[orb596]

I've had my Series MM for 11 years now and its always been "afraid" of hills. I've always found the performance to be perfectly adequate on the flat and you just have to drive into the hills "flat out" that way you still have momentum left to drag yourself over the brow of the hill. Having said that some sidevalves can outperform others. My father in law has an 8 Series E which has the same engine and box and it always leaves me standing.
At the end of the day just sit back and enjoy the ride - whats the hurry anyway?
Good luck with your Series MM and enjoy it.
Laurie. [frame][/frame]

[bootlid]

Dear laurie,i am not interested in speed,only trying to improve my recent purchase which has many problems to solve,it is not much fun when you get a convoy of tailgaitors at 15 mph on a long drag,your car looks amazing and hope mine will look as good as yours when evereything has been done,my present problems are oil leaks,petrol leaks,coolant leaks,paintwork and getting the car to run better.[frame][/frame]

[orb596]

Good luck with your recent purchase. She looks like a lovely car and I'm sure you'll get all the problems sorted out in due course. It'll all be worth it in the long run.

[Annie_1952]

Have read the above posts and to be fair it sounds very similar to my experience of a sidevalve engine. I have had my mm for 22 years now and drove her everyday for about the first 8 years.
In my experience I used to average about 40, top speed of about 45 and would go up the hills very slowly, even going into first if it was quite steep, also I did find it made a difference on how many people are in the car weight-wise.
When I first had the car I did try going faster, however this threw a leg out of the bed and my Dad, who had to fix it, was not best pleased with me! Luckily we got the spares and all was fixed.
I now do about 40 mph when I can, never really go over 45 mph and dont thrape her on the hills. We go at our own pace and pull over to let other cars past when theres an opportunity to. Just because I have the time for a leisurely drive doesnt mean everyone else on the road does!
Our whole family love Annie, its a real treat to get her out and go somewhere nice. We just go quite slowly.

[bootlid]

many thanks for your email annie,any input on driving sidevalves is much appreciated,,where i live here in carluke, lanarkshire the roads are very busy especially the A73 ,full of lorries,buses,speeding drivers are a big problem,everybody seems to be in a hurry and can get nasty if you delay them,i,ve had my face punched for doing 30 in the limit,my car kicked for holding them up,there is no deterrent,hardly any police,no cameras,i just duck or hide below the dash when menaced,i intend to enjoy my mm and need to adopt a more care free attitude to the speeders.

[Annie_1952]

Hi bootlid,
That's really awful, though I must admit I tend to ignore the angry drivers. Though I always pull over and put my hand out to say thanks when they go past.
I do enjoy driving down the lanes far more than the busy main roads and tend to plan my journey this way - for me its a bonus as its usually a bit longer and a lot quieter.
I love my car and so do my husband and children - I think you should do the same and as long as you try to be thoughtful to other drivers ignore the ones who are nasty - some people just love to be miserable so in a funny way you've made their day. Your car is lovely, you're very lucky to have such a fantastic car.

[mike.perry]

I must be the odd one out, where conditions allow I will drive at between 50 and 60 mph and I am rarely at the front of a traffic queue, my MM is content to sit at around 60mph on the motorway, slipstreaming Irish HGVs which seem to be able to override their speed limiters, at a safe distance.
My local test hill has a hump back bridge at the bottom preventing entry speeds much over 30mph. If I floor the accelerator in 4th I can reach nearly 40mph into the bottom of the hill and hold top for a short distance before dropping to 3rd at about 30mph, holding this speed until a bend where the gradient increases and after a short distance a drop into 2nd is necessary at around 20mph when it will hold that speed over the crest then pull away from following traffic.
By contrast my 1275 Traveller will climb the hill most of the way in 4th, dropping to 3rd for the last short section over the crest.

[bootlid]

firstly to anne,i really appreciate your comments and it must be fun to enjoy driving around the rural lanes in england,but it all depends where you live,i have noticed scots drivers to be among the worst drivers for speeding and aggressive behaviour especially to anyone who holds them up,tailgaiting is a pastime up here and thanks for your comments about my car,its been badly neglected but i hope to improve it quickly[frame][/frame]

[bootlid]

secondly to you mike,what type of engine do you have fitted to achieve these speeds,is it souped up or what do you put in the tank along with petrol,i use castrol 2t ,a tip from an expert when i had a morris 8,photo below with my daughter taken 2009.[frame][/frame]

[mike.perry]

The present engine is an ex WD generator engine now on its 2nd tour of duty. The 1st time I fitted it I carried out the modifications as listed under Tech. Info with the exception of changing the sump and oil pump which is how I found out about oil surge problems. Also fitted were a flywheel which I had previously had lightened and a reprofiled camshaft whch unfortunately I do not have any data for. The engine was always a bit of a smoker but pulled well.
In 2000 when unleaded petrol was about to be phased out I had the opportunity of running a side valve engine converted to run on unleaded petrol. This was the prototype of future conversions should they be required. Two were produced, a USHM2 and my USHM3. The conversion consisted of hardened valves, seats and guides, slightly larger inlet valves, reprofiled valve seat angles and polished ports.....my engine was also bored out to +60 thou. to correct an out of line cylinder. When fitted I found that the starter would not engage because it had been fitted with the 80 T WD flywheel instead of the normal 102 T flywheel, so it was changed for my lightened flywheel. The result was that when it was run in it went extremely well, on a couple of occasions just clearing the test hill in 3rd.
After 10 years hard use and the appearance of some suspicious cracks around the valve seats it was time for a rebuild. I took both blocks for examination and it was decided that the ex WD block was in better condition and so it was rebuilt to the same unleaded spec as the previous block with the addition of more work on the valve ports and stronger single springs to allow revs to 6000, the lightened flywheel and a reprofiled cam were also fitted and the engine was balanced. The engine is still on standard bore as the army always re sleeved their engines rather than reboring them.
Whilst this engine pulls quite well,it is not up to the performance of the previous engine which might be due to the smaller capacity. Also the previous engine ran with a 25D distributor which may have made a contribution.
The next stage in the development is to improve on the carb and manifold. If anyone has a Derrington head lying around?????

[bootlid]

You certainly put a lot of effort into morris motoring,i take it you dont like originality,i much prefer it myself,too many good morris cars have been ruined by upgrading and improvements,my friend just fitted a tank engine to his morris 38 tourer.

[mike.perry]

It is not a case of not liking originality, indeed I admire Frank's efforts to return SMM 584 to as near as possible to as it left the factory but the fact that certain original parts have not been fitted yet has not prevented him from enjoying driving the car.
My car has been adapted to suit my purposes and modern driving conditions by fitting radials, indicators but using the trafficator switch, seat belts and a few other mods. Many people have gone down the Alta route to extract more power out of an engine that is certainly strong enough to deliver it, I decided to see what useful power could be exracted from the side valve version.
The car has been used as a test bed for various components such as modifications to fit M1000 swivel pins, sealed wheel bearings and unleaded conversion to the engine. I have no intention of fitting A series engines etc