Morris Minor Owners Club

The A-series book with the turbo section? How much?

the book is called tuning bl`s a series engines by david vizard
it has a section called forced induction, seperated into supercharging and turbo charging the differences, suck through verses blow through, turbo sizing and matching, leylands turbo metro, and so on

not sure if this is the one you want, let me know

That's the bunny. PM incoming.

The last turbo A series we did had 115bhp. All standard turbo parts wereused.Had an dash mounted boost control valve too, which tended to be on max most of the time. Makes a good conversion, allied to good handling.

I'm guessing the engine I have will be a standard Ital, unlikely to have any internal changes to suit the turbo. I may be wrong, but in case I'm not:

What did you need to do to the engine for the turbo conversion?

(Since this thread is drifting maybe we need to start a new one...)

It was me who won it!

Not another one! But this one was far too good to let pass really. Even breaking it for spares will be a little money spinner.

The idea being as follows. My two door saloon has a Marina engine and box and its the worst bit of the car TBH and I was going to stick with it after failing to find a twin cam conversion over the summer.....Really wanted to get the car finished for september so I started buttoning it up and finishing it off.



Standard engine will be for sale soon, its got a hot cam and is low mileage and was re-built a few years ago. Really good 1275cc engine.



Ive hankered for some more power for a while but also wanted to get the car finished.

So whats going on is a straight engine swap. I'll be having the car delivered down to Exmouth and in the Spring when I get a spare week (I don't work the summers so should have a few of them! ) i'll bring my 2 door down from Scotland and spend a week swapping everything over.

Ive got an RS2000 rear axle and coilovers which'll be going on, so if the trav does have rear discs then im sure someone can find a new home for it on here! Everything else pretty much'll be swapped over.

The trav has an in car boost switch and guages etc. The engine is aparently Metro block and inners full re-built, the turbo was overhauled (1380 I think) and the gearbox was brand new 7 years ago when the conversion work was done so im not expecting any suprises...apart from a seized clutch which im hoping can be free'd somehow. Nice and easy swap over basically for some turbo'd fun!

Before anyone says it my saloon should be fine. Have fitted new sills, chassis legs, floor and have had the forethought to add extra bracing to these areas already, ive got a 6 point roll cage fitted as well, I might be adding to this tho to give a bit more stiffness.

We'll see what the travs like when it arrives! Bought unseen from some emails, done this before, bit of a risk but its still a very cheap car! If the car can be patched up and MOT'd I might run it for a bit then sell the shell and my marina lump off as a project. If the woods gone Im thinking of chopping the roof off and welding the doors up or something for a summer convertible.....im just thinkin out loud here....so many things you can do.

Get some more pics and ifo up when I get it, should be interesting, never heard of anything quite like this car before so cant wait to get it!

Anyone got any thoughts about the car, ideas about the whole project etc....some constructive critisism would help the project I think.

Prob not the best place for the Pursts amongst us, im a modifying anorak so your not going to convert me or my thinking! ANYTHING that helps keep these cars on the road is good.


Oh, and if anyone wants to earn some cash and has a trailer im looking at paying a courier to collect and deliver the car, so if theres anyone out there whos upfor earnings some cash for christmas PM me. Would be nice to help someone out helping me out and keep the cash in the club. Got a quote for delivery to scotland (West Kilbride from West Wickham london) only 350quid....bargain me thinks for costs of fuel, trailer hire, car hire and my time etc...

If it was me, I'd run the traveller for a bit as is (once mot'd) to really make sure the mechanics are ok - nothing worse than doing a job twice. You'd easily sell your 1275 lump on here (bmcecosse?)

Pete

plastic_orange wrote:If it was me, I'd run the traveller for a bit as is (once mot'd) to really make sure the mechanics are ok - nothing worse than doing a job twice. You'd easily sell your 1275 lump on here (bmcecosse?)

Pete

We'll see, that had crossed my mind....but then you get to the restore/cost/viability argument. Dont want to spend a fortune welding it up and poss replacing wood if I can help it TBH....my 2 doors been waiting in the wings for some time waiting to be finished and thats the only car I wanna get on the road really.

Im sure the 1275 lump'll go quick!....it went quick in the minor when fitted too!:lol:
Not gona start tryin to sell it yet till the conversions done as you never know! ANyone interested tho....guage of intrest in it would be good.

Love the Guinness can coil!

Jim, the spec of the motor we had built was a std Midget 1275 taken out to 1293. standard metro turbo head but ported and polished along with turbo gaskets. Compression was 8:1 using Omega pistons. The crank and clutch was balanced and heavy duty crank bearings used. We also had the sump baffled to control the oil flow. The turbo was run at between 7and 10 psi. Quite a quick motor. The Minor Clinic did a similar conversion on their red roadster which gave similar performance figures.
I've been told to look at the Turbo mini sites as someone has managed to squeeze 240bhp out of one of the metro motors. However they run them until thet detonate ,usually 3 runs up the strip. Hence the shortage of blocks and bottom ends for the turbo motors.

jonathon wrote:Jim, the spec of the motor we had built was a std Midget 1275 taken out to 1293. standard metro turbo head but ported and polished along with turbo gaskets. Compression was 8:1 using Omega pistons. The crank and clutch was balanced and heavy duty crank bearings used. We also had the sump baffled to control the oil flow. The turbo was run at between 7and 10 psi. Quite a quick motor. The Minor Clinic did a similar conversion on their red roadster which gave similar performance figures.
I've been told to look at the Turbo mini sites as someone has managed to squeeze 240bhp out of one of the metro motors. However they run them until thet detonate ,usually 3 runs up the strip. Hence the shortage of blocks and bottom ends for the turbo motors.

This sounds like the same car!

Never thought i'd have afforded a well modified JLH car!

over the moon here!

Back to earth now tho.....gotta brave the cold wind and start the never ending job of my other travellers woodwork!

Should be with me by next Tuesday!

Can't wait to get a proper look round her and start my plotting!

Pics and details to follow.

Where's it going - Exmouth or West Kilbride?

Pete

plastic_orange wrote:Where's it going - Exmouth or West Kilbride?

Pete

Plan is to move it down to Exmouth. The money ive saved in storage keeping my 2 door at my parents means I can hace that courierd down to exmouth in the spring and if the travs too far gone (which it sounds like at the moment!) Ive organised with my garage mate (Who's also building a turbo'd 1275 frog eyed sprite!) will take a couple of weekends to swap everything over into my 2 doors shell!

Right, out to start treating my other travellers woodwork now! Wish me luck!

Well its arrived!

But im stuck in Madrid and should be back tomorrow....BA flights depending!

Pics to follow.

Ok, managed to make it back from Madrid thru Heathrow! What a dive!

Given the Traveller the once over and it looks really good! Im really suprises seeing as I bought the car off eBay as sight unseen with 4 fuzzy pictures and a description that paints a pretty bleak picture!



Heres the beast!



Some nice little touches all over the car like this oil cooler vent.



Woods not the best, but in my experience wood like this can come up like new when its treated and re-varnished.



Okay, well, some bits might need a little more than a re-varnish!



The engine bay! hmmmm



Bit of a blurry picture of the turbo unit and carb.



In car boost gauges and adjustable turbo switch.



Marina back axle with anti tramp bars.



Woodwork aint that bad lookin.



And the other side.

So, transplant or save!



Overall the cars a bit ragged around the edges and needs a fair bit done to the wood but the floor and chassis are sound and the paintworks a bit scruffy. Needs new drivers side wing and I think I could get away with a couple of small patches of woodwork in the aft top corner (the really rotten section in the pics! Havent fired her up yet either, so that'll be interesting, aparently the clutch has seized!

Got bills that run into the thousands for new turbos, engine re-builds sierra gearboxes and all sorts! Majority of the work was carried out at JLH so hopefully Jonathan'll see this and comment!

Got a rolling road print out for the car

115 bhp ! ! !

As I'm heading down that path I'd be interested to see some of the details of the turbo installation. I don't have thousands to spend...

Is there any strengthening of the car's structure? How are the engine/gearbox/axle held in place?

Personaly I'd swap the engine and box over to your saloon. Then strip out the trav to allow full view of the structure to determine whether its worth spending money on. I'd definately remove the wood as its been in this sort of condition for years, so may have caused unseen corrosion.
The motor is an excellent unit built by my engine builders but fitted by a local mechanic, he did a good job of fitting the unit and commisioning it, but I think this could be re visited in order to tidy up most of the plumbing, which looks a bit messy.
The motor is strong and pulls extremly well considering the amount of sound deadening fitted.
The running gear is all Ital inc torsion bars,brakes and rear axle. These were fitted along with the C.S Autoclassics bell housing and handling packages ie Series!V. We were at this point in time C.S Autoclassics only agent.
There was a feature in Minor matters some years ago now, which gave full build details. If you need more info I'll try and dig out the car file. Good luck with it.

Sound deadening! Now thats something special on this car, every conceivable panel and floor space has been covered in sound deadening!
Bonnet, floor, door panels its everywhere! I was of the thinking that Turbo's ran very hot making the sound deadening a little controversial to use in the engine bay because of its heat saving proerties as well as the sound ones.

Was it really that loud to warrant all the sound proofing?!

I'll be taking the minor down to my mates garage and we'll get it up on the ramps to have a poke round underneath, he has a frog eyed sprite he's planning on doing this conversion with so has been loadsa help, and its where we'll be doint the conversion!

My idea about if its rotten chop the roof off the back end may still stand! We'll see, I recon the woodwork might get by and it may get a ticket, the underside looks sound to me, only the drivers side wing thats gone.