Morris Minor Owners Club

Right, yet more photos, including the long-awaited centre main and other such things, plus a few miscellaneous shots of the plate etc. Same url...

The crank and shells look pretty good - it would be foolish to re-use the shells unless desperate. The centre main has a wee rub - they usually do - but not too bad. Ideally the journals should be measured v accurately with a micrometer to check for any 'ovality' which is more worrying than a little wear. But really - they look fine. Check on the backs of the shells to see if they were oversize - will be marked STD or 10/20/30 etc . And take great care to NOT mix up the big-end caps - they MUST be kept with their own conrods - hope it's not too late here! There must be suppliers somewhere near you - for the MG market ? Many common parts - of course they may not be any less expensive than sending to Blighty for them !

I don't know if I'm looking in the right place, but I can't find any particular measurement on the shells... They're stamped with digit strings, but nothing like you suggested, STD or 10/20/30...
Don't worry, I kept the big ends together- the manual made a BIG deal about that, so I thought I'd better do it! I'm keeping them loosely screwed to each other.
I suppose there must be some for the MG market, actually. I know for sure there aren't any near by, but New York's only an hour away, so I'm sure there's something there. I heard just yesterday that there's actually a Morris club in New York! Might have a look up there...
Now, this might seem a silly question, but that's because it is. My engine, as I'm assuming every A series does, has a very rough finish, both inside and out, on the block. How can I tell when it's clean? And will paint stick properly to the exterior? I'm getting half a century's gunk off the inside and outside, but I can't really tell how I'm doing. It just seems odd to have such a rough finish on the interior, though I suppose as long as it's not in connection with moving parts it's fine..

That's the finish you get from the sand in the casting mould - there's no point machining it all over. It's clean when you can't wash any more dirt off!

All right... Sounds fair. It's just picked up a lot, and when the manual says that "everything must be spotless" before reassembly, it's worrying when everything's black and speckled!
Still washing stuff out- what's the best way to get very old and pretty solid gunk from the oil system? Everything seems fairly solid inside... Also I don't know if it matters, but the cooling chambers in the block are very coated in rust, and the aperture too narrow to get any sort of scraper or sandpaper in properly. I assume it's probably ok, but just in case...
Couple of new pictures up on the photobucket, using that for now as I am still setting up all my pictures on the main blog I will be using later. I spotted something odd on the clutch when I removed it, and some chips in the centre cam bearing, just wondering what to do!
http://s195.photobucket.com/albums/z265/jackkelleher/ is the url.