Morris Minor Owners Club

Lol, no it has never had a potato up its exhaust (to my knowledge anyway) and its not a 2-stroke! its a 9000 2.3 turbo...... (my dad does many many many business miles and needs a car good for cruising at higher speeds down the motorway!)

Right I am with you now Matt its not a proper classic Saab then just Modern Metal.

yes...... but its quick modern metal it only has 170 bhp

I see but Cams "A" series powered Moggie has 120 bhp with 1340cc and is non turbo, not many quicker "A" series powered ones .

but it has been modded, i know for a fact my dads engine is detuned by a hell of a lot!

It also has a lot more ccs and cost a whopping lot more. Plus it does not sound as nasty as an A-series on the edge of destruction!!

170BHP is not that great in a car of that size / weight. What is his 0-60 time?? Mine is about 7.6 seconds...

It's not just about power, it's also about delivery and weight.

i've looked it up... apparently its 0-60 is 7.5 seconds - remember this is a cruising car, and it still gets 35mpg the engine will also last a a hell of a lot longer than yours 300,000 miles + is common on these engines! ok - im gonna stop talking about this now, im sure your 120BHP minor is amazing Cam!

Matt and Dan the brothers from

lol! Nah, we just like having each other on (I do anyway) at home its all sweetness an light - no, honest. Wait till the holidays when we are at home, there will be a lot less p*ss taking then as it'll be face to face

im sure your 120BHP minor is amazing Cam!

Not really, it's far from amazing!! in fact it's in the garage at the moment feeling very sorry for itself with exhaust / clutch issues!!

I thought you said your Saab was a 2.3 turbo producing 170 BHP?? if so then I have the 0-60 listed as 8.1 seconds and 31.7 MPG

The 200 BHP model does 0-60 in 7.5 sec and returns 29.3 MPG

the engine will also last a a hell of a lot longer than yours 300,000 miles + is common on these engines!

I should hope so! modern engines SHOULD last a lot longer than an engine that was designed 50 odd years ago! It's not really a fair comparrison is it??

Yours has almost 1000cc more is twin overhead cam, fuel injected AND is turbocharged, whereas mine is an old normally aspirated pushrod engine!!

can we stop the engine wars now?

if so then I have the 0-60 listed as 8.1 seconds and 31.7 MPG

that sounds about right but the acceleration feels ridiculous when sat in the car

well figures do vary online - but why the hell am i backing modern metal

well figures do vary online

They sure do!

but why the hell am i backing modern metal

Ha ha! very true! especially on here.............. you should know where our loyalties lie.......

i know, i don't even like modern cars (with maybe a few exceptions....i just can't think what they are!)

Well I'm not a Pontis Pilot here and washing me hands of this war! LOL

If your moggy is still playing up try a new rotor arm . Some new ones can become unstable with a little heat so the whole thing becomes conductive messing up your spark. Buy the best you can or even better get an origanal part from an autojumble.

I had the exact problem on my '57 Minor and after frustrating testing, pulling apart and all the other suggestions from well meaning people, discovered it was a faulty rotor. I replaced it with a 50 year old one from another car and away she went and hasn't looked back. 10 seconds work!
Jonathan

Some new ones can become unstable with a little heat

Yes - I had a faulty rotor arm too, but it was 13 years ago. There's even a write up in the latest Matters about rotor arms. They say the ones you want are the ones without the bit of steel inside which clamps it to the distributor shaft.

I had renewed a lot of parts on my sisters Minor to ensure reliability - it developed a small missfire for the first second after you put your foot down. This continued for a couple of years and eventually gave up completely on the M6 during overtaking.
When the rotor arm was renewed - the missfire had gone too, so it was finally obvious where it had come from.

This started my fear of new parts as they are not always better than the parts you replace.

There's a bit in the current Practical Classics about rotor arms. Aparrently there are problems with the new ones heating up after a while and the plastic becoming conductive (how, I don't know, but that's what it says). Replacing the rotor for a new one often works, but only for a short while, until it heats again. Often an ancient rotor will work better than the new ones...

Gareth,
Basically they use the cheapest rubbish black plastic they think they can get away with (high percentage of unspecified filler than may or may not have insulating properties).
Unfortunately as the rotor arm was updated to add the internal (steel) clamp it reduced the amount of insulation between the rotor and ground.
When the tooling is worn and the plastic is such a poor quality the insulation effect between the rotor and ground isn't up to the job and they fail. It's not a new thing, but as parts quality approaches rock bottom it has become very common.
Often the suppliers can live with it as the consequence is selling more spares.

To be honest I have never had a problem with rotor arms or caps, but I tend to buy Champion/Lucas parts from Halfords and not the unbranded cheap ones from general motor factors.

Halfords have now stopped doing these makes but just sell their own brands which (after a discussion with them regarding quality) they assured me that the quality was equal. I had a look at two side by side and the finish was similar. I have been using Halfords own brand now for some time and I have not experienced problems. For all their faults they do seem to sell good quality parts even if they don't really know what they are talking about!

I have never bought any ignition parts from Bull Motif or ESM but I can't see those guys selling the poor quality ones unlike the Minor Centre in Birmingham! - comments and experience on that folks??