Morris Minor Owners Club

Mike

Sorry, should have stated 'The GPO MORRIS MINOR was never fitted with the 848/948cc unit'!

Your 'FUU' would have been fitted with a 8MC/J/??? type 803cc engine!

First 1098cc GPO vans were; (e) 176001 = ALC 963B & (p) 177641 = BUV 321B

(Also have the above's cab/engine numbers!!!)

Rather odd that the 'MG site' still lists GPO 948cc's(?).

Of course, the GPO used Minivans,2 prototype Austin A35's & a Standard,although I've no idea what engine the 1973-1974 & 1980's Royal Mail minivans were fitted with!

PLUS there was an experimental LPG Postal Minor in early '71, alleged diesel experiments too, although this suspect info has yet to be 100% confirmed!

With a slapped wrist!!

Chris Stevens
POMM Historian & Archivist

BMCEcosse,

are you trying to source bits for a small bore economy engine? If so why not use an 803cc engine?

It is a plan - but the 803 is just too pathetic..... The crank is like a bent piece of wire and the 'big'-ends are tiny...... An 848 with the block decked to allow the pistons to be flat-topped, fitted with a 202 head (skimmed to the limit) and AEA 630 cam - and a tiny 1 1/8" carb would be my plan.

flat top pistons and very skimmed 202 sounds like very high compression ratio. surely efficiency is lost in compressing? or do you just need to bring the chamber volume down to meet the smaller displacement of the engine?

Engine efficiency increases as the CR is raised - hence the great economy of the diesel with CR of ~ 22/1. Problem is detonation........which can be helped by some water injection at full throttle. But the plan is to limit the full throttle with the small carb - with high velocity across the jet bridge for good vapourisation. It's probably never going to happen - the performance will be miserable............

Rumour has it a 948 crank can be machined to accept 803 rods and that Leyland did this. I can't confirm this though. I have seen a 'hefty' 803 crank before though but I can't tell if it was a home brew.

I can't help thinking power would be very miserable and you would need to keep gearing relatively low. My 1275 with an HS6, standard cam, MG Metro head and large bore exhaust regularly returns 40mpg. Its better than my BMW 525 diesel was. That's with a 3.7:1 diff and wide wheels. I imagine with a smaller carb, LCB manifold, skinnier tyres, High C.R and a towing cam (266 or MG Metro) even better results could be achieved. My engine has a Kenlowe too so it does warm up quickly in all weathers.