Morris Minor Owners Club

I am intrigued about 'rattling' with the duplex chain. I first fitted one to the original 948 engine along with a 295 Cooper 998 head and 2A948 Cooper 997 cam. It ran for around 40,000 miles until the restoration in 1998, and the current owner of the engine decided to run it 'as bought' 3/4 years ago, apart from oil/filter change, and it is still going strong.

The current 1380 has had about 3 chains in its 50,000 mile life with us, but it has only been changed as a precaution when the engine was apart for something else, including a stripped new cam belt conversion! Reverted to a duplex chain and it has always been completely silent.

Again depends on quality I guess - and care taken when lining up the sprockets. Wise to get rid of the ghastly cam-belt conversion! It actually stripped on you??

Roy,

The 1380 originally had the standard duplex chain and I bought a belt conversion, which seemed fine, but not any quieter or smoother (some of the claims for it) than the duplex chain. It was the proper vernier adjustable type, so no more offset keys required.

After less than 10,000 miles I changed the cam and so treated the engine to a new belt, which stripped after about 2,000 miles, in the middle of France, so car had to be repatriated, as did we.

Stripping the engine found a small amount of oil in the timing cover area and that had destroyed the belt. The source of the oil was the new cam, which was a cross-drilled billet version, with a grubscrew in the sprocket end of it, and this had allowed a few drips of oil through. Today the same manufacturer (a distant relation of the pied ***** maybe?) supplies the grubscrew separately and instructions in bold letters about fitting and sealing it securely!

The other problem with the belt was the timing cover breather had a very small bore and the crankcase ventilation system did not work very well, and caused leaks from the rear scroll.

Since I could not see any benefit from a belt, and had seen quite the opposite, it was replaced with a 'vernier' (actually slots) adjustable duplex chain setup, and the oil consumption returned to normal!

Few years ago I bought a 1275 engine that came (surprisingly) with a cam belt fitted. I sold the kit for pretty much what I had paid for the engine - and fitted Duplex since I was running a 544 cam. I've never seen the point of the cam belt idea..

The timing chain cover previously mentioned no longer seem to be available from mini spares. I believe I may have found one on ebay though, could anyone confirm whether item #360661607567 is the right thing? Thanks

NO ! You need this one... http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Classic-mini- ... 5b03a491dd .... and this gasket and seal. http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Classic-Mini- ... 27e099289d

If you want a new cover Pt No: CAM4904 - they are available from Somerford Mini Ltd.

Only just got back on here - that listing has expired. Any others on ebay? I seem to be rubbish at finding them - I've ordered the seal and gasket. Cheers

Not hard to find.... http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Classic-mini- ... 5666b80007

The seller on the link above and given by bmc has a total of three suitable covers for sale and two of them have the breather.

Unless it's a 1275 engine - don't bother with the breather.