Morris Minor Owners Club

Well - 45 is on the low side - but not desperate... is it on 20W50 oil and a filter change in living memory?

Oil pressure will drop at idle when the engine is fully up to temperature.

Yes I'm using 20w50 oil and the filter was changed fairly recently. A compression test returned very good figures. 160/170 on all 4 cylinders. I can hear some of the noise I was talking about when stationary and just revving the engine quite hard. The exhaust seems fine and is not touching any bodywork.. It also seems well sealed. The oil pressure does go up and down when driving slower / faster / idle, but when on an hour long run it does seem to drop to around 45psi at 60/65mph....

I went to see a Morris 'Specialist' today to get an opinion on the noise I'm experiencing. He said everything seems to be in order in terms of the exhaust. Nothing is touching bodywork that should not be etc. It seems very much an engine problem, probably bearings. I may try to replace shell bearings by removing the sump as a last ditch effort to cure the noise, otherwise I will bring forward my plans to rebuild and lightly mod the 1098 engine as I discussed in this thread.

http://www.mmoc.org.uk/viewtopic.php?f= ... ifications

When that happens, I will also take the opportunity whilst the engine is out, to clean up the engine bay, and remove any corrosion/surface rust etc.

I'll be needing some advise on all that , but until then, I shall collect the necessary parts needed.

Thanks.

Did you ever do anything about the upside down engine steady - which may be causing the vibration to transmit to the bodyshell? I'm wondering where you found a Morris 'Specialist' ..... Your slightly low oil pressure may respond well to new mains and big-end shells - and a nice new oil pump. Engine out to do that of course. But I'm not at all convinced the harshness is being caused by worn shells. If the shells were as bad as that - the oil pressure would be MUCH lower.

Hi bmcecosse,

It was a Morris restorer in Ely.

I am a little confused by the engine steady.

Here is a picture of one I found on the forum and the other , mine. I can't see the difference in terms of positioning?

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We checked the steady mounting brackets for cracks, it is all solid.

When we revved the engine at stand-still, we could hear the vibration coming from the engine 'area' and nothing was touching where it should not. It definitely seems engine related in some way or other, but it is confusing.

Ah, Ian at Minor Services. Good bloke and very helpful. It's the bracket that is bolted onto the cylinder head that Mr BMC is referring to/

Hi, yes that's the guy, Ian at minor services. Thanks for the picture. I had very bad luck with my engine steady check, the one picture I looked at on the web had it the wrong way round, just like mine , so I thought mine was correct. Thanks for that, I'll turn it around and see if it makes a difference.

I cant move the bolt going into the engine block at all, and I don't want to break it. Whats the best way of getting it out?
Thanks

Check that the engine steady is correctly adjusted first. There should be instructions in the workshop manual but basically the steady shouldn't be "pushing" or "pulling" on the engine when correctly adjusted. I wouldn't have thought flipping over the bracket would make that much difference. Also undoing the nut can cause future head gasket leaks although I have done it and got away with it. If you are planning on having the engine out and pulling apart then not a worry.

First of all remove the whole tie bar from the body end, leaving just the engine bracket in place, and see if the noise/vibration goes away?

If it does, then if you can turn the engine bracket over do so, but either way replace the 4 rubber parts and adjust it up so that the rubbers are just compressed a little, and the brackets either end are central between the rubbers.

That's a good idea, thanks, I'll try that tomorrow and report back.

The steady 'should' be on a long stud - with the head securing nut below - and another nut on top to secure the steady. Thus fiddling with the steady will have no effect on the security of the head gasket....... Unfortunately - few are like that now.......