Morris Minor Owners Club

I know nothing I merely pass on what I've read here, and try to be perfectly clear that I'm not stating facts.

i think the main point to bare in mind is that the higher the revs the higher the stresses on all of the engine components, so things will wear out much faster, and are more likely to break. There are modifications you can do that produce no extra power, but make the engine last longer, such as fitting a centre main bearing cap, fitting a crank damper from a mini, and for very high revs having all the crank/rods/flywheel balanced.

so in conclusion dunketh's engine is wearing out faster than everyone elses!!

Picky

dunketh wrote: I've noticeably improved my power through home tuning on several occasions with timing and needle experiments. That's all on the standard 1098 exhaust and inlet setup. Is the Minor exhaust really that bad?

If you've slapped a HIF44, a water heated inlet manifold and a better cam/head combination then yes, it really is that bad. All these things are a waste with the standard exhaust if its power you are after - they are not timing or needle experiments they are stage 3 mini tuning elements and the exhaust is usually the first thing to be changed. If its more power you want, change the breathing!

KirstMin wrote: All these things are a waste with the standard exhaust if its power you are after If its more power you want, change the breathing!

I had problems with my A35 exhaust blowing at the manifold where the downpipe attaches.
In the end I managed to get a traditional cast iron clamp that sealed it.
The car then hardly ran.
The club told me there was a batch of rogue silencers which had the wrong internal perforated sheet.
I removed my exhaust, opened up the silencer and found I had one of the duff items. Wanting to get the car back on the road, and seeing the exhaust system was nearly new, I drilled all the holes out before rewelding.
No more blown joints (due to back pressure) but also gained increased acceleration without excess noise.
A restrictive exhaust is one of the first things I'd change in future before carb, head or manifolds on any of my vehicles.

Paul Humphries

It's 6k revs that the 1098 engines don't like - good grief, 4k is only about 65 mph ! And yes the standard exhaust is ghastly, however i still haven't manged to change mine yet and the car goes very well indeed with 940 head and big carb etc. I have no doubt it will be even better when I finally get time to make up a decent big bore system with LCB manifold. But have other priorities right now !!!

so in conclusion dunketh's engine is wearing out faster than everyone elses!!

lol.. You do have to admire just how tough an A series is. I've never actually managed to kill one yet.
Thinking about it I probably only go as high as 5000's. After my recent bout of tinkering I'm finding I can get a little more speed for less revs.

Still, it does 70 every day with fail on the road back and from work. Occasionaly 80-90 if I'm trying to prove something or I'm bored.

I'll change my exhaust system when someone starts selling them at a decent price.

Well, I have the 3 into 2 cast exhaust MG Metro manifold. So thats a start. Wonder if it would be possible to modify Metro exhaust system.

I think the silencers in standard exhaust systems are the main "bottleneck" in terms of airflow. if you swapped the metro standard silencers for performance "straight through" silencers then that would be a large improvement. The 3 into 2 metro manifold works in a similar way to an LCB exhaust I believe, so replacing this with a high performance LCB would only improve the performance a little bit.

Picky

Sorry Picky, I meant that I HAVE one not that it is fitted yet. I still need the ackers to buy a stainless system ...... or cobbled one up myself from Metro system.

I see. I suspect the main problem with converting the metro system is it will not have the bend in it for your rear axle. I have the full maniflow setup (lcb and exhaust) which is brilliant performance but mild steel and possibly over priced.

Is that exhaust 13/4" if so, and you need a system in stainless drop me a pm

MGB exhaust just goes under the back axle - so same method could be used on Minor, with caveat about rough roads of course! Many moons ago (rally Minor) I had big bore exhaust coming out in front of the rear wheel - glorious noise it made too!

I see that Bull Motif do a Big bore stainless branch manifold and and twin box stainless big bore system as well. Im was quibbling over whether to get one a system like that for my 948.

I believe we used parts of an RC30(40)? mini system on the turbo trav belonging to Gas. It was a side exit ,but sounded excellent!!

I think you are thinking of an RC40 system, I have one in my shed, was going to try and put it on the minor, but where I live I really need something that will go over the axle, or exit in front of the wheels!

I was going to build a system that exited in front of the rear wheel but was worried about fumes as I've got a door back there!
You can buy all the parts (minus the manifold) from Burton Power. They even do bends that should go over the rear axle no problem.
Thing is, when I priced it all up it wasn't all that cheap - especially considering it would be only mild steel non-expertly made by yours-truly.

Does nobody go to the local fast fit places and offer a couple of quid to rummage through the skips any more?

I've cobbled together some excellent exhausts from bits of utterly random junk in the past

If you go to the National you will find exactly what you are looking for on one of the traders stands. Nudge, nudge

Does nobody go to the local fast fit places....

Only if I want to be abused by a group of 'missing link' folk in boiler suits.

"Panhard rod/jacking point, pah whats the difference...."