Morris Minor Owners Club

Trouble is with redex is it'll smoke like heck for some time after using it which may not help you diagnose whats wrong.

Its worth a shot though, especially as he has some allready- Steve, whip the plugs out, put enough in to soak into the rings- so about 10 ml each bore. Then turn car over by hand to distribute the redex and leave the redex to soak in overnight.

next day, remove plugs, cover the holes with rags (an old blanket etc) turn the engine over on the starter and it will blow most of the redex into the rags, minimises smoke on start up.

just so you all know nope the diesel didn't work either

it still started oln the first turn and smoke and back fired like a pig for a few mins until all the diesel had gone but still never ran ok

so looks like i'm changing an engine at some point

o well i suppose thats the trouble with buying second hand hey

Just pop the pistons out - dead easy - and then if it's stuck rings you can free them off. Just be careful not to break any.

mmmmmmmm means head off again and another gasket set i presume

I would re-use the gasket - it's not seen any running - but I'm sure many 'purists' will disagree! When I was a poor student I never bought a gasket - hoarded used ones from others! Never had any failures.

update.......
wiped engine out today and put the spare one i had that had been sitting for a while condition unknown also and it won't fire lol

been playing all day now and i'm fed up

stupid engines anyone near me got a good engine i can pick up tom that they know is a good one don't want to swap it again and it's not working

unless i can get this stupid thing to run

thanks

What a b****r!

Well, at least you've got two of everything to play swapsies with now .

Take a deep breath, stick the battery on charge overnight, and when you've calmed down, start again over the weekend (or maybe next weekend, depending on how calm you feel ) with the usual diagnostic approach, as if you hadn't just swapped engines.

Have you got fuel at the carburettor?

Is it reaching the inlet manifold?

Have you got a spark at the coil / plugs?

Are all leads in place at the coil / distributor?

Are the points actually making and breaking the LT circuit, or have you got a short somewhere? (Test with a 12v bulb across the points, it should light when they open.)

Is there a gap (0.015") at the points when fully open?

Is the ignition timing about right?

and so on. I expect you know the drill by now .

But I guess there could be a reason that the second engine was sitting there, "condition unknown".

Keeping my fingers crossed for you.

i've swapped all the extras ie dizzy coil etc off the old engine.
the only new partt is the engine itself so it shoul run.

the only dif in the engines is the dizzy poistion i've heard of ppl having no1 at 10 o'clock but never seen it and this one has it.

i tried everything to get it in normally but it won't go and at 10 o'clock it went straight in but as i say i have heard of ppl's being like that

It shouldn't matter that the key is 180 degrees out, as long as the plug leads are in the correct relative positions.

Did you switch the HT leads round on the old distributor cap to compensate for No. 1 now being at 10 o'clock? If 1 is now at 10 o'clock, 3 should be at 8 o'clock, 4 at 4 o'clock at 2 at 2 o'clock?

Can you actually see sparks at the plug ends, if you stick a screwdriver or tommy bar in the plug cap, and rest it so it nearly touches the block while you try to start the engine? (If you've got one of those spark testers, even better).

As long as the pistons go up and down - and the camshaft goes round - (and no-one has meddled with the cam timing) it WILL go ! You don't need another engine - just set this one up so the spark on #1 arrives as the piston reaches TDC with BOTH valves shut.

I'll pop over in the morning and give you a hand Steve, we'll have it purring like a kitten in no time

well the new engine is now running fine
many thanks to Lee for all his help this morning/ afternoon.

What was the problem with it?

How long have you got?

it was a combination of things all adding up to not firing.
timing slightly out no1 isn't in the usual place
coil missing occasionly bit from coil to dizzy might of been snapped
mixture
old engine that was rusty but not now.
tappets not adjusted right
thats the trouble with swapping engines you have to go through everything again and reset things
poor old Lee he was here for a few hours doing everything but as i said its running nice now

Oi less of the old you ;)