Morris Minor Owners Club

I'll post a photo of a threaded plug---if I can find it. will check the thread as well.

You can tap them to whatever thread you want. Then just go down to your local plumbing place to get the appropriate plugs. But be warned there has been mention recently on mini forums about fitting slightly too long plugs, and it blocking oil ways, ruining your lovely rebuilt engine! Unless its a race engine you plan on regularly stripping and cleaning, I don't see the point of going to all the effort of getting, and fitting threaded plugs.

The thread is dependent on the oil gallery diameter but I think I used 1/2 unf,

The engine is an

unknown quantity

not a notoriously knackered old boat anchor.
From the look of the waterways it's been treated very well, unless the oil and sump were thick with unspeakable crud I see no reason to assume that there are horrors hiding in the oilways.

Exactly - take the relief valve out and blast a water hose through the passages - it will be fine........

Dead ends in oilways are sludge traps and if you go so far as to clean and flush out the block, seems silly not to complete the job. Yes it involves more effort but we're enthusiasts aren't we? So surely we don't cut corners ! 'Don't spoil the ship--------'

Completely agree. Also if vizard says you should ALWAYS do it, then I see no reason to disagree!

What does a trap do?

Catches things--- that then get softened and loosened when the rest of the block is flushed through, ready to float around later.
I remove the plugs as a matter of course and have had no reason to regret doing so but I don't mind if others don't!

silloyd wrote:OK, better safe than sorry - I guess I'll have to replace the cog.

Timing cover looks like this:
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Hacksawing the breather and redundant timing bits off is the easy bit, filling in the resultant hole without access to welding gear could prove more troublesome.

Haven't received the damper yet, so hoping it will be OK.

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I can never understand why anything needs to done to the timing case breather; this must be a better idea

MarkyB wrote:...unless the oil and sump were thick with unspeakable crud I see no reason to assume that there are horrors hiding in the oilways.

Err, there was about an inch and a half layer of thick gloop in the sump. My suspicion is that whilst the block seems in reasonable nick, it was either a tired or a mis-treated engine in the past.

BMC - I did indeed remove the relief valve out and blast the water and oil ways with a hose. A fair amount of rusty bits came out fromthe waterways and some gloop from the oilways (after pouring in diluted Swarfega Degreaser and letting it sit for a while).


Millerman - the timing cover is already battered (that's how it was when I got it), so it needs to be tidied up somehow. Incidentally, do you use the timing breather instead of or as well as the tappet chest breather?

There is also a brass plug underneath the oil warning switch which can/should be removed and replaced with a threaded plug.

Millerman - the timing cover is already battered (that's how it was when I got it), so it needs to be tidied up somehow. Incidentally, do you use the timing breather instead of or as well as the tappet chest breather?

It's a 1275 so no tappet chest cover

No - it's a 1098..... Use all the breathers you can!

BMC - I think Millerman was saying that his engine is a 1275 that doesn't have tappet chest covers, rather than my engine which is a 1098 that does. Incidentally I currently have a pipe from the rocker cover to the (HIF38) carb and an open tappet chest pipe poining downwards. (I think the breathing works but I still get some blue smoke when accelerating off from a stop or after it's been idling for a while, hence this rebuild.)


Les - Thanks, I will have a look for that extra plug when I get back to base tomorrow.

les wrote:There is also a brass plug underneath the oil warning switch which can/should be removed and replaced with a threaded plug.

Is this it? (Can't really tell under all the paint!)[frame][/frame]

That's the one.

Ta Les.

Another question:

These are the cam followers. (Not easy to show in photos)
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One has a convex end (second from left on bottom row in first picture) and the faces of a couple of the others are not particularly stunning. I'm assuming that because they're hardened they can't be dressed and therefore new ones are in order?

And before anyone asks, yes I forgot to number them as they came out

Leave the oil plugs alone........just asking for problems to start fiddling with them. And yes -these are scrap. And probably the cam is too........