Morris Minor Owners Club

I have been trying to cure an oil leak which at first appeared to be coming from the front tappet chest cover but didnt stop when I replaced the gaskets. On closer inspection the leak was coming from the cylinder head gasket area at the front corner under the exhaust manifold.
Tonight I have taken the head off and am going to replace the gasket. The question is, in the cylinder head there are two water ways between 2 and 3 cylinders but in the block there is only one corresponding waterway, is this normal and if so why is it there.
Dave

What cylinder head is it ?

BMCE
The casting says 12G202
Block is supposedly 1098 engine No LOV/189E/H*******
Thanks for your help
Dave

It's the standard head for that engine - strange - and I was just changing heads at the week-end - I will have a look at my spare engine tonight.

246....that is the usual place for an oil leak from the head gasket! You will observe that the oil feed hole is very close to the edge. Hopefully your new
gasket will cure the problem but further trouble would indicate that either the
block or the head or both need to be trued up.

Yep - the head has two water holes, the gasket has two holes - and the block just one!! And a rusty mark. Never noticed that before. The head and gasket (and block) from a 1275 only have the one hole - most odd. Your oil leak is unusual - just check there is free passage up to the rocker gear - shove a welding wire through the hole - and then check the rocker gear pillar has a hole in it - and it's not blocked ! But it must be ok or the valves and rockers would have gone bang ages ago.

Willie + BM
Thanks for that.
I have had a good look at the valves and one exhaust is showing signs of wear, ( two small "cracks" on the outer rim) I will replace that one and regrind all the rest whilst it is off, I dont want to spend too much on it because I want to change over to a 1275 soon.
Pistons look good and no step on the bores so should keep going for a while unless bottom end goes!
I have the choice of two 1275s which I have had in my garage for years. First is a 1275 Sprite with sprite gearbox and second is I think a Marina engine, engine number 12V EH ***** with no box. Which is easiest and best and which gearbox / clutch set up is best for these.
Car is used by my daughter for daily commute of about 80 miles mostly motorway
Dave

Well - daily commute like that fuel consumption becomes very important - and so the smaller capacity engine (948 or 1098) with a nice small carb may be better. To get good economy from the 1275 you would want to gear the whole thing up as higly as possible -so either the 5 speed box conversion or higher ratio diff - but the last one of these I watched on ebay made £170 !! Choice of engine will be down to condition - use whichever is best. It's hard to get a Minor to better 35 mpg unless driven painfully slowly. For best cash economy you could go LPG which at 39 p/litre makes good sense if doing big mileage. Or - buy a small cheap diesel car for the commute - most will do ~ 50 mpg and keep the Minor for a fun car!

Roy, what sort of fuel economy are you getting out of your Minor then? Only I get a little more than 35 MPG on a run with my modified 1380 Minor. The 1098 does (or did) a little better, but hopefully I'll be able to measure this on the London to Brighton run this weekend. Not coming along are you?

I normally do between 30 and 38 mpg. Cold short runs maybe 25 mpg

my moped is the MPG giant. 159 mpg

I will be lucky to get 30 mpg - but when driven it's pretty much flat out all the way! It's NOT my every day car - that's a Punto which gets regular 46 mpg even though driven reasonably hard - but not flat out.

Ah right. That will be your lead foot that you must have kept from your rally days.

Exactly. Poor old Mini goes even faster and gets about 25 mpg.