Morris Minor Owners Club

Hi all.

I am not sure why I didn't notice this Morris Minor owners club usergroup before.

My name is Rein Oosterling. I live in New Zealand and own a 1966 van and 1961 four door saloon. I use the saloon every day and have been for approximately six years. I do my own maintenance and repairs.

I would like to post my first question right away.
Does K&N manufacture an air filter that is a straight replacement for the original conical air filter used on the 1098 engine? I want to retain the original airfilterbox so I can make use of the ram pipe integrated in this airfilterbox.

Cheers,

Rein

Your name sounds a tad dutch

I think you would have to home make something, as K&N don't do a direct replacement.

Welcome btw

Hi, Good to see another from this side of the world on here.
Using the search on the K+N website, http://www.knfilters.com/search/universal.aspx , there are two filters that sort of fit. You might want to play with the numbers after measuring the inside of the filter box you have. ( http://www.knfilters.com/search/product ... rod=E-3130 and http://www.knfilters.com/search/product ... od=KA-8088 )
K+n filters will be a help with regard to being re-cleanable and lasting a long time but wont help the breathing of the motor if you are using the std air box. The inlet tube, while silencing the intake well, restricts the air that can get in. I had one fall off and the performance went up, as did the noise a little. As it was an old air box I experimented further and opened up the hole to around 50 mm and radiused the edge. This improved things even more. Next was to remove the lid altogether and just use the base plate and filter ( still a std one ) with an old teapot lid to fit in the top of the filter to hold it on. ( it looked quite strange )This was the noisiest, but the best performance. There is a previous thread on here about this subject which is worth a look.

Thanks Onne and Roni

Yes, I am Dutch. My wife and I emigrated eight years ago. New Zealand introduced us to the Morris Minor car.

At the moment I am reading the David Vizard book on the A engine. I only want to make the Morris a little bit more efficient (for now). I don't want to modify the cylinder head yet because it actually goes quite well for a forty year old small family car (6th oversize pistons probably help). Also, I know I am not confident enough to start modifying the head. I already removed the hot spot of the manifold. The inlet manifold is at the chrome platers, so I do not yet know if I will notice a big difference.

I have been reading the previous thread with interest. My approach is to get as much information as possible before I change anything. This is also why I bought the David Vizard book.

Vizard book is the definitive word. It really is much better to just upgrade to a better cylinder head from a 'sportier' version of the A series. The 12G940 from the 1275 cc version is an excellent upgrade if you can get hold of one. And - if you got to the chapter in V's book - the MG Metro inlet manifold with a larger carb makes a bog difference to the car. The standard air filter casing - even without any filter inside is very restrictive - and i'm sure BMC didn't design the tube to be a ' ram pipe' - it's just a means of getting hot air up from around the exhaust manifold. I can't get my engine to run at all well - with the casing fitted. Some on here have used larger filter casings from larger engine vehicles of the BMC range.

I will start looking at different options for a replacement air filter box and check out other peoples modifications at the coming Britisch car day in Wellington. The Mini owners are more inclined to modify there engine, so I will defenitly have a look at there cars. At the moment I am using the older type air filter box so I was able to move the inlet tube away from the exhaust manifold. Just small steps for now.

Mini lads drill large holes in the plastic casing to let extra air in.

Perhaps you could find a swivelling intake pipe from a car which could be
added 180 degrees opposite the original pipe to the filter casing? This would
double the available air capacity but, as it would be facing forwards, should
not increase the noise levels. You could just cut an extra hole as BMC suggests with a finishing trim so that it looks as though it has always been
there.

Mini lads drill large holes in the plastic casing to let extra air in.

Normally on the underside to stop whistling I believe.
In a saloon I used to have I removed the snorkle and got a friend to open it out to as large a size as possible and then make a new snorkle up.
To use a different filter housing ie plastic mini or mg metro type you really need to change to an HIF type of carb so that the housing fits, both of these will take a K & N filter element number E-2601.

The HIF is of course a far better carb anyway!

The HIF is of course a far better carb anyway!

Couldnt agree more I intend changing my HS4 for an HIF44 in the new year along with an MG metro housing as I find the cone type of K&N a bit too noisy.

Manifold is on the engine. More work than I anticipated. I needed to mill the exhaust manifold where the large washers sit on. The inlet manifold was polished prior to chrome plating. So the thicknes of the inlet and exhaust manifolds where different. Centralizing the inlet manifold also needed some thinking over.

Idling is practically unchanged. I think the mixture is too lean when cruising. It is very subjective but I am pretty sure of this. Already I am using the rich needle H6 and red spring. Do I need to modify the needle? I suppose this will be very difficult without proper analizing equipment.

found www.teglerizer.com/suneedledb
This will be very helpfull for selecting the right needle.

More work than I anticipated. I needed to mill the exhaust manifold where the large washers sit on. The inlet manifold was polished prior to chrome plating.

Hi Rein I assume you are talking about the standard manifold seperated to remove the hot spot, did the plating make that much difference, and I believe that the mini specialists do different washers to help overcome these types of issues when using differing manifolds.

Centralizing the inlet manifold also needed some thinking over.

Vizards book has some good pointers for these concerns and also proves that the old ideas of dowelling the manifold to retain exact location is really not required.

The manifold lost material because of the polishing for chromeplating. The face area that sits on the gasket also was pitted. Maybe due to a chemical treatment in preparation for the chromeplating. So I skimmed this face. The two removed aproximately 1 to 2 mm. I could have solved the problem with special washers. Actually, I never thought about that option at the time and milled the exhaust manifold.
I matched the inlet manifold port with the one in the head with the help of the gasket. The David Vizard book sugests to look down the port. This is not possible with this manifold.

Now I am starting to learn that there is much more to this modification than I first anticipated. I need to change the carburetor needle and downloaded a list of US needles. I am assuming I do not need to change the spring because the airflow did not change. I am not yet sure how to determine which needle I need. When I read the part of carb calibration in the David Vizard book I need a mixture analyser and rolling road dyno. That does make sence. But I don't know if I want to go that far. It sounds like an expensive exercise.

You could always try a 'Colour Tune' which is a glass spark plug which allows
you to see the actual colour of the explosion in each cylinder if you so wish.
Although it doesn't allow you to see the explosion under load it is exactly the
same at tickover as the carb' lifting pin', and ,with a little practice, would be useful in showing at which throttle opening the mixture(i.e. the needle profile) was incorrect.

I do have a colour tune. I have used it to check the idling mixture. But I don't think the colour tune plug will survive higher revs. (under load?) to check the remainder part of the needle.
Yesterday I did a long test run. The inlet manifold was very cold after a long highway run. The difference in temperature is quite amazing. So much so that I am curious to see what happens when it gets cold in winter. I have not checked the manifold after city traffic use yet.

The cold inlet manifold may be warning that you are close to experiencing
the carb' icing up. You cannot mistake this as you only have to feel the
piston chamber on the carb to know that it is icy cold! The only time I experienced it was when I was driving fast on a motorway without having
turned the air intake pipe towards the exhaust manifold to warm up the incoming air.

When I made this modification I never thought the carb. could become too cold. I was surprised by the difference in manifold temperature. Fortunatly winters in this part of New Zealand are mild and it only gets below zero occasionally.

Rein, when my carb iced up it was not below zero just a combination of
fast running on a motorway without a warmed up inlet path.