Morris Minor Owners Club

I just bought my first Morris Minor as a project. It's a 1961 4 door which has had a 1098cc engine fitted at some point. I bought it from a garage with 4 months MOT and although it needs some bodywork and interior restoration, the mechanics seemed perfect. The engine sounded fine when I looked at it, the radiator was full of water, oil level on the mark etc. I took it for a spin and it sounded fine, no knocks, no overheat.

Anyway after I bought it for £650 I asked the garage to deliver it. They actually drove it the 90 miles and the driver said it was great and cruised at 70mph all the way to our house. When he pulled up it sounded good.

The next day it wouldn't start and I did all the usual checks, but when I took out the 3 spark plug (from front), the cylinder had water in. My concern is that this may be more than a head gasket as I have never seen water in a cylinder before, even though it wasn't that much. There is oil in the radiator and the level was down a couple of inches. There is no water in the oil when you look on the dipstick.

Before I spend a lot of time on doing the head gasket etc, is this likely to be more than just the gasket.

Thanks

Andy

Head gasket sounds the most likely cause to me. Whip the head off and take a look.

I have exactly the same problem at the moment - the car is very difficult to start and when you take the plugs out they are covered in water.

One thing you could check is whether or not there is white smoke coming out of the exhaust as there is on my car - this is steam and indicates that water is being 'burned' in the engine.

I'm changing my head gasket tomorrow. Hoping to do it in about 3 hours.

There is oil in the radiator and the level was down a couple of inches.

Yes classic head gasket symptoms.
Dont forget to check that the head is still flat though.

yep def sounds like a head gasket...simple compression test will tell

yep had the same problem, heads gone.

Thanks for the replies, I have ordered a head gasket set, thermostat etc which should arrive tomorrow. I will strip it down tonight and take a look. Hopefully it should only take an hour or so in the morning to put it back together.

Don;t rush the job too much- its worth making sure you remove all traces of the old gasket from both the head and block and check the head for flatness with a straight edge and feeler gauge.

chickenjohn wrote:Don;t rush the job too much- its worth making sure you remove all traces of the old gasket from both the head and block and check the head for flatness with a straight edge and feeler gauge.

or a flat piece of glass........also you might has well de-carb the valves etc while you have it off

If using glass to check for flatness then it must be PLATE glass.

Got the head of this evening. The cylinders look ok and apart from the some carbon deposits the head also seems good. The head gasket came off the block quite easily, but it took me a long time to clean the residue off the head. I will check for flatness in the morning before I put it back together.

I do have a couple of questions if anybody can help.

- Is there anyway to tell if you have an unleaded head fitted
- Where's the engine coolant drain as I need to drain it some more before fitting the new gasket.

Thanks again for all the responses

1. You can sometimes see the hardened exhaust valve seat inserts in an unleaded head.
2. There should be a brass tap on the side of the engine block below the exhaust manifold and another on the bottom of the radiator, though both might be blocked up. The alternative is to take the bottom radiator hose off.

alex_holden wrote:1. You can sometimes see the hardened exhaust valve seat inserts in an unleaded head.
2. There should be a brass tap on the side of the engine block below the exhaust manifold and another on the bottom of the radiator, though both might be blocked up. The alternative is to take the bottom radiator hose off.

Thanks, your right I found where the one on the engine was meant to be but it is blocked up, the one on the radiator was stuck so I had already removed the bottom hose but I though it would be good to drain the whole system.

Hopefully the gasket will be here this morning, my 3 year old son is looking forward getting the tools out and help me fix it. So it my turn into an all day job while try and find the tools again.

But you really must take the time to pull the valves out - and grind them in. Makes sense to do it when the head's off anyway!