Morris Minor Owners Club

hi

further to me dreaming about caravaning with my traveller ( its a beautiful sunny afternoon) ...

if i wanted to get a bigger engine, than the 1098 i have, but i didnt want to change the engine mountings, leave the gearbox alone etc (i just want the extra bhp for pulling a caravan, not for speed), so that i could put the 1098 back if i wanted, what is the best engine to look out for, the most standard 1200 a series ? i spose id still have to swap the exhaust ?


cheers
grainger

From the information I have read the next step up is the 1275 Marina or Ital engine. This involves a few changes one of which is shortened engine mounts.
You could always try changing the spec of your 1098 ie with a 1.5" SU, water heated manifold and maybe a cam from Kent or Piper. It's posible to bump the bhp up by abut 15% with very easily obtained bolt-on mods such as I have described.
Check out Dave Vizards book 'Tuning the A-Series Engine' or Owen Burtons 'Morris Minor Modification Manual'.

cheers pete, that would probably be the best option, i have a couple of 1098 engines and lots of spares so it makes sense to make the best of what ive got .

ive been reading david vizards book and a lot of it still goes over my head but some of his points about making a few hp here and there are starting to sink in.


grainger

You can get the 1098 bored out for more ccs, and I believe that 1275cc is possible with the small block A-series, although that is a lot of trouble to go to and would work out a lot more expensive than fitting a stock 1275.

I personally would replace the gearbox with the 1275 version (marina / ital) as the 1098 gearbox is a bit weak at the best of times. The prop and axle are quite strong, so I would leave them as they are.

If you fit the Minor engine front plate to the Marina/Ital 1275 engine, then all the engine mountings are in exactly the same place, and if you use the Minor's rocker cover, they look virtually identical under the bonnet, except to the trained eye!

Grainger,
Vizards book is thorough and excellent for it's intended purpose. But it's easy to loose track as he does wander about a bit from one engine to another. There are also some glaring errors (such as the engine bore and stroke table near the front - this had me double checking all my other manuals ).
The chapter 'Bolt on mods' is probably all anybody seeking a modest power increase without the potential complications of replacement halfshfts, gearbox etc needs to read.
Remember, the standard 1098 engine is quite a good motor anyway and minors have been known to wear gearboxes and halfshafts in standard form. Make sure all the rest of the drivetrain is 100% before you start boosting the engine.

Further to my previous post I should have made the most important point. The best BHP for your buck should not be your aim. Torque is what you need for pulling a caravan. You can imporve the bhp of an engine in many ways but what often happens is that you make the engine 'cammy' The increased power comes in at the top of the rev range and torque in the useable rev range suffers. I had a Polo that ended up like this even with a 'high torque' cam. If you gunned it everywhere it did go faster, but driving around normally you certainly had to use the gears more. The lesson here is that the manufacturers are not necessarily incompetant buffoons who are trying to make the cheapest engines and damn the performance. Often they do get it right. I'd be inclined to think the same for the 1098 as (even allowing for the fact that it is a long stroke in comparison) the torque is far greater than the 948. Whilst a 15% improvement in power as I described is well proven I cannot vouch as to whether the torque gains or suffers and you would do well to get some proof before you proceed.

The person I bought my 1098 van from got rid of it because it wouldn't tow his horse box, with horse inside!

I would certainly want to uprate the brakes opn the traveller before thinking about the engine/drive train.

Yeah, but how heavy's a horse and trailer?!

I was just trying to point out what abuse some people give their vehicles.

Here's a tale of major Minor abuse, as told to me by my Stepmother whenever my mog visits. She was brought up on a farm in County Galway in the late 50s/early 60s. Her dad owned a splitscreen Minor saloon, probably a 30 bhp, 803cc series 11 (highlight wings). This poor car was used to drag a heavy farm trailer almost everyday, including frequent trips transporting their prize bull (the weight? - probably over a ton! ).

Apparently the Morris never failed to start in the morning and always towed whatever they hooked up to it. It finally gave up the ghost when the floor rotted away, yet the mechanicals were still going strong. Her dad is now 90 years old, and to this day he still maintains that "the Morris was the best car I ever had, all my other cars were a waste of time" !

Hehehehe. I like that.

Have you thought about a supercharger? They are good for improving torque, it saves changing alot of other components, although you will need to be able to cope with the increase in power.

Again, Vizards book talks about this alot. It is quite expensive, unless you can get one second hand, but they are quite reliable, from what little I know.

There was one on eBay recently for an A-series engine. It went for over £1000!!! You could get a pretty decent high output engine built by a specialist for less that!!

It's a good idea, but unfortunately VERY expensive.

Ford engines:

Too long
Too heavy
Poor power to cc ratio
Poor power to weight ratio
Thirsty
Tend to blow blue smoke after about 60,000 miles

In short......horrible engines.

I think Volvos would be out as they use a transaxle (constant drive prop, with gearbox in rear axle assembly) so, although anything can be put in, it's a lot of effort for very little gain.

This is why people tend to go for the Marina / Ital or Fiat / Lotus twin cam.