Morris Minor Owners Club

hi all,I was thinking of turning My other moggie into a diesel,now i know theres a few of you that have done it,so any help would be great.Ive got a 1.8 diesel ford engine with gearbox axel and propshaft.Will this do or? and how much extra strenthening will the poor old girl need?

Cheers
John

HI John, am thinking the same thing, but a different more modern engine, I was thinking about the Toyota 1.5 Turbo Diesel, very comon over here and cheap, readily available in RWD and much lighter than the A- series, you might want to consider that if you like

i was thinking of the same idear but was looking for a rascal van that is diesel and use the full running gear to do the job Frank how much work needs to be done to do it your way as need to have a fast fit as need to do it in weekend or long weekend

well you need to fabricate new engine mountings, to be honest not sure how much cutting needs to be done but it's basically same size as a twin cam, I was going to mate it to a Hyundai Stellar 5 spd box but it's also very common to mate it with the 131 box, I never did this job as I decided to fit a zetec or a twin cam instead of the Toyota but it's very common over here to fit cars with this engine as they're small and easy to fit

roger that thanks mate will look in to that then

moggyminor16 wrote:i was thinking of the same idear but was looking for a rascal van that is diesel and use the full running gear to do the job

Do you mean the Daihatsu HiJet rather than Bedord Rascal which was only available with a petrol engine ?

The Hijet diesel engine is well known for being terrible (Lombordini unit and not suitable for the HiJet application) and a lot of owners end up converting to petrol.
When available new I enquired about one and dealer was reluctant to recommend the diesel for anything other then local running around as the failure rate during warrantee period was so high.

Paul Humphries

paul thanks for that was going to have a look at one this week coming now i will not bother

True Paul, during the craze to convert many cars to diesel, the daihatsu was populer to put in smaller cars like Maruti 800 and things like that, but these engines didn't last long on contrary to the Toyotas which get lots of abuse and where fitted to many different cars, including Skoda Estelles! Most cars fitted with the Toyota ended up having a high front as this was lighter than there original engines!

So what about the Isuzu units fitted to cars like the Vauxhall Corsa? I've had a couple of the 1.5litres, they seem ultra reliable, always good for 49-53 mpg (Fiesta only manages 40ish) and have been much less trouble than the Fiesta 1.8 (small electrical widget in the fuel pump failed - part of the imobilizer circuit - cost more than the car was worth to put right) Anybody tried one of them in a Minor?

also very popular in Malta but much heavier then the Toyota unit, many cars tend to give way near the struts if no properly reinforced, but with Toyotas no reinforcment is usually needed

I did consider putting a 2 litre perkins turbo diesel from a Montego into a Minor a while back... I did put one into a Short wheelbase Series 2 Land Rover but that was far too heavy for it to pull successfully, until the turbo kicked in...

I've since decided against it for the Moggy as, with the price of diesel the way it is, replacing the 1098 petrol... well the numbers just don't add up. My traveller always went well with the 1098 anyway. Especially with the twin carbs and earlier (950 type) diff...

At the week-end I had a good look at a BMC Tractor - mint condition, only 106 hours on the clock ! It has the 950D engine - ie diesel version of the 948 A series engine. Block looks very similar although there are some differences - and of course at the front there is drive etc for injection pump - seems to be driven by timing chain. Owner came along - he said parts are almost impossible to source, and the engine is a bu99er to start from cold! Would be very interesting to find one of these engines to see exactly what it would take to install in a Minor. I'm sure it would run on vegetable oil too which is just < £1 /litre in Macro - and there is no vat on it.
With limited revs (I'm guessing 4000 tops) max speed would be low, so diff change would be almost essential.

Having a foot in the classic tractor camp (well 5 feet actually ) the BMC has a REALLY bad reputation both for starting and lack of spares - and was known for being horendously underpowered - (despite being a cute looking little tractor ) so I think looking for a more modern source would be a better bet!

I think I remember reading somewhere that the A-Series diesel as used in the BMC tractor has 16 or 17bhp, so yes, it'd be rather sluggish!

Probably the nearest you could go for a 'period' diesel conversion would be the diesel B-Series. I think they fitted them to the A60/Oxford and Marinas for use as taxis. Wikipedia has the output for the 1489cc version as 40bhp@4000rpm, so that would at least result in a usable car. The 1800 would surely be more powerful still so might even be a bit quicker than a standard 1098. I bet the engine's pretty hefty, though.

Far better to retain the 1098 petrol and fit LPG, imo.

I agree - LPG is the way forward for best economy, and still has the advantage of decent top speed, not limited by low engine revs. Not sure though if anyone makes a kit for carb engines anymore.

When you say 'economy' do you mean in terms of MPG or related to pump price, though? I read somewhere (possibly in Minor Maters) that someone was getting about 25 MPG on a LPG converted 1098....is that as good as they get? It may not be the best choice if you plan on touring abroad, I met someone with an LPG converted camper in Northern Spain who had a devil of a job finding somewhere to buy fuel!

www.wains-classic-rebuilds.co.uk do conversions for the classics £500 diy kit for my scimitar .

Couldn't get that link to work, though it might only be a temporary server problem. Their Ebay shop link does though : http://stores.ebay.co.uk/Wains-Classic-Rebuilds

Yes -I mean 'economy' in cash terms ! Should be possible to get 30 mpg on LPG quite easily if set up right, maybe even 35. LPG has less calories per gallon, so will always be slightly less productive in energy terms. However - it has Octane rating of ~ 108 and so can be used more efficiently with a nice high compression ratio - say at least 10:1, maybe even more. With LPG costing half price compared to petrol - the cash economy becomes obvious if the car is being used all the time. If it's just a week-end warrior then you need to consider what the pay-back time will be, although the LPG kit will always add value to the car since petrol is never going to come down in price significantly.

A nice 1.1 K series on a Type 9 gearbox will give you over 60mpg. Even the 1.4 K will offer 55mpg plus you get 'performance' into the bargain.
As BM says it depends on how much the car is going to be used and the type of driving ,be it motorways, A roads or quieter lanes.