Morris Minor Owners Club

Hi folks,

Sadly my moggie twincam has not lasted well. I have had it away getting some welding done and on return it is in a bad way.

The engine behaves as if oil starved even though it is not, is extremely noisy especially under acceleration and makes an occasioal loud "clunk" amidst a lot of top end tappety noise. It revs but with no power and "catches" on throttle.

I have yet to dissasemble but would like to know what tyipical costs are for engine refurb of a 1600 lancia twink, and also what other optons are available in terms of suitable engines etc. I can then judge whether to refurb, buy another twink engine or go down a different route and drop something else entirely in.

Your thoughts? I know that without a diagnosis as to what exactly is wrong it's hard, but ballpark figures for common jobs would be really helpful.

Thanks,

Gav, in a sad mood.

I found it quite difficult to get parts, and they were also quite expensive. I'd try and get a good running engine, then swap them. A complete engine isn't expensive, but it may be an opportunity to go for something more modern - depends your budget really. I'd guess you'll pay £200 for a good replacement Fiat - usually a 2 litre - less for a 1600.

Pete

I imagine it will be totally un-economic to overhaul a Lancia Twin-cam engine. Have you checked the oil filter - and is there any oil pressure showing on the gauge ? The easiest replacement will be with whatever fits straight on your gerabox - so - what box is it ?

Fiat 131 box, so 1600 or 2000 shold be a straight swap, looks like the best option.

What's the engine out of or more specifically what shape is the sump? If it was FWD and mounted at an angle in the Lancia, the sump will not be parallel to the ground and neither will the oil pickup. Plus one of the cam boxes will be over-filling with oil.

Could account for the oil starvation issue.

Was it running okay before the welding or has it always been not quite right?

Solution would be a sump and oil pump from a RWD T/C

Cheapest option is to get known good second hand engine. They pop up from time to time on Ebay

Rebuild cost depends upon what needs doing could cost anything between £1000 and £3000.

Changing to a different engine - the cost depends upon how much you could do yourself.

http://www.morrisminoroc.co.uk/index.ph ... ic&t=19580

I've posted some links to FIAT twink specialists somewhere in this thread.

I've just had a thought on this. You say it's a Lancia engine. According to Guy Croft, the cam boxes on the Lancia engine have their drain holes in a different place to account for the fact that the engine is canted away from the vertical.
Perhaps because of this, the oilflow around the cams is affected and that's what the 'tappety' sound is?
If the sump is correct for an in-line instalation, then the cam-boxes may be the culprit. I'd start looking for some FIAT ones.

twincamman wrote:I've just had a thought on this. You say it's a Lancia engine. According to Guy Croft, the cam boxes on the Lancia engine have their drain holes in a different place to account for the fact that the engine is canted away from the vertical.
Perhaps because of this, the oilflow around the cams is affected and that's what the 'tappety' sound is?
If the sump is correct for an in-line instalation, then the cam-boxes may be the culprit. I'd start looking for some FIAT ones.

Don't need to change cam boxes, just drill them so they don't overflow. Used to be a picture of this knocking around, probably one in the Guy Croft book. Obviously you can't just drill with head in situ but take out and issamble cam box, drill, clean thoroughly to remove swarf.

Another thing that can be an issue, the heater supply and return hose shouldn't be blocked when heater is off. It should somehow divert around the heater. Design fault means no 4 cylinder can overheat otherwise.

And crank should have a spigot bearing fitted before attaching to rwd gearbox. in fwd configuration it didn't need one for some reason but does in RWD

Finally, just remembered this one, some Fiat/Lancia oil pumps use an o ring when attaching to the block and some don't. When I replaced the FWD sump and pump for a RWD one I mistakenly added a new o ring which caused strain on the pump spindle and snapped it. I tghink RWD pumps don't have the o ring generally