Morris Minor Owners Club

Hi,
I suppose it would be a good idea to change the oil before the national and MOT-UK as it needs topping up anyway.
Is it as easy as it seems? Do I just warm the engine up, undo the plug to drain it then just fill it up again?

(I'm a complete newby to simple maintenance as my cars I've had for few years have barely been driven)

Thanks

Yes and don't forget a new filter and if you are still on the canister type of filter don't forget the spring and plate that holds the filter up....

If you anneal the copper sump plug washer before you put it back, it will be less likely to drip afterwards.

Thankyou. I think I may do that next week then and buy the parts at the national.

use 20/50 oil sydney .

alex_holden wrote:If you anneal the copper sump plug washer before you put it back, it will be less likely to drip afterwards.

What does anneal mean?

Annealing - a heat treatment that alters the microstructure of a material causing changes in properties such as strength and hardness

Did my oil change, flushed the cooling system and pumped some grease into all the grease nipples last Saturday ready for the trip to the national

When you tighten the sump plug it squishes ('works') the soft copper a bit, which helps it to seal. This changes the structure of the metal in a way that makes it harder and more brittle ('work hardening'). Annealing is a way to reverse that change and make the copper soft again.

To anneal copper, you simply heat it until it glows red, then cool it down again. The way I do copper washers is to grip the edge lightly with a pair of needle nose pliers and hold it over the gas stove (or a blow torch, or a camping stove - hot air guns don't get hot enough), then dunk it in water. It will go black and little flakes of copper oxide come off, but don't worry about that. I then rotate it 180 degrees and do it again, to make sure the bit that was shielded by the pliers gets done.

Gosh Sounds like great advice.

Out of interest steel works the other way - cool it slowly to anneal it or fast to harden it.

When annealing copper it doesn't matter how fast you cool it. Quenching it in water just speeds up the job.

Annealing steel is much more difficult - it needs a special furnace that heats it to a specific temperature and then slowly cools it over a period of several hours.

Wow - what a fuss over a sump plug washer! NEVER known them to leak - and never annealed any either! Just nip it up - it will be fine .

I always anneal sump plug washers (put them on a bit of welding wire) and only ever had one leak in 35 years where it had been annealed so many times and was squashed too thin to be of any use! (tight or what?)

you have to do that with saabs or they leak like mad.

Hmm -well I had two of them - and same engine in my TR7 - and they seem to manage ok!

dalebrignall wrote:you have to do that with saabs or they leak like mad.

You have to do it with old British motorbikes, and they STILL leak!!

Wow, I never knew that about copper ... I just assumed you would need to let it cool naturally as you can do with most other metals ... you learn something new every day.

Planning an oil change myself, just need to wait til I can borrow my friends jack. Has anyone got any advice on changing the filter?

When you undo the long bolt that holds the filter up, keep it pressed into the assembly and lower the whole thing into your oil recepticle as an assembly then empty the oil out, being careful not to lose bits.

DON'T merrily unscrew the bolt out and withdraw it, unless you want all the oil to pour out through the hole that it left.

Remember assembly is the reverse of dissassembly and to put the spring and plate back (as Alex mentioned).

Do it hot, but remember hot oil scalds!

I've never replaced the oil seal on the filter housing (I'm inherantly lazy)and I've never had a leak.

No need to anneal anything here as they're rubber seals!

Some people refil the housing before fitting with fresh oil to prime the system.

Take the point with SAABs though, I use a new washer/anneal every time, or they leak terribly and it's an odd size bolt. Nothing seems to fit. Oh those Swedes. such a sense of humour At least I can say I have a Koenniggse now!

Andrew