Morris Minor Owners Club

I have just bought an ex marina 1275 engine for my moggie, it has been converted, front and rear plates for moggie use, but has no ancills. I have been told it would benefit from a bigger carb, manifold and exhaust. Would it work well with the existing manifold and exhaust and other ancills? What would you recomend changing. Cheers.

You will want a hif44 cab with decent alloy manifold and a half decent exhaust (the standard mani is pony...)

Welcome to the forum! First question - what flywheel is on the engine ? Is the engine 'standard' - or is it modified in any way ? If you want a good running road car with reasonable economy - stick with an HIF 38 carb (1.5" diameter) - on an MG Metro (or similar) alloy inlet manifold, and the best exhaust manifold and system you can afford. The HIF 44 carb (1.75" ) will be better suited if you fit the larger inlet valve MG head (and suitably modify that too!) - and perhaps modify the engine with better camshaft etc - then the power could be ~ 90 bhp without too much trouble!

answers, engine is standard, the only carb and manifold i have is the one off the 1098 original. So I need a metro carb and manifold, now to search for one of those. I believe the flywheel is the marina one modified to fit the moggie. Think I will stick with first otion, good runner, for now, mght try to scare wifr later! Thanks for your help.

you can use the standard 1098 manifold, however it is horribly restrictive and will seriously limit the engine (it seriously holds back the 1098...)

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Classic-Mini-Wate ... 0358595774

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/mini-1000cc-HIF-3 ... 0442194354

simples.....

or if you want more grunt

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/SU-CARB-HIF44-MG- ... 0327320966
(very good buy for that price IMHO)

I can't find a decent exhaust on ebay at the moment but you can (using a hacksaw) chop the inlet side off a standard mani and use that. What you ideally want is a LCB/3 Branch - they normally go on ebay for £80-£100 quid

I found it a lot easier to use the 1mm stainless steel angle grinder cutting discs rather than using a hacksaw. Took about 20min to do and less elbow grease. Don't make the silly mistake that I did in cutting it off on the patio just before the rain came. It left a lovely rust stain and the government was not impressed!<br><br>

Marina flywheel will NOT fit inside a Minor bellhousing - better hope it's a Minor flywheel modified to fit Marina crank! The engine will run fine with the old manifold/carb/exhaust etc - but won't give the best performance - but will give best economy! Add the other parts later if you find the perfomance wanting.

another question, oil pressure switch. The one off the 1098 is on but due to the angle I cannot tighten it! Notto keen to drive with it finger tight! on the 1098 it stuck out and was accessible, on the marina it points dwn so I cannot get a spanner or socktet on it, it does mount above the starter motor still next to the oil filter? Still no manifold, just ttying to get it fitted!

As far as i know,the oil pressure switches for the 1098 and 1275 are different. Why not fit the adaptor for an oil pressure gauge and fit one of those?.I know they fit ok as i've just fitted one to mine.

Certainly don't leave it finger tight.

Welcome to the friendliest forum around! Where abouts are you? loads of people here have bits hanging around, could be a manifold on your doorstep. I would NOT recommend using the moggy manifold and exhaust unless you want to be deeply disappointed with the performance. I wouldn't even agree with the smaller manifold etc being better for economy. Mine was noticably more powerful, but with comparable fuel consumption when I fitted a free flowing set-up.

I hope you are upgrading to Wolseley drum brakes to cater for the extra power you will be handling

Scchhh - it's a long time since the brakes were mentioned !
Gets some folks quite upset!

A 1275 will actually run fine on the standard 1098 carb and manifold (been there, done that). Hill performance was massively improved and general driving was much better. Top speed will be restricted as the engine needs more air flow, but the A-series isn't a high revving engine anyway.

Standard carb / manifold is wasting some of the upgrade, so if you want more of the potential change them (later on if you prefer). For a simple life, get yourself a marina 1275 carb and manifold. From the manifold you can buy (off the shelf) a larger bore exhaust to suit the slightly bigger manifold.

bmcecosse wrote:Scchhh - it's a long time since the brakes were mentioned !
Gets some folks quite upset!

"don't mention the W, I did once but I think I got away with it!" springs to mind

Seriously, we do usually go down the route of recommending improving the braking before putting in more powerful engines, so the gist of the comment was valid, I think, just a bit tongue-in-cheeky!!

Ie: Make sure you are happy you can stop before you start

rayofleamington wrote: but the A-series isn't a high revving engine anyway.

it can be if built right.

And yes you must sort brakes out first, extra braking is more important than more power.

So wanted to put tongue in cheek and mention discs but I won't.

It's OK, I don't think the bait is rising at the moment

Not wanting to stir(again!), but just to make my position clear:

I firmly believe that discs are the sensible, logical upgrade in these times, but at my age I am finding logic and sense start to drift a little bit on the sea of eccentricity, hence my lust for an overdrive box when there are more "sensible" solutions!

Each to his own

it can be if built right.

true - especially with a steel crank and 8 port head... but that's not really what's being fitted here.

Using the 1275 manifolds and carb retains the hated power robbing 'hot spot' - so ideally - at least get an alloy inlet manifold for the carb, retain the exhaust manifold by all means until funds allow a good 3 branch.

bmcecosse wrote:Using the 1275 manifolds and carb retains the hated power robbing 'hot spot' - so ideally - at least get an alloy inlet manifold for the carb, retain the exhaust manifold by all means until funds allow a good 3 branch.

Even with the MG inlet manifold, she is getting plenty enough radiated heat from the cast exhaust manifold! I recently dissected a storage radiator, and am presently making a heat barrier from the lovely insulating material that I kept! Plenty enough to go into limited production if it works!

The radiated heat will be now-where near the original all-in-one cast manifold heat transfer. I doubt your baffle will make much odds - would be interesting to make before/after temp readings of the intake charge! The water heating on the MG manifold should of course NOT be connected!