Morris Minor Owners Club

Just come out of hibernation-now the questions are coming back to me! The 940 head I fitted some while back is red, never thought much about it until I was skip surfing at the scrapyard and realised all the 1275 engines in it were black. Could I have a (late-hardened valve seat/ small valve) MG Metro head? What identifiers would I look for?

Big inlet valves! That's the clue. Otherwise - (apart from the Turbo head) they are all the same - although later ones (with no bypass connection) are more likely to be 'unleaded' for ahwatever that is worth!

The only "factory" red heads were the MG Metro. As you noticed already, standard 1275 engines were all black....

Not at all! Many many ordinary 940s are 'red' !

Oh, were they? I hadn't seen any.....

the only red ones I've seen were MG.
All the late Austin engines were black.


on the inside they're all black or black/brown, unless you clean them

Aye -but the 940 head has been around since I was a lad! Plenty of red - and even green ones !!

Don't forget the gold and silver ones too.....

I think this is a genuine late unleaded head so I'm beginning to think I'd better measure the inlet valve dia. Was there any tidying up done to the ports on the MG heads?

No ! They left that for you to do.