Morris Minor Owners Club

Today I decided that I would start to rebuild the spare 1098 engine I have in the garage. Everything was going well until I discovered that I couldn't put the crank in with the gearbox plate fitted to the rear of the engine. No problem, I needed to put the rear plate gasket on anyway.

Lift the engine from the engine cradle, no problem. Remove the back plate, again, no problem. Fit the rear gasket. Problem. The conversion gasket set I was sold when I had the engine rebored etc is obviously for a Mini. The rear gasket doesn't fit. Not much of a problem really, I've ordered a new set of front and rear gaskets, except they are back at the house, 3 miles away from the garage. Ok, I'll go back and pick them up after lunch.

I'll fit the crank, no problems there you say. Unfortunately, two of the main bearings have got gouged in transit to the garage. Luckily they are not too bad so they should be ok. Crank goes into block, bearing caps fitted. Lock washers ready to be fitted to the bearing cap. B****r! The lock washers are too long and dont fit the bearing caps. Now, I need to grind the lock washers so they will fit.

Obviously, I'm back home now, with a nice cup of tea, girding myself to reurn to the garage for round two of the rebuild. I'll let you know how I get on.

Wait till it starts up and runs great, all these niggles will be forgotten, and you can say "I rebuilt the engine myself".
Then the joy will kick in.

i to am rebuilding a 1968/9 1098 cc engine.is it better to leave as is or to convert it to run on unleaded petrol.it is the first engine we are rebuilding and hope to restore some more once this as been finished.chris

converting can be pricey, £100 is likely. depending on how many miles you plan on doing a year it can be worth it. but it's often suggested just to set the inlets to 12 thou gap as per standard, but set the exhausts to 15 thou to allow for any recession. and keep an eye on them (3000 miles when you do the oil change) to see if they've closed up.

Rebuilt mine non unleaded but it will probably only do a couple of thousand miles a year tops.
Hoping it will last a good few years.

don't forget the locking tabs on the flywheel bolts (I learnt that lesson the hard way when I was young ) .
The bolts loosened fairly quickly and the knocking noise made be very animated - on taking the engine out it was a massive relief to find out that the fault was so simplem to fix.

what price could i expect to sell the 1098 engine for once i have rebuilt it it will have all new gaskets top and bottom new bearings.points condenser,all the rest of it is in good condition,it is not converted to run on unleaded and will be repainted in racing green paint,this is my first engine to be rebuilt,i have another with gear box waiting to be rebuilt after this one,many thanks to you all,chris

Stick it on ebay and see what you get.... I'd guestimate somewhere around £125-£175 for a home rebuild with receipts for parts.

My brother is running a non-converted head- he does up to 10k a year..... and it's been fine so far

Hi, where do you get the info for re-building your engine,cheers,Brian