Morris Minor Owners Club

Hi - I recently obtained my first Morris after years of dithering - can anyone help with the following dumb questions?

#1. It's a traveller. The rubber seal between the two rear doors is peeling off. Can anyone suggest what sort of glue I should / should not use to fix it?

#2. If I want to run it on unleaded + redex, when do I add the redex [i.e., before I fill the tank, after, during, etc]?

#3. Does anyone know anything about the history of the car [maroon traveller NWV 513 G]?

Forgive me if these are inappropriate questions of if I'm asking them in the wrong place.

#2: I would suggest adding Redex to the tank before putting the petrol in, this I would suggest, is more likely to lead to it being all nicely mixed with the petrol. Certainly, when putting 2 stroke in my bike (when it was running on premix), it's better to stick the 2 stroke in first, then the petrol.

Hi and welcome to the land of Moggies,

#1. It's a traveller. The rubber seal between the two rear doors is peeling off. Can anyone suggest what sort of glue I should / should not use to fix it?

I would use a contact adhesive like timebond for fixing seals, but I'm no expert on travellers. Various places specialise in traveller wood (eg Woodies) and offer advice so it might be worth checking with the professionals.

#2. If I want to run it on unleaded + redex, when do I add the redex [i.e., before I fill the tank, after, during, etc]?

I would suggest pouring the redex down the drain! (not litteraly - that would probably be illegal)
If you go to the main MMOC site there are links regarding unleaded petrol. Then you should find the list of approved additives.
In the absence of any government assistance for the millions of affected drivers, various car clubs got together and funded some testing for fuel additives.
Many firms submitted their products for testing which was done at the UK's most reputable/well known automotive test house (MIRA). They ran the tests to simulate 50,000 miles of heavy driving on an A-series engine, and judged each product on the protection against valve seat regression (VSR).
Some of the additives FAILED the testing, and some passed. Therefore if you are going to use an additive, then it is best to use one that passed the test. (saves wasting your time and money and still damaging your engine).
The most commonly recommended one is Castrol Valvemaster as it is available at Halfords so you can always get it, and you can also get it with octane booster (reduces pinking tendency caused by lower octane unleaded fuel).

I put the castrol additive in before the fuel - it has a really easy to use metering device. On an empty tank I know I'm going to use 25 lites plus or minus a bit. On a half tank I would guess on 15 litres but if more petrol goes in you can always add more additive.

There are various other products on the market and many claim to have test results. I looked at the evidence from one of these 'fuel catalyst' suppliers and it was 50% waffle and conjecture, 25% unverified results and 25% report exerts from mickey mouse test house (some small French outfit for air pollution - not an accredited automotive test house). Report exerts are a funny thing - if they don't show the whole report then you never know the conclusion so probably have something to hide - it's a bit like quoting people out of context, and can sometimes be used to give the opposite meaning.

If you drive fairly soft (ie not full throttle and high revs) then VSR is very slow so whatever you use you won't see a lot of difference for a long time. If you are a bit lead footed and do high miles you really need a good additive otherwise you will damage the valves within a few years or less.

maroon traveller - aren't they just great ;-)

I`m with Ray and many others on this subject only use the approved additives, personally I also prefer Castrol..

I used Bostik rubber adhesive on my Traveller rear door vertical seal, seems to have worked alright. The only problem is it's black and care has to be excersised if the stuff isn't to show on the timber!

Castrol Valvemaster seems to be the most popular of the recommended additives. I personally use Valvemaster+ with the octane booster in spite of having unleaded cylinder covers. The combination still works out cheaper than Shell Optimax which I don't trust.

57traveller wrote:Castrol Valvemaster seems to be the most popular of the recommended additives. I personally use Valvemaster+ with the octane booster

Me too, it's a good additive. I would use the Valvemaster Plus (as Ray & 57traveller pointed out) as it has an octane booster which allows for a cooler engine with more power when used in conjunction with 'normal' unleaded.

ere we go ,i use nothing,nought,zero ,zilchmaster+ , im only using the car 30 -60 miles p/week, so should be a while before i notice anything ,then ill get u/leaded head fitted,steve

ill get u/leaded head fitted,

an unleaded head would be a bit of a waste of money if you do only a couple of thousand miles a year... Additive would work out cheaper unless the car lasts another 20 years. Mind you it's probably going to be years before it's a problem anyway.

Thanks, everyone for such helpful & prompt answers.

Hello all,
nobody has mentioned using leaded petrol?, does anyone regularly drive on leaded petrol?
Incidentally I use Millers VSP (another approved additive) on my Triumph 2.5 P.I. everyday road car (10:1 compression) and use standard ignition settings whithout any problem.

Alec

nobody has mentioned using leaded petrol?,

I know people who do use it (not in moggies though) but it costs an arm and a leg! One of the additives is tetra-ethyl-lead (or something like that), which might be cheaper than buying leaded from the pump.

Hello Ray,
yes I know it is expensive, and to add to that, personally, I would need to travel 20 miles to fill up.
I wonder what proportion of leaded to unleaded fill ups would still give adequate valve protection, or, alternatively, how many tanks would be needed to build up the so called lead memory on the seats?
As has been said so many times it depends how the car is driven, so I imagine there can be no hard and fast rules with regard to the above.
There was the statement that staying below 3,000 rpm would give no real problems with untreated unleaded fuel, which in my Triumph is 75mph in O\D top. Mind you I do use a lot more revs in the lower gears

Alec

does anyone regularly drive on leaded petrol?

Yes I use Sainsburys 4 star its still available on 4 of their pumps, its my nearest place and on a roundabout with 4 garages.

Sainsburys 4 star is Lead Replacement Petrol, which I'm told has not been tested for it's valve-recession-preventing performance, at least not independently.

Even I've switched to additive + unleaded petrol now....though to be fair, I'd done 40k on the LRP with no sign of valve recession.

The price is usually a givaway. I have never seen 4 star at less than £1 a litre (since they removed it from general sale). LRP I think is about the same price as super unleaded (I think).

a list of all the LEADDED petrol suppliers http://www.leadedpetrol.co.uk/list.htm