Morris Minor Owners Club

Hi all, hope you are all fine and had a good Christmas ,not like mine my pick-up stopped on Christmas day :| since it has been in my possesion, although easily sorted out, the problem was too much dirt in the carburateur from dirty petrol we have in Malta anyways I am thinking of rebuilding the 1098cc engine I have in my pick-up, I wish to do it myself some people tell me its easy some people tell me its not, so I m askin you fellow Minor fans is it possible for me as a beginner to rebuild the engine myself? Thanks

yes i would say it was i did my frist A serese engine at the age of 12 .all i did was layed a big sheet out on the garage floor .then start at the top of the engine ,take bit by bit off and lay it on the floor as you take it of the engine .when you get to the tapets and the push rods get a pice of card put 8 holes in it ,at one end write radiator on it, this will be the start ,then take one by one out and put them in the same way on the card .if you know what i mean. all the bits you take off make sure the nuts or bolts go with them ,that way you will not lost any bits and the rebuild will be in reverse . I hope this helps you out i know that this is the way my grandad told me at the age of 12 .when i had finished put the engine back in and it truned over but did not fire up as the distropter was out of line once that was sorted it run like a dream .if you got a manule it will be a lot easer to redo the timming once you have it all back together and aid you on the rebuild
good luck
mm16
1961 2 door saloon
1966 traveller (bling bling )
1967 convertible (now R I P )

If the engine needs reboring then you'll have to get a professional to do it for you (don't try it at home with a pillar drill ), but the rest should be OK done at home. I might be doing a bit of a bottom end rebuild on mine in the near future - I'll be doing that one at home, but getting a machine shop to grind the crank for me.

oh yes sorry forgot about that bit i was thinking that the engine was just old and needing a rebuild

Go for it, Frank! Where possible, when you take anything off put the retaining nuts back on their studs, etc. That way you don't lose them or muddle them up. And first CLEAR THE BENCH so you get as much as possible OFF THE FLOOR. I know you think you can step round the tins and no dirt will get into them anyway, buts it all lies. Take your time, and remember there's no silliness, cock a doodle diddley-up or stupidity that we've not already done. Don't for a moment hesitate to ask on this site. (And it'll take longer than you think - but it's fun!) MikeN.

Firstly: Cleanliness is next to godliness when it comes to rebuilding an engine. This applies not only to the things that you can see but all of the oilways which need to be washed out and cleaned out with an airline.

Secondly: Make sure that absolutely everything is tightened up correctly. If anything is loose it will eventually work free and fall off.

Thirdly: Buy a manual if you do not already have one. (Currently going for £3.65 on a CDROM on ebay I think).

Best of all - any hope of getting another engine and re-building that instead - then just swap the units over. Obviously the parts need professional machining (re-bore and crank re-grind) but the actual dis-assembly and re-assembly is all straightforward. I 'advise' some Mini owners from Malta on another forum - it's the same engine, so try to get talking to some of them and all get together to help each other!

thanks all for your help i'll do the engine myself then, can anyone recommend a good manual for rebuilding the a-series, I have the david vizard book but it consists more of modifying the engine and getting you to understand how the engine works, what I wish is a sort of step to step guide in building the a -series thanks

The Haynes manual for the moggy has a section on rebuilding the engine - I haven't tried to follow any of the instructions though so I can't comment on how good it is. The rest of the manual is very good.

Proper BMC Minor workshop manual - but it's straightforward work and peeps on here will advise you/send you pics if you ask. No hope of getting a spare engine ?

a month or so ago I stripped and rebuilt my engine (for the first time) and used the Haynes manual + help from peops on this site.

thanks for all the help mates you really gave me the courage i needed what im gonna do is buy a haynes manual and get some help from there and help from this board ( which is plentiful) also maybe some morris fans over here can give me a hand, thanks a lot again

As I said earlier - the Mini engine is the same - so talk to some of the Mini lads too.