Engine suppliers

Daughters Elf arrived home on the back of a low loader of Friday. Diagnosis, bottom end bearings shot, number 2 piston banging on the spark plug.
Assessing the options so far....
Rebuild at local garage £6-700 in labour plus parts.
Rebuild it myself, cost of parts, but can renew other parts as required.
Find a rebuilt engine, hence the post, anyone know of a good reputable supplier of reconditioned engines?
Don't really want to trust A series engines on ebay removed from cars, as we may end up no better off.

Thanks

My daughter kinda did that once, to a pocketed 998 with 12G940 head! Forgot to put oil in it... Suffice to say, she hasn't done it again since, though one of the garage callouts on her Focus last year was because she'd overfilled it with oil and had to get some drained off! (Wouldn't start and oil light was on... doh!)

Minisport supply recon engines, but you're looking at £800+.

Where in the country are you based? No point recommending somewhere too far away!

No fault of my daughters, plenty of oil and everything checked regularly. Looks like the big end bearing has failed.

We are down in the South West (Devon/Cornwall border).

Already tried Minisport, they quoted more than £1700 Which is almost twice as much as I paid for a fully reconned lead free MGB engine with full warranty.

I'm currently working on a full restoration of my Morris Minor. Just had a look for a 1098cc a series fully recon and lead free £800. Anyone know if this is a straight drop in fit?

To be honest I'd probably rebuild it myself. You can check the gearbox as well to make sure nothing nasty dropped in there when it blew.

MGs wrote:No fault of my daughters, plenty of oil and everything checked regularly. Looks like the big end bearing has failed.

We are down in the South West (Devon/Cornwall border).

Already tried Minisport, they quoted more than £1700 Which is almost twice as much as I paid for a fully reconned lead free MGB engine with full warranty.

I'm currently working on a full restoration of my Morris Minor. Just had a look for a 1098cc a series fully recon and lead free £800. Anyone know if this is a straight drop in fit?

Should drop straight in, more or less... when you change an engine for a different type, sometimes you get unexpected differences - recently I put a 1275 in my 998 Mini. The car has a brake servo, the engine was from a non-servo car, and a 1275 has two crankcase breathers - one of which hits the servo unless you have the breather from a later engine... fortunately I had a spare later 1275 sitting around too!

However remember that it will then count as a modified car - this may or may not be an issue with the insurers. Worth checking first.

Daughter is already chasing up with insurers, the implications of fitting either a 1098 or 1275, both of which are
considerably cheaper and available in far larger quantities than the 998.

MGs wrote:Daughter is already chasing up with insurers, the implications of fitting either a 1098 or 1275, both of which are
considerably cheaper and available in far larger quantities than the 998.

Really? I had the impression that both were in short supply. 998s have usually been plentiful and cheaper as people tend to upgrade from them.

Maybe the time is coming where most people who are going to upgrade have done it. Also a lot of the later minis and metros came with the 1275 as standard.

I have found plenty of 1098s for £500 fully reconditioned and converted to unleaded. 998s seem to be going for £1300-1700 in the same condition. 1275s are somewhere between the two, unless anyone knows different.

Current feeling is to find a very cheap working engine and fit it, to keep the car running while I rebuild the original unit. Considerably cheaper, with the bonus of having either a spare engine, or something we can sell on later.

Still looking at different possibilities. Found a supplier for 998cc A+ short engine blocks at a reasonable cost.

Anyone got experience of fitting one with a standard A series gearbox/sump/head? Are there any adaptations which
need to be made or extra parts required?

Cheers

The only obvious thing that springs to mind is that you'll need a later (45D or 59D) distributor, as the shaft is a different length. I've never fitted an earlier gearbox to one, but I can't think of any reasons why it shouldn't fit.

Not done the conversion myself, but I have looked into it.

There are issues around primary and drop gears, but it is possible. IIRC you need a primary gear to suit the engine and drop gears to suit the 'box which match up with each other. The best way would seem to be to go to straight cut for the primary/drop gears, but it obviously has noise implications.

There was also talk of having to modify the casing of a 3 syncro 'box to allow the big ends of an A+ to clear, but that may only apply to 1275 units.

It's worth your while having a quick haunt of some of the other Mini forums, as it's a popular enough conversion.

Good luck with it and keep us informed if you do have a go

Keep the faith.

Adi the Adder.

Got an A+ block, head and sump from a friend. It needs some work and some parts but will start work this week.

Will need a distributor, as stated above. It has a gearbox, of the wrong type and the guy wants the gearbox back.
So, will have to cannibalise the the existing engine for
thermostat housing
starter motor
clutch (which is new)
gearbox
flywheel
rocker box
etc

I will replace the oil and water pumps while I'm at it. Renew all of the gaskets and seals. I also intend painting the
engine to try to match an original.

One immediate question, can the tappet chest breather be removed and replaced with the original plate?

MGs wrote:Got an A+ block, head and sump from a friend. It needs some work and some parts but will start work this week.

Will need a distributor, as stated above. It has a gearbox, of the wrong type and the guy wants the gearbox back.
So, will have to cannibalise the the existing engine for
thermostat housing
starter motor
clutch (which is new)
gearbox
flywheel
rocker box
etc

I will replace the oil and water pumps while I'm at it. Renew all of the gaskets and seals. I also intend painting the
engine to try to match an original.

One immediate question, can the tappet chest breather be removed and replaced with the original plate?

I'll have a look in my spares and see if I've got a Distributor spare.

Personally I'd leave the breather where it is...It's there for a reason :-)

agreed - the better an engine breathes the happier it is. best of luck with the engine rebuild - at least when you do it yourself you know it'll be a good 'un!

Thanks guys. The breather on the original engine is just a hooked pipe facing down towards the gearbox. On the new engine it is a canister with a pipe on the top, which presumably need connecting to something with a hose (have to scour my old mini mags to see where it goes).

Collected the head gasket set today, the conversion kit gaskets, oil and water pumps will be here tomorrow. Looks like her Elf will take priority over my Moggie Minor

The breather out of the canister is usually connected to the carb. :-)

Just been making a first inspection and looking at the A+ engine, the differences are obvious. Firstly there is no bypass hose from the water pump to the thermostat housing, so I can't use our existing head on the new block.
However, the A+ rocker gear and push rods are not in great condition. Can the A series rocker gear and push rods be used?
Not sure if there would be differing amounts of wear on the ends of the pushrods making then useless.
Secondly, the two short rocker pedestal studs are missing from the A+ how easy is it to get them out of the A series? will they fit
the A+ and how do you get them out? Presumably a couple of nuts locked together?

There is normally a bypass hose on an A+ engine! Unless maybe it's a Metro engine... or somebody's had a 1275 head on it.

Simple solution is to swap the water pump for your old one, if it's in good order, or fit a new water pump, as the bypass hose comes out of the water pump.

Having done that, you can use your old head.

Definitely no bypass hose. Will need to decide, as the water pump in on order and will be at the motor factors tomorrow.
Just been out and lifted the head off the A+ there is a stud sized insert where the bypass hose should be, presumably someone
has blanked it off at some stage.
So if I get a water pump with the bypass fitting (presumably the bit that fits into the block is the same on all of them) I can
use my existing head on the A+ block.
Having spoken to my local garage, the owner builds racing minis, the only things which are different are that I need to use the
A series flywheel, transfer gears, clutch and gearbox.
Seem to be getting somewhere

Got a day off today, so started work on the strip down.

Decided to remove the head from the engine whilst still in the car, to assess the damage, if any.
Having removed it, the head is in good condition, no damage to the combustion chamber on any of the cylinders.
Cleaning up the block, it became apparent what had caused the breakdown. On top of number 2 piston were 3
pieces of steel, about 1cm long, 5mm wide and about 1mm thick. One or all of these had obviously at some stage
got wedged between the piston and the spark plug, causing the gap to close.
I can't find any sign of where they came from There is nothing missing from the head, the piston is intact,
although the top surface is severely pitted (the metal must have been there a fair time). My guess is that someone
at some stage must have dropped something down the spark plug hole whilst Nr 2 plug was out or through the carb
and manifold.

Given that this is the original engine for the car (proper engine number for age and type) I would like to keep it.
However, I am worried about the consequences of refitting the head when the piston is so badly pitted, any suggestions ??
Had a chat with a couple of people who both think it should be fine. The more opinions the better

An up and down day.

Got the head back in and the engine running, only to discover that one of the cam followers had come up with the pushrod and dropped into the tappet chest. Another partial strip down.
Engine is running on and off/rough. Pretty sure it is a timing/ignition issue. At least the clattering noises are a thing of the past.

Hurrah. All back together and running fine. Minimal cost, which is nice.
Got a few spares now, including a spare engine, a rebuild project ......but not until I've finished the restoration on my Moggie

nice one - well done mate

If you go for a rusted out metro they are usually low mileage good engines.
Another thought, try and source an automatic as they don't seem to have been
hammered to death, or even a rusted out austin 1100 usually engines are good

Best of Luck Dunc's