Reply to: RE>Morris Minor Engine
: One
:time I had to pull the head and I measured the bore and stroke and calculated
:the displacement at 912cc's, give or take. The MG dealer said "912? Ain't no
:such animal, should be 948cc." and he either could not or would not order
parts
>You were right, he was wrong. Morris Minor MM (and, I think, some series
II style bodies with raised headlamps) had the pre-war Morris 8 sidevalve
engine. Workshop manual gives displacement of 918cc. Next engine was Austin
803cc A-series (that's why BMC was formed!) in Series II (still with split
winscreen). Then came the 948cc Minor 1000 in about 1956, and finally the
1098cc Minor 1000. (There was a Minor 1000000 somewhere in there too.) And,
for the mini enthusiasts, in the UK, the mini was originally called the
Morris Mini-Minor (and, rebadged, the Austin 7), with later luxury variants
called the Rily Elf and Wolseley Hornet.
>Parts for the 918cc engine (and some other old Morris parts) are available
through the UK Morris Register, which (somewhat elitist) prefers pre-war
Morris 8s, grudgingly allows post-war 8s, and DEFINITELY frowns upon Minor
MMs!
Thanks, Alex. That clears up a mystery. It must have been a 918cc. An error
on my part of 0.2mm in the bore or stroke measurement might have given me the
912cc figure.
It was a red 2 door with split windscreen, headlights outboard and high on
the fenders like the later ones, early style grille painted body color,
semifore trafficators (that worked!), rectangular taillights like an MGTD. So
if it was post-grille-mounted-headlights but pre-BMC it couldn't have really
been a '54, it must have been made around '52. I also seem to remember an
incredibly long curvy gearshift lever. The most intriguing thing about that
engine was the separate bracket mounted water pump, i.e. not attached to the
front face of the block. It had a huge oil drain plug which apparently never
was touched, because I found thick grey sludge a half inch deep in the bottom
of the pan. The Illinois title rated it at 4 horsepower.
My dad gave it to me and I soon broke a rod and since I couldn't get a new
one from the BMC dealer, that was the end of it. Funny how you remember your
first car so well even without any pictures.
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