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CZ93X62

Official forum enigma
I always enjoyed tearing down engines and rebuilding them. I learned a lot of it on stationary engines that ran wells or pumping arcana in the local orange groves, a lot of flatheads but some OHVs also. Lots of iron in those old blocks, FOR SURE.

We had a guy that poured the babbitts when needed. He was close to 70, and didn't want to do field work like us young folks. He was happy to stay in the shop and do the machining and pouring. I learned A TON from old John.

Even at age 16 I was all about the back-country. I just had to take my '53 F-100 up the old road to Big Bear Lake one fine August 1971 day, and the road's condition had not improved since it was bypassed c. 1948. I discovered that the frame cross-member that the shock absorbers were mounted on that broken loose. What to do? Take it to John, that's what.

"This happens a lot with the '49-'53 F-100s, just like the blocks cracking at the valve seats. Get it up on the hoist." Elapsed time of 15 minutes, John had angle-iron cuttings welded into place that anchored that cross-member like Ford Motor Company could only dream about. I made it my business to spend as much time as I could with such men, and with the millwrights that worked at the feed mill I worked at from '74-'77.
 

Pistolero

Well-Known Member
Not the same vehicles in the two pix, just internet pix. I think that off white was about the most common color
so they look the same, are not. The engine bay is clearly a Brit version, the overall shot is an export model,
but that is exactly what mine looked like, except mine had a couple of small rust holes in the rear bottom
edge of the front fenders, just in front of the door hinge line.
The parts are moved for the opposite drive models, of course.
 
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fiver

Well-Known Member
ahh,, okay.
I just sort of passed it off as more brilliant British engineering.
I kind of thought they just had a retro-fit rod system under the dash as part of the RH drive conversion, or something like that.

I had a Morris Minor out in my back pasture for like 20 years, the wife's uncle knew a guy in college that had adapted some kind of Mitsubishi motor into one and he was gonna give it a go.
then it ended up out there when they moved and he just never come got it.
I never got halfway interested enough to look under the hood or open the door.
 

Pistolero

Well-Known Member
Actually, the Morris Minor was a hell of a lot better car than the little 100E Anglia. Clearly the Anglia
was intended for puttering around on narrow Brit roads at 35 mph with the occasional blast up to 45 mph
on a straightaway. And basically living off of a shrunk down 1927 engine design.....cheap as hell.
I was VERY poor and $75 for a car that the owner lied and said "Ran good when I parked it a few months
ago" seemed workable. Boy was I fooled. But at age 16, and my father was overseas at the time,
so couldn't advise me against it......I got to learn a few lessons. :rolleyes: :confused::)

Ford was coming to their senses and the next year's Anglia had an OHV new design, still with intake and
exhaust in the same side of the head, so pretty congested, not a great design. IIRC in late 60s they put a
proper crossflow head on the block and it became a good little four banger and was a durable, solid
design, lasted for decades, with some upgrades. In the 80s they went to a 5 main bearing crank,
so revs went much higher. This basic design was built upon and upgraded numerous times, fairly
incrementally until it was finally replaced in late 90s or early 2000s.

That poor old flathead I had was obsolete when built, by about 35 years.

Bill
 
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462

California's Central Coast Amid The Insanity
England was still reeling from the economic effects and lack of male factory workers caused by the two world wars, and improving automobile technology was not high on the priority list. Thus cars, like the three-wheel Morgan (saw one Sunday, as a matter of fact) with its air-cooled motorcycle engine were ways to get round the various war-imposed taxes while using existing components. Later, four-wheel Morgans had chassis made of wood, and the MGA had wooden floorboards.

My '68 and '71 MG Midgets had engines that were developed during the 30s, though they were punched out from their original 948 ccs to 1275 ccs, and even the gauges (Smiths) and electricals (Lucas, the Prince of Darkness) were very dated, and up till the mid-60s the Midgets and Sprites had a separate dash-mounted ignition switch and push-button starter.

There are two original condition 60s Morris Minor pickups, and several coupes, making their daily trips about town.
 

Pistolero

Well-Known Member
The Morris Minor of the late 50s and 60s had the same 948cc A-series engine as the Spridets and later Minis did.
No great powerhouse as it came but could be souped up a good bit and still survive. A friend;s father had one
and it was a competent car.

I never owned Brit car of the era, but many friends in college did and I worked on all of them at one time
or another, MGB, Midget, Minor, Sunbeam, Spitfire, E-type, all with the dreadful Luca electrics and their relatively
durable engines, and the delightful SU carbs. I have always been amazed at how many American mechs just
swear at and hate SUs. I thought they were simple as a wedge, reliable and easy to tune and synchronize.
I even set up my brother's triple SU E-type a couple of times. Not hard, though I have heard others ranting
on the ostensible difficulty.:headscratch:
I really wish I had picked up an E-type coupe when they were still affordable. Coulda-woulda-shoulda. :sigh:
 
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462

California's Central Coast Amid The Insanity
Synchronizing SU carburetors is easy, but a Uni-Syn makes it even easier. The Midgets had two, and mine worked better after the air-intakes/filters were replaced with simple aluminum trumpets, and the needles swapped out for mild-race ones.

My '73 Datsun 260 Z's previous owner had, fortunately, replaced the junk factory installed Hitachi SU clones with real SUs taken off either an MG-B or Jaguar E-Type. Only one smog shop mechanic noticed the difference -- "Hmmm . . . those SUs aren't original."

Detroit never made true sports cars, so I bought two MGs, and almost a third. After federal regulations killed them off, the Japanese saw an opening and I bought two Z-cars -- a 240 and a 260.
 

CZ93X62

Official forum enigma
I always wondered about people that owned and drove cars as opposed to trucks or SUVs. Everything I want to do--want to see--or want to experience can be done a whole lot better in a truck or wagon than in a car. Since age 16, less than two years of my life have been spent NOT having a truck--and that was a miserable, shallow existence. NEVER AGAIN.
 

462

California's Central Coast Amid The Insanity
My car likes have always been toward sports cars, but for the past 45-years have continually owned pickups -- a '70 GMC 1500 and a '95 Ford F-150 (I keep my trucks for a long time).
 

CZ93X62

Official forum enigma
Oh, I LIKE sports cars--most assuredly. But to actually OWN one for my lifestyle and usage patterns......it would sit idle quite a bit. I try to have respect for a mechanism's strengths and limitations, and paved roads seldom figure highly in my vehicular recreations. Add to that the congestion of my area's roads and freeways, and any sort of performance car is mostly wasted potential. So, trucks and wagons get the call.
 
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Pistolero

Well-Known Member
Rick - I had a E250 Ford Supervan, a Chevy S10 Blazer, and currently I have a F150, my brother and I had a
1954 Ford Mainline sedan and we built up a flathead V8 for that with Offy heads, Isky cam and lifters,
Edelbrock triple duece manifold and headers. So, yeah. When I was in college I could barely afford
the used Ghia my father sold me for $300, and just barely could afford to keep it running. When I got
out of college, the "oil embargo" was on, and buying a muscle car wasn't a good idea because of the
shortages of fuel. I'd have loved to have owned a muscle car in the 1969-1972 range, but was in college
thru 75 and having $100 that wasn't locked in to some fixed expense was like being rich. Even a $1500 used car
in college would have been the stuff of dreams.

So, I ran old worn out VWs for a while, then switched to new Hondas. Trucks - I think the US ones are
pretty good, and have had them for when I need a truck or van. But, my 4Runner is way, way better than
my Blazer ever dreamed of being, although the Blazer would definitely do the 4WD in snow deal that I
got it for in the mtns of Colorado.
Had lots of friends with Detroit iron, and by the time I could afford a newer car, about 1976, pretty much all
cars were hideous disasters of poor fuel mileage and horrid drivability as they tried to figure out the
whole emissions thing. Frankly, from 76 to 86, IMO most new cars were junk as they rolled off the lots
and all my cars were pre-emissions until 86 when they started to figure things out a little bit. IMO, I missed
nothing skipping 76 to 86. Mustang II? Vega? Yikes. Didn't need or want a big sedan of any make.

As far as a daily driver, I would never have a truck or SUV. I am very pleased with my 2017 Accord 5 speed.
If I was 6'4", I might feel differently, but I am not. I NEED a PU, so I have one. And it gets driven enough to keep
the battery up, and to do gravel, plywood and lumber hauling, and occasional moving or trailer towing chores.
Otherwise, it sits. Like my 1980 911 Targa. It sits until I want to "Go play racecar", and then I get it out and
run it. Same for the Cayman, just newer and I will take it on long cross country trips. The 911 doesn't get driven
enough to fully trust it launching to Cali or something, although it has never let me down in the 34 years I have
owned it. I really need to sell the 911.

Yeah, the real SUs were way better than the smogged Hitachi CDs. Smart move by somebody. Fortunately, I have
never lived in a state that thought my car was any of their business. Fla had safety inspections for about 10 years,
cancelled it when it didn't change accidents. Check brakes, lights and ball joints.
 
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462

California's Central Coast Amid The Insanity
Bill said "
The Morris Minor of the late 50s and 60s had the same 948cc A-series engine as the Spridets and later Minis did.
No great powerhouse as it came but could be souped up a good bit and still survive. A friend;s father had one
and it was a competent car."


Later ('64?), the displacement was increased to 1098 cc (usually referred to as 1100), and in '68 to 1275 cc, while road race engines were upped to 1300 cc.
 

Ian

Notorious member
Mmmm. 1.3 liters of screaming fury. :rolleyes: My '69 Karmann Ghia at least had 1.6 liters of displacement.
 

Pistolero

Well-Known Member
The hotted up 1275 was in the Mini Coopers, Cooper being a Formula 1 car constructor at the time, so they
had some racing cachet.
My Ghia was a 63, 40 hp with a 3/4 cam, oversized cylinders and headers, a camber compensator, larger diam front antisway
bar and wider Michelin XAS tires, very trick in the late 60s early 70s, if you were really poor. :rolleyes: And had
a great imagination. :D I like to imagine that it made 50-55 hp. Oh, yeah, it had the purely centrifugal distributor,
too, 010, IIRC. The lower CG and better aerodynamics helped the Ghias a bit. Mine would top at 82 mph.....
and it spent much of it's life there when the interstate speed limits were 75 mph in Fla. Big cyl increased disp
to just under 1500 cc, but heads and intake manifold were still small.
I fancied it as my 'budget Porsche', and compared to a bunch of the less expensive 60 hp 356s, it wasn't really
far off. Came the 911s......WAY in another class altogether. By '86 I could afford an actual 911, albeit a used
one.

Teen boys and their low dollar toys. :)
 
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462

California's Central Coast Amid The Insanity
The 1275 was rated at 65 hp, and the car weight about 1500 lbs.

Mine was just like this Brit example:
10243
 
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Ian

Notorious member
The VW engines were like aircraft engines, running at 70-90% most of the time and 102% on takeoff. Sure way to kill one was idle it to death or hot-soak it, and they didn't like to be lugged down in a high gear, either. In contrast the 325 hp LS engine in my Tahoe putters along at about 40% power at 75 mph and 100% power will smoke the tires and command 5500 rpm upshifts. The Tahoe weighs about 4800 dry, the Ghia about 1800 if memory serves.
 

fiver

Well-Known Member
by contrast our 25hp Tahoe shudders at idle and smokes the exhaust system at about 4,000 rpm trying to climb the summit out of the valley here.
it looks like a coal rolling diesel about 50yds up the start of the hill.
 

waco

Springfield, Oregon
Should have never got rid of my '70 Malibu. Always enjoys pics of John's sweet Chevelle.