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I have a Problem.... 2200 BMC Feelings - Wedge, Crab, Princess etc


rawy

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Hi All

 

I have a problem... I have a desire to own something with the sexy BMC 2200 Straight Six lump in it....

 

Needs to have a MOT, Be nice to have free tax... Budget is £1k

 

Interested in the following:

 

Wedge

Austin Princess 2200

Wolseley 18-22

Morris 2200

 

ADO17

Austin 2200 Landcrab

Morris 2200 Landcrab

Wolseley Six 

 

Any ideas?

 

I know we have the £500 princess on the board but its just not got that straight 6....

 

Look forward to some ideas!

 

Rawy

 

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Sadly a land crab is almost as rare as a princess or ambassador. terminal rust, apathy. and been sold in smallish numbers originally all haven't helped.

 

Both a crab or a wedge are both on my bucket list, for when i've won the lottery and i've bought that dream (and very large) barn so that i can start saving as many BMC, BL, ARG and Rover's as possible. I wonder if there is some sort of world record for the collection of chod??

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I have had an eye for these for as long as I have been driving, no experiance of them sadly but I have looked at a lot of adverts so I understand the need for six transverse cylinders, with the gearbox where it should be, parallel to the crankshaft!

Should I ever get the chance to tick this box it would be an automatic for sure, preferably a 'crab with an illuminated W on the grille. In turquoise metallic.

I think £1000 is a bit optimistic for anything with a mot that would get an mot again next year without a fight but these cars do pop up in the ads, and you will find one if you are patient. Gives you a chance to save up. If you are lucky, I have factory manual for 2200 landcrabs somewhere if you need to know anything.

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I had one!

post-4559-0-70726000-1418850584_thumb.jpg

Memories will be a bit hazy now, as this was 28 years ago, but it was derinitely a 2200 automatic.  Lovely smooth engine, but the gearbox was shot.

If you can find one (and those few words will be the key phrase here) then grab it and enjoy!

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It's doable but not easy at that price.  I'd expect whatever you got to be a bit tatty even with an MoT and in need of TLC, for the reasons MarvinsMom points out in his post.

 

For a grand I'd expect a car with an engine in need of full fluid change, probably with ignition issues and rust in the rear arches, floors, sills and boot.  I'd also expect the paint to be well past its use by date and the interior to be visibly worn.

 

The 2.2 is the most desirable of the variants and that pushes the price up so that a car that should normally be only worth £400-500 suddenly becomes a £800-1200 prospect, needing just as much work and sometimes a good deal more money.

 

The straight six in the SD1 is just as good/bad (I think I'm right in surmising it's not the E series in the UK market SD1) but finding an SD1 with an MoT for a grand is a mission in and of itself, whatever the variation.

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Would love a 6/110 but without a garage I'd be worried about it being safe.

 

Dare I say a tatty princess/crab would be ideal, don't want a minter, something to smoke round in, leave outside etc. One step away from crusher would be fine for me!

 

Just love the idea of turning up in one... different from the yank I had or Jag currently.

 

Rawy

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Yep, as far as i'm aware the 6 pot engines in the SD1 are a development of the triumph 2000/2500 sixes, and not the related in any way to the E-series.

 

The Australians and the South Africans both used the E-series 6 cylinder in their versions of the Marina (longitudinally) and in the (transverse) Kimberly-Tasman rebodied landcrabs.

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Yup, 3 speed Borg Warner under the sump, like a SaaB 99 / 900, with chain drive between torque converter and gears.

 

You could tell a Wedge was auto or manual as it drove toward you from the visible shape of the sump. And tell if it had PAS as the PAS oil cooler pipes were visible to from an oncoming car as well.

 

I think 2200 are priced below 1800, especially for Landcrabs. I think this is because of the "MGB engine, 1800s were the rally cars don't you know" effect. Not exactly a taxable scene, but, well you know......

I think autos alarm folk a bit too but I doubt the Borg Warner would be a problem for a specialist.

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Bloody hell you given me a foul memory twitch now, land crab 2200 shares first place with the Rover 2300 SD1 of doom as the most vile cars i had the misfortune to buy.

 

I remember two statistics from my ownership of 2200, the friggin plunge joints wore to buggery and i rebuilt them meself by buying a gross of 25/32" steel balls...the second piece of useless info is that an oil change requires 22 pints of oil if you have a manual heap as i did.

Also because of the weight of the engine and box the car has to have re-inforced (van) tyres.

 

Don't do it man, trust me.

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