Scrubworks Fleet: 1966 Morris Minor 1000

[Scrubworks]

Delayed this update far longer than it really should have been. Good news is, I've finally been driving the bloody thing.

The engine installation wasn't as painless as it really should have been. I had a friend to help me, but we ran into trouble as soon as I tried to fit the engine's backplate. It wouldn't fit over the oil pump.

I thought at first this might be an issue with fitting a 1098 backplate to a 948 block; the 948 backplate is a pressed thin piece of steel, whereas the 1098 backplate, required to use a ribbed-case gearbox, is a far more substantial thick chonky piece of stamped steel. However, it actually turned out to be the oil pump I'm using. It's from MED, and it's based on the casing used on a 998 A+ Mini oil pump. The casing has two sticky-uppy bits at the top that don't clear the backplate, unlike a 1098 oil pump. This obviously not an issue on a Mini engine, where the sump gearbox is used. I had to clearance the backplate with a file, then cut some slots out of the oil pump cover.

Concourse it ain't but it fits.
We then stuck the flywheel and clutch on, and attempted to make it become friends with the gearbox again. Of course , it didn't just slide together. The clutch disc must have been out of alignment by 0.001mm. Fortunately it was close enough to get a couple of bellhousing bolts started, and then a small stab of the clutch pedal allowed the friction disc to align itself, and then it all clunked together.

Red and green should never be seen? Psh. It looks pretty good; MG Maroon is a surprisingly versatile colour. I spent the following day dressing the engine with its ancillaries, and getting the car's face and bumper back on. This meant I could finally install the pair of Wipac foglights onto the bumper. They are wired into the high beam circuit for extra brightness on unlit country roads. I think they look the part too.

Then came the big day. First fire up. I've probably said elsewhere in this thread that, despite having worked on cars for about a decade, I've never actually built an engine from scratch. I was rather nervous. Fortunately, everything went pretty much without a hitch. A bad starter connection delayed things, but then the engine got oil pressure quickly after spinning it over, and after a couple of pops, fired up and ran beautifully.

It's running in that picture, honest 😋. The money I paid to have the rotating assembly balanced was well worth it. The exhaust note is so smooth it sounds almost like a rotary; quite different from the lopey idle you get on a stock 1098. I ran the car at 2000rpm for 20 minutes to bed the cam in. It's not the best thing in the world for the piston rings, as they really need to have load behind them, but if you don't bed in a pushrod cam and followers properly, they can end up shredding and sending metal round the rest of the engine. Not good. After that initial 20 minutes, I dumped the oil and filter, which were absolutely filthy. The magnetic sump plug picked up a fair amount too. New oil and filter, I then finally got the car out on the road. It runs as sweet as a nut, and it's definitely faster than the old 1098, although it does lack the off-the-line torque, as expected. The stock single HS2 carb and peashooter exhaust is definitely strangling the engine, but those are just being used to run the engine in. The hydraulic Marina clutch system is definitely nicer to use than the old mechanical system. It maybe lacks a bit of feel, but in real world driving that doesn't matter, and the ability to more easily adjust the pedal up and down is nice. A couple of rainy drives have put my K11 Micra wiper motor conversion to the test, and so far it's held up perfectly, Electric washers are nice too.

I've now down 120 or so miles in the car, following a "rev it up and coast it down" running in procedure. Next stage will be to change the oil and filter again, and I can also remove the stock carb and exhaust and install my twin HS2s, along with my old Maniflow sport exhaust. I'll also be installing my Ford Escort disc brake kit, along with plumbing in and activating the MX5 master cylinder and brake servo. The stock brakes are nowhere near good enough for me to safely use the power in the new engine, especially not with the Driving Dead zombie drivers around here (you wouldn't think it was possible in a 56 year old Morris to be held up by a boomer housewife in a 4 year old Qashqai, but here we are).

[Matty]

Brilliant. Looks mint and a top result after a load of hard graft. Maniflow? Talk to me. I'm still on my home brew system of cobbled together bits. Loud in a bad way. The maniflow sport system is cheapish but supposedly only fits their manifold. I've already got a 3 into 1 on and I can chop it about and tig it back up though. I hate the system I've got on cos it doesn't sound like an a series. Any chance of a quick video of yours running?

[Scrubworks]

1 hour ago, Matty said:

Brilliant. Looks mint and a top result after a load of hard graft. Maniflow? Talk to me. I'm still on my home brew system of cobbled together bits. Loud in a bad way. The maniflow sport system is cheapish but supposedly only fits their manifold. I've already got a 3 into 1 on and I can chop it about and tig it back up though. I hate the system I've got on cos it doesn't sound like an a series. Any chance of a quick video of yours running?

The Maniflow systems are pretty well regarded, in terms of performance. They do take away the A-Series sound, but the sound they give is no less distinctive, and in my opinion, far better. Completely reasonable noise level too. The only thing I don't like about them is they're made from mild steel, and they do tend to suffer from the elements after a while. In an ideal world, you'd take a Maniflow system to an exhaust fabricator, and get them to copy it in stainless steel.
Their LCB manifolds are also good, and you can use the manifold with a different exhaust, or use a Maniflow exhaust with a different LCB, but obviously you'd have to find a way to join the two. If both items are Maniflow, they sell you a little joiner pipe to connect both together. Both my LCB and exhaust system are Maniflow, and I had them on my previous Minor, but they've been in the garage for a few years. I'll have to get them out and give them a clean up before fitting them.