Building a hot vintage engine with Jonny69

With a new shell that would be a really tempting project. Fixing acres of rust is soul destroying. All you have to do is clean up some old parts and screw it back together, hey presto, solid new Sprite.

I was looking at getting an Austin A35 and using Sprite/Midget running gear but the Pop turned up instead. On the 1275 engine you can use a lot of Metro parts including the turbo head and manifolds, this was going to be my plan for that car and it would make a really lively little sportscar in a Sprite. You can also steal the bigger disc brakes off one of the bigger cars as well, but I forget which one it is.

With a bit of research there are loads of parts out there that swap on or go on with a bit of minor modification and it can really liven up the driving experience. If you don't get too serious with things (ie don't bite off more than you can chew) you won't lose direction in the project and you'll be having fun in no time :p
 
bite off more than i can chew? like taking a 1972 3door range rover and rebuilding it to a souped up 1994 300TDi spec? LOL :D

Rust... i hate rust so so much. After doing that rangie, once the rust sets in on anything (like our daily ragbox, a 99 ka) i.. well it upsets me cuz i love my cars, but i lose interest in them.. its like, the death knell for them :(

that one word has killed all my favourite, best cars:

1988 XR2 RsTurbo - floor rotted out, closely followed by the inner wings
1990 Maestro 2.0 turbo x2 - one diesel, one MG Petrol - just generally rotted away.
1994 Clio 1.4 - rotted all over, particularly front bulkhead
1999 Ka2 "collection" - This is still going but theres a hole in the floor, and it's rusting around the filler cap like a mk3 fester

All those were/are great cars - did a lot of work, and i had a lot of fun in them. The ka has done 76k miles on its original clutch - 31k of them my miles, and i've abused it a bit. All the above were top notch mechanically at time of death (mot fail)

i'd like to think some bits of them live on, i did strip them and sell the parts. When i did the rangie... well u know range rovers - bloody rotboxes that they are.. Galvanised now though so :D - Tax exempt, NO RUST, looks great, NO RUST, classic insurance, and runs on vege oil (baaahahaha gordon brown) - Oh and there's NO RUST :D

Yeah, i was thinking about doing a Hi/Lo tech mix on the sprite, taking the best bits of a lot of different BL type cars.. Wanted to fit a Metro Turbo full engine, got one in the garage brimmed with oil, but because of the gearbox, I'd have to rebuild it with half a Marina 1300 engine. Sod that. I was thinking more along the lines of a Triumph Spitfire 1500 engine and box, or even same from a late TR6 - 150bhp spec hehehe. It's a shelf project idea at the mo, don't have the money to do a proper job.

I've seen some gits putting Nissan SR20DET 2.0 turbo engines, and MGF engines in midgets/sprites - This, IMO is a good idea for power, but.. nah.. It's an old car and i really fancy some twin carb, old engine goodness. Besides, putting a japanese engine in a british sports car is sacrilege.
 
Skree said:
I was thinking more along the lines of a Triumph Spitfire 1500 engine and box, .
Click to expand...

Forget that bag of old bolts, it's was a pretty horrible engine when new, and I doubt it's matured well. Weak bottom end, coupled with long stroke and problematic cooling means it's best avoided IMO.

What about a Zetec and Type 9 box, but running on DCOEs for a bit of period fueling? Cheap, plentifull, loads of tuning bits if you need it. Or go for a K series if you want to keep it in the familly, the light weight would be a bonus as well.
 
My mate has a Spitfire 1500 in his 1200 Herald. Goes quite well I thought for an engine that hasn't had much work. In fact none other than a rebuild I think. Can't remember if he's got twin SU's on that or just the one.

Penski - that's Seth's Herald, the blue one.

I think the secret to engines with flawed designs like 3 bearing bottom ends is to just look after them and respect them. You wouldn't build it as a 9000rpm screamer but some sly headwork and a cam and it'll bring that power and torque up nicely. Keeping the oil in good condition is a must.
 
Hmm zetec.. like the way you think but no.. I think i'd be more tempted to do what you said, jonny, with the original 1275 engine, and metro turbo bits :D
 
Skree said:
Hmm zetec.. like the way you think but no.. I think i'd be more tempted to do what you said, jonny, with the original 1275 engine, and metro turbo bits :D
Click to expand...

I love the A series, great little engine and is a far sweeter motor than the Triumph lump IMO. The Metro turbo engine can also take 7k RPM happily, it even says it's permissable to take it up to that on acceleration (i.e. don't hold it there) in the owners handbook!
 
Heh quality! I love the A series too, would love to build one. It's small enough to have to rely on revs, revs and nothing but revs :D
 
Dogbreath said:
Forget that bag of old bolts, it's was a pretty horrible engine when new, and I doubt it's matured well. Weak bottom end, coupled with long stroke and problematic cooling means it's best avoided IMO.
Click to expand...

The 1500 puts out decent torque, but the 1300 is generally considered the better bet of the two. Both can be tuned reliably, like anything, I suppose, if you know what you're doing but the 1300 is the better reving of the pair. If Skree is interested in a triumph lump have a read of this
 
I ragged the living **** out of my fifteen-hundred, didn't bother it in the slightest.

Tight, sweet, extremely revvy little sucker, contrary to what a fair few people might tell you.......You do have to wonder if they've ever actually owned one when the comment on it.

And yes, I've driven a 1300 to compare (it's in the shed...still). Didn't like the less grunty feel - certainly revved a little more freely but how much do you really want....

The 1500 does seem more prone to problems on sustained high speed (i.e. 1 hour +) runs however.
 
Awesome stuff!, thanks for the fun thread viewing time :)

saitrix said:
Looking good there Jonny. :D I guess it is a lot nicer to drive day in day out now.

Get the exhaust and carbs on now. ;) Then it is rolling road time, lol.
Click to expand...

Saitrix, I will you seeing you at Coventry University ( you're going there this year right?)
email me if you dare (in trust) :)
 
My old man has a 1500 rubber bumper Midget, and a very nice 1275 RWA Midget. Having driven both for several hundred miles each I think I'm in a reasonable position to comment.

The 1500 is torquey, no question about that, but it's not revvy in the slightest. If you ignore it's pleadings and get it up to about 5500 RPM it sounds like it's going to spread itself over the engine bay any second...and it's not even pulling at that RPM. Long stroke and 8:1 compression was never going to make this engie a screamer.

The 1275 is less torquey, but a smooth, free revving lump by comparison. Ultimatey the 1500 might be a little quicker, but the 1275 is a lot more fun to drive.
 
Was this legend of ultra short-throw cranks for the A series to build a super screamer true?
 
Bump from pits of hell :D

I should have done this when I built the engine but the clutch is on its last legs and shuddering the car to hell when I pull away. There are 3 things that can cause this and I plan to remedy all of them because I don't want to have to pull the engine out again once I'm done.

First is a warped or worn friction plate. That's the disc bit here with the springs in the middle:

18-08-07_1944.jpg


I can get a new one of them and I'm going to replace it. Second is a warped or worn pressure plate. That's the spring loaded cover that goes over the friction plate and again I can get a new one so I'll replace it.

Third potential problem area is the surface on the flywheel and I can get it refaced to make sure it's flat. Since it's on the lathe it would be rude not to get rid of a bit of excess material wouldn't it? I got my friend to shave my spare down a bit:

flywheel1.jpg


So the clutch mounting face and the back face were trued up by the same amount so the clutch depth remains the same. I got him to machine down the ring round the outside that locates the clutch and the ring-gear so it's just a minimal lip to locate the clutch and a chamfered step to hold the ring-gear. Then on the back face I got him to machine a few millimetres off the surface all over and chamfer the squared-off back edge right down:

flywheel2.jpg


flywheel3.jpg


That's a lot less weight on the outside edge so it should spin up a lot faster with no loss of strength. It's not as light as an aluminium flywheel but it was only £20 compared to £200! All I know is it's over 2.5Kg because the scales for weighing the mail can't take it :D
 
Should make a little more revvier. Have you fitted all the bits you wanted to fit to it yet? When you have please get it rolling roaded. :D
 
Skree said:
like taking a 1972 3door range rover and rebuilding it to a souped up 1994 300TDi spec? LOL :D
Click to expand...

Skree, can you tell me what bits you used for this conversion? i'm looking at a similar job soon and i'm struggling to find info on what to use, particularily what gearbox.

I don't want to derail Jonny's most excellent thread but if you could pm me with any advice you may have it'd be greatly appreciated :D
 
saitrix said:
Should make a little more revvier. Have you fitted all the bits you wanted to fit to it yet? When you have please get it rolling roaded. :D
Click to expand...
Not yet, picked up another pair of SU's on Monday night and they seem a bit better than the other pair I've got. I need to give them a clean up but I'm hoping the throttle spindles are less worn.
 
What SU's you using? Twin HS2's? Just had my car rolling road tuned, just be using the correct needles I have gained 24bhp!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom