An American Moggie ~ My '59 Morris Minor 1000 2-door saloon

[Fingolfin]

I have done more, Irmscher, but photos are such a pain in the butt to post that I haven't bothered updating here.

Phil, you have a keen eye. The frontplates are both for a 1275cc Midget engine, but the original one was bent and its stiffener doodad had come loose. I was unable to unbend it to my satisfaction, so I bought another.

[philthehill]

Fingolfin
Many thanks for the reply.
I love the words - stiffener doodad
Phil

[firedrake1942]

technical terms closely related to thingamajig and whoojamaflip whatsit

[Fingolfin]

You knew what I meant! Those are very useful words indeed - better even than whatchamacallit!

[Fingolfin]

Many things have happened on the Mog project since April - some good, some very bad!

Continuing the work on the new engine, I installed the oil filter head, pipe, and banjo fitting.

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I next installed the dipstick and its guide tube...

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...and the backplate.

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With the timing gears on, it was possible to get the distributor drive gear placed in the correct orientation. Not very easy, but possible.

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After the drive gear, the housing/mount thing went on easily. I got a new-old-stock housing because the old one was cracked, stripped and painted it, and mounted it with a fresh o-ring.

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Next came the flywheel. Some of its paint chipped while hammering up the locking tabs, but nothing major.

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Next I added a new oil thrower on the front end of the crankshaft.

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Then it was possible to install the timing cover (water pump test-fitted here)...

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...distributor clamp...

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...and water pump.

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From an American company called MiniMania, I ordered a baffled crankcase vent that uses the mechanical fuel pump aperture. Looks pretty trick, as the kids say, and I'm hopeful it'll help this engine be leak-free.

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I next installed the clutch, which was quite easy but represented big progress.

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Another easy task was repainting and installing the fan pulley and fan. I opted to use one of Mog's metal blades instead of the MG plastic one, in part because the plastic one that came with the engine was broken and I didn't want to buy a new one, and in part because I like metal blades better - they don't shatter!

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I also disassembled the rocker train, gave everything a good cleaning and filing/reprofiling where necessary (valve and pushrod bearing surfaces), and reassembled with lots of assembly lube and a new rockershaft. The rockers are the pressed type and their bearings were slightly worn, but I opted not to get new rockers at this time - the new rockershaft took up most of the wear.

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Next it was time to do some head work. Having read numerous how-to guides and MG forums online, I felt confident I could change the valve guides myself. I selected manganese-bronze guides (here next to one of the old cast-iron ones). I've been told that they're not really necessary for a street car, but their superior wear properties made sense, along with their self-lubricity:

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Still unnecessarily rotating images, I see...but at least I can post more than three at a time!
As a test, to prove to myself I could do it, I drove one guide out and drove a new one in its place. I'm using a special valve guide drift, which has a nose that goes down into the guide and an angled shoulder to help center the drift in the guide.

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This buoyed my confidence tremendously. It was very easy! So I drove all the old ones out...

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...and drove all the new ones in.

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The process of driving left a few burrs in the guide bores, so I (very gently) tidied them up with fine sandpaper wrapped around a narrow round file.

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Then I decided I needed some brute force. This is a 9/32" drill bit. You may find this kind of approach jarring, as I did, but keep in mind how hard manganese-bronze is - it needed a brute force approach.

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After drilling a while, and re-polishing with the fine sandpaper, the valves dropped right in under their own weight - exactly what you want.

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The valve seats, though, were not pretty. I decided to send the head to a machine shop to get them professionally recut (and also to ensure the guide bores are round...).

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That's as far as I've come on the engine - I think you'll agree, quite close!

[Fingolfin]

At the same time as the engine work, I finished up most of the gearbox work.

I was dissatisfied with the gearbox's cleanliness, so I scrubbed and scrubbed before reassembly.

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The next task was to change the tailshaft oil seal, something I've never done before. It wasn't easy. The old seal had to be destroyed to be removed.

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Once the new seal got over the initial tailshaft lip, it was a breeze to tap on and crimp into place.

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Now it was time for reassembling the major components together. New gaskets were a start...

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With a little wiggling, the tailshaft slid home with no complaint.

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Next (actually a few months later) I changed the throwout bearing lever's bronze pivot bearing...

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...and derusted and repainted it. I got this throwout bearing lever from ESM, and it was second-hand.

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Finally I installed the new throwout bearing, a very pleasing and fairly simple task.

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That's all on the gearbox for the time being - the only job that remains is installing the new frontplate, but I have to figure out how many shims I need first.

[Fingolfin]

And now for the final tale in our update. Here's where the "very bad" stuff kicks in!

I hadn't had a functioning fuel gauge for maybe six months - the older style without a voltage stabilizer - so I bit the bullet and got a new sender/float for the tank, and used the later gauge with stabilizer (I had a few spare ones of those kicking around). Wiring was comparatively simple:

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And it works!

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Then I took an evening to really clean the car's inside, vacuuming and scrubbing glass. It's so much more "livable" when it's clean!

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I also hadn't had two-speed wipers for almost a year (despite having the two-speed motor), due to using a bad guide for wiring at the initial two-speed installation. I found a better way using dual relays, and it works! Need to replace that motor gearbox cover though.

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Heading into the bad stuff now. A comparatively minor bad thing compared to what comes next, but in June I discovered one of my driver's seat bolts had ripped through the floorpan (which, you'll recall, is only six or seven years old) and caused some terrible stress cracks. These were fairly easy to weld up, though, and I was careful to use the largest load-spreading washers I could find until I can have some proper load-spreading plates made.

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The morning of 1 July I came out to Mog to drive to work, and discovered someone had smashed the windshield overnight.

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I never found out for sure who did it, but I strongly suspect a drunken upstairs neighbor who has since moved out.
The smashed windshield made Mog impossible to drive, of course, and set me into a scramble to find the cheapest option for replacement. To my surprise, the cheapest option was importing one via my usual supplier in East Sussex! Even with freight across the ocean, it was less expensive to buy a new windshield from Britain than to get one from the marked-up American distributors. The new windshield (and many other parts) arrived overnight!

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The old cracked windshield was removed pretty easily - fifteen minutes with a knife:

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...and the aperture repainted, which it desperately needed:

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Mog's windshield seal had always leaked, so I sourced a new seal from a rubber extrusion company in Britain, figuring that a rubber company would know how to make a good seal. I was wrong. This seal only held onto the windshield with liberal amounts of adhesive, and when we attempted to install it, it simply would not fit into the body aperture.

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I got a fresh seal from the usual supplier, but still couldn't install it. I found a professional installer in Jefferson City, about half an hour's drive from where we live, that could do it - but I had no trailer, so I drove Mog without a windshield! Luckily a friend from work likes to ride a motorbike...

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The trip was no problem. In fact it was quite enjoyable.

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The professional installer was not impressed with the fit of the seal. He taped it in position and left it to re-form overnight.

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While he did that, I experimented with Mog's new rear view mirror. If you're a connoisseur of classics, you might recognize it from a 1960s Thunderbird - and boy is it a perfect fit! Day/night flipper, too, and wide enough to show the whole rear window.

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It took two days, but the installer got the windshield in. He said he and his crew fought the seal all the way.

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The new seal is a poor fit, and leaks badly in several places. I've injected some creeping sealant in the obvious spots (no rain yet, so don't know if it worked), but I feel like I shouldn't have had to - this is something the parts suppliers ought to look into.
By now Mog's license plates had expired, but what choice did I have but to drive it back home? Looks pretty good, though.

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I took Mog in for inspection, but it failed! When I got to work, I discovered why - the exhaust pipe behind the muffler had turned to Swiss cheese. It pulled apart in my hands as I withdrew it from beneath the car.

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Stripped with a flap disc on the angle grinder, cleaned, and primed...

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...and repainted. The primer, color, and clear paints were all rated for high temperature, and needed a baking procedure to set firmly.

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I had a local muffler shop make a new tailpipe. They made it exactly to the dimensions of the old one, but the old one had a troublesome tendency of fouling the bumper overrider (and the overrider acting as a funnel, so exhaust fouled the area around the fuel cap, too...), so I added a flashy chrome extension on the rear.

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Mog failed inspection due to exhaust leaks behind the muffler and at the manifold clamp. Here you can see the sooty engine bay floor and fuel pump.

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So, to help remedy that, I got one of the new cast clamps from the usual Sussaxon (Sussegian? Sussexian?) supplier.

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Mog passed inspection with the new clamp and pipe - no exhaust leaks yet. It's now road-legal again and I'm using it as my daily driver. The windshield experience, and then failing inspection, had Mog stationary (except driving to and from the glassfitter) for almost three months!

But as you can see above, the new engine and gearbox are nearly done. Hopefully that will give Mog a new lease "of" life. Oh, and another thing that will give my life new lease, too - I'm leaving my second job and going down to forty hours a week! That means less money, yes, but much more time to be with my family and do Mog things. Watch this space!

[philthehill]

Well done.
Comments regarding the engine:-
There is absolutely no need to use gasket goo on any of the gaskets used in assembling the engine or gearbox.
BMC never used it and I do not either and I still have oil tight engines.
A light smear of LM grease on both faces of the gasket is all that is required. The gasket stays supple for much longer and is easy to remove.

The drift for driving the valve guides into the head should have a flat face where it sits on the top of the guide.
Having the taper will deform the top of the guide as you have found.
Bronze guides should be pressed into the head - not driven.

I would suggest that you get rid of that convoluted bypass hose and fit a straight solid hose. Those thin wall convoluted hoses are prone to failure.

[Fingolfin]

I wouldn't be surprised if you're right about that hose, Phil.
The guides are what they are and the head's at the machine shop now. Also, on closer inspection, I was wrong about the drift - it is flat on the step, not angled.
And my experience of no sealant on the 948 leads me to disagree on the sealant question - I kept to just gaskets on it and it leaks like a sieve! So I'm trying it this way.

[philthehill]

Thank you for the update on the drift.
If you fit the engine gaskets dry they will leak. Both gasket faces smeared with grease and they will not leak and as I said above they can be easily removed if required and you will not have that red jointing compound showing through.
I note that you have the early type of exhaust port air injection system head (made for the USA & Canadian markets) - I presume that you do not intend to continue to use the emission control system as you have blocked off the air manifold inlets by the spark plugs?
I have included this link for general consumption:-
http://www.mgexp.com/phorum/read.php?3,2750022
Phil

[Fingolfin]

You're quite right, Phil - I am normally the first to be concerned about pollution of any kind, but I haven't got the funds to procure a complete air injection setup with pump, etc. So I coated plugs in exhaust sealant and screwed them into the cylinder ports.
What a beautiful engine in your photo!

As a general update - the machine shop called about the 1275's head. The machinist says the valve guides are good, just required a gentle honing. However, the exhaust seats are so badly pitted that they'll install new seats. The intake seats will only require grinding. That's about what I expected.