Engine Number

[Dogsdad]

I need some help with information on the engine number of my car.
The car is a1970 4door with a 1080 engine.
The number seems a little odd for the car. I am not sure what year or car this is from.

The stamped plate on the block does seem original and seems not tampered with.
The number is:-

10V/189E/H18265.

Any help on this will be most welcome.

Richard M.

[svenedin]

The engine number system changed from April 1969 so your engine number seems correct for 1970. My car, March 1969 uses the older engine numbering system (just!).

Out of interest, does your car have closed circuit engine breathing with a PCV valve? Mine does. In the old numbering system these engine are 10ME. I believe that the earlier closed circuit breathing engines used a PCV valve and the later ones had a breather going to a breather inlet on the carburettor. I am unsure when this changed.

10 (for a 1098cc)
V (vertical meaning in-line)

189E Morris Minor with closed circuit breathing

H high compression

Stephen

[Dogsdad]

Thanks Stephen,this clears up my thoughts on the number. The V5 only gives the last 5 of the number as the engine number.
My car has the hose from the rocker cover to the air filter with the plain tube down the manifold side of the block.
How original this is after 50 odd years is any bodies guess I suppose.
Thanks again,Richard M.

[svenedin]

Thanks Stephen,this clears up my thoughts on the number. The V5 only gives the last 5 of the number as the engine number.
My car has the hose from the rocker cover to the air filter with the plain tube down the manifold side of the block.
How original this is after 50 odd years is any bodies guess I suppose.
Thanks again,Richard M.

You're welcome.

Your engine breathing is definitely not original. That's an earlier system but if the engine is not leaking oil I don't see that it matters unless you want originality.

Stephen

[PhilAllen]

I can add a bit of information which might help give a clue to when things changed. My car is a 2 door registered in November 1969. I was told it has the original engine when I bought it and all the evidence suggests that is true. The engine number is 10V/189E/H16864. It has the cylindrical engine breather coming from the tappet cover and feeding into a pipe on the side of the carb (AUD368 according to the tag on it).

[svenedin]

I can add a bit of information which might help give a clue to when things changed. My car is a 2 door registered in November 1969. I was told it has the original engine when I bought it and all the evidence suggests that is true. The engine number is 10V/189E/H16864. It has the cylindrical engine breather coming from the tappet cover and feeding into a pipe on the side of the carb (AUD368 according to the tag on it).

Thank you. That is very interesting. I have seen other 1969 cars that have a PCV valve like mine but they are very rare. So rare in fact that at car shows people almost always say that my car must be "wrong". I have never been able to work out how long the PCV valve was used on the Morris Minor except that it seems it was only 1969 and possible only part of 1969. There are cars that have the correct manifold for a PCV but it has either been blanked off or used as a convenient place to plumb in a brake servo. I think the Smiths PCV valve was regarded as troublesome so some cars were reverted to the older type of breather system and some went to the carburettor with a breather inlet. At some point they went to carburettor breather in production. In other words, it's very hard to know what was original and what has been modified over the years.

The manifold that was used with the PCV is 12A1097 and is drilled and tapped with 2x holes in the top. One is for the PCV valve pipe to attach to (a stub pipe screws into the manifold) and the smaller hole is for a stud or screw that holds the PCV valve bracket.

Stephen

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[Guildbass]

My '68 which is an untouched 65,000 from new 'little old lady' car has the simpler 'tube to carb' breather. Maybe the PCV was for an export market originally? I know the Americans saw that system as desirable...

[svenedin]

No, cars destined for export are marked as such on Heritage Certificates. Mine is “home market”. Closed circuit breathing engines are 10ME not 10MA. The PCV was used on many British cars but only for a short time in the Morris Minor. It's hard to know exactly what was going on when my car was built but only 170 tourers were built in 1969 and that was the year production ended. According to my rough estimates, there were 6 months of tourer production in 1969. If that was even over the 6 months it would be very roughly 30 cars per month. In that case there were 90 cars after mine. I wonder how many still exist! Probably not more than a handful but I would like to know one day......

Stephen

[Guildbass]

No, cars destined for export are marked as such on Heritage Certificates. Mine is “home market”. Closed circuit breathing engines are 10ME not 10MA According to my rough estimates, there were 6 months of tourer production in 1969. If that was even over the 6 months it would be very roughly 30 cars per month. In that case there were 90 cars after mine. I wonder how many still exist! Probably not more than a handful but I would like to know one day......

Stephen
We're other cars like the Mini, Traveller, 1100 etc with A Series engines so equipped at that time do you know ?

[svenedin]

No, cars destined for export are marked as such on Heritage Certificates. Mine is “home market”. Closed circuit breathing engines are 10ME not 10MA According to my rough estimates, there were 6 months of tourer production in 1969. If that was even over the 6 months it would be very roughly 30 cars per month. In that case there were 90 cars after mine. I wonder how many still exist! Probably not more than a handful but I would like to know one day......

Stephen
We're other cars like the Mini, Traveller, 1100 etc with A Series engines so equipped at that time do you know ?

Yes although I don't know the details of exactly which cars. There was a move towards engines with "closed circuit breathing" rather than simply venting to atmosphere. This may have been prompted by Californian anti-smog legislation (many British cars were exported) but probably also because closed circuit breathing creates some negative pressure in the crankcase which means the engine is less likely to leak oil. Minis had them and Mini parts suppliers still sell parts for Smiths PCV valves. Some of the MG's had PCV valve. They were also used on non A-series BMC engines and other manufacturers used them too. Basically the Smiths PCV valve was a common thing. With the late Minors (about 1970 onwards) the PCV valve was abandoned in favour of a variant of the SU HS2 that has a breather inlet on the body of the carburettor. This is simpler and has nothing much to go wrong but is not as sophisticated as using a PCV valve. If the diaphragm fails in a PCV valve (as has happened to me) atmospheric air can be drawn in which creates a weak mixture that can be so bad that the engine will not run. In addition, the crank case no longer runs at slight negative pressure and can (and does) leak oil from all over the place!

Stephen

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crankcase ... ion_system

https://mgaguru.com/mgtech/engine/cv103 ... 20valve%22.

[Guildbass]

[

Stephen
We're other cars like the Mini, Traveller, 1100 etc with A Series engines so equipped at that time do you know ?
[/quote]

Yes although I don't know the details of exactly which cars.
[/quote]

Fascinating. I will be looking st my breather today. I used a piece of the 'outer' of a bicycle bowden cable stripped of its plastic and slightly stretched to emphasise the sharp ended spiral in the end of a battery drill to 'wind out' the muck blocking a C90 Cub breather pipe. I wonder if that would grab enough of the existing innards of the breather?
There's an MA 1098 engine on ebay at the moment ( look at me with my casual use of Moggie lore!), oh and I've found hhe Dizzie Doctor. Down in Wiveliscombe near my old stamping grounds no less... I shall use no one else! Thanks for your valuable advises!