1275 Engine Upgrade On My 1960 Morris Cooper

[SomethingNew71]

Hey Everyone,

Been a little while since I posted.  Mostly because I have been enjoying the car and not working on it much.  I have however decided to pull the motor and give it a little more umph. 

The planned upgrades are below:

• New Performance Cam - Minisport ST948 Fast Road
• Re-work the head for larger valves(probably)
• Fix a clank thats happening in the motor with new bearings and a crank rework
• New Final Drive 2.95:1
• Center Oil Pickup

I got the engine out this weekend and its getting taken apart this week.  First picture of the project!

[sparetimetoys]

So what engine did you have?

[SomethingNew71]

So what engine did you have?

It's a 1275 from an Austin America.  I am keeping the engine though.  Just gonna spice it up a little.  :-D

[sparetimetoys]

I was thinking it may have been the 850 and you would have some parts to unload

[SomethingNew71]

Some amazing news.  While tearing down the motor we found out the pistons are already overbored!!  I have a 1293cc not a 1275cc.  That was super exciting and makes me wonder if I already have a performance cam in the car.  Not sure there is any way to tell for sure though.  I don't have any pictures of the motor but I have some of the freshly repainted engine bay for my upgraded motor to go in.

[Mudhen]

Should be able to mic up the cam just like anything else and see what it is.

When I bought my '65 there were Isky stickers on it...when I rebuilt the motor I was super un-excited to find out all I had were stickers.   ::)

[SomethingNew71]

Should be able to mic up the cam just like anything else and see what it is.

When I bought my '65 there were Isky stickers on it...when I rebuilt the motor I was super un-excited to find out all I had were stickers.   ::)

Haha stickers still add 10-15hp I have heard.  What does mic up mean?

[Mudhen]

Mic as in, 'micrometer'.  Checking it out the same as you would a piston or crank to work out the exact measurements.

What's 1293 - is that +.020?

[SomethingNew71]

Yup thats right +.020!

[sparetimetoys]

Any updates on how this is going?

[SomethingNew71]

I have been super behind on this post.  I have a few updates I will post in order below.  Super exciting stuff!!

[sparetimetoys]

Looking forward to the updates.

[94touring]

We're all waiting patiently  4.gif

[sparetimetoys]

Sory to see the way that guy jumped on you over on that other site.  I just mostly read there because it seems like some one gets their panties in a wad over any question or idea I put up there.

[SomethingNew71]

It's all good. Folks over there get all ornery but that's life. I'm midway though a drive from NC to DC so once I make it there ill update with a ton of pictures. Should be back in the car next week!!

[94touring]

Minimania is kind of a necessary evil, where there is tons of great info but BS to put up with.   As far as vendors go it's cheaper to buy from minispares, minisport, gb carparts, and myself.   Minimania is always the most expensive but that's his perogative.  I think I'm going to scale back my mechanical parts to the more popular items and carry them in stock.  Maybe do special request orders on what I don't carry.  My guy in the UK gives me a headache when I drop ship parts. 

[SomethingNew71]

Sorry for the delay folks!  I just got my shipment of parts from Mini-sport this afternoon made it all the way from england in less than 24 hours via DHL.  Always love that. 

So the offical changed on the motor are as follows:

• Big Valve conversion on head: Inlet valves: 35.7mm(1.401")/Exhaust valves: 29.5mm(1.16")
• Ported the Cyl head as well
• Found a mystery clack in the engine(turns out it was my layshaft)
• Fresh bearings for all components
• New cam just arrived in the mail(with new oil pump)
• New final drive in the mail as well

Some sneak peak photos below and if I can convince Jedduh01 to let me get it in his garage tomorrow there will be alot more photos to come.  I dont want to unwrap all the engine parts until we actually are gonna do the work to prevent rust since they are all wrapped up so nicely.

[SomethingNew71]

Got to building last night and found out my layshaft was totally borked in the transmission while I was putting my center oil pickup in.  So that put us back a few days.  Also realized I didn't order piston rings.  Those will be here by monday as well as a new layshaft and bearing for the layshaft.  Got some nice pictures though!

[SomethingNew71]

Finally got some traction after some layshaft crazieness.  Got the one from 7ent and realized, dang! its the multistep layshaft for the remote shift instead of the single step.  Then I order another from swiftune and again multistep instead of single step which they unfortunatly do not carry.  FINALLY I order one from minispares signle step and compitition grade(their words)  I will get that today and hopefully it is the right one.  Other than that we got our cam and pistons in the block and realized we needed some larger thrust washers for the crank.  Those get here in 1-3 days from 7ent.  Really starting to come together though and its strating to look more like an engine again. Hurray!!!  I also did some wiring in the car and wired up concealed interior lights, as well as my rally lights on the front of the car. 





Lighting OFF:



Lighting ON:

[94touring]

Love the pics

[SomethingNew71]

Love the pics

Thanks!!  I have been so bad about taking pictures on my projects lately.

[Willie_B]

Are the interior lights you added to the dash area for lighting the gauges or just extra interior light? Looks like a good idea for either. I need a little extra light on my gauges, stock gauge lights just not quite enough.

[SomethingNew71]

The idea was to add them for interior lighting for maps and general "argh I can't see because my mk1 is pitch black at night" needs. They were super easy to do and if you were to do it I can do a write up on them specifically.

[sparetimetoys]

The idea was to add them for interior lighting for maps and general "argh I can't see because my mk1 is pitch black at night" needs. They were super easy to do and if you were to do it I can do a write up on them specifically.

That would be cool.

[SomethingNew71]

Saturday was the day!

She lives!!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uw-P8KQN5yE&list=UUZIUfOFhrQ9nrR06IOoAJ2Q