Morris minor

[Mr Fishums]

Has anyone done or yet consided converting a Morris minor?

 

I have a restored 59 panel wagon, and the demensions to get the subaru EA-81 drive train under it look about right :cool: A 4x4 no doubt would be my goal.

[mtsmiths]

As one who has owned a Morris Minor in a previous life, I can only comment ... do IT, do IT, doIT!

[75subie]

man, i didn`t know you had a minor too:-p ! you have one of everyhing:lol: have any pics of it?

 

i used to have a white morris minor 2 door, unrestored rust bucket, but man, that thing was cool, definatly alot more of a driver than a 360. mine still sits in Ellenville NY (traded it for a leCar rally sport), pretty much rusted beyond safe now, but i bet it still runs. what went wrong with yours?

 

do you have any other cars like this? i also had a Hillman Minx, a lloyd alexander, and there is a Daf and vespa 400 for sale down the road from me. of course there was also the 360 van. always wanted a citroen 2cv:D

 

an ea81 in a morris would be super sweet, but i can`t remember how big these things were under the hood, i don`t think it was wide enough for an ea81. is this what you were looking for from an ea81 junker?

[75subie]

actually thinking about it, the minor might have been pretty roomy under the hood if i remember right.

 

this is the body style mine was:

 

and this is what the lloyd looked like:

http://www.microcarmuseum.com/tour/lloyd-alexander.html

there was also a crosley sitting in Newburgh ny for the longest time, not sure if it is still there.

[Mr Fishums]

Yep that is exactly why I am looking for an EA-81 junker Project morris gets GoPower. The Morris was orginally designed for a boxer engine, but the company did not have the funds to produce one during the time the car was being made. If you've been under that hood you can see this, from the extremely wide engine bay. The extremely tiny I engine, seems very lonely in there. The car weighs in at 1200lbs and came with a 30hp pre-WWII I engine, I guess it was what Morris had handy at the time. An EA-81 with some upgrades can easily get 100hp. This project is actually one being undertaken by a friend of mine. He wants a good reliable engine that can be a daily driver, and be a cost effective transplant. We already were taking measurements from my hatch and had the two cars along side eachother. It looks like it will be a fun project.

 

Thanks, Fishums

[75subie]

i don`t know if mine was original or not, but it had a regular i4 in it, looked like a late 60s morris mini engine, maybe it was adapted into there?

[DJtheGOD]

I too have a Morris minor but mine is fully restored(if I knew The EA81 running gear might fit it woulda saved me a heap of money) it is a '56 4 door and has cost me more than its worth but it is a great looking car and was my first car....

 

DJ

[robm]

The original Mini had the same engine as the Morris Minor, but adapted for transverse installation and grafted onto the gear box. It was known as the "A series BMC" engine. The same engine was used in the MG Midget and similar Triumph Sprite.

 

Tuned to the nuts, they would produce 100 HP for the race track.

 

Sir Alec Issigonis designed both the Mini and a substantial portion of the Minor.

 

Subaru power for the Minor would be really cool. Let's hope it will work. I bet Sir Alec would have approved, both of this conversion and the Subaru itself.

 

Rob.

[Skip]

Rob, that was the Austin Healey Sprite.

After the BugEye or Frogeye model,

they were

also refered to as "Spridgets"

"A" series engines came in 803 cc,948 cc 1098 cc and 1275 cc

 

Triumphs small car was the Spitfire and used

a Triumph 1296 cc (early) or later 1500 cc engine.

 

MM's are way kewl but a bit Fra Jilly for my use.

[Mr Fishums]

Yeah we had also considered using a lotus engine, one of the 5 main dual over head cam inline 4 versions. I've seen the lotus conversion done before, it has great power... just not the reliability or the small price tag of the subaru. Plus, I think as long as we relocate the radiator we can get the motor far enough forward, and make the Morris a 4x4 That my friends is what it's all about! 4x4 with D/R in the Morris

 

Just have to find a nice EA-81 drive train to get the project going.

 

Thanks, Fishums

[robm]

Of course, dumb mistake. "Spridget" is from "sprite/midget", same car, different badge.

 

At the time, it was hard to tell the difference. BMC had Austin, MG, Morris, and a bunch of other names under their umbrella. Then they were absorbed/reorganized into British Leyland, along with Triumph, Rover, etc. Hard to keep track of, especially 35 years later and thousands of miles away. It was a dynamic time in the industry in Britain, the dying gasps of the industrial revolution.

 

MM's had a good reputation for toughness among my relatives who had them. But they were designed for lower overall speeds, and roads that had been around for a long time, even if they weren't always paved. And this was relative to the alternatives available at the time. At that point, the Japanese were assiduously copying these cars wholesale. They didn't start to design their own, and start the improvement process we are benefitting form today, until the mid 60's.

 

That Lotus engine would be a Ford Lotus, I suspect? Pretty darn good engien, for the time, but a pain to work on. I hear you have to pull the intake manifold to work on the points. I understand the Ford is a fairly common swap for the Minor.

[mtsmiths]

I think the MM had the Austin A-40 engine. I too, had several cars with this engine. A couple of '54 Nash Metropolitons (true b@stards, American body, 3-on-the-tree (actually, the dash) tranny, English engine, electrics, suspension), but a fun car. I also had a '59 Bugeye Sprite, and a MM coupe.

 

I had no problems with any of these cars. In fact I liked them so much that much later I bought an MG Midget ... which more than made up for the good fortune with the earlier Englich autos. A pure POS from start to a much relieved farewell.

[brat82]

WOW! Love this post...I got 2 morris minors, one I want to keep stock and the other have been lookin at makin into 4x4 with subaru gear. Will have to go back and read these. I have 83-84/ea81 rusty holey coast vehicle, that is the donor. I've had the bugeye/sprite and did have one of these MM's running pretty good but the parts ain't cheap. Drove it like a baja, NOT really made for that...William Morris was a bicycle mechanic in the late 1890's,quit school to support his parents,put together the BULLNOSE MORRIS(pre-henry ford), the mechanics at the factory,Morris Garage, needed a name for their little race cars, "Hey Billy,what do we call these things?" "MG"s" The rest is history, so they say...the engines I got are 950cc's, slightly over 2.5" cyls. The one I am trying to keep stock, isn't really stock...dual SU,s from austin healy...MG midget rear end/higher end speed...I took a trip down to SF and got close to 50mpg, could only do 55, and hillclimbs aren't the MM's specialty...The biggest motor made for the morris was a 1098cc. I think the largest motor I've seen in a morris was a MG 1500 and that took some rearranging. So just think of the power with a 1800 subaru motor! I love the MICKEY MOUSE look... :cool:

[Jack in Norfolk]

got any more morris minor pics?

[DJtheGOD]

I have seen a morris with a 13b turbo rotary in it(one of the guys I did my apprenticeship with built it) went like a cut cat bloody hard to stop did awesome burnouts... have also seen one with a leyland V8 in it...

[robm]

A 1275 cc engine can be fitted to the MM. Did the later Midgets come in this size?

[Tbird Man]

1275cc came in the midget MK.III's from '65 to '74 and made about 60hp. it is basicly the same motor as the eariler 948 and 1098cc motors. from '74 to '80 when it was discontinued the Midget had a 1493cc (1500) engine from its rivel the Trimuph Spitfire. I happen to own two midgets and had thought about the 4wd subaru idea but i woulden't want to destroy the excellent weight balance of the MG.