• Hi Guest!
    If you appreciate British Car Forum and our 25 years of supporting British car enthusiasts with technical and anicdotal information, collected from our thousands of great members, please support us with a low-cost subscription. You can become a supporting member for less than the dues of most car clubs.

    There are some perks with a member upgrade!
    **Upgrade Now**
    (PS: Subscribers don't see this gawd-aweful banner
Tips
Tips

1098 worth saving?

Picture 004_640x480.jpgi I GOT MY SPRITE 2001 WITH A 1098CC ENGINE.....I GOT A 1275 WITH RIBBED TRANNY...I WAITED FOR THE 1098 TO KICK..IM' STILL WAIT IT WILL NOT QUIT........KEEP THE 1098 FOR LUCK......WILLIE
 
A couple of years ago I replaced my 948cc with a built 1275cc in my Mark I Midget. I did the swap because there simply wasn't enough power in the original engine. By the way, my dad bought this MG in 1964 (it's a '62 prod). So, except for the 1275 this car is all original. I even have the Dunlop whitewalls that were on the car when my dad bought it. Since the swap I've had the 948 in storage. There were no issues with the engine when it was pulled. But 948s are the Rodney Dangerfields of Brit motors in my view. Nice engine but not really sought after. I'll keep mine in case I ever decide to make it all original again.
 
Hap, .. pass it forward.... Anyone need a 12g295 head? .. I was going to have it rebuilt, then just swap it out instead of having my engine out for a long period of time waiting for the rebuild. I've gone for 1275 instead so there is what looks like a brand new 1098 head (bare) just sitting in a box at Hap's shop.

So, Bill, when do you expect to be back on the road?
 
Will do Bill, and if you sell to someone and they want to rebuild it, than I can do that as well, even resurface it and set it for use on a 948, if the person feeds me deck height info on their 948 engine.

Here's my train of thought when it comes to someone starting form stratch on rebuild of A series engine and they have a 948, or 1098.

948: They had the least stroke of all the A series engine, 3.000" so even when built for performance , they have no lower, or mid range grunt, you have to wind them up. Then when it come to rebuild parts, you will be greatly compromised at your choices, there are few people in this country and the UK, who do offer uprated pistons and such for this engine, but they are expensive choices. Pin drive cams don't grow on trees, so your choices there will limited, sure you can get your cam reground, but if you don't reharden it, then it wear quickly. Then there is the oil pump dilema, all the oil pumps, I have been able to find for the pin drive set up are later Mini stuff and that pump does not fit the old inline 948s, and 1098s, I went thru this with APT, and Mini Mania, APT offered a fix to fit the later pump to the older inline engine, but it don't work, not even close, so inthe alst tow 948s i built, luckily, the old oil pump were good shape and clearance properly, so I coulf re use them, sam ehting applies to the 1098 as or he oil pump. There used to be a Cooper S oil pump you could use in a 948 and then use later slot drive cams, but it seems to now be extinct. Then 948 only has one cam bearing, not the greatest set up in the world, racesr get the front and middle cam bores line bored for use of the cam bearings, but that expensive machining process, that not many machine shop can even do it. I've built a couple of hot rod 948, one with .060" over 998 piston, so in a 948 .120" over, making it a 1050cc engine and used 1098 rods. Bottom line you can start to see how parts are hard to come by, will cost you more, and at the end of the day it can put out no where near a stock 1275, even if perofmrance built. The last time I had to get a set of 948 rings for a Bugeye racer, we waited 3 months for them and paid double what they would have cost for the 1275. The 948 cylinder head, the valve spring retainer set up is an antique for sure, unless you scrap it all and uprade to later Mini stuff, then you have to use those silly oil splash shields, and not proper umbreall seals

1098: Ok, they did make improvements here in many ways, the bore on the 1098 engine, is only .060" bigger bore standard than that of the 948 standard bore, the larger displacment mostly came for more stroke, up to 3.300" now with the 1098, this gave the motor low end and middle power range grunt, so it was way more driveable than the 948. The 1098 in a perofrmance build has alot of potential, but there again part choices are greatly limited,and it still has the pin drive cam and oil pump issues of the 948. It hard to find a good , more modern pistons for this engine, although most vendor do have the stock, 5 ring piston avaialble for the 1098, this thing looks like it came from the WWII era :smile:

Bottom line 948, or 1098 even at a stock rebuild will always cost more to do, parts wise than a 1275, normally enough more to justify finding 1275 engine core for rebuilding, and there is nothing you can do performance wise to the 948, or 1098 that ifi you do the same to the 1275, that even makes them come close to the 1275 performance. There's alway going to be folks inth hobby who have a early car with 948, or 1098, that want to keep it original, and thats fine, it their choice, but if you are engine builder like me, you can see why I think that drivablity, and parts availablity on the 1275 is the way to go or so many reasons. I have buddy with an original 948 63 Midget, he loves it, but he might as well have a golf cart :smile:, he will only drive it on very short drives, a beer run to the local store, and such, he scared to the death to take it on a longer drive. When it comes to rebuilding a engine and doing it right, it just makes way more sense to go with the 1275, you'll get way more bang for your buck. For the orrginal, I'm going to show it crowd, most of them have never even attend a concourse judged show, so what the prize for being original in a popular vote show? Of course this is the engine builder in me talking, I like a good bang for the buck, and the 948, or 1098 do not deliver on that promise, when compared to the 1275, but at the end of the day, each to their own.

The point of this post is not downrate, or belittle anyone with a 948, 0r 1098 engined car, but rather to open one eyes who is beginning into the engine rebuild phase of a project, if you like to drive your car, then the 1275 delivers way more for less money.
 
Last edited:
Geeez, thanks Hap! There goes my chance of selling a good 10CG and a 10CC!

Just kidding, as the old saying goes "there's no replacement for displacement", but I personally always like the way a 10CC sings along on a nice two lane. But then theres the four lane!

I've kinda become enamoured of a 1500 Datsun engine and 5 speed myself!

Kurt.
 
Here is the story so far..

It took about a month to get a spot for them to take the car into the shop, and another month before they started work. When they took it apart they could see that it needed a new clutch disk, so we waited for that to come. In the mean while I had put them in touch with Gerard if they had any questions. There, (Gerard's websight) they saw his rear seal kit and thought that would be a good idea, so I ordered one. Well, Gerard was out at the time but was having some made up, as he had gotten enough orders to have them made at a reasonable price. By the time they came another month or so had gone by. At that point I mentioned that my gas gauge has NEVER worked so if they wanted to drop the tank to hook up the ground wire that I had knocked off and had "escaped" back to where I couldn't reach it, to please , go ahead and get my gas gauge working. .. Turns out whoever put that tank in the car had put in wrong one, so the bung was wrong to be able to put the right sending unit in. (we're most of us aware of the non-interchangeability of the sending units) so they ordered these parts from Moss. .. They want to (as do I) take the car to a dyno tuner to get the WEBER dialed in. We know what a PITA they can be if you don't have all the right jets and the time to get them right, but they couldn't do that because the gas tank was out. Now we have to wait for the rains to stop so they can get the car (I didn't take the top with me to their shop) to the tuner's. . An since the rains have come, I'm in no real hurry, as I can't drive the car until Spring, anyway. ... .. Next up will be getting the cancer cut out. .. next winter.
 
Wow... LOADS of work (and it looked so nice when I saw it last April). Well, it's nice to know that all the little (and often hidden) things are being addressed. Maybe you'll be at the next Jumble in PDX and we can link up. Would like to see it when complete (and I'm sure Pete S. would too).
 
Let me put in a good word for the 12G 295 head. I still have the original 948 in my bugeye, but with some mods.
HS2s, 88G 229 cam, LCB exhaust and a 12G 295 head. The 295 head has a greater capacity than the 948 cc head so you'll need flat top pistons or a skimming of the head to get a decent CR. But it really is a lovely motor that loves to rev (which it needs to with my 4.55 diff). And Hap, It ain't no golf cart!
 
Wow Bill, dyno time is expensive fo the Weber. Hope you can get it all sorted and back on the road by spring. Is your gas tank a later one? If so they have more capacity but the sending unit problem would need sorting. I've thought of changing to gain capacity and intended on using the old sending unit but extending the float wire to give me a somewhat accurate reading. The mount I odn't believe will work either but figured I could do some welding or whatever to make it fit. Of course this would be on a tank that hadn't held fuel!
Kurt.
 
The dyno time should only be about $300 to $500. Not bad for what they do.
 
Back
Top