• 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

1275cc engine question

Share this page

abarth69

abarth69

Jedi Warrior
Country flag
Offline
I took my newly acquired 1966 Sprite up to the shop on the weekend.It's got a 1275cc engine installed the thing ran like shxx.After set up carb's, points I got it to run correctly. There is a breather hose from the dipstick hole to value cover then to air cleaner. I had the air cleaner off and noticed lots of condensation being pushed out the hose. I changed the oil which was really dirty and smelled of gas restarted and now there is no condensation being pushed out the hose. Should I pull the head?

Mark
 
Not necessarily.

If a car has been sitting around and only started rarely, water can collect in the engine. Normally, this moisture evaporates if the car is run and fully warmed up.
But if it sits around, the engine may not become hot enough to "burn it off".
The gas smell may come from a similar situation: using the choke (to start it) and not fully warming the car up.

I would just monitor the situtation right now and see if the condensation returns. If you suspect a problem related to the head, I'd suggest a compression test (or leak-down test) before pulling anything apart. If you suspect a cooling system problem, you could do a pressure test on the system before doing any major work.
 
Okay

Should there be a hose from the dipstick holder?

Mark
 
NO
 
Mark - I have no luck at all searching but I have a vague recollection of a conversation at least a year ago that had someone having a problem with oil being forced out the dipstick hole - as I recall, there was some blocked vent issue or something - does anyone else remember this?
 
Prob the vent on the timeing chain cover. It has steel wool in it and gets cloged up.
 
Jack
There is no vent on the timeing chain cover.There is really only the dipstick vent.


Mark
 
No question about it, never heard of that trick.

Only know of three vent places. Timeing chain cover, rocker box cover, and valve cover. And those are on different models of course.

Houston, I think we found the problem. No engine vent. Should be one of the above I think. Can't wait for someone else to chime in here.

Where do you hide the dip stick when not needed?
 
Jack,

A 1275 doesn't have rocker box covers. My 1275 has the timing cover vent. I have that plumbed into a PCV valve on my intake. The valve cover vent is left open because it has negative pressure. By applying a small negative pressure to the front of the timing cover it helps keep oil from being forced past the rear scroll seal.

On a haven't worked with a 1275 without a timing cover vent yet so I won't be able to help. I'm sure Hap will have something to add.
 
Some do Ben, tis my understanding the early ones.

Any way that was not the point. Point was that the dipstick hole is for the dipstick and there are other places that are to be vents. Depends on year of course and I know not which is which.

Sounds like the DPO was in there "fixing" things.
 
If you don't have a breather can on your timing cover and in fact you do have a 1275, then someone may have used a early 948 timing cover in the build of your 1275 engine. If someone then connected a hose from the dipstick tube to the valve cover tube, what they effectively did was not allow your engine to have any crankcase breathing, not a good thing. Go back with the dip stick in the dipstick tube and use the vent from the valve cover to vent for starters, it would nice if you had the correct timing cover as well. Some, not all 1275 engine on the front lower driver side section of the block have a machanical fuel pump block off plate, if you're lucky and your engine has this removeable plate, then you can buy a aluminum piece for Mini Mania that allows you to vent your crankcase from this area, which is way better than any of the original factory offerings, might be something you want to look into.
 
Sounds like my DPO. 1275 with a 948 valve cover with the vent tube and the vent in the timing cover welded up. Luckily I found the correct timing cover and will be putting it on and running a proper PCV setup.
 
Thank you Hap, did not think I had gone over the edge but you never know.
 
While we are looking at the venting, has anyone else had a problem with the front cover cracking around where the breather attaches and leaking oil? Hap, do you have a picture of that breather that goes where the fuel pump was?
 
Yes there extra piece that fits into the dipstick hole about 1" tall then there is a line from the side of this that goes up to rocker cover vent then to front carb. The dip stick goes into the hole just about inch higher.There are no side cover vents since it's a 1275 and no vent on the timing cover.

The engine number is 12CDDAH15718 the head is from a later car since there are two extra holes and smog holes pluged up.

Mark
 
For starters find a valve cover with a vent or an aftermarket one or punch a hole and build your own or something.
 
So the inline 1275 A-series does not have removable tappet chest covers? The transverse 1275 engines had a breather attached to the front tappet chest cover. When they re-designed the engine to be an A+, BL/Rover did away with removable tappet chest covers and moved the breather to the timing chain cover on the transverse engines.
 
The older motors had the cover that you could remove that showed the push rods . For some reason they quit doing this later in the A series and it sucked because it made changing the cam a real pain. Most would have to pull the motor to change the cam in the later minis. there is a way to change cams in some cars without pulling the motor but you have to have powerful magnets on strings to keep the lifters up out of the way. I don't know if this would work in a RWD type or not.
 
Back
Top