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A series OHC engine

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coldplugs

coldplugs

Darth Vader
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I was sorting through some pictures tonight and thought this might interest Mini folks. It's on display at Gaydon.

In deference to dial-up users I'll post a small version here. Click the link for a larger version of the same shot.

OHC Engine

gaydon2sm.jpg


[ 02-12-2003: Message edited by: coldplugs ]</p>
 
Too bad it was only experimental..
 
I had heard of this engine before, but without benefit of pictures. I heard of it as being planned for the Midget(the Sprite was gone by'72) but with the impending US smog regs, the development costs were thought too high, and it lost out to the Spit's 1500. Sweet to see it.

Feel free to count the above as hearsay if you have better info. I always get antsy when I can't cite sources. But I think that I read all that somewhere.

MattP
 
<blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by MattP:
I had heard of this engine before, but without benefit of pictures. I heard of it as being planned for the Midget(the Sprite was gone by'72) but with the impending US smog regs, the development costs were thought too high, and it lost out to the Spit's 1500... <hr></blockquote>

I've read the same thing, although the references I saw were to a twin cam head. I suspect they were wrong about that part. This head looks to me like they were interested in dealing with the emission issues rather than performance and I think this may be the engine that lost out to the Spitfire 1500, as you mentioned.
 
Looks like they kept the original cam in place, I guess to drive the oil pump and maybe distributor. Air pump does seem to imply it's designed for emissions.

Too bad really...the 1500 I have in my Spridget is OK, but I think I would have preferred this little "A" lump cammer.
 
They did an OHC version of the B-series lump as well, which would've helped out in the MGB, I would imagine. David Knowles' book "MG" has a pic of the OHC B-series in an MGB. Forget if the engine was actually used elsewhere.
-William
 
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