• Hi Guest!
    You can help ensure that British Car Forum (BCF) continues to provide a great place to engage in the British car hobby! If you find BCF a beneficial community, please consider supporting our efforts with a subscription.
    There are some perks with a member upgrade!
    **Upgrade Now**
    (PS: Subscribers don't see this gawd-aweful banner
Tips
Tips

How powerful can a 1798cc be ?

Share this page

D

DieselBrad673

Member
Offline
I have a rusty 73 Marina with a fairly new 1798cc engine. What kind of power levels can I obtain with this engine ?
Im thinking of tearing it down & modifying it for a chrome bumper MGB.
 
While both are 18V engines, there are some differences - I'd stay with the MG's engine so down the road things don't get confused when you open it up & find internal differences...& I believe the MGB engine is more powerful as a stck unit.
 
I'm not really expert on B engines, but I seem to remember that the Marina 1.8TC (or whatever they called it) was at least as powerful as the MGB. Maybe they had the same engine?
Having written the above, I decided not to be lazy, searched the internet and found this link.

Interesting, huh? Tony's recommendation is right on. .
 
1798 - isn't that how big the MGB engine is too?

But, I'd go with a MGB engine too for the reasons Tony posted.
 
Im told its the same engine - except the Marina had weaker valve springs.
 
Marina also had smaller combustion chamber as I recall.
 
I just read this paragraph today in a magazine article I was reading about the Mk3 $ 4 Magnette:

"To boost power for the MG and Riley models over Austin, Morris and Wolseley variants, changes included twin carbs, bigger ports and valves, double valve springs, different valve timing and a modified distributor curve, so don't fit a secondhand Austin Cambridge/Morris Oxford engine and expect to be entertained."

I suspect many of those differences crossed over to the 1800 engine also.
 
One item that the article mentioned was the crankshaft spigot/pilot bushing/bearing. The four-speed Marina cranks have a smaller hole in the back of the crankshaft. The automatic cars had the MGB size hole. You would be very disappointed to find this out at the last moment.

Alan T
 
The Marina used a Triumph trans, hence the different spigot bush.

The cam and compression were different and it had a single timing chain and valvce springs - which is why I call a post 1975 MGB a Marina convert - same basic (gutless) engine.

There were no 1800TC cars sent to North America, they were all single carb except for those privately imported, AFAIK.
 
If I'm not mistaken the Marina also had a smaller diameter flywheel.

My brother owned a parts store many years ago. He had purchased all of these new and used parts from somebody who shut their business down.

When I rebuilt the engine tranny in my 1969 B, He sold me a flywheel (the marina).

When I went to crank the new engine over for the first time, the starter spun with no resistance. I removed the starter and was **** to find out it was missing it by a good 1/2 inch.

I ended up having my original flywheel resurfaced and all was good after.
 
Hah, funny story. But a real pain to find out after the engine was installed.
 
Oh I was so angry when I made the realization.

I wanted to call my brother and tell him he had to remove the engine and replace it for me.
 
Back
Top