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New MG Midget Owner

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peterock17

peterock17

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I would like to introduce myself. My name is Pete and I have a car addiction. I normally work on VWs but now I'm venturing to the world of MGs.

I recently aquired a 1973 MG Midget. She has been sitting in a nice dry garage for 23 years with a blown motor. there's not that much rust. just a hole in the left side of the trunk floor, rusty exhaust, and right front quater panel.
This summer I will procced to take her appart down to bare shell and do a complete restoration. I love keeping cars original but looking at what kind of power to weight ratio i can get with the midget it might be a good idea to do an engine swap.

I'm thinking of transplanting a Nissan sr20det turbo 2.0 4 into the Midget. Has anyone done this? Where can I find more information on MG midget engine swaps? I've serched on Google and this forum. Looks like the rotary engine is a popular swap.

How much power can the Midget rear end handle? Any tip, suggestions, and comments are welcome.

Thanks,
Pete /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smirk.gif
 
https://britishv8.org/swaps/examples.htm is a good starting place.

In addition to your Nissan and rotary ideas how about the 1.6L twin cam 4 four from a Toyoto Corolla GTS? These cars rust real nice so a donor should be cheap. Miata motors are another possibility but are physically quite a bit larger.

A motor from a Suzuki Swift GTi with a Samari tranny would be nice as well but more work.
 
Welcome Pete.
My Spridget was sitting for many years in a dry garage with a blown engine before I got it....similar story to your's.

Since you are asking for opinions here's mine: Keep the standard 1275 engine.
....but add better pistons, a cam and a header.

These cars are really nicely balanced with the normal engine and are more pure fun when the standard 1275 is just "hotted up" a bit.
If you try a swap, prepare to do major unibody/trans tunnel work (the tran tunnel is tiny). In my view, the rotary engine is much more difficult than other choices. The nicest swap is the Rover "K" motor (a shop in the UK does them using a Ford Sierra trans and special rear axle). Nice, but not cheap.
Another reasonable choice might be the Cortina 1600 pushrod engine and trans. A Corolla rwd engine/trans or Miata engine/trans is a also a possible choice.
The rear axles are a weak point in these cars, so any swap will require upgrading the axle or swapping to a stronger unit. Brakes on Spridgets are tiny too, so if you want to go faster, you should really be able to stop faster too (MGB calipers with Spitfire rotors is a popular modification).
Overall, I'd advise you stick with the regular engine and "tweak it" for about 15 more HP. It may not sound like much, these are small cars....."seat of the pants", it will feel pretty perky.
 
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