• 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

There is a 1275

Share this page

jlaird

jlaird

Great Pumpkin
Country flag
Offline
in my future.

My friend who has three race cars. One of which is a Mini from the old days, he is 85 years old, has three extra built engines for it. The car holds the track record some place in Calif still, I have seen the paper work.

Obviously he no longer needs the extra engines and as soon as he gets them orgaized he is going to give me my choice. He has all the documentation for them and knows what each is dynoed at and what is in side with paper work.

Oh me, another project.

More in the next months on what he has available and what I select for Miss Agatha. Needs to be strong but streetable. Good fun.
 
Jack, it is cost prohibitive to convert a transverse engine into an inline engine.

However, some of the components may be of value to you when you get an inline 1275.
 
Trevor Jessie said:
Jack, it is cost prohibitive to convert a transverse engine into an inline engine.

However, some of the components may be of value to you when you get an inline 1275.
Click to expand...

Q: What are the main differences between the inline & transverse engines?
OBVIOUSLY the trans is different, but once you've removed everything down to the pressure plate & flywheel what else is different?
(I had always ASSUMED that the long block was pretty much swappable between the two....)

Please enlighten us! :thankyousign:

"Cheers!" :cheers:

-Bear-
 
Crankshaft is different mainly. I think the rest is pretty much the same.
 
The rear of the block and crank are different. I'll see if I can find a picture.
 
I think the deck height is slightly different too.
 
Jack:

How about another Spridget or a Mini for that engine. We miss your progress reports and IMHO it would be sad to rip Agatha apart.

Pat
 
Frank C. aka "spritenut" has done the conversion in one direction or the other, I THINK (can't recall exactly) from MINI to Sprite. .. It can be done relatively simply ?? !!
 
Seems to me that a good option might be to do what I did with my recent 1275 build by Hap. I had a built 1275cc race engine that came with the '60 Bugeye racer that I sold last year. I then sold the race engine and that provided most of the cash for the rebuild of the hot, but streetable, engine by Hap.

Jack, if the three engines are all race engines, you might have limited options on using them in future projects... unless you plan on going racing. Will any of them run on pump gas? Will they idle? What's the compression ratio? Built for torque, high end RPM, or mid-band power?

Just a thought,

Ray
 
Quote from someone that has done it. (from MGBBS)


"Drill and tap the block for the extra bolts for the backplate.
Fit 2 backplate/bellhousing locating dowels.
Drill and tap the block for the rear cap upper plate.
Drill and tap the oil pick up inlet to suit oil suction pipe (from memory I think it is 5/8" NPT).
Check the sump bolt holes, you may have to drill and tap an extra couple depending on the block. Also be very carefull drilling close to the rear main stud/bolt holes in the block...it is very easy to break through.

Of course you will also need an inline rear main cap which will probably entail the tunnels to be line bored as well, so it is a big job."
 
Trevor Jessie said:
Quote from someone that has done it. (from MGBBS)


"Drill and tap the block for the extra bolts for the backplate.
Fit 2 backplate/bellhousing locating dowels.
Drill and tap the block for the rear cap upper plate.
Drill and tap the oil pick up inlet to suit oil suction pipe (from memory I think it is 5/8" NPT).
Check the sump bolt holes, you may have to drill and tap an extra couple depending on the block. Also be very carefull drilling close to the rear main stud/bolt holes in the block...it is very easy to break through.

Of course you will also need an inline rear main cap which will probably entail the tunnels to be line bored as well, so it is a big job."
Click to expand...

Trevor,

Just to clarify, the steps you have outlined are to go from a transverse to an inline installation on a 1275cc engine, correct? :confuse:

ALSO, I don't see anything in this list regarding the crank differences....

IF this is all, it appears that most of the internals would be swappable... SO IF you already have a 1275cc inline block you COULD POSSIBLY use some/most of the internals, etc. from the hi-perf transverse block when you have the inline 1275cc rebuilt? (Sounds like the block, & possibly the crank are the major differences...) Is that correct?? :confuse:

-Bear-
 
It isn't worth it to convert a transverse block to inline. A good 1275 core can be had for $50. Others have described what is needed:

Inline crankshaft
New upper scroll seal cover (including tapping the block)
New rear main cap
Line bore main journals and scroll seal
Modify oil pipe up
Assorted tapped holes
 
Probably OBVIOUS, but I've gotta ask...

Is it EASIER to go from inline to transverse??

(I'm assuming here that the transverse was the original design, & design features were added later for the inline installation...)

With this assumption, does the inline 1275cc block have all of the necessary tapped holes to install in a transverse powered car (like an early mini)??

-Bear-
 
Looks like I need to rethink that option and see what kinds of engine spares he has. Like cams, heads, rockers etc etc.
 
Jack, if they're race engines for a Mini, find a Mini racer that could use an engine and sell it to them. Use those funds to help build your inline 1275. Just a thought.
 
Jack, please remember me when you and your friend talk about the Mini engines.

The topic of converting back and forth between inline to transverse seems to come up frequently on several of the boards I visit. Personally, I agree with Chris' comments above that it's simply not worth it. There are plenty of good used 1275 blocks out there in both configurations. Apart from the novelty of doing the conversion... why bother?

However, as mentioned above, a lot of the internals and the heads could certainly be swapped from one to the other. But again... why bother? A well prepped race engine in either inline or transverse form could probably be sold for enough money to buy the go-fast parts you'd keep anyway. Also... if your friend has a Cooper-S block for his racing engine, that will be worth a lot more in unmolested condition than once someone tries to convert it to inline use.
 
I took an inline (Sprite) block, did some very minor mods and put it in a Mini (Transverse). But I already had a Mini crank the original Mini engine I was working with was bored 60 over and had a few other issues. So having a spare 1275 Sprite block made the swap easy enough.
But going from Mini to Sprite has got to be insane!
 
Jack,
As Doug L pointed out "if" one or more of the mini engines that your friend has is cooper S, be interested in that. Remember 1275 “S” blocks have tappet covers and 11 head studs will be showing up from the head. Dead giveaway,they are “if” it’s still useable are worth more than most even as a core.
dug
 
Hedgehog said:
Jack, if they're race engines for a Mini, find a Mini racer that could use an engine and sell it to them. Use those funds to help build your inline 1275. Just a thought.
Click to expand...

That was exactly my thought as well. You might float the idea over at MiniMania:

https://www.minimania.com/msgthreads.cfm

Be forewarned: they are mostly a bunch of silly LBC-driving crazies over there.

Just like us.
 
Yea, need to rethink my options etc.
 
Back
Top