great video nice to see the old BMC cars being put back on the road

Nice one! Love old bits of kit being bought back to life!. Looking foreward to hearing it fire up!. Nuff said!. 🙂

In a previous episode you were somewhat wondering why the car would have needed a replacement gearbox at just 6 years old and about 40,000 miles. I think, if I remember correctly, that I know the answer. On BL unitary engines and gearboxes like this one, one of the idlers used from the factory in the transfer gears wasn't very good quality and, after a while (40-or-so thousand was pretty typical) the bearing would be tired and it would start making noises that can sound very much like gearbox issues, with the result that some cars got replacement gearboxes that they didn't really need. Some "enterprising" garages, however, would get a car in with instructions to replace the gearbox and would just replace the idler and then give the gearbox a clean up and slap it over with some gold paint, making it look like the car had had a gold seal replacement box, and charge accordingly. On vehicles that did actually get a replacement gearbox, the defective idler gear would be one of the components that would be changed as a matter of course during the job, and may well have been part of the kit that came with the box, so the issue was solved anyway, but instead of costing maybe £100 to change out the faulty idler and fit a new clutch, because you might as well while those bits are apart, and have the vehicle back on the road in a day, it cost much, much more and had the vehicle out of service for, typically a week and often more...

Great job. Back in the 80s I bought a 1750 Allegro with 30k miles on the clock. As soon as I got it onto the motorway it would drink oil. I decided to sort it out so on my day off work I enlisted the help of my brother and in a single day we took the engine and gearbox out, separated them, removed the pistons, honed the bores, replaced the rings and refitted the lot. It was a long day!

A lovely little car. My dad and all his siblings drove them. Great memories. Can't wait to see it finished. Brilliant work. 👍

A very nice job and good to see you taking time to restore it to original spec. I was interested to see that the brass casting plug in the head had retreated 0.3 mm causing a leak of coolant. My Dad had a Morris Marina 1300 in the late 70’s and it had exactly the same problem. The issue was that coolant under pressure would slowly fill the two middle cylinders after the engine had run for a few miles with the engine switched off. We changed the head gasket not realising the cause of the coolant leak, it was very subtle, then found the engine was a pig to start. With coolant in the two middle cylinders the spark plugs would be shorted out with a water bridged across the electrode gap. But it would still eventually start !. The galloping consumption of coolant though made us tear it apart again to discover the fault (brass casting plug moved in to cause leak under pressure). I believe the the original A series was in its 1000 cc form where the brass plug wouldn’t have been so close to the two middle cylinders. BMC then bored out the engine later to make it 1300 cc, hence the brass plug was then much closer to the two middle bores. With the head rebuilt, new brass plugs fitted and head skimmed, it then ran perfect. Because the compression was then much improved, it had a good thirst for oil ! The engine had 100K on the clock by then. Never let us down though, but the blue cloud of exhaust smoke that followed it finally saw it end its days...

I am very impressed by this. Lovely old BMC A-series.

well done! cant wait for next episode

Excellent restoration! 👍

Nice job and a lucky save. Hope you checked and if necessary set the idler gear end float between 5 to 9 thou and similarly the primary gear end float between 3 to 6 thou before replacing the transfer housing.

Fantastic job you must have lots of patience, the mains look in great condition

that looks well smart at the end well done!

That crank look tight

This engine is pure art. Rustic, strong and etern. My greetings from Buenos Aires and congratulations!

Looks factory finish out of your garage 👍🏻 Well done 😃

You don’t need music 🎵 stay safe Lyn

Wonderful just wonderful

I know that rings are brittle but Jesus, I've never seen anything like that! Beautiful job saving what initially looked like a engine which was good as a block donor only, looks awesome too! Only just found your project uploads but watched all up to this and going on to the cylinder head vid shortly. Thumbs up and subbed!

back in the the 1990's i used to recon the gearboxes that this car uesd i have rebuilt many BL engines , i would say i mastered tuning carbs on 1970's cars that were made in england , and from what i have seen you doing ! all i have to say is that as i undestand this was your grandads car was it not ? in which case he would have been so proud of you sir ! you are doing a fine job :) the gold seal gearbox was good all you needed to do was replace the main gearbox bearings ( a feat in itself but still a diy job )

Love the video but had to turn the sound right down, was starting to drive me mad!

Should have fitted a new oil pump IMO

It takes me back to the good old days of my Mini Clubman and MG Midget. Both had the BMC A series engine. My only concern is that you needed a ‘lever’ to turn the crank. They should turn freely by hand with no pinching. Either the crank is out of round, or the incorrect sized bearings are fitted. This is based on my experience with these engines and I may be wrong. I’m open to polite correction.

I remember watching my farther and uncle do a rebuild of this engine in my grandparents one of these in the 70's - I was about 8 years old. The car had done only 30k miles and blew a lot of blue oil smoke - I guess now that they had to replace the piston rings. I was fascinated by the process. I don't think BMC engines were the best, perhaps why my grandparents next car was a Datsun!

The fan goes the other way round. It's marked "engine side"

Interesting project but the “music” is bloody awful

Muy buen trabajo. Un placer para la vista...

You'll just be building an oil burner without dumping those pistons and boring the block, trust me I've been there.....

0:54. Whether or not you broke the rings, they would have needed to be replaced anyway. Their spring temper would have been lost, and had you somehow reused them, the effort in rebuilding would have gone for nothing. It would have been false economy - lack of compression and bad oil economy and burning. Some things MUST be replaced in a rebuild and a set of rings is one such item. Another, of course is a set of gaskets. Honing of bores, repolishing of journals, new bearings (mains and big-ends), frost plugs, regrinding valves and seats, polishing valve stems, perhaps new valve guides, repolishing cam lobes and cam journals (perhaps regrinding, with new cam bearings), etc.

I thought the 1300 had an electric pump but I may be wrong. Great rebuild and voice would be a better choice than the music lol.

I like the videos overall, they're concise and focus on the critical points. It would be interesting to add voice over as well to understand why you did things a certain way, which could obviate the need for the interesting music. Plus you didn't start with the ubiquitous "what's up guys".

Next time you can also try electrolysis in vinegar or washing soda and water to loosen the engine and rings

You might get away with just rings and seals. This is a fairly intricate motor inside.

I hope that you gapped the rings ????

Note that the cooling fan is incorrectly fitted, look for "engine side" at fan hub.

I hope that you don't get too much piston also from reusing the only pistons

I was thinking that by 1973, BMC had changed the bottom end of the A series block from 3 main bearings to 5 main bearings. Early A series Cooper S blocks with the 1275 engine,with a 3 main bearing crankshaft,were sometimes prone to breaking the crankshaft at high revs,especially in race specs.

Any reason you chose black for the engine and not the original green?

The displacement would have ended up being a bit closer to exactly 1300cc after honing/boring the cylinder walls!

This is how a professional engine rebuild is done. Tinkerers take note.

Did you do anything with the small-end on the 1 piston ?

I cant see too clearly, you obviously fitted new rings, did you bust the glaze in the cyls, rings wont bed otherwise.

Great video,just love all cars from 60s 70s and 80s, no interest in modern motorseven if wifes and daughters car are modern

You should have played queen,,I want to break free,lol

Did you balance the crank? and do anything to the piston sleeves?

Hi there what was the silver paint you used on the engine?

So you had to press out Piston one but then just re ringed it and put it back. Why didn't you get it re-bored and the block skimmed?

Aren't you worried about it smoking?

Nice clean work, crap music, sooner hear a commentary or sound of tools being used, PS flip the fan.

good series of videos...terrible music...better off without any...

Running 🏃‍♀️ in please pass

dam i thought BL engines were good only the body or build quiailty was poor guess this engine was made on a friday or just shortly before the pubs opened, that's much better looks like and engine now, other then the block should be green not black its looking good

I see that you don't learn about the horrible music

Ouch! You wouldn't let your grandchildren tell you how to rebuild an A series engine, why let them tell you what music to put on the video.

If you were restoring an rare car with difficult to find nd expensive parts i could understand your approach but the A series engines are so easy and cheap to get parts for, its a complete waste of time to mess around trying to save ten bob. Bore the cylinders, buy oversized pistons , get the crand ground buy new mains have the head skimmed and refurbished and do the job properly.

That engine is going to take a long period of running in given the stare of those pistons and bores...

The musics worse

Your background music is so pathetic.

This would have been a very good series if it had been properly narrated. As it is, the bloody music is driving me mad! I can't watch any more, and am disliking it for those reasons.