Thread: engines of yesteryear

Looks like an original Morris Minor engine (designed by Wolseley), but I don't think it came with that oil filter. Note the drive to the camshaft is via the generator.

Originally Posted by Old Farang

This is an engine from the 1930s. I once had the 6 cylinder version. Note the drive to the overhead cam and valve gear. The valve lash also had a unique method of adjustment. A split eccentric bush with a clamp. It was a simple job to slack off the clamp and turn the bush via its hex head.

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At first I thought it was a cross flow, having two cam shafts The angle of the valves appear straight down which makes me think me think the head be very different. The sump appears to be very small and the oil filter looks like its been fitted latter in life and the crank case does not appear very wide which would or could restrict the cubic capacity of the cylinders I would like to see some more photoes of it

Looking at the file name for the picture, it indicates it is a MG Midget engine - the same engine as the Morris Minor, with a few improvements.

Originally Posted by JDNSW

Looking at the file name for the picture, it indicates it is a MG Midget engine - the same engine as the Morris Minor, with a few improvements.

In my younger days I did had a little experience with old BMC vehicles and always had a love for Wolsely's but this one I cant recall

Another point I gather applies to the Commer knocker motor, which I am old enough to have seen and heard in the odd truck still being used commercially. Think the two pistons are timed to be not quite horizontally opposed The leading piston, which exposes exhaust ports is slightly ahead of the other that exposes inlet ones. The two stroke General Motors diesel is one that that also uses a Roots blower with a sort of gear pump principle pushing air into cylinder side ports but has exhaust valves in the head. Designers would have timed these for best performance.

Have heard of a split cylinder sort of 2 strike design that apparently was used on some DKW motorcycle engines at least. . Had two cylinders and pistons in a close V using the same crank big end and a single combustion chamber. Leading piston was in cylinder with exhaust ports and trailing one exposed inlet ports.

I posted the photo of the blue engine just to illustrate the cam drive and valve layout. The oil filter is not original.

The later engines used in the MGs were cross flow, the 4 cylinder 850cc and the 6 cylinder 1087cc. They also use a ball bearing in the front housing to take the end thrust. The water pump was an optional extra and driven off the same front drive as the distributor but on the other side, no fan just thermo siphon originally. The unique drive to the overhead cam as mentioned, was through a 3rd brush Lucas generator, standard dynamo with an extended shaft attached the a very basic coupling that allowed a bit of flex in the vertical drive. All the drive gears to the cam were right angle bevel gears. The other unique feature was the valve lash adjustment. Simple but extremely accurate. These engines would rev happily to 5,000 rpm.

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Originally Posted by hodgo

In my younger days I did had a little experience with old BMC vehicles and always had a love for Wolsely's but this one I cant recall

Possibly a little before your time - designed by Wolseley, it entered production in about 1927 in the Morris Minor, and shortly thereafter in the MG Midget, went out of production in 1932 for the Minor, having been superseded by a side valve engine, enabling Morris to bring the price of the Minor down to 100 pounds. It may have lingered a little longer in the MG. Six cylinder variants continued into the fifties, from memory, but stopped when Morris became part of the BMC conglomerate, Austin engines being used instead.

Originally Posted by JDNSW

Possibly a little before your time - designed by Wolseley, it entered production in about 1927 in the Morris Minor, and shortly thereafter in the MG Midget, went out of production in 1932 for the Minor, having been superseded by a side valve engine, enabling Morris to bring the price of the Minor down to 100 pounds. It may have lingered a little longer in the MG. Six cylinder variants continued into the fifties, from memory, but stopped when Morris became part of the BMC conglomerate, Austin engines being used instead.

The 4 cylinder engine production ended with the PA/ PB in 1936. The first pushrod engine was the TA just before WW2.
The 6 cylinder underwent further development, but also ended before WW2. Later 6 cylinder engines were all pushrod engines.

The only other MG ever produced with an overhead cam was the not very successful MGA twin cam in the 1950s.

The following shows a well restored PA: https://www.hemmings.com/magazine/hm...B/3690881.html

The following some details about the 6 cylinder: 1934 MG ND - conceptcarz.com

The car that I had was an "L" type, of which there were two variations. It exists to this day in Victoria.