Practically Classics Forum

id run the alvis unit till it goes bang & then worry about a engine conversion/rebuild.. less hassle & later on you may have saved enough for a rebuild etc..

I am with most of the above, the engine is there and Ok so I would put it in and use it - I think when it comes to it you will enjoy the car a lot more. If it does go bang - worry about it then - hopefully that will never be a problem.

Willy Eckerslyke wrote: I don't think any of us have the right to be critical. .

I beg to disagree, and for the reason of the original post: "What do you all think about this? Would it be the ruination of an otherwise nice car?"
Opinion asked for, opinion given.
It's an opinion, not guidance or command, and as always I respect the right of the owner to do what he wants with his own car.

TriumphDriver wrote:

Willy Eckerslyke wrote: I don't think any of us have the right to be critical. .

I beg to disagree, and for the reason of the original post: "What do you all think about this? Would it be the ruination of an otherwise nice car?"
Opinion asked for, opinion given. :D
It's an opinion, not guidance or command, and as always I respect the right of the owner to do what he wants with his own car.

But if you're claiming that the opinions are not made in a critical manner, then you're not disagreeing with me at all. :lol:

Thank you all for taking an interest and responding to this!
Some responses of my own:

The Alvis' original engine is a 4 cyl 2litre job, so the Toyota one is not particularly different in size or output power.
The conversion would be done with absolutely no adjustment to the existing chassis, everything would be bolted to the original engine mounting points.
The whole lot would be done with a view to making it as easy as possible to undo the transplant.

Having said all that, I'm 90% for running it with the original engine thanks to your comments. I won't be doing a lot of miles and will certainly be treating the engine with a great deal of kindness, so hopefully it will hang in there.

There's little reason to expect the original engine will collapse tbh; they were built at a time when engineering was meant to last more than 5 minutes

I fitted a later 2CV engine and gearbox into my 1966 Citroen Ami. Mostly because the old gearbox sounded like a tumble drier full of broken glass and the old engine was siezed. I could (had I been dedicated enough) probably have found an original M4 engine, but who needs to be changing the oil every 1000 miles on a daily driver? The gearbox could have been rebuilt, but I had a later drum brake 'box knocking around the shed and it was a good opportunity to get rid of the silly static graphite "bearing" clutch fitted to the old gearbox.
I know this is not original, but a) I don't care - the idea is that this is my car, not a showpiece - and b) Citroen themselves couldn't fit the later engine and gearbox fast enough, once they'd finished developing them. The important thing is that it's on the road now.

I think that's less of an issue, as you're just using a later version of the same powerplant, and as you say it's a daily so a little fettling to improve things is only natural

OK, I collected the engine at the weekend. I got the engine, gearbox, drive shaft and rear axle for 240 Euro which seemed cheap enough. 4 tanks of fuel for the wife's modern! I started it for a second before removal from the donor car to make sure the basics were OK & true to toyota form, a dribble of fuel down the neck and after 10 years of standing outdoors, it started no problem! I've put it away in a corner of the garage with some oil down the bores for now.

bnicho wrote:Post up the first four digits of the engine number and we can identify its type and possible origin.

The engine number starts with 2T201
The reg on the Carina makes it registered in 1977.
The Carina type was a TA14 which made me chuckle as that's the model of my Alvis! I had never seen one before, it's a shame it was such a basket case in the body department, it had been shot blasted and left outside for years!
I can't find a number on the gear-box, does anybody konw where it might be? According to my internetting, that car didn't come with a 5 speed 'box, adn according to the man selling it, some big shot Toyota man had owned the car and had the gear box changed shortly after buying it.

Anyway, it's there if I need it, and I'll continue my restoration with the Alvis unit in place for now and see how I get on!

Thanks again for all your helpful comments!

Yep, that's a non-pollution 2T (as opposed to 2TC) engine. 1600cc single cam, single carb pushrod engine.

These were used in early Celicas as well as Carinas and some low-spec Japanese market Coronas. (The Corona is a heavier car.)

The gearbox will be a T40 if four speed or a T50 if five speed. They look identical, so there is no real way of telling without trying the 5th gear position.

Both the engine and box are very strong. Aussies regularly get 300,000+km out of these engines between rebuilds and the gearboxes can last 500,000km no problem.

The T50 gearbox is often used for five speed conversions into Minors and Midgets etc in Australia. There are even six cylinder Holdens and Fords running around with them fitted.

It's a pity the Carina is so rotten, they are quite an attractive car.

Cheers,