Practically Classics Forum

People abroad seem to have a more liberal attitude to fitting non-standard components than us Brits. My friend has 2 TA14s and a TB14.
He reckons a Volvo B18 would be about right for one of the TA's. Unfortunatly it's value would depreciate, but as long as you kept all the old engine, gearbox and all the bits, any new buyer could always put it all back together in it's original form, if he was daft enough to want to.
Bearing in mind that any increase in engine power would need to be balanced out by an improvement in the braking department, and that the axle and halfshafts would also need to be up to the job. So the project could go on and on.
I always fancied putting a Nissan Bluebird engine and box in a Morris Oxford, as this would be the sort of engine BMC should have fitted if production had continued.
I have a MK9 Jag, but fitting it with anything other than the original engine/gearbox would drop the value by about 50%. Although I have fitted the later MK10 brake calipers along with Vauxhall Movano rear discs. An improvement which even Sir William lyons would have approved of!
I'm also a big fan of fitting power steering and servo brakes to older cars to make them much more useable in today's conditions.
Cheers Paul.

I feel that the engine is part of the character of a car. Especially on older cars where not only did cars look different, they generally sounded different. For example, imho, a Maxi with a Zetec engine would just be wrong and would ruin the character of the car!!

Personally I like to keep things original if possible, but that is just my opinion.

Hmm, Morris Oxford with an Isuzu OHC engine would have some logic to it, it's what Hindustan did after all.
B18/B20 into an Alvis is hardly fitting a "modern" engine though, simply an alternative type of ancient one. Nowt wrong with the iron, OHV Volvo motors, except when the wretched timing gear teeth strip in the depth of winter:

but they're probably no more sophisticated than the Alvis' original engine and almost certainly no stronger.
Datsun engine into a BMC product's also entirely logical, IMHO, given the origin of Datsun.
Maxi? You'd struggle to fit anything radically different in there as there'd be no room for the gearbox that modern FWDs invariably have on the end of the engine, but the Maxi's battery tray would preclude your moving anything to the right, unless you put a battery in the space under the back seat, and the radiator's where the gearbox in anything other than a Honda would be. Battery in the back, front-mounted radiator and Honda (CCW-rotating remember) engine with RHS gearbox where the battery tray used to be perhaps?
A Peugeot 205 engine & 'box, with gears in the sump as per the original, Maxi layout, might be the most modern you'd get away with.
There are a couple of (Maxi-related) exceptions though but; the green one that was a SM cover car once has a longitudinal Ford V6, Capri inner wings with steel suspension and RWD - hardly in keeping. Then there was the one with the NSU RO80 conversion which used to be on display at a small car museum on the coast just South of Edinburgh, potentially great but....

How about a twist on this topic?
A newer car with an older engine or suspension or parts/systems?



(I got bored and put a wolsey 1500 chrome grill on Chrysler Neon in windows paint)

Re new car old bits / older looks ? - some Far East company attempted with that dreadful mk 2 Jaguar looking thing that was imported in small numbers to the UK - I recall a cheap Rolls looking heap thing - out in China I think - that was shown on top gear - Nissan spring to mind with the Figaro based on the Micra floor pan / mechanical's and of course then there is VW with a Beatle that looks like it has been overdosed on botox - the fashion trend continues with the Mini and Fiat 500 carrying styling points of the originals in order to appeal to to ever desperate fashion conscious hip joe public.

Why bother ?? - It's far cooler and a lot more fun in a well sorted practical (or impractical in my 17 MPG Rover P6) - and I can not really think of a well presented pre 80's motor that does not attract envious looks from others ! (having said that each to there own - no list required) !

err not what I ment!

Forinstance take a austin rover meastro,
and shoe horn a six cylinder 2.2L engine from the wolsey six.
Add better carbs or fuel injection.

Nooooo! The E6 is the world's second most awful engine, ever.

Why would you do that, even if it would fit under the bonnet, when a T-series can be made to go in a Maestego without any hard work?

John - You are not wrong about that engine - Dad had one in a 6 which was a couple of years old but low mileage - it spat the thrust bearings out at about 24k miles and the invoice from the dealers (Appleyards) in those days was horific - he did not have much faith in it after that and it soon got sold on.

Grumpy Northener wrote:John - You are not wrong about that engine - Dad had one in a 6 which was a couple of years old but low mileage - it spat the thrust bearings out at about 24k miles.....

Here's one on eBay that's now covered an intergalactic 41,000 miles and only just started to behave true to form:

CLICK 'ERE.

Looks like a straight car otherwise though, and the thrust washers could be ok as it's an auto. I suspect that the issue with this one may well be the usual broken rings on the middle pair. Stem seals? Yeah, right . I wonder; how hard could it be to convert it into an 18/85?
Mmm, 18/85. *slobbers uncontrollably down front of shirt*.

Somewhere in the USA is a Honda CRX with a Mini A series engine and box fitted, running on 10" or 12" rims! I can't find a link now.

The guy was sick of seeing Minis with Honda engines so he built the reverse just for a laugh.