Lotus 7 and Mini 2 cylinder

Old school car restorer videos...

1957 Lotus 7

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kat79zrVDQg

Same old fella with a prototype 2 cyl A series type Mini engine.. !! There are several videos on there if it interests you !

Doh . can't link it ..here's the title " 2 cylinder Mini prototype engine ?! 1957 - Ivan's shed "

Ivan's a hoot, well worth a look if you are into cars at all.

Brilliant , thanks for the link. Love that old Lotus.

Steve.

Glad that he mentioned the A30, because that was where the A Series engine was first used, in 803 cc form, and then in the 1954 Morris Minor as a successor to the 918 cc side valve Morris engine, (probably ex Morris 8 Series E ). The A Series was a scaled down version of the B which started life in the post war Austin 14. The C Series merely grew two extra cylinders.

There was even a diesel A Series used in small Nuffield tractors.

There were so many different bore and stroke variations of the A Series engine that it was possible to have two different versions with nominal displacements that differed by only 1 cc.

So no surprise that water pump, timing cover, sprockets and chain are useable on this two cylinder.

Ditto for valves, springs, rockers and rocker pedestals, no doubt..Probably oil pump as well. The oil filter seating looks something like it was for the original by pass filter, rather than the full flow which came in in 1956 on the 945 cc A35 and Morris 1000.engines..

Late in 1958, in Shrewsbury, we saw, what we later realised was a prototype Mini on a test run. Driver and passenger were doing a good impression of "We're not here" as they waited at traffic lights outside the Tech, while a crowd of us looked at it closely.

Reduced capacity engines, for particular markets were not unusual. There were attempts to produce a 2 cylinder version of the Perkins  3.152, and a three cylinder version of the 4.108. (The fuel pump almost reached the flywheel housing! )

Howard

Edited By Howard Lewis on 20/03/2021 18:26:04

Howard, I think your memory is playing tricks. Post-war 14? , with B series? Also, I'm fairly sure that a C series is not a 'B' with two extra cylinders. Wasn't it an independent design from Morris engines?

John, I am sure that the Austin 14 was made postwar, even if facelifted from the pre-war version. and that the engine morphed into the B series.

The Wolsey 6.80 used an overhead cam 6 cylinder engine of Morris lineage.

But Austin (later BMC ) were pushrod adherants, using the C Series in the Austin A90., and later Austin Healeys.

The Wolsey 4/44 used a Morris engjne, but the MG ZA and ZB Magnettes and their Riley and Wolsey clones, and the MGA and B like the A50, A55 and A60, used BMC B Series engines. Austins used Zenith downdraught carbs fed by AC Delco mechanical lift pumps while the ex Nuffield marques used SU carburettors and electric fuel feed pump.

Howard

During the early 1980's whilst working for a Toolmaking firm in Gloucester. We did some prototype tooling for a 3 cylinder A series engine being developed by Austin-Rover as I think they were called at the time.

Basically it was an A series block with one less cylinder. I always wondered what happened to this development programme as they were among only a few companies looking into this type of engine at the time.

Regards

Gray,

Although now running a three cylinder engined car, it is unlike the three cylinder engines with which I used to work.

A three cylinder is naturally unbalanced, so a three cylinder A Series engine would have posed problems,, certainly with mountings, if used in a light vehicle.

A six cylinder consisting of two threes back to back will be much better balanced since the two imbalances are out of phase and cancel each other. It won't be free of couples which may make the engine "squirm".

Even a 90 degree V8 where primary and secondary balance are good, is still subject to couples.

And in 60 degree V6 or V12 engines there have to be compromises between balance and induction and exhaust pulses.

Smoothing a three cylinder can involve all sorts of things, balance weights, unbalanced pulley and unbalanced flywheel and all sort of ingenious complications in mountings and their disposition.

Howard