1980 Austin Princess mild custom - 1951 Lanchester LD10

OMGHGF happened a month ago. I still have no desire to do the job, and since I've had the time to really think about things I've decided to decline the offer of help to just swap the head gasket etc. in favour of getting the engine fully rebuilt. A little drastic, perhaps, but there's good reason for it. The engine has always consumed a little oil and that consumption has been steadily increasing so something is worn out somewhere. The head gasket issue has really knocked my confidence in my own abilities a lot and since engine work isn't something I enjoy to begin with, you can well imagine why I don't want to venture back into it. Also, if I give the engine to someone I can trust (someone I trust has offered to help when he's able) then that takes some stress out of the whole endeavour.

Since I'll also be repainting the car when the weather allows - paint, brushes, and sundries are all got for the job now - it will be alot easier to get a nice finish in the engine bay if the engine isn't in there.

Other big expenses are the suspension regas that I cancelled the booking off when OMGHGF happened, and a new windscreen to go in with the new windscreen seal I STILL haven't fitted.

My goal at the moment, at least, is to finish the existing projects before starting new ones and since I can get by with lifts from the other half and my own legs, I can live without a car of my own for a few months I reckon. It's annoying, but at the end of it I should have a nice car I like a lot. If all else fails, work on the Lanchester will be progressing alongside this anyway and if it's ready before the Princess is then I shall just use that instead.

There's also the engine I was linked that's basically new. If I go that route it would want to be inspected anyway to check it was good, engines and storage don't make good bedfellows after all, so it might be better to stick with what I've got and repair it if possible.

The thought here is why did the car survive in the first place? It was parked up when it was in relatively good condition, and for why?

There's the potential for an inherent problem (porous casting, crack etc) that's not made itself visible that has plagued that engine in a minor but persistent way.

If you have the option for a replacement with few miles on, I would say jump at it. Dropping a new engine in and giving it a try is easier than pulling another apart at fractions for an extended period while it punctuates actually being able to use the car.

Yes, you put work into that one but possibly it's time to throw in the towel on the headaches it's caused and just drop another one in and see what happens.

Phil

Do the engine in the living room, nice & warm in the winter that way

Seriously, buy the new engine & drop it in.

Another NOS 1700 engine has appeared. This time more locally than the other supplier so much easier to go and collect: www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Morris-Marina-O-Series-Engine-s-Naylor-MGTF-1700CC-New-N-O-S/274536318338

As far as I'm aware, the only difference between this and the Princess engine is the sump since the Princess keeps the gearbox in there while the Marina has the more conventional kind. I shouldn't need any adaptors for connecting the clutch housing bit on the Princess, I should be able to just swap the bits off my engine and stick them on this one.

Space for the engine has been found in the garage, just, it's amazing what you can make space for when you really want to, I just don't have an engine crane so will likely have to rely on grunt for moving this about until I'm ready to fit it.

Puts me back to square one saving for the suspension again, which is a bit annoying, but I could potentially have a sorted engine at the end of it so it'll be worth it. I've no idea if the listing start price is fair or not, it seems reasonable for a whole unused engine to me and I'm willing to pay that so it probably is.

I'd agree offer £500 they have 2 to get rid if and there can't be that much demand.
At the end of the day you are taking a risk, it might be perfect on the other hand it's probably been in storage for 30+ years, at the very least I expect the rubber seals to need replacing.

80kg is pretty easy for 2 of you to move around if you can get some sort of trolley even better, last week I was easily pushing a land rover series engine around on a dolly and they must weigh a couple of hundred kg.

I do have a new head gasket set, new cambelt, fluids, etc. which was got for redoing the original head/engine so I can just use those on this one.

Rubber bits are, as far as I'm aware, restricted to valve stem seals, camshaft seal, crankshaft seal, auxilliary and camshaft belt, distributor o-ring, and oil filler cap o-ring. This engine uses the earlier cap and the square profile rubber seal in the cap needs replacing every X miles/years, my engine uses the later 'mushroom' filler neck and cap and they aren't so prone to the o-ring failing. It having the earlier style oil filler is actually something I prefer because it looks tidier so that's a bit of a bonus, even if the later design is better in practical terms.

A trolley should be easy enough to get hold of at least, we've got a wheelbarrow which would do in a pinch, but a little pallet with wheels on or something like it would be better. Shall have to see what we can scrounge up from odds and ends I guess.

If you get a spare engine worth making a frame to store it - the LR engine can only be described as bloody heavy but the frame with some wheels on one end and a sack truck on the other it was OK to move about.


Good luck with getting a good engine.

James

Lidl and Aldi both regularly have little trolleys. I have one that currently has my ZF lorry gearbox sat on it. It’d manage a Marina/Princess engine no bother.

link

80kg would even go in a skateboard!