Classic cars forum & vehicle restoration.

[old iron]

Spotted a Austin 18/6 for sale, looks smart but it has had an engine swop.
It now has a Ford pinto engine installed and matching gearbox, although car comes with the originals. I’m asking vendor if change has been DVLA notified and await reply.If the change, done six years ago, has not been notified how big an issue could this be?
Thanks.

[Phil - Nottingham]

It may affect your MOT exemption opinion but not affect free road tax. It should be notified to DVLA and your insurance company of course as a non-standard mod
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Rover P2
Rover P4
Rover P5 & P5B
Land Rover S2 & S3
Morris Mini Traveller Mk2

[Kenham]

It beggars belief that someone would fit a Pinto engine in an Austin 18, It is usually wedding car hirers that do such things, presumably they don't know how to run the original engine.

[Rick]

Try entering its registration into the DVLA search thingy, and see what comes back with regard to engine size.

https://vehicleenquiry.service.gov.uk/

As Kenham says, it's often the wedding hire businesses that re-engine oldies in this way, and would almost certainly result in losing MOT-exemption, if that's an issue to you or not.

RJ
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[Norseman]

[47Jag]

The guy that I bought my 1938 Buick 90 from also had a couple of 1936 Roesch Talbots (the ones that get chopped into Post Vintage racers) and he had ‘converted’ one using a Transit engine, box and rear axle. The original engine being a beautiful overhead cam 6 cylinder. That was to have been a ‘wedding car’, as was the Buick. He hadn’t a clue how sought after these cars were.

Art

[Norseman]

I'm afraid when it comes to the wedding hire business profits take priority over authenticity to the point where safety can be compromised. Way back in the 'seventies I used to drive RR wedding cars as a part time Saturday job, most were from the 'thirties & it was not unknown for me to suffer the indignity of having to hand-crank the bloody things outside the church. On another occasion the rear passenger (suicide) door flew open as I was turning a corner whilst en-route to the church with the bride & her father
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1987 classic Range Rover Vouge
1998 E39 523i SE sedan

A great many models have served me well since the 'sixties, all of them old & some even older than me.

[Rootes75]

Wedding hire companies are often not run by enthusiasts, if its run as a business thwn orginality isnt a priority.
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Various Rootes Vehicles.

[Kenham]

A friend of mine used to drive for a man who had a couple of elderly Austins, he gave up in the end as the chap would not have the magnetos reconditioned. Very often they would not start after the wedding having stood in the hot sun for an hour or so, as in everything maintenance is the way to go. The bride and groom thought it was great when the car backfired a time or two but of course my friend was thinking " bloody mags going to give up "

[Kenham]

A friend of mine used to drive for a man who had a couple of elderly Austins, he gave up in the end as the chap would not have the magnetos reconditioned. Very often they would not start after the wedding having stood in the hot sun for an hour or so, as in everything maintenance is the way to go. The bride and groom thought it was great when the car backfired a time or two but of course my friend was thinking " bloody mags going to give up "

[old iron]

Thank you for all replies, looks like it’s going to be a non runner for me by sounds of things. The car is priced fairly high and having to reinstall the proper engine and gearbox will be a pain. On top of that I may find the originals need a rebuild!!
Keep looking I think, thanks again.

[alastairq]

Re-the engine swap? Much will depend, I think, on whether the engine swap was one that 'could have been carried out in the 1980's'.....[exact year I can't for the moment recall]...Possibly when the Pinto was then-current?

Decades ago, I lived next door to an old motor engineer, who used to work for a local cab, bus and funeral hire company in Bridlington.

He would regale me with tales of how he was 'expected' to keep the aging[back then!] fleet of Rolls-Royce limos and hearses working....the Rolls-Royce engine was seen as a liability...and was often swapped out for easily-available [back then] Ford flathead V8's...a swap that included the gearbox....ending up with the ford gearbox and the RR item as well.

Working vehicles were exactly that!

Even happened in the hallowed world of Morgan ownership....when I had issues[serious issues] with my Standard Special engine, I was seriously advised...if the rest of the car was in reasonable nick...to fit a BMC A-series engine [the clutch was the same]....This from the owner's club tech expert!! Better the car was out on the roads, being used & enjoyed, than sat mouldering whilst original engine issues were dealt with [or not, as the case may be?]

In the end, chugging [or, in my case, roaring?] down the road at 60 mph..one doesn't actually know whether the engine is original or not?

We all realise hindsight is marvellous..and wish we had access to it 'back-in-the-day?'

[Otherwise, as a 20 year old, I would not have been put off buying an AC Greyhound for 600 notes, warned off because of a duff Salisbury back axle! Ended up with a 1275cc Sprite instead....2 years old it was!]
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Dellow Mk2, 1951 built, reg 1952.
Fiat 126 BIS
Cannon special [1996 registered. Built in 1950's]
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Ford Pop chassis, Ashley 1172 bodyshell, in pieces.

[old iron]