Classic cars forum & vehicle restoration.

[HPLP]

Good evening all,

New member here. I have recently bought a 1935 morris 8 with my dad. Now the engine needs some work. More specificly the big ends and main bearings need replacing and the crank regrinding. The top half is great and it runs well with no smoke.

Now the puzzling thing is that it looks similar to some of the engine illustrations Ive seen but luckily or not so it has shell bearings and not white metal. The numbers on the block are as follows. it would be great if they made sense to someone as at the moment Im struggling to find a company that stocks replacement bearings.

SA 3152 STA
R4A
R H95375

Im not sure which one is the actual number. I read these off a brass plate thats attached to the top of the engine backplate.

Any help would be great.

H

[peter scott]

Hi HPLP,

Welcome to the forum.

I wonder if you might get more information from the numbers on the backs of the shells?

Are you able to read them? Typically you will find a general part number
and then an undersize indication although the latter might be a faint inked
number instead of stamped part number and be on a different part of the back of the shell. Inked sizes are in much bigger fonts than the part numbers.

Peter
_________________
http://www.nostalgiatech.co.uk
1939 SS Jaguar 2 1/2 litre saloon

[PAUL BEAUMONT]

Your bearing sizes will obviously change if you have the crank reground. I suggest that you entrust this work to one of the companies that specialise in classic car work. They may well be able to supply bearings or point you in the right direction

PAUL

[Jim.Walker]

I remember re-conditioning a Ford 1172 engine. Rather than run up a big labour bill casting and scraping in Babit bearings I looked into the cost of machining the rods to take white metal shells. It turned out to be the cheaper option.
I would suggest that perhaps your engine will have been treated the same way and the shells will not therefore be listed in any Morris parts list. Any reputable Motor Factor or engine re-conditioner should be able to track down the shells you need from the number on the back.
_________________
Quote from my late Dad:- You only need a woman and a car and you have all the problems you
are ever likely to want". Computers had not been invented then!

[ukdave2002]

H

It sounds as if your 1935 8, which as you say would have cast white metal bearings, has been fitted with a later 1938 onwards Morris 8 Series E engine, these engines have replacable bearings. This was and still is a common conversion, as its virtually the same engine, externally looks the same.

So I would say you are better off with this unit.
The bearings are availble from the Morris Register and I know that Wyvern Spares stocks them in all sizes.

If you are having the crank reground the engineering firm will want to know the original journel size, these are 40.00mm for the big end and 42.00 for the mains, minimum diameter for a regrind is 38.75mm for the big end and 40.75mm for the mains. All the oversize bearings come in multiples of 0.010" so 10thou to 50thou.

The reason that the original diameters are in metric is because Morris bought a company called Hodgkis; a french company who originally produced the engine, most of the threads in the engine are metric , but the bolt heads are BSW/BSF sizes! all done so that british mechanics wouldn't have to think metric or buy metric spanners etc!

Its the same mix of metric and imperial with pistons, I have a Morris boxed piston set; its factory marked "57mm + 20" the 20 means 0.020"!

Keep us posted

Dave

[HPLP]

Hi all,

Thanks for your comments. I have rebuilt 4 land rover engines and I work with someone who has over 40 years mechanicing experience so Id much prefer to rebuild it myself. At least you have only yourself to blame when something goes wrong!

I think dave that you are right. I tried to get in touch with someone in the morris spares group but got no-where and in the end I managed to track down someone at Turner and Cox who when given the actual numbers off the bearings he was able to see what he had and then said that he had all the sizes for the mains and big ends from standard sizes to 60 undersized. The guy did say that he reconed it was one of those later e-series engines.

Would you be able to tell me where you found those journal sizes? Im trying to find/get hold a reference for that kind of detailed information.

Many thanks,
H