19?? Austin A30 16 Valve

[a30racer]

I have been beavering away at my Austin A30 2 door, which has recently had the engine and box squeezed in (gearbox tunnel removed to accomodate the Sierra 5 speed gearbox.
The basic spec will be as follows :
A-Series 1275, bored to 1380cc and fitted with BMW K1100 bike head and throttle bodies. Sierra type 9 with Tran-X straight-cut gears, original rear axle with LSD and steel 1/2 shafts 5-linked and coil springs. Body will be all steel (as most of it was very oxidised), but welding marathon is progressing well.(All panels rusted through including the roof!!).
If someone can tell me how to upload some photos, I can share this experience with you all.

[les509]

There is a thread explaining how to upload photos buddy

[Neil]

retrorides.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=gae&action=display&thread=34126

[79cord]

Certainly sounds interesting enough that pictures will be worth waiting for!

[a30racer]

I think that I have understood the old Photobucket stuff. Lets see if this works! Hopefully, you should see a picture through the grill of the lil 'ol 30 with a 16 valve engine visible thro' the grill......................




This is the Sierra gearbox held in place by some blocks of wood while I make a new gearbox tunnel to go over it. Have started making the tunnel from 20mm x 1.5mm thick box section. Will then cloth in sheet steel to make it look civilised inside again (hopefully!)

[BenzBoy]

Fantastic! I have a real urge for a quick A30.

[simes]

What are you using for the subframe?
Traditionally the upgrade was from a Spridget.
I've thought about a K-series in one of these for a while now.

[Seth]

This is looking very cool indeed!

[anglegrinder]

Lets see some more please. I,m building a A35 but also have A30. Cheers.

[a30racer]

Engine and gearbox ready to be pulled underneath and lifted up under the engine bay. Used conversion bell-housing from Morris Minor Centre. Gearbox has had gearstick moved forward about 3.5" to make it more like the A35 gearstick position. Prop outlet still in original position.
Welding on front panel and wings needs to be ground down some more and a skim of filler added prio to paint.


Engine on stand prior to putting in the car. You can now see that A-Series bottom end and the bike head look destined to be brought together. Block face has been altered to match head, ie for mounting studs and water ways. I have the oil feed to the head running externally, as that is a known problem with the copper Ferriday gasket. Oil way on the head and block are only about 5mm apart, so it would be possible to run this internally if it was desired. (Just going to put it through a bit of braided brake hose from oil pressure gauge feed). Still got water outlet from head and oil breather / returns to pipe up. Dipstick will cause some issues, as the BMW bike throttle bodies are a bit in the way! I think a flexy one will be the answer

I will try and put up some more pictures of the bodywork etc if anyone is interested in seeing this part of the build.

[moggyman]

Looking good, all it needs now is some Austin stickers and a fake 'history' board to really confuse the flat-cap brigade at shows!

By the way, how hard is it to move the gearstick forward on a Type 9 box?

[raymondmarble]

Outstanding engineering skills! That is fantastic work. Bravo!

[fordf350camper]

Cool really nice work love the engine.

[a30racer]

Thanks for kind remarks. Will try to get a bit done today on gearbox tunnel and post photos.

The moving of the gearstick was relatively straight-forward. We just cut off the gearstick mount (horizontal cut with hack-saw) and then shortened the pipe that the selector shaft runs in. Filed it until all square and had it TIG- welded back on. Had to shorten selector shaft and drill a new hole for the roll-pin (a bit traumatic as you only get one go at this!!). Bought quick-shift gearstick from AC Services (top man for motorsport parts & advice 01278 663699) which has the advantage of looking suitably period for the Austin). My gearbox has a rally-ratio straight-cut gearkit in it from Tran-X. This is fairly close ratio, but doesn't have a ridiculously high first gear (60mph first gears are not that great for road use, in my experience, but magic for 0-60 times, as no gearchanging!!)

[moggyman]

Thanks for that. I reckon that the gearstick position can make the difference between cutting and not cutting the trans tunnel in some cases, so moving the stick can mean having an unmodified shell, thus avoiding having to spend £450 on a BIVA test.

[stocky]

thats pretty awesome stuff! looks like it should be alot of fun when done

[dualist]

Any more info on the engine mate.? What hp do you think it'll put out.?

[a30racer]

Hi Dualist,

The best place to look up these engines is the Specialist Components website. They have been putting these head conversions in Minis for a while. The engine is basically a 1275 MG Midget block, crank & rods fitted with a head from a BMW K1100 motorbike. The block is modified to accept the bike head (ie re-positioned head studs and waterways). Both of these engines were originally chain driven cams, but it is easier to alter to a belt drive. MG cam has had the lobes removed and is just acting as a jack-shaft to run the oil pump. I haven't had it running yet, but it will be controlled by a Megasquirt doing fuel & ignition. I hope the power will be approx 140bhp at the flywheel. If that proves to be inadequate, I may do a turbo version on the next engine (a Maestro engine is lurking in the corner of the garage in case this is required!!) Hope that is some help.

[igotthepoison]

Nice project, that 16v head conversion has always intrigued me, keep up the good work..

[mikeybwoy84]

Great project