South African 1071?

[850man]

I believe this is a South African built A series.

It has a SA 1275 block & head but the engine number reads - 10H 705E 6801

Is this a SA 1071? Or has someone fitted a 1100cc ID plate to a SA 1275?


But, but, but, your Black! obscure movie reference..

[ivor badger 2]

since Australian Cooper Ss were assembled with engines supplied as units from the UK, why would the build 1071s in South Africa? The production run is so short, there is no point in resetting the machines to produce S engine parts.

[850man]

its not an S engine, and it doesnt have anything to do with a Australian made Mini.

Its a SA engine in a SA subframe. What my question is it a 1275 or a 1071, every SA Mini I have worked on in Australia has been a 1071.

A number of NOS long engines with the different oil filter mounting were imported to Aus in the 80s/90s as well, most of them were 1275 RWD Marina engines.

[abri]

It looks like an SA big bore 1098 to me. Their engine numbers started with 10H. The 1275 starts with 12H.

There's no such thing as an SA 1071 engine. S motors were brought into SA as part of CKD kits so they were exactly the same as the UK ones.

[Spider]

850man, it does appear to be a South African block, 1098 or 1275? - you'd probably have to pull the head off to be sure which. I think the blocks were the same, only a different crank and pistons. Rich knows a bit about these (or at least the cranks in them), may he'll chip in with something?

Did the South Africans fit engine tags like they did in the UK or stamp the engine no. in to the block? I have it in my head they did the latter. Les Jorden had a complete South African mini at one time and that was stamped.

S motors were brought into SA as part of CKD kits so they were exactly the same as the UK ones.

The 'S' engines we got here were also fully imported as a complete built unit, though they did change the timing chain cover and rocker cover for locally produced items to get the local content up! Though I don't know when the AEG163 heads 'finished' in the UK, but here they didn't appear after about mid 67 / early 68, roughly just before the time we went from our MKI to MKII models.

[Thee Adder]

The SA 1098 is a short stroke locally manufactured engine no exotic materials as in The "S, Yes big bore! this will have the oil filter screwed straight into the block at an angle as on an inline A series, so messy when its removed.

A rare find if is is.

Andy

[Sean1380]

Like Abri said, South African spec big bore 1100 motor.

70.6mm bore, +-69.# mm stroke.

Used 1275 GT conrods, with super heavy weight pistons with very high pin to top of piston height to bring up the compression again, although they did still only have an 8.8 to one compression.

Quite strong cranks, I have send over 50 or more over to the UK over the years.

They are getting very difficult to find locally as in the past most guys simply threw away the crank, stuck in a 1275 one and bored it out, as the supply of locally made 1100 pistons dried up.

Hope that helps.

PS ask Rich (Guru) and Mark (mk1) about their cranks

[timmy201]

I saw that on the Facebook buy sell page too. The cranks have such a good reputation on this forum I was half tempted to go out and buy it... Pretty decent price too

Drum brakes would be interesting?

[850man]

I commented on the facebook page that the engine was a 1071 South African engine with std drum brakes and got my head bitten off. Most of the uneducated idiots, including the seller were convinced it was a 1275. No one would believe me.
Eventually the advert was pulled and all the comments lost.
Most of the people in the Australian Mini scene are downright stupid, they wouldn't know the A series engine history even if Vizards book hit them in the head.

[Sean1380]

Probably because it has no where near the output of the 1071, and its CC was as close to 1098 as you could get.

I think its output was around 38kW

[Sean1380]

my 1380 is actually my 1098 block bored out to 73.5mm and the crank swapped for a 1275 crank, it original crank came over in my luggage on a UK trip and wound up in the hands of one Mark Forster around 11 years ago.

[cheleker]

Also agree with abri.

Regarding Spider's tag question, the South African cars I've had that were not South African built (all 998s) maintained the English-style tag. The only South African built engine I have (a 1275) has the engine number stamped into the block similar to the OZ engines.

[abri]

In my experience the SA 1098 motors have reverse stamped tags like you see on UK engines and the SA 1275s have stamps into the block EXCEPT for the 1275 GTS which also had a tag. (Not sure about the GT).

[rich@minispares.com]

my 1380 is actually my 1098 block bored out to 73.5mm and the crank swapped for a 1275 crank, it original crank came over in my luggage on a UK trip and wound up in the hands of one Mark Forster around 11 years ago.

Try nearer 15 years ago.............



I think that's the crank that I built my very first SA 1071 motor with

[Sean1380]

Hahahah - two of them came over in luggage bud on two separate trips. (got VERY strange looks at customs, especially the time i brought in the 7 port Alexander head that Andy B got in the end)

You got one and Mark got the other.