Auto to Manual...

[agricola]

Thanks for that spider I've already turned the plate in steel. You are off course right the plate must be a tight fit as the gasket only seals the bottom and where the drilling breaks through the oil would leak through at the sides. I have an 8.6 drill which is rather slack I reckon as I havent an 8.7 I'll try an 8.8. Certainly an 8 mm will be slack and wander.

[agricola]

Absolute bummer the spi auto block is not drilled for filter head its a flat machined surface. Ok I thought put it on the mill soon sort that out gently drilled nothing explored further basically there is no cast oil feed gallery between the filter area and main oil gallery. So the auto spi block as I see it is only good for an auto!

[nick rogers]

I converted an 1100 block to manual many years ago for use in a Minijem I had. From memory it was dead easy, no need for an oil pump spacer. I did have to drill a hole for the dipstick however.

[minibitz]

I'm sure you have seen the link below but if not there may be some useful info there.

I see there is a mention of late SPI Auto blocks being different.

http://home.earthlink.net/~roygmisc1/co ... vert1.html

[agricola]

I now must confess I am a tight Yorkshire farmer. So as I picked up the SPI block to take it to the skip I thought what the hell, I will drill it because thats what Rover BMC, obviously did with all blocks. Looked at the mill and thought how the hell am I going to hold it...
In a moment of weakness I picked up a hand drill and lined things up as best I could using a pre aplus block as a guide. Well stone me it went straight through and plum hit the main oil gallery. Been pressure tested so I havent struck water
fortuna iuvat fortes
Or just plain lucky