Vintage Minor Register

The chassis image below is the current state of 1931 Coachbuilt Saloon NG 850. The car is owned by new forum member and contributor Clive Hall's wife, and they live just 4 miles from the site of the recently rescued 1929 Fabric Saloon in Norfolk. I am sure Clive will fill us in on the rest of the car's history in due course.



Chris

Hi Chris, and welcome Clive!

This looks like an OHC chassis - early front cross-member and rear bumper brackets. Do you have the chassis number for our records? Looking forward to learning more about this car and seeing it progress.

Hi,
Thanks Chris for starting us off. We are in fact NG 850. Chassis number is 29608.
I am not sure how to do photos yet other than send them to Chris but we now have a front axle bolted on and if you look at the picture I have sent to Chris you will see where I took the paint off the dumb iron just to check on the number. (Harry Edwards asked me to confirm this.)

Clive,
My apologies for getting the reg. no incorrect - I have corrected my original post. The updated image with front axle connected to the chassis is below:



Another small step on the way to Minor bliss!
Chris

We vivited our poor sick cylinder head today at DR Mike Fishers Garage and it looks so much healthier. Mike is the man. We will send Chris a couple of pictures and ask if he will kindly put them on as we haven't cracked this bit yet. Thanks Chris

Here are the images of NG 850's cylinder head after refurbishment. Looks like head ancillaries next. How is the block? Signs of progress.
Chris - for Clive and Bren

http://i265.photobucket.com/albums/ii21 ... CF0406.jpg

http://i265.photobucket.com/albums/ii21 ... CF0405.jpg

http://i265.photobucket.com/albums/ii21 ... CF0404.jpg

Head looks mighty fine, don't tempt me with this ohc technology

What a beautiful job.

One question. Has the gasket surface been skimmed? I always skim my OHC heads so that the thickness of the head, between head gasket and cam cover gasket surfaces, is precisely 3.500". If you do this, then you will have standard M Type compression ratio and, combined with an M Type 12/12 spec. cam, you will have sprigtly performance without going to a full racing spec. My Semis-ports has this arrangement - no other engine mods, and it is a pure joy to drive, particularly with the SV 8/43 rear axle - 'cos I couldn't find a decent 9/44 for it. 3.5" head and a 12/12 cam are a must for any saloon rebuild.

Thanks Chris, Ian I believe we were skimmed and it does look awful shiny do it not as they say around here.
I will ask Mike as I have to contact him re the camshaft. Ours has very dodgy lobes and another we found has great lobes but ovalish bearing surfaces. We are considering regrinding and fitting oversize bronze shells if we can not find a reasonable replacement. I should think poor NG 850 could hardly breathe before she came to us.

Don't bother with all that regrinding - just call Mike Dowley at Sports & Vintage (01939/210458 - tell him Ian sent you) and get yourself an M cam and new white metal bearing set. And ask for a catalogue at the same time. Progress will be painful without it.

When you do ring, make sure you are sitting down! Cams are quite expensive.

DF's cam is very worn, and the head is the original thickness, but the penies needed were not to be found!

Looks excellent, the finish is great, can't wait to see the rest!

cheers
Jeremy

Now here is a strange thing. According to the log book of NG 850 the engine number is 30409. Inspired by Halbe and his rubbing down of his engine block number I thought I would do the same.
What I found was: 2/1922C under this CJ and under this J72.

What is the mystery of the magic numbers? An engine off a J type MG perhaps.

Clive,
I dont know the answer to this one but it is not an M or Minor engine block. I am sure Ian will come up with an answer for you. If it is a J type block I would stick it on eBay and make a killing (only joking!).
Chris

Sorry - beats me! Can you get a nice clear photo of the stamping like Halbe's? And better take one of the whole block, so we can spot anything odd about it.

Ian I am afraid there is too much reflection to take a nice picture of the number but would I lie to you? The numbers are as I said. However I have sent a picture of the block from the carb side and also one of my backside via Chris. You will see that my backside is not perfect but when viewed in the context of the rest of my body is not too bad.