Possible engine swap? MGB B-series motor into B-series Marina?

[nickk]

Don't forget the Coupe.....

I have tried to ,until now.

 

[OJCar]

I have tried to ,until now.

I had successfully blotted the Marina Coupe from my mind...

Many years ago I replaced the engine in a mate's Marina Coupe

Initially the engine was replaced with Sam.
(more powerful than the original A series and leaked less).


But he wandered off so we had to put an A series back in.

 

[harveyp6]

Very environmentally friendly. Every time it was used at least the driver could say he was using the bus.......


Something you rarely see these days, a nice bit of kerbside engineering. Most of my 20s I could be found fixing something whilst laying in the gutter.

 

[OJCar]

Also replaced the broken rear springs, welded up the splits in the floor under the drivers seat, changed the gearbox and rebuilt the trunnions all at the side of the road for Dave.
He could make a decent cup of tea but Alison was a better mechanic!
(She had never seen a socket set before that day ... )

 

[Mick Annick]

I have tried to ,until now.

I went through 6 of them, I loved them!

 

[Porkypine]

Very environmentally friendly. Every time it was used at least the driver could say he was using the bus.......


Something you rarely see these days, a nice bit of kerbside engineering. Most of my 20s I could be found fixing something whilst laying in the gutter.

Oddly enough I was doing a bit today, on the Land Rover, nothing like an engine swap tho, I'd do that round the back in front of the garage spaces

 

[Cobbler]

My in-laws must of had about half a dozen Marinas in various forms as both private & company cars.

 

[Morris]

I had a Marina briefly in the 80's.
Never again.

 

[harveyp6]

Only time I ever owned a marina was when I was asked to clear three vehicles, a marina estate, a Bedford CF swb van, and a rover P5B saloon. The marina and the CF I ran in for scrap, and I kept the P5B and dismantled it for parts.

 

[nickk]

I swapped the engine,gearbox and back axle from a 1300 van to an 1800,agreed price with a mate who owned it,all for £100,all a doddle,though with the luxury of a flat garage floor.

 

[Wedg1e]

Very environmentally friendly. Every time it was used at least the driver could say he was using the bus.......


Something you rarely see these days, a nice bit of kerbside engineering. Most of my 20s I could be found fixing something whilst laying in the gutter.

Wasn't that the thing though? You could fix most cars with a handful of Imperial spanners while lying in the gutter; one pattern of balljoint, track rod end, brake shoes, wheel cylinder, alternator and wheel bearing for most Fords and another set for most of the BL stuff.
Now different examples of the same make and model car from the same year can have three different calipers, water pumps, timing belts... and forget changing a balljoint, it's a whole bottom arm

 

[indy4x]

I'd have this one and definitely keep the BL baby poo colour

 

[Nomad]

Wasn't that the thing though? You could fix most cars with a handful of Imperial spanners while lying in the gutter; one pattern of balljoint, track rod end, brake shoes, wheel cylinder, alternator and wheel bearing for most Fords and another set for most of the BL stuff.
Now different examples of the same make and model car from the same year can have three different calipers, water pumps, timing belts... and forget changing a balljoint, it's a whole bottom arm

Very true.
Tools: a 1/2" socket set + 1/2" + 7/16" spanner covered 95% of the tools you needed to swap an Escort / Cortina / Anglia engine ( I kept an alloy scaffold pole for many years - remove bonnet - pole over motor - sling with rope - 2 blokes to lift it out. Engine swap took 3 hours if you took a rest half way. Car owner buys beers that night.
Parts compatabiliy: I bought new brake disks for a Mk1 Cortina, box listed fitments from 1960s-late 1980s (Anglia 105E, Mk1&2 Cortinas, Corsair, Mk 1&2 Escorts, Transit van...)

 

[minimutly]

Yes the Marina was crap, but so was everything else then. The Escort was crap, but Ford did very well in rallying, and provided engines that could be tuned. The rest of the car? Well it was swapped for bits that made the engine work well.
Outside of the moggy derived front suspension, the Marina and Escort weren't that different, but look how the Ford took off.

 

[Wedg1e]

Yes the Marina was crap, but so was everything else then. The Escort was crap, but Ford did very well in rallying, and provided engines that could be tuned. The rest of the car? Well it was swapped for bits that made the engine work well.
Outside of the moggy derived front suspension, the Marina and Escort weren't that different, but look how the Ford took off.

The story goes that Harry Mundy, the guy who designed the twincam head for the Lotus twincam used in the Cortina was offered a choice by Colin Chapman: either a flat fee of £250 (IIRC) for the job or £1 per engine sold.
Mundy thought Chapman was a wide boy and the chances of it succeeding were minimal so he took the £250 (would have probably bought a house back then).
When the 1,000th Lotus Cortina was built he asked Chapman if there was any chance of a rethink...

 

[Wedg1e]

Very true.
Tools: a 1/2" socket set + 1/2" + 7/16" spanner covered 95% of the tools you needed to swap an Escort / Cortina / Anglia engine ( I kept an alloy scaffold pole for many years - remove bonnet - pole over motor - sling with rope - 2 blokes to lift it out. Engine swap took 3 hours if you took a rest half way. Car owner buys beers that night.
Parts compatabiliy: I bought new brake disks for a Mk1 Cortina, box listed fitments from 1960s-late 1980s (Anglia 105E, Mk1&2 Cortinas, Corsair, Mk 1&2 Escorts, Transit van...)

At 18 I used to come home from work (in a bank), get my suit off and then take my Mk3 Spitfire's gearbox out through the passenger door, single-handed. Before tea. I still have the Gordons imperial spanners and blue cantilever toolbox I got for my 17th birthday.
I sold that car for £50 to a guy who only wanted the overdrive for his Bond Equipe. I doubt you could buy the badges off a Spit for £50 now.
In the early 80s they were all just 'old cars', not 'classics'

My dad used a Haltrac-style rope hoist lashed to a couple of old fence posts across the steel A-frames of the prefab garage roof to lift engines out... although it last saw action in about 1980 I think it's still hanging there. The roof would creak something horrific if the job involved a Ford V6 boat anchor

 

[Morris]

I'd have this one and definitely keep the BL baby poo colour

View attachment 513917

There's virtually nothing left of the Allegro though, it's a Honda in a cheap suit.

 

[8ob]

Yes the Marina was crap, but so was everything else then. The Escort was crap, but Ford did very well in rallying, and provided engines that could be tuned. The rest of the car? Well it was swapped for bits that made the engine work well.
Outside of the moggy derived front suspension, the Marina and Escort weren't that different, but look how the Ford took off.

As the adage goes, win on a Sunday sell on a Monday. For car manufacturers motorsport is a huge shop window ,shows how fickle and easily influenced folk really are

Bob

 

[Blobber]

At 18 I used to come home from work (in a bank), get my suit off and then take my Mk3 Spitfire's gearbox out through the passenger door, single-handed. Before tea.

Did you have to do that every day?
No wonder they had a bad reputation

 

[Cobbler]

My dad used a Haltrac-style rope hoist lashed to a couple of old fence posts across the steel A-frames of the prefab garage roof to lift engines out... although it last saw action in about 1980 I think it's still hanging there.

I’ve still got one, taken dozens of engines out with it, last one was my son’s Mazda engine & box out about 15 years ago. I thought it really is past its sell by date, but it still worked ok. It was bought about 1970 I think.