10 replies to this topic

[John/Dominguez]

Hello everyone!! So fare I own a 1995 spi automatic sprite. As I'm very unhappy with the automatic gearbox want to convert it into manual with an upgrade engine. The mechanic is doing the job for me is looking for an engine already with a 1340/1380 fited but obviusly goes up to £1200 at least. Talking with a friend he give me for free a 1275 but aparently for aome reason is not working. Do you think I'll be worth it upgrade that engine to 1340/1380? Cheers guys

[Stu1961]

Would go 1293 first.

[John/Dominguez]

Is it that gonna make much difference??

[Cooperman]

No, it won't make much difference, but we are talking classic cars here and the best way is to always re-bore to the next size up.

If you go to 1330 (not 1340 as that would be a non-standard re-bore size) you might gain a couple of bhp. If you go to 1380 you will need to offset bore and then the block may be scrap when a further re-bore is needed and blocks are not getting any more plentiful as there will never be any new ones cast.

Best to always go to the next size up. Preserve our Mini motoring as much as possible.

[Turbo Phil]

Pretty pointless simply reboring to 1380 anyway unless the rest of the engine is modified to make use of the extra capacity. Unless the engine can breathe, you'll see little gain from simply reboring.

Phil.

[MIGLIACARS]

No, it won't make much difference, but we are talking classic cars here and the best way is to always re-bore to the next size up.
If you go to 1330 (not 1340 as that would be a non-standard re-bore size) you might gain a couple of bhp. If you go to 1380 you will need to offset bore and then the block may be scrap when a further re-bore is needed and blocks are not getting any more plentiful as there will never be any new ones cast.
Best to always go to the next size up. Preserve our Mini motoring as much as possible.

Cooper again I fully agree with the 1293cc first, cannot understand going 1380 first as the next step in the scrap yard.

But mini spares are redoing the blocks I believe. How good or bad they will be will be the question ,,,

[carbon]

And if Minispares do make a new batch of blocks I can't see this being a particularly cheap option.

 

And even the factory had problems on occasions getting original blocks machined correctly...

[Cooperman]

 

No, it won't make much difference, but we are talking classic cars here and the best way is to always re-bore to the next size up.
If you go to 1330 (not 1340 as that would be a non-standard re-bore size) you might gain a couple of bhp. If you go to 1380 you will need to offset bore and then the block may be scrap when a further re-bore is needed and blocks are not getting any more plentiful as there will never be any new ones cast.
Best to always go to the next size up. Preserve our Mini motoring as much as possible.

Cooper again I fully agree with the 1293cc first, cannot understand going 1380 first as the next step in the scrap yard.

But mini spares are redoing the blocks I believe. How good or bad they will be will be the question ,,,

 

There has been a lot of talk about this, but there are questions to be answered. One question is whether they will be Cooper 'S' blocks or A or A+. The second is just how much will one cost. The casting moulds will be very expensive as will the unit cost of casting them unless there is to be a huge volume. I am guessing, but I can't see a retail price of much less than £1200 each, plus crank and rods.

Thus the best market would be for the 'S' block which can be used in restorations or, dare I say it, Cooper 'S' replicas. Those are the owners who could afford such blocks as their cars are worth a fortune.

A 1380 can be restored in most cases, but it involves boring slightly more, fitting liners, then boring back to 1275. It would be difficult to sleeve a 1380, then bore to 1380 again as the liner wall would be very thin due to the small difference in diameter between the 1380 bore and the maximum you can go to with the sleeve.

As Phil says, going to 1380 will not give a huge power/torque increase. Unless it is important to reduce the lap time by a few 1/10ths of a second it is simply unnecessary on a classic road car. To make a 1380 measurably better than a 1293 is very expensive. How can that be justified for a classic road car?

[MIGLIACARS]

No, it won't make much difference, but we are talking classic cars here and the best way is to always re-bore to the next size up.
If you go to 1330 (not 1340 as that would be a non-standard re-bore size) you might gain a couple of bhp. If you go to 1380 you will need to offset bore and then the block may be scrap when a further re-bore is needed and blocks are not getting any more plentiful as there will never be any new ones cast.
Best to always go to the next size up. Preserve our Mini motoring as much as possible.

Cooper again I fully agree with the 1293cc first, cannot understand going 1380 first as the next step in the scrap yard.
But mini spares are redoing the blocks I believe. How good or bad they will be will be the question ,,,

There has been a lot of talk about this, but there are questions to be answered. One question is whether they will be Cooper 'S' blocks or A or A+. The second is just how much will one cost. The casting moulds will be very expensive as will the unit cost of casting them unless there is to be a huge volume. I am guessing, but I can't see a retail price of much less than £1200 each, plus crank and rods.
Thus the best market would be for the 'S' block which can be used in restorations or, dare I say it, Cooper 'S' replicas. Those are the owners who could afford such blocks as their cars are worth a fortune.
A 1380 can be restored in most cases, but it involves boring slightly more, fitting liners, then boring back to 1275. It would be difficult to sleeve a 1380, then bore to 1380 again as the liner wall would be very thin due to the small difference in diameter between the 1380 bore and the maximum you can go to with the sleeve.
As Phil says, going to 1380 will not give a huge power/torque increase. Unless it is important to reduce the lap time by a few 1/10ths of a second it is simply unnecessary on a classic road car. To make a 1380 measurably better than a 1293 is very expensive. How can that be justified for a classic road car?

Again agreed. And these are the words I've tried to tell people in the past

[MrBounce]

I blame the Mini magazines. 1380 = pub talk engine. 1293 = sensible engine which most of the power of the 1380 without the silly expense.

[MIGLIACARS]

The 1380 part comes from the racing seen, as most classes are up to 1600cc. So it looked upon as the 1380cc are the fastest, which in theory is correct in top race spec.