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MG Midget and Sprite Technical - Improved head

Chaps

There may be an opprotunity for me to purchase an 11 stud large vv head - think it is from a Mini Cooper.

My block is standard 9 stud - the two extra stud holes are fore and aft of the vvs on the head.

Any possible issues or are the 2 extra studs just a nice to have - provided I don't thrash it.

Cheers

Mark

Mark O

No issues, grab it while you can. Without the studs, this head will seal just as well as the standard head. Alternatively you can easily drill & tap the block to accept the extra two.
Paul Walbran

Cheers Paul...thought as much....
Mark O

looks like, at least some, of your £200 has found a home
Nigel Atkins

Nigel

Had to have something to go with the LCB and proposed RC40 exhaust.......may as well go the whole hog....
Mark O

Suggest you put in on the rollers when you fit everything on to get the maximum out of the engine. The £200 must be wearing thin.......
Bob Beaumont

Mark don't need rollers he's got test hills
Nigel Atkins

LOL
Dave O'Neill 2

Having done a 9 stud to 11 stud conversion... I wouldnt do it agian

Its more marketing cool then it is practicality...unless its just a full on race engine

The negitive... you will break into the water jacket on the front, so the stud as to be coated in plumbers putty to seal it from leaking, also that stud only gets torqued about 15 ft lbs ... not much or it will crack the top of the head or worse crack the top of the block deck as its pulled up to the head

Also if you have a bigger aftermarket valve cover you have to notch out the edge front and back to clear the stud hardware, thats not pretty no matter how much time in perfection you spend

I think for so little a 11 stud does for a street engine that normal aspiration its more about ..."look how cool I am" then actual preformance,

if you like this mod, you may also like knifing your buttery fly edges, installing lead balls in your gas tank, and painting your engine fire truck red

Prop
Prop and the Blackhole Midget

Such outrageous slurs! One major stumbling block to RR up here in the Tundra is finding a decent guy to do it. I would certainly be down to Mr Burgess were he somewhat closer in order to refine the results found by charging up and down the glens....
Mark O

All I can say is that my 11 stud head has not given me any problems. I have not had a head gasket failure despite running an 11:1 CR and non payen gaskets. An 11 stud head was fitted as standard to the Austin 1300 GT and MG 1300 so BMC must have considered it important
Bob Beaumont

Prop

There is no requirement to drill extra studs in the block

The head is a straightforward swap

The rocker cover will be the same as existing.

The reasons for doing it are very sound - larger vvs, beetr springs thus better performance at little extra cost.

Mark O

Ditto Bob.

I have a 1300GT 11 stud head. I had it on my Sprite for 20 years with no problems at all. It never blew an hg, went very well, and it will do again when I rebuild my spare engine.

I don't know how important the extra 2 studs are. I don't race. But anyway, because at the time I thought they were important, I drilled and tapped the extra studs into my block, in the road outside my house, using the head as a drill guide.

I DIDN'T break into the water jacket, and didn't coat the front stud with anything.

I'm now running a P.Burgess fast road head. It was a bog standard 1275 head that I had modded.

Again because I thought it important at the time, using the 1300GT head as a guide, I drilled the extra stud holes in the head, and drilled and tapped the block.

Again, NO leaks from the water jacket, and no hg failures.

However, I snapped the front stud about 8/9 years ago, and rather than bother about it, I left it as it is.

No hg failure.

Go figure.
Lawrence Slater

The Riley Kestrel also used the 11 stud head.
I'm not sure it was because BMC thought it was important, or that they used the same 'big valve' version of the 12G940 as the mk3 Cooper S, which happened to have 11 studs.
Dave O'Neill 2

Mark O

Exactly... id buy the 11 stud head, but I wouldnt drill and tap the block 11 stud

With the front only torqued to 10-15 ft lbs, I cant see how thats effective, and only the rear is a full torque.....id think it would take a full race engine to see the benifits

Prop
Prop and the Blackhole Midget

I have been closer for a week Mark but didnt bring my rolling road on holiday with me :)

We tend to leave engines alone and only fit 11 stud conversion if really needed, as prop says on a race engine may help hold head down but studs all same size I reckon and not tiny bolt on the front one!!!


Peter

Peter Burgess Tuning

This thread was discussed between 18/09/2014 and 20/09/2014

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