Can anybody help? My teenage daughter runs a 1964 Farina A40. Lovely little car, bought through this NG, only 23,000 miles from new. Not concours, dubious respray, but a perfect starter classic. She uses it a lot - lives near Gatwick and commutes to Coventry U doing Mech Eng and Automotive Design. So it's being used, not shown.
Enough of the weepies. She just called from the M40 to say the AA were bringing it in and could she put it in my garage. Apparently an engine fire, caused by oil dripping on to the the exhaust manifold. When it finally arrived here a quick inspection in dubious light tends to indicate a rather more serious problem. If you run your hand down the right hand side of the block (looking from the front) you do not normally expect to encounter pistons and a crankshaft.
So it's gone bang in a big way, which is interesting - I don't recall the BMC A Series as being particularly prone to this. And yes, the oil was OK etc. But there's a fair bit of shrapnel around the engine bay. At least she has her first starter for the Black Museum to match some of the horrible bits of blown engines which Dad has accumulated over the years.
Anyway, question is, does anybody have a suitable engine, as this one is quite clearly beyond repair? I'm not an A Series expert, but to the best of my knowledge it was 1098cc (not the earlier one) and probably went into the A40 and Morris Minor. Possibly even the Marina? Mini ones were basically the same but of course the wrong way round.
Would appreciate any help, as it's not only a "classic" but a working car. Politics not appropriate to this NG, but students are now not only broke but now hugely in debt so any way of getting my daugther back on the road would be appreciated.
Geoff MacK