Allegro Club International

Jim Lavery · Joined: 13 Aug 2013 Posts: 32 Location: Stockport

HI all,
In August of this year i bought an Allegro estate,as some of you will know, The problem i have is that i cannot find the engine number and want to know that it's the correct engine. I have the engine out of the car and the only numbers i can find are on the engine block. They are
CAM4472 Could this simply be what it says?
007 I'm sure the car was never owned by James Bond.
08H I was under the impression,from the manual that the engine should be 12H.
I ope you will bear with me as i'm new to this.
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Jim

Graham · Joined: 15 Oct 2007 Posts: 625 Location: Hereford

Hi Jim,
Looking at the engine from the front of the car, the engine number should be on the right hand side, front of the engine where the block meets the cylinder head, underneath the right most spark plug, behind the alternator. You should read it from above (it is facing upwards towards the bonnet).

However, it is often missing due to the engine having been rebored at some point. A common (if not slightly tricky) rebore would make a standard 1275cc (1.3) engine a 1380cc unit. Very interesting! Smile

All the best,
Graham

Jim Lavery · Joined: 13 Aug 2013 Posts: 32 Location: Stockport

Hi Graham,
You were quite right the engine number is missing so i suppose there is no way to find out which engine it is.
Hope you don't mind but i do have another thing that puzzels me. After stripping the engine i removed the clutch to find the thrust bearing very loose on the spiggot. Thinking this was not right i ordered a new one,using the correct part number, only to find when it arrived that the new bearing was just as sloppy(loose on the new spiggot.) Is this right. It's held on with a star washer. The top of the pistons are stamped +0.03. Does this mean they have been bored to 30thou. All this from a guy who was an engineer for 50 years. Thanks.
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Jim

Graham · Joined: 15 Oct 2007 Posts: 625 Location: Hereford

Hi Jim,
I honestly can't remember a star washer but yes, the bearing is a loose fit.
If you've still got the engine stripped you could measure the bore and stroke and you could work out the cc. +0.03 would mean a 30 thou rebore.
Cheers,
Graham

M. Irvine · Joined: 21 Jan 2007 Posts: 804 Location: Farnham, Surrey.

A 'Ring Self Locking' Part no. DAM2413 should be fitted to hold the release bearing in place, but allow some sideways movement when needed. The bearing is thus self-aligning. They are available from Mini Spares people at just over £1 each. Just Google the part number.

With a 30 thou rebore your engines capacity is approximately 1301 cc, up from 1273 cc.

Hope this helps.

Merv.
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ALLEGRO = Agile, Lively, Legendary, Economical, Genial, Reliable & Outstanding.

Paul-V · Posted: Fri Nov 29, 2013 6:23 pm Post subject:

Jim,

You can get a rough idea as to the age of your engine by checking the position of the alternator bracket mounting holes and also the method by which the distributor is held in place.

If your alternator bracket is triangular in appearance and the distributor body held in place by a clamp (with two bolts holding the clamp to the engine block), you have a pre-1979 engine.

If the alternator bracket is narrow and rectangular in appearance and the distributor body held in place by a single bolt and forked bracket, you have the 1979-onwards engine. All 'A+' series engines used this type of cylinder block (1981 model year onwards) but it had already been in production for a couple of years by then.

Peter S · Joined: 19 Dec 2007 Posts: 58 Location: Outwell, Norfolk

Hi Jim

I assume you are referring to OVJ557R, in which case as a former owner I might be able to throw some light on this.

I acquired OVJ557R with a very rattly engine, which I replaced with that from a pre-facelift series 3 (1980, V reg) which had been rebuilt shortly before this car came off the road in the late 1990s. I bought the series 3 in 2007, and having got it back on the road its engine proved itself to be a very good unit, including taking part in the round Ireland trip a few of us undertook in 2008. I remember the receipt for the engine rebuild was pretty vague about what was actually done, but I would guess the re-bore and oversize pistons were fitted at that time.

Unless of course the engine has been rebuilt or changed again since I sold your car (to Ben Wanklyn of Classic Car Weekly etc) in 2009 or 2010 (can't quite remember which).......

Jim Lavery · Joined: 13 Aug 2013 Posts: 32 Location: Stockport

Wow, What a response from you all. Thanks a lot for all the info. I think you are propbaby right Peter and this is the engine you fitted. I have now had the cylinder head redone and fitted a new clutch. All the engine bay has been redone. I tried to work out how to put some pics on but I.m afraid it seems to be a little boyond my IT skills.
If you'd like to see some updated pics send you email address, or I'll give you mine first, and I'll send some along.
Again thanks to you all it's great to have a club where people are so helpful.
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Jim