Morris Minor - Compression Test and Verdict - Part 5 

A great find, and a caring owner for the old girl. The 'A' series engine is reliable, and worth the Overhaul. It's good that you will see many comments too, but I would keep the car as original as possible. Not many cars of this age would look so good. There is a lot to be said for the simplicity of the Morris 1000. I would recommend just one improvement to the engine before running the car. Dispense with the Contact Breaker Points, and fit the Hall-Effect Pertronix System. I did this with my 1971 Beetle and never looked back. Easier starting, smoother power. Better Idling. I also had a Morris Woody with the same tail lights. I can still remember that they are Lucas L549. Best of luck with your restoration.

Thanks a lot. More very useful information.

High quality video full of detail, hope to see more of this Morris! Subscribed :)

I like your custom adjusting tool ;) Compression testing really shows a lot about the health of an engine!

Solid tests Jonathon. At least it's an easy engine to work on. I'll be back to see the progress.

Have never seen a compression test done before. Had me glued! Can’t wait to here this cars exhaust make its moggy raspy fart noise once it’s running better.

Enjoying this! Well done Jonathan! I could do with a tune up myself 😂

Great data gathering... top end & bottom end work will get the job done. Yes, I know... that's what she said! =)

My first car, brings back many memories!

Getting better by the second!!!

From memory, there is a starter button on the firewall above the battery, just follow the + battery lead up to it, its in the middle of the two terminals on that block.

A starting handle, wow 🙂

I always have had a fondness for these cars (I was going to write the model name but it made that line sound a bit weird). The 180 figure seemed very high, I wondered if there was so much oil in there that it jacked up the compression ratio too. Good to see you doing the diagnosis properly, I can see there is a video of the head being taken off.

Nice car 👍

Great start mate, pot 1 super low ... awesome job 👍

Great video, many thanks. I'm a newbie car fixer and something you said makes me think I'm going down the wrong path! I'm in a similar situation with a 948 which has one cylinder with low compression (mine's in a Sprite though). I did a dry/wet test on a "good" cylinder and that ran 25 psi higher on the wet test. I then tested my suspect cylinder and it was still low compression but also ran 25 psi higher on the wet test. So I decided that this meant the rings were functioning just the same on both cylinders, and that my problem was in the valvegear. However, at 9:48 you say that no change in compression when wet meant it was a valve issue. Both of these make sense to me so I'm now confused about what result in a dry/wet compression test indicates a ring issue. Or maybe they don't?

I agree that plug No1 looked clean, maybe a plug lead or distributor cap issue has caused a week spark. Bore washing springs to mind on No1 cylinder caused maybe by an over rich mixture on that cylinder. I agree , that a valve issue could be there, no doubt you will take of the head to investigate. Great watching, as always Thanks

I was just wondering what plugs the ones were you pulled out and thought they looked like Champions. I thought "Ah, great that he doesn´t use NGK!" The next second: "These are our new plugs…"

great old car,not very fast though as you will get what they call valve bounce, if you can get them mini cooper valve springs will fit,i used them back in the seventies as a a a patrol in london england more thing it sounds very rich on fuel they had variable throttle needles as the jet at the bottom of the carb look at it as its probably stuck as its linked to the choke cable, and they were prone to sticking open,have fun with it its a collecter now regards tony

Nicely managed buddy. Starting on three cylinders is tough. Try a can of burnt valve restorer .

On that starter switch on the bulkhead there's a rubber thing between the two 7'16'' electrical contacts.(Check for neutral, mind the fan/ fanbelt.)Try giving it a good hard push.

Forgive my late-night derp... Was the #1 plug on the right when you laid them out? If so, I can see the difference with that plug. Looks like it hasn't been firing quite as much as the others. If not, the camera has fooled me~ Looks like she'll need a rebuild! I recall doing a rebuild on a friend's Triumph Spitfire 1.5L motor many years ago. It's a nightmare finding parts Stateside, and boy did it need parts! We ended up scrapping the notion of a budget rebuild and went all out. Blueprinted the block and head, custom pistons and rods, offset-ground crank, overbored and sleeved, and the cylinder head was insane. I spent about a week porting it before we sent it to the machine shop for bronze guides, 3-angle valve job, etc. Fun times!

Shame it’s going to take a fair amount of work, but should be pretty good once you get it rebuilt. 😀👍

Valve clearance should be 0.12 try valve guides and seals

Sounds like valve leaking from exhaust note???

You probably know there's a fuel additive on the market to replace the lead.Otherwise there are firms that will machine out the head and press in steel valve seats, press in new valve guides and supply new valves so she can run on unleaded.Not cheap.

You do know that there is a solenoid above the battery which you can use instead of using the starter knpb every time

Off with its head, she cried !!

will have been good to see a blow by test . but you can only work with the tools you have good data tho

I would prefer to listen to the work going on there's plenty of music channels if I want to listen to music, don't get me wrong the videos are great

My ear can hear exhaust valve has burnt...

Here I is.

Cylinder 1 burnt exhaust valve!

Tell me something, why didn't you test the compression when you had the plugs out earlier. you've got me screaming at my monitor

Morris Minor Compression Test! Morris Minor 101 - Compression is 100% Consistent in all cylinders! - ZERO!

You need a remote starter switch. A simple pushbutton switch capable of carrying some 6-10A. The switch should have 2 leads approx 1.5m long terminated in small battery clips. A standard twin appliance wire will do perfectly. 1 clip goes to battery +, 1 clip goes to starter solonoid start feed. And off you go testing the engine turning, not constantly tumbling in and out the car while working.

not a bad engine but stick a v6 in lol

Valve clearances should all be 12 thou. The 15 thou is an internet myth originating in a member of the UK club internet forum. 15 thou does nothing to help running on modern petrol,

These videos would be great if we didn't have to listen to the stupid music