Hello from the Winelands

[Vinay-RS]

I have a spare 850 sitting in a wheelbarrow in my garage, how do you tell if it's a Morris or an Austin motor?

I think it's the engine number. The Austin number is 8A and the Morris one is 8M

[Colin]

I should have known that

[BRAAAP]

those carpets look so rad dude !!!

[Colin]

I have a spare 850 sitting in a wheelbarrow in my garage, how do you tell if it's a Morris or an Austin motor?

I think it's the engine number. The Austin number is 8A and the Morris one is 8M

I checked last night, my spare engine is an Austin.

[Colin]

I have a spare 850 sitting in a wheelbarrow in my garage, how do you tell if it's a Morris or an Austin motor?

I think it's the engine number. The Austin number is 8A and the Morris one is 8M

I checked last night, my spare engine is an Austin.

I see that the engine numbers for Austin and Morris are the same after 25000, and both start with 8AM, so mine could be either.

http://www.minimania.com/Engine___Identi...ta_UPDATED

[Miniac]

That's a good link Colin, maybe you could post it up in the links thread as well.

[Jaco_d]

Thanks Colin, that sheds some light.

Next question would be: Does my car fit into that category.

Its got two build plates, one says "something about blackheath" (Very hard to read) with number 4564
And the other that says "Morris motors, Oxford....."  number on that one is 214562
Both got the same model: M/A2S4

[Colin]

The M means it's a Morris, it has an A type engine, 2S means two door saloon, and the 4 means it's a Mk1 Morris.

http://www.minimania.com/Mini_Chassis_VI...__Revised_

[Jaco_d]

Thanks Colin.

Im not worried about the M/A2S4. 

You said: "I see that the engine numbers for Austin and Morris are the same after 25000, and both start with 8AM, so mine could be either."

Does mine fall before or after the 25000 or was that only done like that in the UK? Ryno's book makes no mention of the engine numbers changing to a "8AM" prefix.

[Colin]

The 8AM is the start of the engine number, and the M-A2S4 is the chassis number.

Your current engine is an 1100 so it won't start with an 8, but with a 10 (if it's a British 1100 - I don't know if a South African 1100 will also start with a 10, but maybe Ryno's book mentions that). The 25000 relates to the engines, and the same engine was fitted to a few different cars, so that the engine numbers would have got over 25000 before the chassis numbers did, but either way your chassis number is well after the 25000 point - by 1962 they had sold 500 000 Minis already, so only the very early engine numbers were 8A for Austin and 8MB for Morris, the majority of 850 engines used in Minis had the same numbers whether they were fitted to an Austin or a Morris.

The engine number isn't usually shown on the chassis tags, it's on it's own tag on the top of the engine block, just behind the alternator mounting point.