Dolly wheels

[scoobyh123]

include Marina saloon, Estate and Coupé in all engine sizes and both petrol and Diesel, Itals saloon and Estate and Marina & Ital commercials in 1100cc and 1300cc, 7cwt versions, the heavy ones having 4½" instead of the 3¾" hubs.
It's a wonder there aren't racks filled with 3¾" pcd wheels in every branch of Halfords......

Ah-ha!! The little known Marina Diesel!! Also in (i believe) New Zealand, there was a straight 6 petrol, 2.6 litre based on the old E series as fitted to the Wolseley/Princess models but turned round to drive the rear wheels through an uprated gearbox and with heavy duty torsion bars (if they can be called that!) on the front end. As far as i know the S6 version used the larger PCD wheels but why oh why didn't we get a 2.6 Marina here!?!?!?!?!

Out of interest John, would you happen to know of anywhere i might be able to source a set of Marina TC wheels for my beastie when i eventually get it? Besides the usual suspects that is (ebay, gumtree, etc).

Cheers,
Dave
ps as for Halfrauds selling anything useful to the classic car owner, FORGET IT!!! They only seem to cater for Barry Boys/boy racers/Saxo-Corsa-106 drivers these days!!

[JPB]

Dave, if/when I encounter a set of TC wheels for sale and assuming that they haven't been removed from their car without the owner's consent during the hours of darkness, it is my intention to put the seller in touch with you since you have made it known on this forum that you intend to fit some to your Dolomite when you capture one.

why oh why didn't we get a 2.6 Marina here?

Because Leyland Australia catered for buyers who wanted to travel vast distances on straight roads!

With my apologies to Marina avocados, I really would be happy to rescue a nice 1.3 auto Coupé in Blaze orange, I'd even keep it away from passing piano transporting aircraft, but weight up at the pointy end, in a Marina? Nooooooo.

[scoobyh123]

Dave, if/when I encounter a set of TC wheels for sale and assuming that they haven't been removed from their car without the owner's consent during the hours of darkness, it is my intention to put the seller in touch with you since you have made it known on this forum that you intend to fit some to your Dolomite when you capture one.

why oh why didn't we get a 2.6 Marina here?

Because Leyland Australia catered for buyers who wanted to travel vast distances on straight roads!

With my apologies to Marina avocados, I really would be happy to rescue a nice 1.3 auto Coupé in Blaze orange, I'd even keep it away from passing piano transporting aircraft, but weight up at the pointy end, in a Marina? Nooooooo.

Very many thanks for that John, hope i can return the favour some day! As for our lucky antipodean cousins getting a beefy mill in a Marina, err, yeah, i guess their roads are a lot straighter than ours!! I remember hoofing my N reg 1.3 Super through an "S" bend at about 85mph with the back end doing a 180 as i changed direction when i was 18 so fully understand the thing about having more weight in the pointy end!! The aforementioned oversteer was very often the only thing that saved me from a head-on into a brick wall or similar so can't imagine how badly it would handle with an engine twice the weight in it!!

If memory serves, a 1.3 auto coupe wasn't built by Mr BL so it may be a case of finding a 1.3 coupe (rare in themselves, most were TCs) and converting it to auto transmission. Only thing i would wonder about, the 1.3 was capable of sort of reasonable performance with a manual, would it actually achieve usable performance with an auto fitted? I remember when the Ital was launched, the only auto box available was bolted to a 2.0 "O" series, presumably because of the performance aspect. Although the Marina is quite light (compared to my Rover anyway!) i really think a 1.3 auto would struggle to keep up with legal traffic and would be quite juicy as a result. Might be a better idea if you are going to have to convert from manual to auto to source an accident damaged Ital 2.0 HLS (the only auto Ital) and transplant the engine, box and back axle. This would be of benefit if you had a complete donor car as some Ital bits were better than the similar Marina bits. If you'd like some help doing it, give me a shout. I've done quite a few auto to manual conversions so doing one in reverse would be a nice change!!

As for the colour, without being rude to Marinas but stating a fact i know from experience, the paint finish on them tends to be poor at best so most would need a respray at the very least. With that in mind, would the colour be a stumbling block as you could respray to your liking? I've been having some thoughts about my Dolly (when i get it!!) and suspect i will need to invest in a compressor and spray gun and a few litres of Honda Malachite Green/Rover something Blue so will have a bit of practice in i hope! I may even keep it as French Blue, but the temptation is there to change the colour slightly! Either way, hopefully i'll have a spray kit by the time you need to spray your Marina though!!

Cheers,
Dave

[JPB]

Believe it or not, a 1300 was available with automatic transmission; BW35 to be exact.
Not too common, but out there.

[scoobyh123]

I knew there was a saloon 1.3 auto but didn't think auto was an option on the 1.3 coupe. Besides, i think most people went for the 1.8 in the coupe as it was the "sporty" looking Marina.

Cheers,
Dave

[Phil_G]

I knew there was a saloon 1.3 auto but didn't think auto was an option on the 1.3 coupe. Besides, i think most people went for the 1.8 in the coupe as it was the "sporty" looking Marina.

Cheers,
Dave

my dad had a 1300 coupe marina but that was a manual shifter.


It's long since died though, sorry

[scoobyh123]

If the 1.3 auto had the BW35 auto box, i'm pretty sure that's the same as the smaller Dollys. I think later cars were fitted with the BW65. I can't quite remember this bit for sure, but mid 80s Volvos (740 etc) had the Borg Warner AW71 auto box which had torque converter lock up and overdrive. One interesting idea that has just come to mind would be to mate an AW71 to a Triumph 1500TC engine and drop that into a Marina coupe. You'd still have reasonable economy, especially with the o/d and a bit more oomph from the 1500TC. You'd also get the lower rate road tax too!!

Cheers,
Dave

[Howard81]

If the 1.3 auto had the BW35 auto box, i'm pretty sure that's the same as the smaller Dollys. I think later cars were fitted with the BW65. I can't quite remember this bit for sure, but mid 80s Volvos (740 etc) had the Borg Warner AW71 auto box which had torque converter lock up and overdrive. One interesting idea that has just come to mind would be to mate an AW71 to a Triumph 1500TC engine and drop that into a Marina coupe. You'd still have reasonable economy, especially with the o/d and a bit more oomph from the 1500TC. You'd also get the lower rate road tax too!!

Cheers,
Dave

My 1980 1500HL has a BW65:

[JPB]

Yes, all Dolomites use the BW65, they were the first car to be fitted with it if the launch publicity in Motor, 08/01/72 is correct. Even the Stag had to wait a few years with its BW35 before they started using the 65 in those. Marinas had the 35 in all, OHV autos, the 65 came with the O-series from what I can gather, then filtered down to the 1300 in the Ital.

But the Volvo/Aisin Warner 'box? I'll gladly agree that it offers some advantages but would rather fit a BW45 from an Avenger or Hunter if I wanted an extra gear, the 45 doesn't dribble its fluid all over the place like that AW box does. Swap a 1500 for an 'A' series when there are Jack Knight DOHC, 16 valve conversion kits and people who can build reliable 1380cc A-series to take full advantage of such things?
No. Sticking with an A-series saves a lot of hassle, as the owner of a very nice Spitfire-engined Minor that does the local show rounds was telling me recently. He built that simply because he had the bits, it works well enough but his next Minor project had an A-series with a reliable 90bhp at the flywheel, though from a 7-port x-flow alloy head conversion that stayed with OHV and looked pretty stock too.

If I do end up taking pity on a Marina, it won't be a daily driver so bog standard will do fine, I'll just leave earlier....

An old neighbour years ago owned a pair of 1300, automatic Coupés, Damask Red followed Teal Blue. Both rotten within 5 years of new, sadly.

[scoobyh123]

If I do end up taking pity on a Marina, it won't be a daily driver so bog standard will do fine, I'll just leave earlier....

An old neighbour years ago owned a pair of 1300, automatic Coupés, Damask Red followed Teal Blue. Both rotten within 5 years of new, sadly.

Have to say John, i didn't realise such an animal as the BW45 existed with 4 speeds. Presumably it would be a spanner job to change from a 35 to a 45 in terms of the bellhousing though the torque converter may have a different PCD and number of mounting bolts.That said, i would suspect the same torque converter would be used between the 2 so hopefully wouldn't be a problem. Think i'll have to investigate the BW45!!

As for leaving earlier, i think that should read MUCH earlier, lol!!! Must admit i forgot about such things as the Jack Knight conversion. Also forgot about the MG Metro Turbo, which could be another way of getting a few more usable horses from a Marina.

I was going to make myself look silly and say that neither of the auto boxes on the 2 740 Volvos i had dribbled oil. Then i remembered they were ZF 4 HP14 boxes, which are a totally different, leak-free animal!! A neighbour who had a 740 Turbo auto had a red puddle where he parked because he had the AW71.

Cheers,
Dave

[FreddieS]

Good luck fitting a mg metro engine into the marina.

Marina uses an inline A series block, MG Metro Turbo uses a transverse (completely different crank) A+ block (fairly different block!) so would be ALOT more work than you think.

You could fit forged pistons to the A inline block and fit sodium filled exh valves and then turbo the inline block... but then again if you want to tune a marina why not just fit a lairier cam, bore it out and fit a stage 3~ head.

Wheel wise, rover metro are 3+3/4" PCD, they do some nice wide steelies, as fitted to my 150bhp stripped out matt black metro here -



and also got a set of these in my garage, 3+3/4" PCD 13" cross-spoke wheels as fitted to my low100 runaround here -

[JPB]

Good luck fitting a mg metro engine into the marina.

Marina uses an inline A series block, MG Metro Turbo uses a transverse (completely different crank) A+ block (fairly different block!) so would be A LOT more work than you think.....

Yes, but who'd try to use the longer, E/W crank in a N/S engine? No, these were done using low comp (Swedish Metro van) pistons in 1300 Ital (so A+) blocks and the turbo as ERA mini conversions used. If, (and by it's one huge if) I were to build such a thing, then I'd probably realise, as soon as I opened the bonnet of the Marina, that its engine was the right way around.

Though one of those trap-sprung jobs isn't exactly on the top of the wish list this year.


By the way, can I ask how you did the lowering on the Metro there? Is someone making exchange bottles with the valves for the Nitrogen side now or did you drill and tap them for bicycle-type valves?
I know someone who "lowered" one simply by letting fluid out. I think it took all of a Month for every diaphragm to pop.

You can even get modified ones for Maxis now, must mean people want those lowered too:

[scoobyh123]

You like your metros don't you? The idea of fitting a turbo to a 1.3 Marina was just that, an idea. Personally if i was going to modify a Marina for a bit more oomph, i'd drop in the engine, box and back axle from an Ital HLS - 2.0 "O" series with automatic transmission. Having done that, i'd look to uprate the brakes and suspension so that it could then stop and handle accordingly. If i still wanted a bit more go, i'd find the inlet manifold/carbs from a series 3 SD1 2000, instant 10bhp or thereabouts - may need the dizzy too for the correct advance curve. If i wanted to go really silly, i'd fit an M series multipoint injection lump from an early 820i/Si/SLi Rover as it would be a spanner job on the engine and basic electrical work on the loom. Hmmm, 140 reliable bhp in a Marina running unleaded, could be interesting!! Especially in the wet !!!

As for alternative dolly wheels, it seems my search for a set of Marina TC wheels has at long last born fruit. I'm waiting to be contacted by someone via ebay, but as the saying goes, don't count your chickens etc so i won't say i've got them until they're safely tucked in a corner of my shed awaiting refurbishment. So the hunt goes on!!

Cheers,
Dave

[scoobyh123]

Though one of those trap-sprung jobs isn't exactly on the top of the wish list this year.

You just reminded me of a childhood memory John!! Before my parents divorced, we used to visit a pub called the Horse and Harrow. Being only about 4 or 5 years old and not understanding what a harrow was, i used to call it the Pony and Trap - i'd heard the phrase somewhere and the pub sign looked like a pony dragging a trap behind it. Bear in mind my age and cartoons were my prime time viewing on tv, a harrow could easily look like a trap!!

Cheers,
Dave

[FreddieS]

Good luck fitting a mg metro engine into the marina.

Marina uses an inline A series block, MG Metro Turbo uses a transverse (completely different crank) A+ block (fairly different block!) so would be A LOT more work than you think.....

Yes, but who'd try to use the longer, E/W crank in a N/S engine? No, these were done using low comp (Swedish Metro van) pistons in 1300 Ital (so A+) blocks and the turbo as ERA mini conversions used. If, (and by it's one huge if) I were to build such a thing, then I'd probably realise, as soon as I opened the bonnet of the Marina, that its engine was the right way around.

Though one of those trap-sprung jobs isn't exactly on the top of the wish list this year.


By the way, can I ask how you did the lowering on the Metro there? Is someone making exchange bottles with the valves for the Nitrogen side now or did you drill and tap them for bicycle-type valves?
I know someone who "lowered" one simply by letting fluid out. I think it took all of a Month for every diaphragm to pop.

You can even get modified ones for Maxis now, must mean people want those lowered too:
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3450/394 ... 943099.jpg

both metro's were lowered with individualisation adaptors, the k-series metro's have a male thread, so you use a threaded adaptor that has the female equiv and then a thread for hte schrader to screw into and then to change the rideheight you cut down the rods so that you can up the pressure for aforementioned rideheight.

To date only one person has done the nitrogen mod on the hydragas cans... he then shortly changed to coilovers!

Ive spent a fair amount of cash on metro bits and bobs, own my own hydragas pump and have a source of the individualisation nuts so can do the lowering very easily.

and since im bombarding this forum with my love for metro's

here!



muahaha!