mini-deluxe wrote: what I am interested in is learning firstly a bit about the differences between the seemingly several different models of mini (theres an austin mini? a morris mini? a leyland mini? its very confusing at first!  ). can any of you help me out a bit with this? the mini that has been purchased by my friend is badged as a "morris mini deluxe", although i wouldn't be able to tell if it is just a replica or if its the real thing, or tell anything at all really about what is original and what isnt. i can provide any ID numbers if anyone can help me out with that too.
Austin and Morris minis was just badge engineering by BMC (British Motor Company), British Leyland bought them out in the late 60's, and did a facelift, creating the 'Leyland Mini', or more commonly called a 'Clubman' - basically the same mechanicals etc. but a different nose
the 'Morris Mini Deluxe' was an australian only model, which lauched with the first wind up windows available on a mini anywhere in the world, and a few of the components borrowed from the 'cooper' - being the 998cc engine and gearchange that comes out of the floor near the handbrake, rather than the base of the firewall as for the 'budget model' morris 850. It would be very uncommon for someone to build a replica deluxe, as they were really very common on the roads - many deluxes have been turned into replica Cooper S's though.
To compare minis in todays terms, the deluxe was probably equivalent to a commodore acclaim, against the 850 being equivalent to an executive. The Cooper was equivalent to a Commodore S, and the Cooper S was equivalent to an SS - complete with the bigger motor, bigger brakes, and an extra fuel tank for long distance racing.
The Cooper S motor was a 1275, it's a 'big bore' motor and a few other cars shared the same motor - the best source for a 1275 motor is a Morris 1100 'S', or to buy an imported engine from a late model UK mini (produced up until late 2000). the 'small bore' motors - 850, 998, 1100 are tunable, and there are endless debates about whether or not they're worth hotting up - depends if you think there's a substitute for cubic inches or not 
mini-deluxe wrote: so, once i could possibly know a bit more about the lineage of the mini in general (and where this morris mini deluxe sits amongst it all), then i would love to know what engine and transmission options existed at around the time this car was made.
like I said above, in Australia, deluxes were the middle of the line-up, and until 1969, the gearboxes were all 4 speed with no synchromesh on 1st gear. There were ratio and final drive differences.... from '69 onwards they had synchro on all 4 gears.
Just focusing on the small bores, the engines available in Australia were 848cc, 998cc, 1098cc. The 998 and 1098 share the same block & bore, with the 1098 a longer stroke. There are a few different heads available - 12G202 is (I think) the most common head casting, and can be ported and the chamber reshaped to flow really well, the 'factory' hot head was a 12G295 casting.
for the big bore (1275's), and only considering locally available motors, there are 2 blocks - a Cooper S block and an 1100S block (don't let the 1100S name fool you... it was a 1275, the car was badged as 1100 S). They're capable of the same performance, a Cooper S short motor needing a rebuild will set you back in the region of $1200, an 1100 S motor shouldn't be more than $500 - it's called a Cooper S tax...
mini-deluxe wrote: lastly, I've been told that it has an 1100cc motor in it, and being the rev-head that i am I would like to build him a high performance motor to replace it with (preferably staying with the mini engines, not going with a retro-engine fitment or anything like that). can any of you suggest to me what is the "common" cooper S engine build-up that people do? ie, what cam specs, bottom end mods, top end mods are commonly done?
the best bet is to buy a copy of David Vizard's "Tuning BL's A series engine" - it's got all the detail on the best mods to do to these engines... heres one on ebay at the moment... http://cgi.ebay.com.au/TUNING-BLS-A-SER ... dZViewItem
the hot cam of choice in Australia is an RE-13, created by Graham Russell of Russell Engineering in Sydney, and if you live in Sydney, your best bet is to pay him a visit - he's one of the top minds on mini engineering in the world - and that's a fact.
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