I dunno, did BMC ever do an "oily rust" colour?

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Simon

The adventures of an owner builder in the Tallarook Ranges

No, but it was a very common aftermarket accessory

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Too many cars, and too little time.

I thought is what they all had?

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A neighbour lent me a copy of a 2009 (or 2008) copy of the Victorian based magazine 'Mini Experience'. One of the articles had a feature piece on the Mini K of 1969. In it they said that they painted the mini K blocks the same as the Coopers (in green) which had not done before.



I don't think this is correct. Happy to believe it is if anyone can show proof.

watto writes and publishes the magazine - so what he says here matches the magazine...

but yeah, I reckon K's and Deluxes were all metallic gold

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did I tell you that I won a trophy?

He He (Snigger) Mini experience magazine? Watto? never heard of em

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Sir Alec! we are not worthy!

Or a goldy-green.

Would like to see closer pic of the cover or, more importantly, the block, but I reckon that looks green.

Watto.

I was walking upright and in the Mini scene back then, and I reckon the Deluxe motors were all green. I agree with Watto that the Ks were gold...

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DrMini- 1970 wasaMatic 1360, Mk1S crank, 86.6HP (ATW) =~125 @ crank, 45 Dellorto (38 chokes), RE282 sprint cam, 1.5 rockers, 11.0:1 C/R.

All Deluxe and K motors were made in Australia. They didn't paint over the British paint on a Deluxe motor as it didn't have any British paint to paint over.
They did paint over the British green on the Matic, Cooper S and 1100Auto.
I don't have any proof about what colour the Deluxe motor was. I always thought that the 998 was green and the 1100 was gold but that is just my own thoughts and I could well be wrong.

I belive that only very last 850s & early deluxes had metallic green engines. Most of the original Deluxes i have worked on have the gold colour. These pics show the 2 different colours & theres an 850 rocker cover to show the BMC green. The head (green) & the rocker covers (gold) are all original, not repainted. The rocker cover in the middle is of a 68 minimatic, you can see that the BMC green has been painted over with the gold paint, here in the Australian BMC factory. The 3rd photo is of an un restored Mk 2 S motor.

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Have a Nice Day.
If already having a nice day please disregard.

Now here's something.

That last photo looks more green than gold (the reddish lighting doesn't help and tends to make it look more yellow).

But what is it from?

The first pic of the three rocker covers, the middle one, which has been painted over the British engine green, looks more green than the one below it - especially near the bottom.

All these pics really illustrate is that you can't trust the colour reproduced on a computer screen.

As I've said before, and I have looked into this a fair bit (and seen one or two engines over the past few years) I have not been able to find anything that suggests the Mk1 De Luxe engines were gold.

Cheers,
Watto.

Look closer Craig, there is 2 obvious features of this engine block that tell you what it is. And i tell you what it is in the post. And yes, it is green, not gold. Theres no reddish lighting, the photo was taken without the flash so as not to was all the colour away, taken an hour ago so its getting a bit dark. The engine is 39 years old so im sure the paint has faided over the years.

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Have a Nice Day.
If already having a nice day please disregard.

Yep, I looked closer.

The light is definitely red - just because it is natural light doesn't mean it is neutral. Being late in the day makes it even redder. Take my word as a photographer of many years' experience, the lighting is red, which affects the colour. I've taken the liberty of colour correcting two of the pics - still not perfect, but a lot closer to natural (as can be seen by the grey of the bare metal brackets and the black of the oil cap).



The second rocker cover, which you say is gold, looks very green, particularly at the bottom, where it may be slightly in the shadow. the third rocker cover looks more gold.



The Cooper S block (sorry I didn't pick up on that - my bad) looks very green now!

So, what is the bottom cover from? - the one with the Aussie MOWOG stamped in it.

While the 998cc engines were apparently assembled in Australia, it was not until the Mini K, when the marketing department wanted to make more of a point of the Australian content, that the rocker covers received the stamping of the map with MOWOG across it.

So, it seems that the gold rocker cover is from a Mini K, Mini 1100 or Morris 1100, the middle rocker cover is from almost any engine from 1965 to 1969 and the top one is from an 850 - of course they could be from anything these days - easy to change.

All this supports what I've already been saying, so thanks for that.

Cheers,
Watto.

The bottom rocker cover is from a Morris 1100. The outlet pipe on the hump points the right way for an 1100 and the wrong way for a Mini.

The 998 and 1100 motors were produced in Australia from 1964. The Deluxe was sold as an Australian Manufactured car under the high local content plan.
You say that it was not till the K that they pushed the locally made engine but the Deluxe was pushed from the start as a locally made car with locally designed and made features like the wind up windows.

I think the Deluxe rocker covers had the MOWOG Australia logo, because they were stamped in Australia.

Could be, but I've only seen them on 1100 motors.

I know the Aussie-made aspect was publicised with the De Luxe (remember the Made in Australia back window stickers) but when the Mini K came out it was a major factor in advertising - a lot more than with the De Luxe. After all, the K stood for Kangaroo.

Anyway, this is off topic a bit, and all the above pics etc only serve to support what I have been saying that the Mini De Luxe engines should be green and the early Mini K engines gold, although later they became green as well.

If I'm wrong fine, but show me the money (as it were).

Cheers,
Watto.