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MG Midget and Sprite Technical - Nissan CG engine conversion kit.

In the latest Practical Classic’s mag are details of a kit to fit a Nissan Micra twin cam engine (1992- 2002) to a Spridget.
Fits to a rib case box and includes exhaust manifold, engine mountings, conversion ring, clutch and bits etc etc. Bit expensive from £1275.

Anyone fitted one ? - it needs no cutting to fit, just need to supply own engine.

R.
richard b

Richard

Why would anyone do so? @ 65 bhp of midget 1275 vs around 75 odd for the Nissan thing? Not exactly transformational.....
Oggers

75 bhp easily obtained from a mildly breathed on A series or 1500 as well.
Rob Armstrong

I don’t know a great deal about the engine but it does Rev well (standard 7200 red line) and the 1300 is very tuneable to figures well above A series/ 1500’s.

I certainly would expect a tuned engine to have good reliability and installation is totally reversible.

I only posted out of general interest- I’ll stick with my mildly tweeked 1275.
richard b

This was all discussed on the BBS just a few weeks ago, after it first appeared on the MASC Facebook pages.
GuyW

It's a Nissan engine, and before Renault really got into Nissan so surely better built than an A-series so it would be more reliable in standard and tuned form.

Newer than an A-series and only previous owners continued lack of basic maintenance could spoil things.

Only today I saw a video of a K11 Micra in a sorry state but once the ignition switch fuse had been replaced it fired up. 150K-miles on the car. The one spark plug that was already out of the car when it arrived was in a state but was reused, only part added in was a used fuse. It also had recent evidence of a learner driver.

My neighbour had a 'pre-owned' K11 for a good number of years and it never got touched, other than body panels against random static objects. It was replaced with a 'pre-owned' version of the next model of Micra only because one came up at a bargain opportunity.
Nigel Atkins

“ This was all discussed on the BBS just a few weeks ago”

I must have missed that.
Dave O'Neill 2

Here is the recent thread on the Nissan Micra CG engine which is maybe from 1992 to 2002 K11 model cars : https://mg-cars.org.uk/cgi-bin/or17?runprog=mgbbs&access=&mode=archiveth&subject=97&subjectar=97&thread=20210321081343166363

Cheers
Mike
M Wood

Thanks Mike.
Dave O'Neill 2

Write up in latest Mascot of conversion - looks promising to me - 1275 easily tuned to 90 bhp with only manifold mods.

Waiting to see his 5 speed conversion.

Both fully reversible with out any body mods !

R.
richard b

It looked like a neat installation. I’d be interested to know what the cam timing is for the standard cams.
Dave O'Neill 2

Hi, I'm James from Barratt Engineering, hopefully I can answer a few questions regarding the kit I've developed.

Regarding performance the aim of the conversion was never to set the world on fire, more to provide an alternative way of getting decent road performance and durability without changing the feel of the car. This week I had the development car on the rolling road at Stanton Motorsport and achieved 73hp at the rear wheels. The engine is a standard 1275 has over 100k miles with no service history. I am running 36mm Mikuni carbs and my own 4-1 exhaust manifold.

Rolling road result
https://imgur.com/OA9WYB7

I was advised that this will equate to around 88bhp at the flywheel allowing for a 20% loss in the drivetrain. The engine itself weights 77kg with all ancillaries so the overall improvement to the power to weight is actually rather good.

The camshafts fitted as standard are exceptionally conservative but there are plenty regrinds and billet performance camshafts on the market

http://www.catcams.com/products/camshafts/datasheet.aspx?ENGINE_id=242&CAMSETUP_id=1009&Language=english

The 5 speed conversion will be on sale as soon as all the parts are in stock, with costs looking like they will be similar to the ribcase version, An A-Series 5 speed is in development as well.
J Barratt

This thread was discussed between 08/05/2021 and 20/06/2021

MG Midget and Sprite Technical index

This thread is from the archive. The Live MG Midget and Sprite Technical BBS is active now.