< I had thought that it made more sense to restore the Midget than the
Sprite,
< largely because it would have no SMOG restrictions...
< perhaps that is not the case?
Bert:
Welcome! Maybe it's personal, but I agree with your choice of fixing up the
MG and using the Sprite as a donor. The Big Healey owners have far less in
common with us than the Big MG owners do :)
To the best of my knowledge, California requires cars built in 66 and newer
to pass bi-annual smog inspections. If I'm wrong, however, the good news is
the only piece of smog equipment on a stock 65 was a PCV breather running
from the timing cover of the 1275, or the tappet cover of the 1098 to the
intake manifold via a funky little diaphram valve. If you went with the 69
vin # however, you have air pump w/ air injection into the head, & special
carbs with decel valves in the throttle butterflies.
I'm not much into keeping things stock, so pick the things you like best from
each car and build your driver the way you like it. You will be going
overbore to get rid of the scoring in the damaged cylinder. The book says
you can only go .030 over, but I am at .110 and have been doing just fine.
Engine mods that can yield more power but are still reliable include:
header w/free flow exaust, electronic ignition, mild cam, ported head.
Good Luck.
David Riker
69 Midget
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