BMC E-Series engine
Encyclopedia
Straight-4
The inline-four engine or straight-four engine is an internal combustion engine with all four cylinders mounted in a straight line, or plane along the crankcase. The single bank of cylinders may be oriented in either a vertical or an inclined plane with all the pistons driving a common crankshaft....
and straight-6
Straight-6
The straight-six engine or inline-six engine is a six-cylinder internal combustion engine with all six cylinders mounted in a straight line along the crankcase...
overhead camshaft
Overhead camshaft
Overhead cam valvetrain configurations place the engine camshaft within the cylinder heads, above the combustion chambers, and drive the valves or lifters in a more direct manner compared to overhead valves and pushrods...
automobile
Automobile
An automobile, autocar, motor car or car is a wheeled motor vehicle used for transporting passengers, which also carries its own engine or motor...
petrol engine
Petrol engine
A petrol engine is an internal combustion engine with spark-ignition, designed to run on petrol and similar volatile fuels....
from the British Motor Corporation
British Motor Corporation
The British Motor Corporation, or commonly known as BMC was a vehicle manufacturer from United Kingdom, formed by the merger of the Austin Motor Company and the Nuffield Organisation in 1952...
(BMC). It displaced 1.5 L or 1.8 L in four-cylinder form, and 2.2 L or 2.6 L as a six-cylinder. The company's native United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
market did not use the 2.6 L version, which was used in vehicles of Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
n and South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
n manufacture. Although designed when the parent company was BMC, by the time the engine was launched the company had become British Leyland (BL), and so the engine is commonly referred to as the British Leyland E-series engine. The four-cylinder E-series was eventually replaced by the R-series, and the S-series in the mid 1980s. The six-cylinder version was not directly replaced.
The E-Series was an overhead cam design, planned essentially for front-wheel drive
Front-wheel drive
Front-wheel drive is a form of engine/transmission layout used in motor vehicles, where the engine drives the front wheels only. Most modern front-wheel drive vehicles feature a transverse engine, rather than the conventional longitudinal engine arrangement generally found in rear-wheel drive and...
use in the BMC range. It was intended to replace the transverse A-
BMC A-Series engine
Austin Motor Company's small straight-4 automobile engine, the A-Series, is one of the most common in the world. Launched in 1951 with the Austin A30, production lasted until 2000 in the Mini. It used a cast-iron block and cylinder head, and a steel crankshaft with 3 main bearings...
and B-series
BMC B-Series engine
The BMC B-series was a straight-4 internal combustion engine family, mostly used in motor cars, created by British company Austin Motor Company. The pre-cursor of the "B" series engine was a 1200 cc OHV engine which was used in the 1947 Austin A40 Devon. This A40 Devon engine was based on a...
overhead valve designs used at the time in other BMC cars (but see also the O-series
BMC O-Series engine
The BL O-Series engine was a straight-4 automobile engine family produced by British Leyland as a development of the BMC B-series engine family...
, another replacement line for the B-series). The first use of the E-series was the front-wheel drive Austin Maxi
Austin Maxi
The Austin Maxi was a medium sized 5-door hatchback car from British Leyland for the 1970s. It was the first British five speed five-door hatchback.-History:...
five-door hatchback
Hatchback
A Hatchback is a car body style incorporating a shared passenger and cargo volume, with rearmost accessibility via a rear third or fifth door, typically a top-hinged liftgate—and features such as fold-down rear seats to enable flexibility within the shared passenger/cargo volume. As a two-box...
of 1969, and it also appeared in the Australian Morris 1500 saloon and Morris Nomad
Morris Nomad
The Morris Nomad is a car which was produced by Leyland Australia for the Australian market from 1969 to 1972. It is a hatchback version of the Morris 1500 sedan, itself a locally produced BMC ADO16 design with a larger engine. When ordered with automatic transmission, the Nomad was fitted with a...
in the same year. These models were closely based on the ADO16
BMC ADO16
ADO16 is the codename for the development of what became the Morris 1100, a small family car built by the British Motor Corporation and, later, British Leyland...
platform, but fitted with the 1.5 L E-series. The 1500 was a four-door saloon, the Nomad a five-door hatchback borrowing some of its looks from the Maxi.
The E-series was always intended to provide larger capacity six-cylinder engines made on the same tooling as the four-cylinder. These were intended for use in physically larger, more upmarket versions of UK and Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
an front-wheel drive models, and for use in a mixture of mass-market front- and rear-wheel drive models sold mainly in the markets of Australia, New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
and South Africa. Using a common design saved time, but had drawbacks. The six-cylinder had to be narrow to fit transversely across the nose of a front-wheel drive car. This meant the engines were long in stroke and had no water-jacketing between cylinder bores to save space. As fours and sixes shared production tooling, the four also had a long stroke and lack of water jacketing, even though it did not need the reduced width. This was especially true in later designs of transverse-engined BMC and BL cars, as the radiator was moved to fit across the nose of the car reducing overall width considerably. The lack of water jacketing caused considerable development problems when the 1.5 L in the Austin Maxi needed an optional larger engine size. The 1.5 L four-cylinder E-series could not be bored out, the placing of the gearbox directly underneath the sump made stroking the engine more difficult, and the Maxi was too narrow to accommodate a large-capacity six-cylinder. Overcoming these problems meant that even a modestly increased displacement, to 1748 cc, did not appear until 1971.
The engine was originally envisaged as a 1.3 L and 1.5 L four-cylinder, with a 2.0 L six-cylinder created by adding an additional two cylinders to the 1.3 L block. However, as development continued it appeared the 1.3 litre E-series would not have any huge benefits over the 1.3 L A-series being developed at that time from the existing 1.1 L, so the smaller E-series was dropped. The result was a saving in development capital for BMC, but also meant the six-cylinder had to be developed from the 1.5 L block, creating its unusual engine size of 2227 cc.
Automobiles using the E-Series
Examples of cars using a version of the E-Series engine:- Austin MaxiAustin MaxiThe Austin Maxi was a medium sized 5-door hatchback car from British Leyland for the 1970s. It was the first British five speed five-door hatchback.-History:...
- Austin AllegroAustin AllegroThe Austin Allegro is a small family car manufactured by British Leyland under the Austin name from 1973 until 1983. The same vehicle was built in Italy by Innocenti between 1974 and 1975 and sold as the Innocenti Regent...
- BMC ADO17 "Landcrab" 2200 models 1972–75: Austin 2200, Morris 2200 and Wolseley Six
- Leyland PrincessLeyland PrincessThe Princess is a family car that was produced in the United Kingdom by British Leyland from 1975 until 1981. The car inherited a front-wheel drive / transverse engine configuration from its predecessor, the BMC ADO17 range...
2200 cc models, plus Wolseley 2200, Austin 2200 and Morris 2200 badge-engineered versions - Leyland MarinaMorris MarinaThe Morris Marina is a car which was manufactured by the Morris division of British Leyland in the UK throughout the 1970s, which was a period of great turbulence and difficulty for the British car industry. It was known in some markets as the Austin Marina, Leyland Marina, and Morris 1.7...
/ Austin Marina — Australia, New Zealand and South Africa (where it was known as the Austin Marina) - Leyland P76Leyland P76The Leyland P76 is a large car that was produced by Leyland Australia, the Australian subsidiary of British Leyland. Featuring what was described at the time as the "standard Australian wheelbase of 111 inches", it was intended to provide the company with a genuine rival to large local models like...
— Australia and New Zealand - Rover SD1Rover SD1Rover SD1 is both the code name and eventual production name given to a series of large executive cars made by British Leyland or BL through its Specialist, Rover Triumph and Austin Rover divisions from 1976 until 1986....
— South African variant - Morris NomadMorris NomadThe Morris Nomad is a car which was produced by Leyland Australia for the Australian market from 1969 to 1972. It is a hatchback version of the Morris 1500 sedan, itself a locally produced BMC ADO16 design with a larger engine. When ordered with automatic transmission, the Nomad was fitted with a...
— Australia and New Zealand - Austin KimberleyAustin KimberleyThe Australian Austin Kimberley and Austin Tasman "X6" models of 1970 were a range of Leyland Australian designed front-wheel-drive sedans based on the Austin 1800 platform...
& Austin Tasman — Australia and New Zealand
1.5 litre engines
The 1.5 L (1485 cc) version was first used in the Austin Maxi 1969. Output was 69 bhp. Bore was 76.2 mm (3 in) and stroke was 81.3 mm (3.2 in).Applications:
- Austin MaxiAustin MaxiThe Austin Maxi was a medium sized 5-door hatchback car from British Leyland for the 1970s. It was the first British five speed five-door hatchback.-History:...
- Austin AllegroAustin AllegroThe Austin Allegro is a small family car manufactured by British Leyland under the Austin name from 1973 until 1983. The same vehicle was built in Italy by Innocenti between 1974 and 1975 and sold as the Innocenti Regent...
- Morris MarinaMorris MarinaThe Morris Marina is a car which was manufactured by the Morris division of British Leyland in the UK throughout the 1970s, which was a period of great turbulence and difficulty for the British car industry. It was known in some markets as the Austin Marina, Leyland Marina, and Morris 1.7...
1.75 litre engines
The engine was enlarged to 1748 cc in 1971 by increasing the stroke to 95.75 mm (3.8 in).Applications:
- Austin MaxiAustin MaxiThe Austin Maxi was a medium sized 5-door hatchback car from British Leyland for the 1970s. It was the first British five speed five-door hatchback.-History:...
- Austin AllegroAustin AllegroThe Austin Allegro is a small family car manufactured by British Leyland under the Austin name from 1973 until 1983. The same vehicle was built in Italy by Innocenti between 1974 and 1975 and sold as the Innocenti Regent...
- Leyland Marina
2.2 litre engines
The 2227 cc version was created by adding two cylinders to the 1.5L engine. Bore and stroke remained at the 76.2 mm (3 in) and 81.3 mm (3.2 in) of the 1.5L version. It was last made in 1982.Applications:
- Leyland PrincessLeyland PrincessThe Princess is a family car that was produced in the United Kingdom by British Leyland from 1975 until 1981. The car inherited a front-wheel drive / transverse engine configuration from its predecessor, the BMC ADO17 range...
- Austin KimberleyAustin KimberleyThe Australian Austin Kimberley and Austin Tasman "X6" models of 1970 were a range of Leyland Australian designed front-wheel-drive sedans based on the Austin 1800 platform...
- Wolseley 2200
2.6 litre engines
The 2622 cc version was created by increasing the stroke to the 95.75 mm (3.8 in) used in the 1750 cc version. The power output was 121 bhp and torque 165 lb·ft. This variant was used in longitudinal rear-wheel-drive applications only.Applications:
- Leyland P76Leyland P76The Leyland P76 is a large car that was produced by Leyland Australia, the Australian subsidiary of British Leyland. Featuring what was described at the time as the "standard Australian wheelbase of 111 inches", it was intended to provide the company with a genuine rival to large local models like...
(Australia) - Morris MarinaMorris MarinaThe Morris Marina is a car which was manufactured by the Morris division of British Leyland in the UK throughout the 1970s, which was a period of great turbulence and difficulty for the British car industry. It was known in some markets as the Austin Marina, Leyland Marina, and Morris 1.7...
(Australia) - Rover SD1Rover SD1Rover SD1 is both the code name and eventual production name given to a series of large executive cars made by British Leyland or BL through its Specialist, Rover Triumph and Austin Rover divisions from 1976 until 1986....
(South Africa) - Austin Marina (South Africa)