The
BMCThe British Motor Corporation was a UK vehicle company, formed by the merger of the Austin Motor Company and the Nuffield Organisation in 1952...
E-Series was a
straight-4The inline-four engine or straight-four engine is a four-cylinder 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...
and
straight-6The 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. The single bank of cylinders may be oriented in either a vertical or an inclined plane with all the pistons driving a common crankshaft...
overhead camshaft
automobileAn automobile, motor car or car is a wheeled motor vehicle used for transporting passengers, which also carries its own engine or motor...
engine. It displaced 1.5 litres or 1.8 litres in 4 cylinder and 2.2 litres and 2.6 litres as a 6 cylinder. The UK market did not use the 2.6 litre version, vehicles using this engine tended to be predominantly of Australian and South African manufacture. Although designed when the parent company was BMC, by the time the engine was launched the company had become British Leyland.
The
BMCThe British Motor Corporation was a UK vehicle company, formed by the merger of the Austin Motor Company and the Nuffield Organisation in 1952...
E-Series was a
straight-4The inline-four engine or straight-four engine is a four-cylinder 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...
and
straight-6The 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. The single bank of cylinders may be oriented in either a vertical or an inclined plane with all the pistons driving a common crankshaft...
overhead camshaft
automobileAn automobile, motor car or car is a wheeled motor vehicle used for transporting passengers, which also carries its own engine or motor...
engine. It displaced 1.5 litres or 1.8 litres in 4 cylinder and 2.2 litres and 2.6 litres as a 6 cylinder. The UK market did not use the 2.6 litre version, vehicles using this engine tended to be predominantly of Australian and South African manufacture. Although designed when the parent company was BMC, by the time the engine was launched the company had become British Leyland. The engine was eventually replaced by the R-Series, and the S-series in the mid 1980s.
The E Series was an overhead cam design, planned essentially for front wheel drive use in the BMC range. It was intended to replace the A and B Series over head valve designs used at the time in BMC's growing front wheel drive range. The first use of the E Series was the front wheel drive Austin Maxi five door hatchback of 1969, and it also appeared in the Morris 1500 saloon and Morris Nomad in the same year. These were two Australian models, closely based on the ADO16 fitted with the 1.5 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 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 European front wheel drive models, and for use in a mixture of mass-market front and rear wheel drive models sold mainly in Australian, New Zealand and South African markets. Using a common design saved time, but did have drawbacks. The six-cylinder had to be kept narrow so it would fit transversely across the nose of a front wheel drive car. This meant the engines were long stroke and had no water-jacketing between cylinder bores to save space. As fours and sixes shared production tooling, the four also had long stroke and a lack of water jacketing, even though it did not need the reduced width to fit transversely. This was especially true in later designs of transverse-engined BMC and BL cars, as the radiator was moved to the front of the car reducing overal width considerably. The lack of water jacketing caused considerable development problems when the 1.5 litre in the Austin Maxi needed an optional larger engine size. The 1.5 litre four cylinder E Series could not be bored out, the placing of the gearbox directly underneath the sump precluded stroking the engine and the Maxi was too narrow to accommodate a six cylinder. These are some of the reasons the modest increase in size to 1748cc did not appear until 1971.
The engine was originally envisaged as a 1.3 litre and 1.5 litre four cylinder engine, with a two litre six cylinder created by adding an additional two cylinders to the 1.3 litre block. However, as development continued it appeared the 1.3 litre E Series would not have any huge benefits over the 1.3 litre A Series being developed at that time from the existing 1.1 litre, 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 block, creating its unusual engine size of 2227cc.
Automobiles using the E-Series
Examples of cars using a version of the E series engine:
- 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....
- Austin Allegro
The Austin Allegro is a small family car that was manufactured by British Leyland under the Austin name from 1973 until 1983. The same vehicle was built in Italy by Innocenti in 1974 and 1975 and sold as the Innocenti Regent...
- BMC ADO17 "Landcrab" 2200 models 1972 to 1975 - Austin 2200, Morris 2200 and Wolseley Six
- Leyland Princess
The 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 Marina
The Morris Marina is a car manufactured by the Morris division of British Leyland throughout the 1970s, a period of great turbulence and difficulty for the British car industry...
- Australia, New Zealand and South Africa (where it was known as the Austin Marina)
- Leyland P76
The Leyland P76 is a large car 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 the Ford...
-Australia and New Zealand
- Rover SD1
Rover SD1 is the code 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 Nomad
The Morris Nomad is a car produced by British Leyland in Australia for the Australian market from 1969 to 1972. It was a hatchback version of the Morris 1500 sedan, itself a locally produced BMC ADO16 design with a larger, 1500 cc engine. When ordered with automatic transmission the Nomad was...
- Australia and New Zealand
- Austin Kimberley
The 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....
- Australia and New Zealand
- 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 (51.4 kW). Bore was 76.2 mm and stroke was 81.3 mm (3.00 by 3.20 in).
Applications:
- 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....
- Austin Allegro
The Austin Allegro is a small family car that was manufactured by British Leyland under the Austin name from 1973 until 1983. The same vehicle was built in Italy by Innocenti in 1974 and 1975 and sold as the Innocenti Regent...
- Morris Marina
The Morris Marina is a car manufactured by the Morris division of British Leyland throughout the 1970s, a period of great turbulence and difficulty for the British car industry...
1.75 litre engines
The engine was enlarged to 1748 cc in 1971 by increasing the stroke to 95.75 mm .
Applications:
- 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....
- Austin Allegro
The Austin Allegro is a small family car that was manufactured by British Leyland under the Austin name from 1973 until 1983. The same vehicle was built in Italy by Innocenti in 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 1.5 litre engine. Bore and stroke remained at the 76 mm and 81 mm of the 1500 cc version. It was last made in 1982.
Applications:
- Leyland Princess
The 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 Kimberley
The 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 used in the 1750 cc version. The power output was and torque . This variant was used in longitudinal rear-wheel-drive applications only.
Applications:
- Leyland P76
The Leyland P76 is a large car 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 the Ford...
(Australia)
- Morris Marina
The Morris Marina is a car manufactured by the Morris division of British Leyland throughout the 1970s, a period of great turbulence and difficulty for the British car industry...
(Australia)
- Rover SD1
Rover SD1 is the code 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)
External references