BMC E-Series engine

The BMC E-Series was a straight-4 and straight-6 overhead camshaft automobile 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 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 length. 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
* Austin Allegro
* Leyland Princess 2200 cc models, plus Wolseley 2200, Austin 2200 and Morris 2200 badge-engineered versions.
* Leyland Marina- Australia, New Zealand and South Africa
* Leyland P76-Australia and New Zealand
* Rover SD1- South African variant
* Morris Nomad- Australia and New Zealand
* Austin Kimberley- Australia and New Zealand
* Austin Tasman- Australia and New Zealand

Engine Types

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
* Austin Allegro
* Morris Marina

1.75 litre engines

The engine was enlarged to 1748 cc in 1971 by increasing the stroke to 95.75 mm .

Applications:
* Austin Maxi
* Austin Allegro
* 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
* Austin Kimberley
* 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 convert|121|bhp|abbr=on and torque Auto ft.lbf|165|0. This variant was used in longitudinal rear-wheel-drive applications only.

Applications:
* Leyland P76 (Australia)
* Morris Marina (Australia)
* Rover SD1 (South Africa)

External references

* [http://www.austin-rover.co.uk/engineeseriesf.htm E series engine description]