Metro Turbo Engine Myths
Turbo Mini Forums

Yes - you can see it has a really thick land between the crown and top ring. A very well designed 'turbo' piston.

Maybe not true with all turbo heads, but I've been told that there is a capital 'T' stamped into the head next to where the edge of the rocker cover sits, at the thermostat end.

Whether true or not for all turbo heads, it certainly is the case for both Metro Turbo heads I've got at home.

Metro turbo owner

Nope, that is tosh I am afraid.

I can provide you with a picture, if you like. I've recently rebuilt my engine, and have installed a new 'head - I can 100% confirm that's the case for the old head I removed and the recon head I've installed and recently painted. The original head has been on the engine since new, and the recon head is one I picked up from some guy in West Midlands - I had never noticed it before, but the engine builder who reconditioned the head (Peter Burgess) pointed it out to me when I picked it up after he'd finished with it. He compared it to a standard 1275 head, and went as far as to say "you can tell your one is genuine because of this mark"

EDIT: can only confirm it for my own engine, though. As I said in my original post - maybe it's not the same for all engines. Mine's an '89. I don't have the engine number to hand, but will post it (along with a pic) when I get back home if it helps any.

Edited by gutted on 7th Feb, 2007.

Metro turbo owner

i think most, if not all had the "T" stamped in them

Ah - that would explain why I'm wrong then! :) Apologies for any confusion, in that case.

Metro turbo owner

My old cylinder head has a T stamped into the head at the end where the mini heater take off is, as does the replacement I got from a Turbo engine. By all, do you mean all A series engines?

Edited by metroturbo on 7th Feb, 2007.

i think the "T" stands for "Turbo"

T stands for turbo but not all of them had it by a long way.

So if it does have it, you can pretty much say its a turbo head, if it doesnt have it then it can still be a turbo.

Therefore, it is a myth that all turbo heads have a T stamped in them.

Personally I have seen 3 or 4 turbo heads (with the large stem exhaust valves) without a T stamped on them, and also 1 or 2 with the T.

This is not meant as a general discussion thread, it is meant as a reference thread, so I'll tidy these posts up in a day or two.

Is there any difference in the con rods in the turbo motors vs the n/a motors? I've heard different people say different things.

No difference at all, turbo engines just have 1275 A+ rods no different to any others.

Can I ask you if there is any diference with the flywheel and clutch??? in the turbo motor vs the n/a motor ???

"Good judgment usually comes from experience; and experience usually comes from bad judgement"

...and what about the gear box ??? stronger or another myth...

"Good judgment usually comes from experience; and experience usually comes from bad judgement"

Back in the early nineties, seem to remember an article in Car & Car Conversions that Metro Turbos up to 1985-86 had hardened cranks....can't remembers the exact year
One of those silly little details one remembers

If the cranks is marked CAM 6581 then it's the "hardened Turbo crank". These only seem to appear in a few engines but do seem very hard wearing, otherwise it's "stock" A+ crank 6232.
Somebody was going to do a harness test on the two to see the difference, don't know if it ever happened ?

WWW.TURBO-MINI.COM

Hi,
Turbo clutch ios an uprated version compared to the N/A version.
The nose bearing on the turbo gear box is also larger than the N/A version. I believe this helps prevent input gear damage.
Cheers,
Gavin :)

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...sorry for the stupid question...

"Good judgment usually comes from experience; and experience usually comes from bad judgement"

As i recall, the MG Metro cam was specifically designed for the metro turbo, but produced too much bhp so was swapped for standard and stuck in the 1275 MG. BL not wanting warranty issues.

133.5 bhp 123 lb torque 116mph @6640rpm 9.5psi
Shakespear RWYB 14.995 91.83mph

Well, I've never heard that before; and I don't actually believe it TBH as the MG nat-asp came out before the turbo...

what about the diff?
i seem to remember reading somewhere that metro turbos suffered broken diff pins because BL removed something from the pin, a special coating was it?


probably just a loada bollocks but i thought id mention it

Warning:Stig in Training


The Turbocharger:God's Finest Minute

I've never heard that before, sounds like horse shit to me I'm sorry to say.

Whoa, that's a fantastic collection of information there Tom! It's certainly answered a lot of the questions I had, and wanted to ask about the A series engine.

Thanks :)

Edited by Carl S on 12th Jun, 2007.