skip the reading and go right for the pictures

When i purchased the car, I had a motor that from the outside was obviously well worn, used and tired. I externally inspected it and asked various Singer people about it and hoped for the best. Well the motor was shot and beyond a rebuild, with a cracked crankshaft and too many cracks in the block to be worthwhile, basically it was junk. I am not posting pics of the Singer gearbox since I never looked into rebuilding it, the gear change lever is broken but the interior looks good. Since I needed to decide what to do about the motor I put the gearbox away.

I have moved forward after quite literally months of anguish and thought and indecision, with a Spridget motor. I was really against a modern non-Singer motor and for months went back and forth on my decision. Now ( a year later ) I am quite pleased with the idea, this Spridget motor will drop right in with NO modifications to the frame or chassis. The Spridget motor goes right in using the same existing bolt holes in the frame by making some new motor mounts. This way should I decide in the future to go back to a original motor, its a very easy swap and no one will be the wiser. I will use a Spridget gearbox and driveshaft since the driveshaft would have to be shortened. I also have started looking forward to driving the car with the new motor, here in S. Calif. the land of the V8’s and Freeways, its virtually impossible to get anywhere without first driving 70MPH on the freeway. From my house for example there is no way to get to another town without taking the freeway, there are not even any back roads to take without driving for an hour or more on the freeway. An original Singer motor would probably not last long as those speeds and I would be afraid of breaking the thing, this new motor will allow me to use the car more than I normally would. I also get a synchomesh gearbox to make it more pleasant to drive and if I do break down, parts are available.

I was told by a Singer member that driving a pre-war Singer with a original engine is a pleasure and part of the allure of owning a pre-war car but he does not live in S. Calif. where 70MPH is average, if I lived in N. Calif. where there are more backroads, I might not have done this exchange. It certainly was not done to save money, rebuilding the Spridget motor was quite expensive. The information on the new motor is above under the menu item “new Motor”

Click on picture to get a larger picture.

The first thing that caught my eye when I looked at the motor was that plate on the side, it had thrown a rod through the side at one time in its history. But I was told that properly plated, this was not a killer issue.

Another view of the plate along with a welded up front cover.

Another crack is kind of visible between the 2 freeze plugs, this one I was not concerned about since I could get the block “stitched” to repair that one. Note that the car is missing its distributor.

The water elbow is pretty bad but the UK club sells repros. You can see the weld on the front cover pretty well at the bottom between the 2 bolts. Another indication this motor had seen better days.

The view of the hole in the block from the INside. Must not have been a pretty picture when the rod or crank went through that.

Well from the spider webs, its obvious it has not run in a few days

The front of the flywheel. BADLY butchered, looks like there are 2 bushings in the flywheel, at the top right and bottom left in this picture. The bushings are recessed and stick out the other side, butchering the crankshaft itself.

The beautiful counterbalanced crank. Notice the wired on oil filter that has gaps at the bottom with 1/4 to 1/2 inch gap between the mounting plate and the filter, does not do much good the way it is.

Isn’t that oil filter a thing of beauty ?Flawless installation also !

Even the base of the oil filter was cut for some reason. Note the front (right of picture) crank output (next picture for details). That crankshaft is cracked in 2 places.

This is the front nut on the crank, it is supposed to be grooved to “sling” the oil away and back into the engine. Looks like someone went at it with a pair of pliers.

I was really amazed that with a hole that big in the side someone actually rebuilt the motor and I assumed even drove it. You can see cracks going outward from the hole.

The number 2 cylinder flange is broken off. Look at the top of the middle cylinder in this picture. Its kind of hard to see due to the reflection in the cylinder from the crate the motor is sitting on but trust me its broken off.

Unfortunately even will all the problems I tried to rebuild the motor but the Crankshaft failed the crack test and is cracked, so I made the painful decision to search for a new motor (probably a good thing)