[Spridgets] kind of spridget related

[Mike Rambour]

    11 years ago I was a younger man (pretty interesting eh ?) and I had 
a unique opportunity to buy a very rare 1934 Singer and when you already 
own a 1934 Singer and say this one is rare you know its unique.

  I have not touched this Singer because I did not want to have 2 cars 
apart at the same time and so I told people it was going to be my 
retirement project, well retirement is too far away and I want it on the 
road.   The reason I mentioned something about being younger is that as 
I have gotten older, I no longer enjoy the moments broken down on the 
side of the road and I enjoy the trouble free driving more so I am 
thinking of doing a engine swap.

  The original motor is a 1493cc 6 cylinder motor of early 1930's 
technology (59 mm. by 91 mm bore-stroke) and I have no idea the HP 
rating of it but it can't be very high. The gearbox is a crashbox with 
four speeds with ratios 5.22, 6.65, 10.68 and 19.43 to 1 and 26.4:1 
reverse with silent second and third gears, no idea the rear axle 
ratio.  Fueled by twin Solex sidedraft carbs.  The motor has had cracks 
brazed in the side of the block on both sides, the freeze plugs corroded 
out decades ago and were covered by bondo (yes Bondo) to prevent leaks I 
assume.  I removed the oil pan and found wood screws jammed into the 
block because the oil pan studs were broken so they drilled small holes 
and used wood screws.  The oil pump strainer was cut off (presumably to 
increase oil pressure after too much sludge plugged up the strainer) and 
there appears to be a crack between the number 2 and 3 cylinders which 
allows coolant into the oil sump.  The motor can be fixed but its 
ridiculously expensive and I want reliability.

  I have a Spridget 1275 complete with carbs and gearbox, I have no idea 
the year but it has a 10CG (or is it 10GG?) head which implies its a 
later 1275 motor, no idea of its real condition but its free turning and 
just turning by hand appears to have compression in all 4 cylinders, of 
course a full rebuild is in order.

  I am thinking a newer 1275 will have more HP than a 1930's 1500 motor, 
it will also be lighter and extremely very easily fit into the chassis 
with no permanent mods to the Singer and that the 1275 motor would work 
well in this car.  When I have done motor swaps it was usually to make a 
hot rod with much larger more powerful motors, I have never gone down in 
size before am I stupid to try this ? should I find a 1500 motor from 
some other make ?  There is one of these cars in New Zealand with a VW 
2Litre from a modern car in it but they also swapped the rear axle and I 
want to avoid that.

  My goal would be to make it reliable and be able to get to freeway 
speeds so I can take it places, if it takes a while to get to that speed 
that is ok with me.

   Wow, long message...

         mike