8BA & 8RT engines in LP Bren Gun Carriers

[rob love]

I put an 8BA truck engine into my carrier as a temporary until I rebuild my carrier engine. In hindsight I should have just rebuilt the carrier engine.

I was able to overcome the oil pan problem by cutting the bottom off the pan and welding a flat plate on. At the same time I was able to relocate the drain plug to the right position.

No problem on the tranny to bellhousing except that the bottom ears of the bellhousing stuck down to the floor and had to be ground off.

You can change the entire front cover over to the early style with the distributor down under, and the water pumps can also be swapped but you will have to plug one extra hole on the block for each water pump. That is as simple as threading the hole and putting in a small slotted pipe plug. That would allow the normal carrier generator to be used.

I think I had to do a little bit of grinding around the starter to get that to fit as well.

So it can be done, but you might be just as well off to keep searching for an early engine.

[RichardT10829]

was going to suggest that the 239 99A (or T) lump was not post war... mine is a 1939 unit..

it is possible to fit a trigger wheel behind the crank damper with a VR sensor and go mapped ignition (over the naff dizzy)...it will run much better however....not exactly wartime or original for that matter.... the coil pack could be hidden away out of sight too, the megajolt style systems i have seen have USB dock to plug in and get the most out of an engine...