BL O-Series engine

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BL O-Series engine from a Morris Ital
BL O-Series engine from a Morris Ital

The BL O-Series engine was a straight-4 automobile engine family produced by British Leyland (BL) as a development of the BMC B-Series engine family.

Introduced by BL in 1978 on the Series 2 Morris Marina and the smaller engined versions of the Leyland Princess, it was intended to replace the 1.8 litre B-Series unit. The main advance over the B-Series was that the new unit was of belt driven overhead camshaft configuration, with an aluminium cylinder head.

Despite the engine being offered in the unusual capacity of 1.7 litres, it proved to be a reliable engine for BL, and was later bored out in 1982 to 2.0 litres for the Rover SD1 and Austin Ambassador. It was then reworked for front wheel drive installation in 1984 and given fuel injection for the high specification versions of the Austin Maestro and Austin Montego. This version of the O-Series was adapted for use with the Honda PG-1 manual gearbox.

In 1986, BL collaborated with Perkins to convert the O-series to run on diesel. The oil-burning versions (known as the "Perkins Prima") proved to be highly successful in the Maestro and Montego, and helped sustain the ailing mid-sized models into the 1990s. Perkins successfully marketed the engine under its own brand in the industrial and marine sectors.

By 1987, British Leyland (now known as the Rover Group) equipped the O-Series with a 16-valve cylinder head for the Rover 800. This 2.0 litre unit was known as the M-Series, and was further reworked into the T-Series in 1992. The original 8-valve version of the O-Series was also briefly used in budget versions of the Rover 800.

[edit] Automobiles using the O-Series

Examples of cars using a version of the O-Series engine: