I bought a late chrome bumper MG Midget with no engine to get a "ribcase" transmission and disc brakes for my '62 Sprite restoration. It seems that 2 brothers were restoring it jointly. The one tasked with powertrain had spent a gazillion bucks building a monster motor, while the guy on chassis drank beer and occasionally went on a guilt-fueled shopping spree for parts. The car, which had a hard top, was full of boxes of new parts. FULL.
I brought it all home, stripped what I wanted, kept all the new stuff, sold the remains at a profit, sold the hard top to triple my profit, and continued work on the Sprite.
Months later the guy I'd bought it from - "chassis guy" - called asking for me to come collect the engine, which his brother had left in his driveway. He wanted to get his Morgan out of the garage and it was in the way.
I explained I'd already finished my 948 motor, had 2 1100 motors and needed no more. He offered that his brother had "spent a lot of time and money on this one" and that I'd really best come get it. I countered that I was broke. "Please just come get it".
I did.
Turned out it was a fully machined block and a desirable head casting number. New Vandervell tri-metallic bearings, blueprinted rods, balanced reciprocating assembly, new valves, forged pistons, megadyne 266 cam, a Weber downdraft kit, a race recurved mechanical advance 45D distributer, and on and on and on. Boxes and bins and boxes of stuff.
Needless to say I packed up the 948, went through the big motor, installed it and never looked back.
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