The Standard SC engine is a

cast-iron Cast iron is a class of iron–carbon alloys with a carbon content more than 2%. Its usefulness derives from its relatively low melting temperature. The alloy constituents affect its color when fractured: white cast iron has carbide impuriti ...

overhead valve An overhead valve (OHV) engine, sometimes called a ''pushrod engine'', is a piston engine whose valves are located in the cylinder head above the combustion chamber. This contrasts with earlier flathead engines, where the valves were located be ...

straight-four engine designed and initially produced by

Standard Triumph The Standard Motor Company Limited was a motor vehicle manufacturer, founded in Coventry, England, in 1903 by Reginald Walter Maudslay. For many years, it manufactured Ferguson TE20 tractors powered by its Vanguard engine. All Standard's trac ...

. Over its production life displacement grew from an initial size of just over 800 cc to nearly 1500 cc. Introduced in the

Standard Eight The Standard Eight is a small car produced by the British Standard Motor Company from 1938 to 1959. The car was originally launched in 1938 as the Flying Eight. After the Second World War the Flying range of Standards was dropped but an update ...

in 1953, it would eventually be used in a wide range of vehicles from Standard, Triumph, and MG.

Origin

In 1948 a "single model" policy was instituted at Standard, centred on the

Standard Vanguard The Standard Vanguard is a car which was produced by the Standard Motor Company in Coventry, England, from 1947 until 1963. The car was announced in July 1947, was completely new, with no resemblance to the previous models, and, designed in 194 ...

. Standard Triumph chairman John Black nevertheless wanted to add a new model below the existing Vanguard in the company's lineup, and so work had started in 1950/1951 on a new car and engine to power it, both of which were named "SC" for "small car". The car would face competition in the marketplace from the recently introduced

Ford Anglia The Ford Anglia is a C-segment, small family car that was designed and manufactured by Ford of Britain, Ford UK. It is related to the Ford Prefect and the later Ford Popular. The Anglia name was applied to various models between 1939 and 1967. ...

Austin A30 The Austin A30 is a small family car produced by Austin from May 1952 to September 1956. It was launched at the 1951 Earls Court Motor Show as the "''New'' Austin Seven" and was Austin's competitor with the Morris Minor. At launch, the car c ...

, and

Morris Minor The Morris Minor is a British economy family car that made its debut at the Earls Court Motor Show, London, in October 1948. Designed under the leadership of Alec Issigonis, more than 1.6 million were manufactured between 1948 and 1972 in ...

. Consideration was given to using the existing Vanguard engine, but this linered engine was considered too expensive for the intended market. The engine designed for the new small car would use the tooling installed to produce the engine for the

Triumph Mayflower The Triumph Mayflower is a British four-seat -litre small luxury car noted for its razor-edge styling. It was built by the Standard Motor Company and sold by Standard's subsidiary, The Triumph Motor Company. It was announced at the October 1949 ...

, and so would have to have the same bore centres as that earlier design. Austin's new A-series engine and the original Standard SC shared the same bore and stroke and displacement, leading some to wonder if Standard engineers had copied the Austin design for their own. Other significant differences between the engines, including the number and placement of intake and exhaust ports and the ability of the SC to be expanded to nearly 1.5 L, make this unlikely. However Reliant in 1959 would begin work on a new overhead-valve (OHV) engine design to replace its aging pre-war Austin Seven sidevalve based engine, which was derived from a Chinese copy of the cast-iron Standard Eight engine after it ceased production in 1959. It would go on to become the all-alloy OHV introduced in the 1962

Reliant Regal The Reliant Regal is a small three-wheeled car and van that was manufactured from 1952 to 1973 by the Reliant Motor Company in Tamworth, England, replacing the earlier Reliant Regent three-wheeled cyclecar van which had its origins in a desi ...

as well as the 1964 Reliant Rebel and laid claim to being Britain’s first mass produced all-aluminium engine.

Model history

800

The new engine first appeared in the

in 1953. With a displacement of the engine produced at 4500 rpm. By 1957 power had increased to at 5000 rpm.

950

In 1954 the

Standard Ten The Standard Ten was a model name given to several small cars produced by the British Standard Motor Company between 1906 and 1961. The name was a reference to the car's fiscal horsepower or tax horsepower, a function of the surface area of the ...

was introduced as a more well-appointed version of the Standard Eight, while sharing the earlier car's frame and transmission. The engine for the Ten was enlarged to and developed . By the time the Standard Pennant, a revised Ten with tail-fins and optional two-tone paint schemes, was launched in October 1957, output of the 948 cc engine had increased to . The first engine offered in the

Triumph Herald The Triumph Herald is a small two-door car introduced by Standard-Triumph of Coventry in 1959 and made through to 1971. The body design was by the Italian stylist Giovanni Michelotti, and the car was offered in saloon, convertible, coupé, est ...

was also the 948 cc SC. Power was claimed to be .

1150

Standard-Triumph was taken over by

Leyland Motors Leyland Motors Limited (later known as the Leyland Motor Corporation) was a British vehicle manufacturer of lorries, buses and trolleybuses. The company diversified into car manufacturing with its acquisitions of Triumph and Rover in 1960 an ...

in 1961, which made available new resources to develop the Herald. The car was re-launched in April 1961 with an engine as the Herald 1200. To gain the extra displacement the cylinders were placed out of centre which cleared the studs so that a bigger bore could be used. Twin carburettors were no longer standard fitment to any of the range, although they remained an option. The standard was a single down-draught Solex carburettor. Claimed maximum power of the Herald 1200 was . An upmarket version, the Herald 12/50, was offered from 1963 to 1967 and featured a tuned engine with a claimed output of . The 1147 cc version of the engine was also used in the first model of the

Triumph Spitfire The Triumph Spitfire is a British sports car and manufactured over five production iterations between 1962-1980. Styled for Standard- Triumph in 1957 by Italian designer Giovanni Michelotti, the Spitfire was introduced at the London Motor Sho ...

. Mildly tuned and fed by twin

SU carburettor SU carburettors were a British manufacturer of constant-depression carburettors. Their designs were in mass production during most of the twentieth century. The S.U. Carburetter Company Limited also manufactured dual-choke updraught carburetto ...

s, in UK tune the in-line four produced at 5,750 rpm, and of torque at 3,500 rpm. A special light-alloy 8-port racing cylinder head used on the later Le Mans and Macau Spitfires' 1147 cc engines was labelled "70X". A version of this head for the later 1296 cc engine was labelled "79X", the numbers representing the displacement of the engines in cubic inches.

1300

In 1965 the engine was enlarged from 1147 cc to , with the increase coming from a change in bore from to while stroke remained at . This version was fitted to the new Triumph Herald 13/60 and Triumph 1300 saloons. When it debuted in the Triumph 1300 with a single Stromberg CD150 carburettor it developed . In the 1967 Mk3 Spitfire the engine in SU twin-carburettor form put out a claimed at 6,000 rpm, and of torque at 4,000 rpm. With the 1970 introduction of the MK4 Spitfire the UK version, with a 9:1 compression ratio and twin SU HS2 carburettors, that had previously been rated at 75 hp was now rated at due to the adoption of the German DIN rating system; the actual output was the same for the early Mark IV. The less powerful North American version still used a single

Zenith The zenith (, ) is an imaginary point directly "above" a particular location, on the celestial sphere. "Above" means in the vertical direction ( plumb line) opposite to the gravity direction at that location ( nadir). The zenith is the "high ...

Stromberg carburettor and an 8.5:1 compression ratio. Displacement remained at 1296 cc, but in 1973 larger big-end bearings were fitted to rationalize production with the TR6 2.5 L engines, which somewhat dampened its previously high-revving nature. Some detuning was also done to meet new emissions laws.

1500

Another change to the SC inline 4 came in 1970 when its stroke was increased from to , increasing displacement to . Debuting in the

front-wheel drive Front-wheel drive (FWD) is a form of engine and transmission layout used in motor vehicles, where the engine drives the front wheels only. Most modern front-wheel drive vehicles feature a transverse engine, rather than the conventional longi ...

Triumph 1500 with a single

, power output was . Later used in the Triumph Spitfire 1500, this final incarnation of the engine was rather rough and more prone to failure than the earlier models, although torque was greatly increased. While most export-market Spitfire 1500s had a

compression ratio The compression ratio is the ratio between the volume of the cylinder and combustion chamber in an internal combustion engine at their maximum and minimum values. A fundamental specification for such engines, it is measured two ways: the stat ...

reduced to 8.0:1, the American market model was fitted with a single Zenith-Stromberg carburettor and a compression ratio reduced to 7.5:1 to allow it to run on lower octane unleaded fuel. After adding a

catalytic converter A catalytic converter is an exhaust emission control device that converts toxic gases and pollutants in exhaust gas from an internal combustion engine into less-toxic pollutants by catalyzing a redox reaction. Catalytic converters are usuall ...

and exhaust gas recirculating system, the US market engine only delivered . The notable exception to this was the 1976 model year, when the compression ratio was raised to 9.1:1. This improvement was short-lived, however, as the ratio was again reduced to 7.5:1 for the remaining years of production. The UK received the most powerful variant of all. Aided by a 9:1 compression ratio, less restrictive emissions control equipment, and two Type HS4 SU carburettors in place of the smaller Type HS2s, the Spitfire 1500 engine produced at 5,500 rpm, and of torque at 3,000 rpm. The 1500 engine was also used in the MG Midget 1500 (1974–80) coupled to a modified Morris Marina gearbox.

Design

Design of the engine was headed by David Eley, a long-time Standard employee. The engine had a cast-iron block and cylinder head, and a pressed-steel sump. Spark-plugs and camshaft were on the left side of the engine, while the inlet and exhaust manifolds were on the right. The camshaft, which drove the distributor and oil pump through a spur gear, was itself chain-driven off the nose of the crankshaft, with the drive covered by a pressed-steel cover. The cylinder head had four inlet and four outlet ports, in contrast to some of its competitors who had some ports siamesed. The crankshaft was carried in three main bearings. Crankshaft and connecting rods were steel, while the pistons were light alloy. The ancillaries were mounted on the left side of the engine, while the water pump and thermostat were in a separate casting attached to the front of the engine.

Inline 6

An inline six cylinder engine was developed from the SC four. The Standard Triumph Six first appeared in 1960 in the Standard Vanguard Six. It had a bore and a stroke, giving a capacity of . The engine was next used in the

Triumph Vitesse The Triumph Vitesse is a compact six-cylinder car built by Standard-Triumph from May 1962 - July 1971. The car was styled by Giovanni Michelotti, and was available in saloon and convertible variants. The Vitesse name was first used by Austin ...

, a sports saloon based on the Herald, in 1962. In this application the engine had a bore, reducing displacement to . The Vitesse got the 2 L engine in 1966. The

Triumph 2000 The Triumph 2000 is a mid-sized, rear wheel drive automobile which was produced in Coventry by the Triumph Motor Company between 1963 and 1977. It was introduced on 15 October 1963. It was styled by Giovanni Michelotti. It competed with the c ...

replaced the Vanguard Six in 1963 when Leyland discontinued the Standard marque. The 2 L six was later used in the

Spitfire The Supermarine Spitfire is a British single-seat fighter aircraft used by the Royal Air Force and other Allies of World War II, Allied countries before, during, and after World War II. Many variants of the Spitfire were built, from the Mk 1 ...

-based GT6 coupé from 1966 to 1974. In 1967 the engine replaced the Standard inline-four in the new Triumph TR5 and TR250 models. For this application the stroke was increased to , raising displacement to . This engine was succeeded by the Leyland PE 146 and PE 166 engines designed by Triumph for the new

Rover SD1 The Rover SD1 is both the code name and eventual production name given to a series of executive cars built by the Specialist Division (later the ''Jaguar-Rover-Triumph'' division) of British Leyland (BL), under the Rover marque. It was produ ...

. Although the earliest proposals for this project were for a new overhead camshaft cylinder-head on the original block, limitations in the Triumph block caused this option to be rejected, and the new OHC six shared no parts with the old Triumph engine.

Replacement

Although never directly replaced by another engine in the Triumph Spitfire, the SC was superseded by the Triumph slant-four as the premier power unit in the higher specification

Dolomites The Dolomites ( it, Dolomiti ; Ladin: ''Dolomites''; german: Dolomiten ; vec, Dołomiti : fur, Dolomitis), also known as the Dolomite Mountains, Dolomite Alps or Dolomitic Alps, are a mountain range located in northeastern Italy. They form pa ...

References

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