Keeping my Cool

This time you should be able to see the oil stat and oil cooler install.

It worked.

I have not tightened any of the joints as I'm sure I will have to remove the hoses to get the block painted and the core plug fitted. At least this mod should speed up the warm up time of the engine and the oil and ensure the oil is operating at its optimum temperature.

Unfinished Business

While the car has been off the road I have got round to sorting out a couple of jobs I should have done sooner. Well I was busy, blowing up the engine, obviously.

The new oil pressure/temperature gauge is now in. This was a real pain to fit. I probably should have read the manual but I simply dived in. So after eventually taking out the fresh air vents in the dash the job got a little easier. Anyway, while they were out I took a look at the wireing (the centre consol and radio panel were also removed for access). I was concerned by the number of scotchlocs and poor joins as well as the sight of some burnt wires and melted insulation. So just incase there was any danger of my list of jobs getting shorter I decided to remove the radio. Besides it was very old and was only an FM and LW set with not even a tape player (not that I have any tapes now). This came out as did the switch for the rear fog lights. It is this that I believe caused the melted wires. The person who fitted it took a live feed from the back of the light switch so these wires were now being expect to feed the two headlights and two fog lights. Lots of amps. I taped up all the melted insulation so at least there should be no further problems. At least until I fit a new loom. I will fill the holes in the dash soon and have a cd player to fit in place of the radio.


Oh yeh almost forgot I was a little anoyed at the temp gauge as I had managed to dent the chrome rim as you can see.

I also managed to fit the flamethrower coil. I have only manage to fit one mounting bolt at the moment as the coil is smaller than the original one and by tightening the bracket to clamp it in place the two mounting holes are now closer together so don't line up with the captive nuts on the inner wing.

The last job I got done was to fit the new oil cooler and install the oil stat. This was straighforward enough. Although more haste and less speed has meant the hoses are a fraction too short and are under a little tension. Not a real issue as the hoses will be changed soon for braided ones. The oil thermostat can bee seen at the back of the picture where the hoses pass through the radiator mounting panel.

Well you would see it but the pictures not up loading. I will publish this blog then try again.

Don't loose Your Head

It's been a while so I've lots to tell you all. The head looked fairly grotty when it came off. As youi can see no. 2 cylinder was very oily and was most likely the source of most of the smoke. The other cylinders don't look too bad and there was not as much carbon build up as I expected.

There was no sign of any cracks and the gasket showed no obvious faults. But then it's not as though I drove it for miles (ok I did, should have said weeks) with the head gasket blowing. I have stripped the head and the valves are all intact. I have cleaned the head up as well and the only problem I can see is that the exhaust guides for no 2 and no 3 cylinders have a little colour to them indicating that they had got rather hot. I am still contemplating what to do next though. The head does not apprear to be warped as I could only get a 5 thou feeler under the middle edges of the head with it flat on a surface table. There may well be a bidder gap between the combustion chambers so I will have it skimed anyway. I will also put new guides in as they are relatively cheap and easy to install. I can't believe there are no proper valve stem seals only a wafty o ring.

Cylinder 1

Cylinder 2

Cylinder 3

Cylinder 4

I will clean up the ports a little and take out all the carbon build ups before the new guides are fitted. Although I have decided against getting the unleaded conversion done just yet. Why you may ask. Well I was reminded of the fact that I have a half share in a Rover V8 engine and that so long as I can get a suitable gearbox to fit then this could be fitted to the car. Yes it really is starting to sound like a full on restoration project.

So now my plan is to freshen up the head, regrind the valves with the new guides in, skim the head and refit it. This way I can get it running and find out if I have done any damage to the rings and bottom end. With luck all will be well and I can continue to use the car for the rest of the summer. If the bottom end is knackered then I did not waste money on the unleaded conversion and can then use that money to fund part of the v8 conversion. The simplest way to go (not the best possibly) will be to follow the factory installs and used the 4 syncro gearbox of which I have the one currently fitted (non overdrive) and two spare OD gearboxes of unknown condition. All I really need is an engine back plate to join the engine and gearbox. If I have no luck I may make one. How difficult can it be I ask you?!

I'm getting a little Bored with this now.

Well, as you can see from the picture I cleaned the face of the block and other than some surface corrosion around the waterways the top face looks ok. I have yet to check it with a straight edge but fingers crossed. There is no damage to the tops of the pistons so if I have damaged the rings they certainly did not exit the engine from the top. I wound the engine over by the fan (very little resistance and no tight spots) to check the bores out. There is a little wear but nothing that I shall lose any sleep over. In fact once I cleaned the pistons I could see that the block has already been bored out once before and has +20 pistons fitted. As luck (well ebay actually) would have it I have got a set of brand new +30 pistons that were meant for my friends spare engine. But, seeing as he has yet to give me any money (to be fair I can't remember if I actually told him I bought them) I could always use them myself.

So the possibilities are endless. Unfortunately my finances are not, endless that is.
I took the head to work to remove all the studs and clean it up. On inspection the valves are all in one piece, although I have yet to take them out and look at the seat areas. I can see no cracks in the head either between the valves or between a valve and the spark plugs so with luck a light skim and regrind of the valves should see it fit for use. I just need to buy a gasket set, some engine paint (I did have some but can't find it) and set aside the time to do the work. If the weather holds for the weekend I shall do it then. There are a couple of other things to do while the engine is partially stripped. The inspection covers on the side of the block are leaking a little oil so new gaskets there then. The core plug still needs to be replaced. To do this the oil filter will have to come out. Not a bad thing as it will force me to change the oil, which is no doubt well and truely cooked. I will also degrease the block and give that a coat of paint to freshen that up, the rocker cover can be painted. I want an alloy one but there are other things I need to buy first. I guess I really should make the effort to fit the new temperature and oil pressure gauge as well. I may even go mad and fit the new oil cooler I originally bought for my mini but never fitted. While I'm doing that I may as well fit the oil stat. It goes on and on.
Somehow I need to draw a line before I do a full on restoration.

Puff the Magic Dragon

My journey and afternoon did not get any better. By now I was about 3 miles from home and the pinking was getting worse and worse. I had little choise but to drive on. Ok I could have called out the RAC but I was so close to home I decided not to. Yes I did have my phone with me, charged up and turned on (a little information for the guys at work who wonder why I have a mobile as I never have it with me or have it turned on. Actually today was the first time I had seen it for three weeks.) I turned the corner for the last mile of my troubled trip and was greated by a large plume of dark smoke. Oops water seems to have turned to oil. Who said alchemy was dead. The last mile was quite bad with lots of smoke and pinking. It was like a really bad display from a four wheeled red arrows outing. I'm sure the people behind liked it as they dropped back to get a better view. Or was that to stop their cars filling with burnt oil and preventing their screens getting covered. i guess I'll never know.
I got home and parked the car on the drive glad to have actually made it. I lifted the bonnet and a cloud of smoke escaped along with much bubbling and sizzling. In fact the engine got so hot it melted the HT leads.


I had obviously done some damage so I decided to pull the head off and have a look. Just need to decided what to do. Do I buy a gasket set and give the head a quick regrind and skim and get the car back on the road or do I take the time now to invest in the car by carrying out an unleaded conversion. Hum, choices choices.

Core blimey Guvna!

I finally got round to fitting the cleaned carbs. They certainly look the part. The only thing is the ram pipes that I bought were for 1 3/4" carbs and don't fit. I guess I will have to resell them as I have no plans to change the carbs for larger ones, well not yet anyway.

I then set about tuning them. This did not take long and I was soon off on a test drive. The car did seem to run better and I was quite pleased with myself. So today I decided to drive the MG to work and blow off a few cobwebbs. Well I hadn't used it for a couple of weeks. The car started first time and the drive to work was uneventful. Not so the journey home.

On the way home I joined the A13 and undertook a couple of lorries that were in my way. Now cruising at about 80mph the car felt fine and dandy. A couple of slightly dodgy overtaking manouvers later I was making good progress. that was until I sudenly say a massive cloud of white smoke blast out from the back of the car. Oops. As I still have not fitted my new temerature gauge yet the only indication of loss of water was that all the heat from around my feet (southern softy likes toasty feet) was gone. There were no odd mechanical noises and there was not any noticable loss of power so I slowed it down a bit and cruised to the mother in laws (about 2 miles from where I was and only 5 miles from home). I planned to stop check it out and let the engine cool down before continuing my journey home. Well I got there in one piece but the engine did smell rather hot by the time I got there. I lifted the bonnet and was greated by the obvious cause of the white smoke. A core plug had blown out.

All I need to do now is let it cool down then drive it home nice and steady. One cup of tea and a few brownie points with the mother in law later, I was on my way. I did not bother to re fill the rad as it would only have come straight out the core plug hole anyway. Off I went. After about 1 mile the car began to pink really badly, probably caused by the hot engine. I continued on.

It's a Mini Adventure

More of a distraction really. Once again little progress on my projects due to a guy down the road stopping to ask me if I did cars for a living. We got chatting and it turns out he has a mini cooper that needs some welding. Iv'e been here before what with having my own mini a few years ago. It was five years in the making and I ran it for about 3 years before selling it on. So knowing all the common problem areas I agreed to have a look before commiting myself. Well as any mini fan will know there was rust in the wing, a panel, inner wing and windscreen scuttle panel. I told him I had done it all before and that it was much less than I had to do on my car. I told him what panels to buy and where to get them for the best price.
So it was this weekend that I arranged to go round. After using my rotary wire brush (the best tool a man can get) which takes off paint and rust revealing clean shinny metal in no time. The only drawback I find is that after using it you tend to look like a porcupine, you'll understand when tend of wire strands inbed themselves up to 6mm into your skin even through heavy clothing. You don't notice them going in but boy do you notice when they snag on something. If this is accupuncture give me a pill any day.
Anyway. The rust was actually less than I feared so I decided not to remove the old panels but simply to cut sections out of the new panels and let them in. This would ensure good panel gaps and although it may take a little longer the end result should be better. So after seven and a half hours worth of cutting grinding wleding and more grinding the work was done. The only unexpected thing was that I had to take the windscreen out to repair the scuttle properly. I hope to get away with leaving it in place. Never mind. I left him to prepare it for paint so my job was done. I charged him one hundred pounds and he was happy and I was happier still. I forgot to take some photos so may pop round there later in the week for some before he paints it. Failing that here are some pictures of my mini before during and after.

You may notice I have put on a little weight since the pictures were taken, thats beer for you. I will post the full story of my mini in my next blog. I actually wrote an article for the essex mini club I belonged to so I will add this to my blog as it may be of interest and besides it's already typed up and will take no effort on my part.

I'd be interested to know if my mini is still around. 1983 mini mayfair A57 TGD. If anyone knows drop me a line.

As for the MG well I'm waiting for my stuff to finish on ebay before I have any spare cash to but the rebuild kit I need so in the mean time I will simply refit them now they are clean with new gaskets. I will update further when I actually do it.

Pretty fly for a light guy

Just as an aside and to show you some other things I have on the back burner here are some pictures of the flywheel to be fitted to my A40 when the 1275cc engine goes in. I have lightened it by machining material from the rear face and by cutting out scollops from between the clutch mounting bolt holes. I was cautious not to remove too much material as I don't fancy having lumps from a shattered flywheel smashing my legs to pieces in their bid for freedom. I have managed to reduce the flywheels weight by just over 10% which may not sound a lot but as anyone who understands quantum physics or rocket science will tell you this will significantly reduce the effective mass of the vehicle that the engine sees and as such will allow it to rev up quicker. The down side of lightening the flywheel is that when the throttle is closed the engine also slows down quicker as the energy stored in the flywheel is less. Due to the fact the flywheel has not been massively reduced in weight this should be minimal. All I need to do now is pollish up some of the marks made by the milling cutter to make it look a more professional job then have the crankshaft assembly ballanced. I will up date this information when I have spoken to the machinist who is to grind and ballance the crank.

Not SU bad so far

I am still waiting for my auctions to finish so I can buy the correct rebuild kit for my carbs. But I thought I would post a couple of pictures of the carbs after their preliminary wash. All the loose oil and general crud has been removed. The parts will be cleaned further when I finally get to strip them.
















I have had a few other toys arrive through the post this weekend. Namely a new fuel pump (the correct size as the current one is for an mg midget) with electronic operation rather than the troublesome points. A pair or ram pipes so I can do away with the standard air filters and eventually install some nice K&N ones. For the short term I will buy a pair of thos foam sock filters just so I don't run the engine with unfiltered air, a new oil pressure and water temperature gauge so I can finally see the proper engine temperature and a Mocal oil stat so the engine oil does not get over cooled. All this should get the engine running well. If only I can get the carbs back on. Depending on how long it takes me to get the carbs rebuilt I may just buy a few gaskets so they can be refitted untill then.
Mental note. Don't take the car to bits until you have the bits.

Nobody's Fuel

The simple job of overhauling the carbs has turned into one of my typical sagas. What with having a number of other distractions diverting my time and of course a limit to my funds things have ground to a halt. Well you probably guessed that from the fact that I had not posted a log for a few days.
Well here goes. I removed the carbs for overhaul as I spotted a rebuild kit on ebay for hs carbs. Ideal I thought. The photo was not great but I could make out the spindles and butterflies which at least showed it to be a rebuild kit rather than just a service kit. I made my bid at the last minute as I always try to do and duely won it. I cleaned the carbs up in preparation of the imminent arrival of the rebuild kit. I discovered that the heat shield was cracked (not ideal but the crack was not in a position that would affect the operation of the shield) so needs to be welded.

Once I have welded the crack and ground down the weld I will give it a coat of high temperature exhaust paint then need to find some material to replace the two pads that should be fitted to the shield to reduce the radiated heat from the exhaust affecting the operation of the carbs.

When the rebuild kit arrived through the post I was all set to repair my carbs and get the car tuned up. But, yeh, theres always a but. The kit turned out to be for the later HIF carbs not the HS. Doh.

Now I was in a bit of a spot as I had just sold a pair of HIF carbs I had as spares as I thought I would not need them. As the guy who sold the kit had made a genuine mistake I saw no point in creating the hassle of returning it and getting a refund. I would just sell it on and hope to make a profit (you'll be suprised). I will use the money to buy the correct kit for my carbs.

Before I came to this conclusion I did have a get out of jail free card. Some time ago, when I first found out I was to be getting the MG I was looking out for parts (where no less than ebay) and found a complete engine described as in good condition. Not having a huge amount of spare cash at the time I convinced my mate (a fellow MGB owner) that it would be a good idea to have a spares engine and that we could go halves on it. So a deal was done and the auction won. £20 each and it was ours. It included everything except the starter motor. so all in not a bad deal provieded it turns out to be as described. I'll keep you posted on that.

So I did have access to a spare set of carbs that I could rebuild using my kit. I called my mate and he started to um and ar over the phone as he was not happy with the way his engine was running (smokey on start up and a little smokey when reved) so was thinking of swapping the engines over and was not keen for me to remove the carbs that came with it. Not a problem then I will have the carbs off the engine currently in his car. Job done problem solved. Well not quite. I decided it would be better if I arranged to speak to him in person to sort out the situation. Besides I still had to take round the mounting arms for an engine stand I took round for him after we picked the engine up. A little Give on my part will allow me to Take the carbs home with me. Or so I thought.

My Saturday was already busy. I had to go the post office to pick up a parcel I had not been in to receive but as luck would have it the collection office was in the same town as my mates house, so two birds with one stone. The other job I had planned was to go to my other mates house and do some more work to my 1961 Austin A40 Farina Countryman. Yes it's one of my other projects. Besides it's about time I mentioned it. I had arrange to be there for 10am, after the post office and sorting out the mg carbs. Well that never happened.

When I got to friend 1's house we talked about which carbs I was to have and somehow I got talked into helping him for a bit. He wanted my help to get the engine on it's stand. The bolts that came with it were metric and obviously of no use on an MGB block. We needed UNF bolts. I decided the best place to pick up on was to remove four of the 3/8" bolts holding the engine back plate on. That way he could get the engine mounted ready for cleaning, painting and what ever else he wanted to do with it. After trying a local hardware store in town then a well known car spares shop for the bolts I had a flash of inspiration and remembered a small shop at the edge of town that deals with old motorcycles and stainless steel items. We drove there and the lady behind the counter sorted us out four 3/8" unf by 3" bolts out of stainless steel of course (more expensive than mild steel and over speced for what we needed really but a bolt is a bolt and did the job) so £6 was handed over for the bolts and washers. We then messed about trying to mount the engine stand plate to the block in a position that all four arms could be used and the assembly would be fairly well balanced. This took longer than expected but we got there in the end. Next, how to insert the mounting plate tube inside the tube on the stand, with no lifting gear and no room to swing a cat. Well with the use of a high lift jack and some brute force and ignorance we got it on the stand. Job done now lets sort out the carbs please.

I asked why de was determined to use the carbs on the replacement engine rather than the ones on his car which I new to have worked. He told me he removed the carbs and cleaned them. When they were put back on the car started but would not run and had been that way since. Ok lets hope its a quick fix. I lifted the dashpot pistons and could see the jets sticking about 1/4" above the bridge of the carb. It should be flush or slightly below not this far above. I removed the carbs and stripped them. I sat on the floor outside his garage. Turned the carb upside down to remove the float chamber cap, and promptly pored the contents of the piston damper all down my leg. Great, more haste less speed. I decided to remove the dashpot and piston before I got any more oil down me. As I did this the petrol that was in the float chamber poured out the carb all down the same leg and on my lap. Boy am I having a bad morning.

After stripping the carb the problem was obvious. The jet should locate in a bimetalic bracket that is also used for adjusting the idle mixture. It had been fitted above it thus making it 1/4" too high. Sorted. A quick clean and reassembly of both carbs soon saw them refitted. Unfortunately by now the petrol I had poured down myself was beginning to burn my crown jewels. I told him I was going to use his bathroom and gave myself a thourough wash. No detail required there. You get the idea.

The linkage was not touched as this had not been tampered with. Just need to run the engine up and see if this has cured the problem. I'll soon be on my way. You guessed it. No chance. The battery was flat as were the two front tyres. After pumping the tyres up and rolling the car outside we were able to jump start it. After waiting a second or two for the fuel to reach the carbs I turned the key and after a little cranking the engine fired and ran. Great, just get it warmed up and set the mixture using the lifting pins. The engine would not run properly at all and was reving very high, like 3000rpm. No doubt due to incorrect adjustment following the initial carb cleaning incident. It took about an hour to finally get it up to temperature and to run off choke at a sensible idle speed. I got it to idle at just under 1000rpm and the mixture was close enough for now. I really had to get going. He was happy with what we had managed to get done but then he ought to be, I though I was just going round there to pick up a pair of carbs.

We then discussed what to do next. I tried to convince him there was nothing wrong with the carbs fitted to his engine and that I would come round another time and check the compressions, set the timing, ballance the carbs and set the mixtures up properly. As his car is a project car and some way off of being ready for the road I can not see the logic of swapping the engines over and running the risk that the new untested engine could be worse that what he currently has fitted. I suggested getting a starter motor and rigging the engine up so we could run it and test the oil pressure and compressions and check it for mechanical noises and smoke. My suggestion was to finish off the electrical work and get the car ready for an mot before changing the engine. With any luck the engine may be ok for the emissions test (but if it wasn't then he has a spare to use) and he could then get a deffinite job list from the mot man on what he needs to do before it is road legal.

I ended up leaving him with that thought and had to get to mate No.2's house for what I was suposed to be doing. The time was now 1pm and by the time I got there I was 3 1/2 hours late. I appologised and was promtly served up lunch. Much appreciated I have to say. I will not go into the work on the A40 as it deserves an entry all of its own. Suffice to say you may have guessed that I left Mate No.1 with no carbs. All in all not a very good day. Time to hit the bottle, which I promptly did and stayed out until 4am Sunday. The result of that? A ruined Sunday due to hangover and tiredness. Tomorrow is another day so wish me luck.

Strike a Light

Now that I knew the engine cooling system was working correctly I could start to use the car again. However, now that the engine was reaching a sensible running temperature the problem of preignition returned, compounded by the idle speed having increased a couple of hundred revs. I attempted to re tune the carbs and set the timing but could not get a smooth idle. I decided that if I was to enjoy the car over the summer I would have to do the couple of jobs I had been putting off. Namely recondition the carbs and install electronic ignition.
First the ignition. I went for the Aldon Ignitior set up. And found it simple and quick to install. Simply remove the points (one screw) remove the capacitor (one screw), install the mounting plate (two screws) and bolt the sensor to the mounting plate (2 nuts). The magnetic flag slips over the dizzy shaft then refit the rotor arm. Hook up two wires, red to coil positive for power and black to coil negative. Its a nice neat set up and I was able to set the timing easily and after a test run and some fine tuning with the vernier adjuster on the 25d dizzy I have managed to loose nearly all the pinking under acceleration from low revs.
No sooner was the car running again I decided to take it apart and remove the carbs.

New heater valve





New radiator (water pump behind obviously)

Hot under the collar (well not really)

The Mg was pressed into daily service to and from work for a couple of weeks with the only running problem being the very poor performance from the heater and the low reading from the temperature gauge. I put the first issue down to the fact it was an MG and the second down to the cold weather and the fact that my drive to work is only about 9 miles. I made plans to improve the performance of the heater, especially the feeble blower which hardly seemed to move any air at all. I bought a secondhand fan from a Suzuki Vitara which is larger and suitable for three speed operation with a switch to suit. I only intended to fit it and run it at full speed for the time being. Like most of my ideas this is currently on the back burner and on the nice to do list. Besides the weathers getting better now.
The heater core was flushed out as was the rad and the engine block. No improvement to the heater after that. I managed to get a new heater valve at a bargain brice and fitted that. Although I now had full control of the flow of water through the heater the output was still nonexistant.
What with the low reading on the temperature gauge reading in degrees F. I had no real idea what the engine temperature was. So I did some sums and it turns out that 90 degrees F is only about 50 degrees C. That'll be why the heater is poor then. Doh. Just in case the gauge was at fault I used an infrared temperature gun from work to read the true temperature at the thermostat housing/top of the radiator. The reading on the gauge was confirmed as right. Either the thermostat was sticking open and due to the weather it was over cooling the engine (what with the mechanical fan being always on as well) or the thermostat was stuck shut with the only water flow being the bypass hole in the thermostat allowing the temperature in the rad to go up some.
Thermostats being cheap I replaced it. Still no change. Engine running cool. Decided to remove the thermostat completely and check the difference in case the water pump impeller had sheered off (unlikely I know but you never know). There was certainly more flow visible through the radiator cap hole but still not great and no real difference to the temperatures achieved.
I decided to remove the fan block the rad core with cardboard and take it for a drive. A lap round the block should be enough to get the temperature up. I did this giving the car a good thrashing, but still no rise in the gauge reading it refused to get above 110 degrees F. I let the car idle on the drive for what seemed like an age. It then promptly boiled over. And I didn't have my infrared gun to hand. The water was comming out from around the rad cap and out the overflow. I know what'll fix it. SPend some money. New water pump, new rad new cap. At least everything will be new and in good condition.
I removed the rad then the water pump. It only had 3 bolts as a previous repairer had managed to shear off a seized bolt. Not a problem I'll weld a nut on the stud and the heat will loosen it enough to undo it from the block. Attempt 1. The weled nut rung off taking 1/4" of stud with it (at least my weldings ok). Attempt 2. The welded nut rung off taking 1/4" of stud with it. Third and final attempt (there was only 3/8" of stud left to weld to. The welded nut rung off taking the last part of the broken stub with it. I now had no choice I had to drill it out. Access was easy as the rad was already out. I had to destroy the old pump so I could bolt the main part of the body back on giving a jig of sorts to drill the brocken bolt out with. This worked out ok and I managed to run a tap down the thread to freshen it up. I did the others while I had the tap to hand.
All the new parts were fitted with no real bother. The engine was started and the temperatures finally started to climb. I managed to get a reading of 93 degrees C at the top of the rad after a period of idleing on the driveway. The only thing is the gauge was still reading 110 F. I took out the capillery sender and it was coated in gunge. I cleaned it and before refitting I dumked it into a cup of freshly boiled water. No change. I've now ordered a new gauge as well.
Un able to upload pictures at the moment will try later.