Anyone fancy an MG? It's going Cheap!

Well I finally managed to reassemble the engine this afternoon. The carbs were bolted on, the exhaust was fitted and bolted up. I set the tappets. The only way I could turn the engine over was by putting it in gear and pulling the car forward as I did not have a socket large enough to fit the crank pully bolt. MENTAL NOTE. Buy the right size socket as soon as possible.
I then spun the engine over on the starter to check for oil pressure. It took a while but it did finally start to climb. I connected the coil, fitted the plugs and had to reuse the melted HT leads as I could not find the old ones I took off when these ones were fitted. No.2 lead is the only one that does not fit the plug very well. I had to close it up with some mole grips. It's still loose but better than it was. It was ready to fire up. Oh yeh, I did put the fuel in as well. After a bit of cranking there was no sign of it starting so I moved the dizzy a little at a time and finally got it to fire. It started well but I noticed some oil spraying out from under the bonnet. I stopped the engine to investigate. One of the oil cooler pipes was not fully tight. I started it again. The next problem was an oil leak under the front carb. I hoped it was not the head gasket and decided it must be the breather cover on the side of the block. I took the carbs back off and removed the breather to find the cork gasket had moved when it was installed. I repositioned it and fitted all the bits back on. I started it again and seem to have cured the oil leaks.
Of course there had to be some other problems.
The car now has a very annoying chirping cheep cheep sound comming from the exhaust/back end of the car. I hope it is not an internal engine problem with the sound exiting out the tail pipe. Lets just hope it is either the chrome tail pipe I fitted or one of the mounts for the exhaust or a pipe joint. The core plug that I fitted has a small leak at its lower edge. This may well have something to do with the fact I fitted it the wrong way round (oops) I will have to get another one and keep it to hand. I also noticed what looked like small amounts of water comming from the head to block joint on the drivers side of the engine. It was very small and did not seem to get any worse. Lets hope it was just some of the grease I applied to the surfaces melting and running out. The rear exhaust port seems to have a small leak most likely down to the manifold face which was a little erroded. As I plan to fit my tubular manifold soon I am not that concerned with this problem. The tappet adjuster screw for No'4 valve has stripped it's thread in the lock nut so needs to be replaced. I have a new one and will change it when I re-torque the head and re-check the tappets.
Good news is the smoke has gone (for now) and is only evident if reved really hard. At idle there is only a faint whisp which could still be grease being burnt off. The oil pressure is good, about 60psi cold at idle and 40 plus hot idle picking up instantly to 60plus psi when reved. The temperature gauge seems to work accurately and I can now see that the thermostat is opening at just over 80 degrees.
Now all I have to do tomorrow is check for any leaks overnight. Sort out the coil bracket by slotting one of the mounting holes. Investigate the exhaust chirping noise. Refit the rear bumper (removed to test fit the tow bar I bought) and find a switch to replace the wiper switch that fell to peices when I was sorting out the wiring behind the dash. I must do all this when I get home from work and then drive the car about 6 miles for it's MOT test. Fingers crossed it will get there. Fingers crossed it will pass. Fingers crossed it will get me home again. Once I have finished unfolding my fingers I then have to finish doing up my trailer so it can be put up for sale.
Wish me luck.

Fancy a Brew

I got up this morning nice and early and sorted out the tools I needed to put the engine back together. I cleaned the head and block faces again to make sure there was no dust or dog hair on them and dropped the gasket and head onto the studs. Things were looking up and going to plan. The washers and nuts were put on and done up finger tight. Then I painted the head with the same paint I did the block in. After this was dry I fitted the heater valve and thermostat.
The work stopped when my wife screamed out the window, "MICHAEL HELP ME" . I downed tools and rushed in doors to find my wife in tears hitching her nighty up. Normally a hitched up nighty would be a good thing, except this time it turned out that the cat had bit her foot while she sat on the sofa drinking a fresh cup of tea (still have not found out why I was not offered one?) and the tea was promptly tipped into her lap scalding her rather badly. After washing my hands (well she would not like dirty fingerprints all over her nighty) I calmed her down and laid some cold flannels over the scaled areas. I'm sure the doctors and nurses among you will tell me this is the wrong thing to do but it seemed to work. She now has some very sore areas on her inner thigh and nether region. For some reason she wont let me put any photos of that on the blog?

Keep it clean.

So back to work and the exhaust manifold was next. This was the one from my friends engine that had the broken studs. As luck (good planning?) would have it I had already drilled out and re tapped the holes in the manifold. However, I had forgotten to sort out some new studs for it. Bugger! After more rummaging in the garage (it must have been my luck day) I found two studs, one was a but shady being both bent and the threads were a little damaged. But after wizzing a nut up and down it a few times the thread re formed and a couple of wacks with a hammer soon straightened it out. Maybe this is why the studs on the manifolds always seem to break?
New gasket applied and the manifolds were on. Next the heat shield and the carbs. They don't look quite so clean now as when I first refitted them but they should still be fine internally.

Got carried away. I forgot to mention the other frustating delay I had. I went to torque down the head but could not find my Torque wrench. I emptied out most of my garage, no luck. Emptied out my shed, no luck. Used the wifes car to drive round to my lock up in the next town and see if it is in there, no luck. Got back home and promptly found it inthe cupboard under the stairs. It's good being organised.
So as it stands the head is on and torqued down and the carbs are on but not tightened up.
I now need to secure the carbs connect the fuel lines and breathers. Put some fuel in the tank (I drained it down when I was low on fuel for my other car whaich has now been sold). Before I do that I realy need to take out the fuel sender as it is sticking as the gauge shows 1/2 a tank even with it empty. The gauge is fine, it shows empty when the wires are disconnected and full when they are connected so it has to be the sender. I may well leave this and must just remember to not rely on the gauge.
So tommorrow I should have it running and then be able to book it in for it's MOT. Lets hope it's OK and passes as I hope to use the car next weekend to travel to a car show come camping weekend. Fingers crossed.

Don't let you Boss Grind you down

This series of pictures shows the guide bosses after they have been ground down to improve gas flow. There was a huge amount of material removed and although the surface finish is a little rough it absolutly must improve the performance of the engine. In fact I hope to take the car for a rolling road tune up once I have changed the exhaust system (tubular manifold etc) and get a power curve printed/plotted to compare it with factory standard. Should be interesting and hopefully I will not have improved things in a negative way.
So here we go.
Bosses cylinder 1

Bosses cylinder 2

Bosses cylinder 3

Bosses cylinder 4

These close ups show the valve seats quite well. These pictures were taken before I did the final grinding to get rid of the sharp edges and burrs.

As for the latest progress. This weekend has been punctuated by a number of social events. It appears I have a social life afterall. And my wife does not understand the phrase "I need to work on the MG this weekend) but then maybe that's because her car is working fine and she does not have to ride my bike to work or ponce lifts off of people all the time (thanks Chris see you in the morning).

I have managed to re assemble the head with the valves and springs etc. This was straight forward other than not being blessed with anywhere suitable to work on the head. My garage is choca with the wifes Beetle Roadster (which she seems to have forgotten about) and my work bench and access to it are filled with all manner of spares for all my projects. So the floor in the lounge would have to do. I would have used the dinning table but I was being watched like a hawk. The hardest part apart from being uncomfortable was keeping the dogs far engough away so they did not malt on the head leaving hairs everywhere.

I then fitted all the studs back to the head. This turned in to a bit of an ordeal. Not because I had lost any of them but because a couple of them were damaged and needed replacing. I had forgotten this seeing as the head was stripped so long ago. After a lot of rooting about in the garage and shed I managed to find a couple of studs. So at last the head was done. Just need to throw it on.

Ahead of the rest

Wow. More progress to report on. I have got the head back from the reconditioners and to be fair they did do a reasonable job. I'm still not entirely sure if I would recommend them to others but the proof will be in the pudding, or at least the reliability of the head once the car is up and running again.
Here is a picture of the head with the valves dropped in straight from the machine shop.

You can't really see much but you get the idea. I also took some close ups of each chamber so here goes.
Chamber 1

Chamber 2
Chamber 3

Chamber 4

You should be able to make out the machining done to the valve seats and how close the seats for the two valves actually are. I had to re grind the chambers to get rid of some burrs and other sharp edges caused by the cutting of the seats. I had to be really careful not to accidently touch any area of the valve seat as it would have to be remachined. Much trembling but I managed it none the less.

Get on your bike you happy shopper.

Well that was a long wait. For anyone who is still watching this blog I do have some updates on progress of my MGB and other stuff. Here goes.
My overhaul of the top end of my MG ground to a halt following lack of funds and a financial disaster (the wifes payroll department f**ked up). I have managed to grind out the ports and reduce the obstruction caused by the valve guide bosses. I have also now installed the bulleted bronze valve guides. The holes closed up so the valves did not fit. As it was the weekend I decided to drop the head off to a local engine reconditioners for them to ream out the guides and also to machine the seats and valves to three angles. I could not find the extra cash to have them install hardened seats so that will have to wait. At least I should notice some improvement in performance. I did did not have the patience to pollish the ports fully and have settled for a smoothed out yet slightly rough finish. I am adament that this must be better than the factory rough cast finish. I should get the head back some time this week.
As an side. I sold my off road Vitara (due to the afformentioned financial issues) so am now without a car. MENTAL NOTE take better care of the MGB now it is my only car. So to get the head to the engine reconditioners I had to strap the head to the rack on the back of my wifes little shopper bicycle and ride there. It's only about 3 miles but riding a bike that is too small for me and with a huge weight directly above the back wheel and high up, it was entertaining to say the least. I got lots of odd looks when I got there as it took me about 5 minutes to undo all the string I used to tie it on with. "nice bike mate" yeh thanks.
I have heard differing stories regarding the workmanship of Benchsound (the recoditioners) but as it was local and I had no transport they were chosen. I discussed what I wanted done and a few excuses were made regarding how close the seats are to the chamber walls and how difficult it would be to do. I had taken Peter Burges's book with me and showed them the dimensions of the machining required and they told me it should be possible for them to do it. Confidence was not high but I have no choice but to trust them with the work. I will report back with what I think along with some photos in my next entry.
Time to make some excuses. I have been busy stripping the donor car for my wifes VW Beetle Wizard Roadster. The body is now all gone and I am left with a chassis with engine and gearbox attached. Before taking the engine off I needed some means of holding it and moving it about. Basically I needed my engine stand back from my mate with the MGB. I called him (thursday) and to my supprise was told he planned to swap the engines over on Saturday and he was going to call and ask for help. So although I had enough on my plate I offered to help as I needed my engine stand back.
I got to his house at around mid day and at least he had made good progress. All the cables and hoses were disconnected all but two engine to gearbox bolts were out and only one engine mount had to be undone. Unfortunatly the engine mount on the manifold side has a bolt that is very difficult to get a spanner on the head and the nut was siezed solid. Par for the course with old cars. After about an hour of struggling the nut finally sheared off and the engine was ready to be pulled. The crane he had borrowed was quite heavy duty and ideal for the job except that the two legs sat too high on their wheels to fit under the lower suspension arms. To get round this we had to jack the wheels off the ground a couple of inches. Not ideal but the only solution. A bit of pushing and pulling and the engine was free and the gearbox supported at the bellhousing.
With the two engines side by side a quick look over showed the replacement engine had two missing studs from the exhaust manifold and one sheared stud into the head holding the manifold on. My friend saw sense and did as I suggested and we removed the manifold from both engines so they could be swapped. Also we knew his old cabs were clean, in good condition and roughly tuned up. The only thing was that the manifold from the engine in the car also had two sheared off studs. I tried clamping the studs in his vice to unscrew them but they would not budge. They could be drilled and retapped but as we did not have the tools to hand I decided to pop home (had the wifes car so no need to cycle) and pick up the manifold from my car as it still has no head to bolt to. Once back on the job a few other bits were swapped. Plugs leads and ditributor were replaced (after we set the engine to TDC No1) The alloy rocker cover was also swapped over. After picking and choosing the best (most complete) carb gaskets to use (well to be fair he originally did not plan to touch them) the carbs and all other acilleries except alternator were refitted to the new (untested secondhand £40 ebay engine, suck air through teeth and repeat, "dodgy, very dodgy" until blue in the face).
The clutch was fitted along with the flywheel (removed to allow fitment to the engine stand) and it was ready to be hoisted up and dropped in. We had a little trouble getting the gearbox shaft engaged as we had no means of tilting the engine to get the right angle other than to hang on it this way and that until it slid in place. All the bolts were refitted and tightedned and all the cables and hoses were reconnected. The oil was checked and although up to the full mark it was black as you like. He had no new oil so it would have to be tested with what was in it. If it was me I would at least have drained the sump and removed it for the sake of a new pan gasket. Anyway, the coil was disconnected to allow us to spin the engine over to get some oil pressure. Connected the battery turned the key. Nothing. Plenty of power in the battery but nothing to the starter sollenoid. A quick check of the connections to the starter and the starter relay, and the realisation that there was no engine earth strap? the engine did turn over. There was a little noise from the starter as the gears engaged but nothing to be too worried about. The oil pressure gauge did not move. OOPS. Sod it lets connect the coil and see what we've got. Well lots of cranking but no fireing. I slackened the distributor and as my friend cranked the engine I turned the dizzy until, it fired. Luckily the oil pressure went straight up to a nice steady 55psi and there was no smoke or excessive engine noise. Infact it sounded really good. Jammy git!
We let the engine warm up and kept topping up the coolant. It settled down to a fast idle just over 1000rpm so I unscrewed the throttle stops to bring it just under the 1000 mark for now. The fan eventually kicked in and the engine promptly died. Possible loss of power to the coil/points. This may be related to the fact there is no earth strap. The engine restarted hot ok so it was shut off and the dizzy tightened back up. Tuning up can wait for another time. At least it works and works well. He is over the moon now and just needs to sort out a couple of electrical things ie lights etc so the car is ready for its MOT inspection. He took the car for a quick spin round the block and reported that it felt fine. So incredibly he has had a result and we don't need to refit his old engine.
We finally packed away at about 7pm. Not bad given the problems and delays encountered. Now I have my engine stand back I can do some more stripping of the beetle donor and finally dispose of the old chassis. At least that will clear out my lock up garage.
As for my MG well I can only really fit the dizzy and tighten the oil coller pipes until the head comes back.