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.