My (US, LHD) 1970 MGB

[chadders]

They were noted for running on since new and you used to be able to get an anti running on valve.

Mine used to run on when fed anything but 5 star, even from 18 months old and despite who tuned it, but octane booster has fixed that problem.

[1970mgb]

The piston lift test tells me that the carbs are pretty darn close to dead on. I haven't look at the plugs in a little while-I'll give them a peek and see what color they are.

 

Granted it was a bit warmer yesterday than the last time I messed with the carbs, and a 20ºF swing in ambient temperature could theoretically reduce the air density enough to cause it to richen up-I know of folks who intentionally tune lean and then always run with the choke engaged a bit to bring the mixture back to correct, although I hear of that more in the mountains where the alternative is stopping halfway up to lean out the carbs, and then stopping again on the way down.

 

I've been threatening to install an A/F meter for a while, but I can't weld and haven't wanted to pull the exhaust pipe and take it in to have them weld on a bung.

 

Like was said, though, run-on is inherent in the design-if you look at my earlier photos of the inside of the cylinder head you see sharp points in the combustion chambers that tend to accumulate carbon and make the problem worse. A good port and polish job tends to get rid of or at least minimize these, although it has to be done with care to avoid adding too much combustion chamber volume.

 

I do know that higher-than-stock compression only makes things worse, and higher octane gas does seem to help it. My engine has not run-on in a while.

 

The ARO valve was added at least to US spec cars sometime in the mid-70s. It's basically just a solenoid valve that is closed when the ignition is in the "on" position and open all other times. The idea is that it introduces a big vacuum leak into the intake manifold to lean things out when you turn the key off. AFAIK, they're mostly reliable but they're also just another potential source for failure.

[PhilA]

Also, if you hit up a pump that has the octane option buttons, usually that's just 87 with their blend of octane boosters added at increasing volumes per gallon of 87 to bring the octane up to whatever's on the button.

 

Not sure if you even get the option up there, but down here we have a lot of people with boats, so there's a few stations that sell 100% gasoline with no ethanol or boosters in because the additives tend to turn to jelly in salty water/air.

 

Running that makes a marked difference to my Renault, over 93 from the same station. It doesn't spit, snap, hesitate or bog when it's not fed octane boosted 87.

 

Phil

[1970mgb]

I don't know for sure, but it's always been my understanding that stations around here usually have two tanks-one with 87 and one with 92/93. 89 blends from both tanks in proportion to get 89. I actually got a bad tank of 92(required pumping the tank and I was changing fuel filters on every fill-up for a while) from a nearby fairly low traffic station-I've been told that this is not super uncommon since the 92 tank gets a lot less traffic than the 87 tank.

 

I knew of one station that sold 87 octane E0. It was about $4 a gallon and they would only pump it into jugs since it didn't have road taxes paid on it. For $4/gallon, I'd much rather go to the airport and get 100LL, which I have done before. I know of a marina in Southern Indiana that sells 88 REC E0-I should visit it and see if I have to do jugs or if I can pump straight into the car, and also what they charge.

 

Now that I have hardened valve seats, I don't have a compelling reason to run leaded gas and like the fact that my oil and spark plugs stay a lot cleaner(further proof that the good old days weren't always so good-leaded gas craps up both of them pretty badly). Still, though, with 100LL and other AVGAS, you know that you're getting E0 and its storage life is generally MUCH better than motor gas.

[PhilA]

Just watch, because 100LL deposits are highly acidic and will chew up your exhaust.

 

It's damn good fuel though for older engines.

 

I've had accidental mouthfuls of both pump gas and avgas- that's a comparison like a fine moonshine to cheap Vodka.

Also noted that pump gas here smells vile- the same company (Exxon) fuel in Texas smells much more like gasoline, my truck ran a lot better on it also. There's a lot of regional variance. Do you have an annual tailpipe test in your county?

 

Phil

[1970mgb]

No, thank goodness. Kentucky does not do emissions or any sort of annual inspections on vehicles.

 

Because I bought the vehicle out of state, I had to pay the Sheriff $10 to do a "safety inspection" before I could title it. They checked the headlights, turn signals, tail lights, brake lights, wipers, and horn-all told it was a 5 minute job with them more or less telling me to turn things on and off so they could check them(thank goodness they don't check back-up lights, as mine still don't work despite replacing the switch).

 

That's the extent of it here, though.

[1970mgb]

Not much to report in this post other than "I drove the car and nothing happened", which is quite nice.

 

I got up this morning and, feeling ambitious, decided I would drive it to work. It was a bit of a dreary day, but warm this morning and no rain in the forecast, so I figured "what the heck."

 

I left at the end of the day and had to run across town for an errand. I got caught up in rush hour traffic, which was alternating 70mph and a stop-and-go.

 

I needed to go to my parents house this evening, and despite the temperature falling a decent amount and a few sprinkles, I decided to go ahead and drive the MG despite that, and fortunately things never went beyond occasional sprinkles. That's a nice 60 mile trip, and a good part of it was done at 70mph+.

 

It was nice drive, and like I said the car didn't miss a beat.

 

All told, I managed a bit over 80 miles on the car today, and I'll do another 70 or so on Monday(plus whatever running around I do while visiting my parents this weekend).

 

Also of note-I was checking my fill-up notes and apparently I've done just a bit over 1K since the head gasket replacement last summer. Composition head gaskets usually suggest a retorque after 3 heat cycles, which I did, but it might not be a bad idea to run through and check it after 1K. Retorquing the head, fortunately, is a 5 minute job and I think I've done it enough now that I have the sequence committed to memory

 

[1970mgb]

As a side note, maybe a nice "Italian Tune-Up" did it some good, as it didn't run-on when I got home and shut off...

[1970mgb]

The weather looks good this week, so my plan is to drive the wheels off of the car as much as possible.

 

Specifically, I'm planning on dailying it at least through the end of the week. I'm headed to my parents' again on Friday and for a variety of reasons it's not practical for me to drive it there this weekend, but I'll at least drive it every day up through Thursday barring something catastrophic.

 

I've racked up ~200 miles since last week, and may manage ~300 by the time the week is out.

 

One thing for sure-the more these cars are driven, the happier they are. Despite it being ~40ºF this morning, it even came to life with the choke and a little bit of cranking-I didn't need any ether to get it going.

 

I don't know when I'll actually get around to it, but I have an oil separator(front tappet chest cover) that I need to get repacked and then installed-I probably won't tackle that for a few weeks since I'm going out of town mid next week for a wedding and would prefer not to be there with grease under my fingernails, but will tackle it in a few weeks. DST combined with the ever-lengthening days give me a few more hours to to play with in the evenings.

 

In the mean time, I need to get my oil changed in my other car. I'm at a bit over 10K miles, which I normally do anyway, but I'd rather get it done before my ~500 mile trip to the wedding.

[1970mgb]

So, a bit to report with a bunch of stuff happening.

 

The last time I drove it to work, I noticed that it seemed down on power, I was fighting a low idle(~500rpms) and it sounded "off." I suspected that I was getting misfires on cylinders, and when I got home I did a quick check with a timing light. It wasn't sparking on cylinders 3 and 4, although the wires would spark against head studs.

Pulling the plugs showed that 3 and 4 were sooted up badly. I did a bit more digging and found the culprit-it seems that the sticky choke on the rear carb(which I thought I'd fixed a while back) had returned. I also found a few other issues-it seems as though the vac advance pipe had come into contact with the heater pipe that runs across the top of the valve cover and had melted through it enough that it was leaking, so I both had a non-functional vac advance and a vacuum leak. I need to order a replacement pipe from Moss, but for the time being I have it patched up by cutting back past the leak in the pipe and bridging it with a short piece of small-diameter Tygon.

Problems seemed to keep piling up, though. I replaced the plugs(at ~$1.50 each, it's not worth trying to clean them up), but things still weren't right. I started having issues with fuel delivery, and around the same time the battery decided it had had enough and left me stranded a couple of times.

I got distracted by the battery change, which took unecessarily long. Like most twin-6V cars in the US, someone long ago converted mine to use a single 12V Series 26 battery. The one in the car was a Wal-Mart special made in '08 per the sticker on top, which aligns with what the previous owner told me(he'd bought the car in 2010, and had never changed it). The Series 26 typically offers 500+ CCA, compared to ~300 for a typical 6V battery. Someone so inclined can still order 6V batteries from Moss(they come dry and have to be filled) but that's an expensive option for inferior performance and you also have the additional weak point of the cable joining the two together.

In any case, the old terminals decided to be stubborn in coming off the battery. I eventually got the positive off, but the negative just wouldn't budge. The positive also didn't look so hot after I pulled it. I ended up just unbolting the entire negative cable from the frame and replaced it with a 15" 2 gauge cable(I think the old was 4 gauge). That was an easy enough job. Also, I put a new positive terminal on the cable-I should redo the whole thing with a 2 gauge all the way up to the starter, but it was more work than I wanted to get into now and the old one is serviceable.

That got me running again, but I still had the fuel problem. I think I'd run the tank too low, and I started picking up sediment from the tank. I went about correcting it in a few ways(after filling the tank up). First of all, I used compressed air to blow out the line from the pump to the tank. That cleared that line, but I still had a bunch in the line from the pump to the carburetors. Of course a new filter was mandatory(the old one looked terrible) but I used my Mightyvac to just manually pump a bunch of fuel through the line. The first "cup" I pulled out looked roughly like the toilet the day after eating Mexican, Indian, and Thai all in one day, but a few more passes had nice, clear fuel flowing.

I was still running into occasion cut-outs at inopportune times, though. I finally tracked it to a kink in the rubber hose running from the tank to the pump. I ended up just replacing the hose, and also shortening it CONSIDERABLY. Since the rubber hose was fitted-presumably-when a Facet was installed, things are a bit put together back there with the SU pump although it's been okay for me for probably 10K miles. Moss sells a hose with a braided cover with a permanently attached banjo, and perhaps I should bit the bullet and buy one.

[1970mgb]

I decided last week that it was time to give the car a good bath, take it out for a nice ride, and possibly pose for a few photos

The weather cooperated nicely that particular evening. I should have dropped the top, as the temperature was perfect for top down driving. Unfortunately we seem to have had our week of springtime weather and have jumped straight into hot and muggy-that usually means that the top goes back up(to keep the sun out) and the rear window gets zipped out when driving. BTW, for anyone considering a replacement top-the zip out window is an option well worth the extra cost(it was about $100 USD more from Moss IIRC). With the car moving, it allows lots of air circulation without having the sun bear down directly on you.

Here are the photos. These were taken on Fuji Velvia 50, and using equipment SLIGHTLY newer than the car-a Nikon F2SB with a "76" SN(the first two digits of an F2's serial number roughly correspond to its production year). The first photo was taken with an AI-converted(factory) copy of the venerable "chrome nose" 105mm f/2.5. The second was taken with the somewhat polarizing, but loved by the late Galen Rowell, 20mm f/4. Both were taken using a a Nikon brand polarizer(mostly to cut reflections on the car)-one of the old style "oversized" ones. My lenses used primarily with film(which includes these, although they also see some time on digital) mostly wear Nikon L1BC filters, which are the Nikon equivalent of a Skylight filter-a very, very mild warming filter that was popular in the film days as a general purpose protection filter. I left them on here-the Nikon filters are thin enough that I don't worry about two filters vignetting even on the 20mm lens(the AI-S 18mm f/3.5 I no longer have was a different story-a 72mm filter thread was really too small for it, and it would vignette even with a single standard thickness filter-you really needed a Nikon or other thin mount if you wanted to use any filter at all).

 

 

 

[1970mgb]

So, I've been unhappy for a long time with the performance of the presumably original 16ACR alternator. There are charts floating around the internet that give its output at idle in the 20-22A range. This isn't an issue in the day with nothing but the ignition running(which draws ~2A) and maybe brake lights at ~3A and turn signals at 4A.

At night, though, things can really start adding up. The headlights add 9A on to that pile, which means that stopped at a signal waiting to turn, I'm at ~18A. The blower motor adds 3A still, and if it's raining the wipers draw 9A. That gets me to 30A, which means that at idle I'm pulling off the battery. This is noticeable in the fact that sometimes the turn signals won't flash, and the headlights get brighter when I rev the engine.

I originally planned to put in an 18ACR alternator, which gets me up to ~30A at idle, but someone clued me in to an alternative unit wound in an 18ACR type body that outputs 60A peak, or probably 40A at idle. For the price, I couldn't pass it up.

Installation is simple enough aside from a trip to the hardware store to fit the tensioner bracket.

The wiring caused a lot of fun, though. My car was originally fitted with a "5 wire" plug, while pretty much any new/reman unit you find is meant for a "3 wire" plug. The 5 wire plug is completely illogical with at least one totally pointless wire(both ends are connected to the same terminal). The "3 wire" is actually 2 wire-the big positive and the status light. I bought a 3 wire plug, but like a lot of electrical parts the quality was...not good. The terminals on it didn't want to wet with solder when I tried to splice it on, but the real death knell was that the wires in my car just aren't long enough to fit with the plug rotated the way it needs to go.

I ended up buying a pigtail connector on Amazon which should hopefully be here next week, and give me enough wire to work with. I'll probably double up the positive lead(run a second wire to the starter relay) to reflect the additional current available from the larger alternator.

[1970mgb]

Minor update:

Got the pigtail adapter from Amazon here the week before last. Installing it was a quick and easy affair-I ended up using crimped butt connectors to install it, which is probably not the BEST option but my little battery powered Hakko iron won't handle 10 gauge wire and I don't have power in the garage to plug in a more stout iron or-my preference-a 100W+ gun-to make the soldering job easier.

The pigtail has a second 10 gauge lead on it that is internally connected to the one I used. For a long time now, at John Twist's suggestion-I've been intended to put relays on the headlights and John suggested running a 10 gauge wire from the starter relay to the headlights. One possibility for this second 10 gauge lead is to just double it up and run two wires to that terminal on the starter relay, or the other option is I can use it as a second take off to power the headlights and horns. I'm actually leaning toward the second option unless there's a compelling reason to not. Of course, I'd fuse each relay(5 total-one for each high beam and low beam on each side, an additional one for the horns) separately so that I'd have some degree of protection if I did have a short to ground, but also wouldn't risk taking out all the headlights if-say-the horns shorted.

I'm enjoying having a "fresh" alternator on the car. My other one needed to hit ~2K engine RPMs for the ignition light to go out, while it now goes out at 1K. I've put around 150 miles on the car with the new alternator, and haven't had a single instance of the headlights dimming or the turn signals failing to flash, and that's with me intentionally running as much as possible.

[1970mgb]

I suppose uneventful is good. I'm really liking the new alternator, and suspect now that my old one may have been less than optimum even though it always tested fine. Aside from the thing like dimming headlights at idle(and failure of the blinkers to blink), I use to have to rev it to ~2K rpms for the ignition light to go out(it would stay on unless the idle dropped really low-maybe 400rpms). With the new alternator, the light goes out at ~1K(engine) rpms. The pulley size is the same, so it's not a matter of the alternator spinning faster.

We've had the rare combination of great weather here(highs in the high 70ºF range) along with low humidity and the car is actually running really well now. I need to get the idle down a bit(currently at ~1200) but it's not obnoxious so I'm leaving it be. I've dropped the top and been for drives of varying lengths(usually 30-50 miles) every evening this week, including cruising around for a while on Tuesday night while my girlfriend was in town.

As a side note, while we were out at dinner someone left this on my windshield...I have to admit that this is good advertising .

 

 

[1970mgb]

I suppose there comes a time in the life of every British car owner where a tow will be required...and after nearly 4 years of ownership, that day came for me last Thursday. Unfortunately, it was pretty much entirely of my own doing also.

I was working on the oil mist separator a few weeks ago, which of course necessitated pulling the intake manifold(I did manage to avoid pulling the exhaust, although not that it would have made much of a difference if I'd needed to). I've quit using those waxy SU-branded carb gaskets that melt on the first heat cycle since they're a pain to get off, but still had a couple stuck to the heatshield so I had the carb cleaner out to get them loose.

I got everything buttoned back up, and a nice little ~30 mile drive showed that everything was in good shape. Consequently, I put the air cleaners back on, but apparently forgot that I'd left the carb cleaner laying down in the engine compartment.

Fast forward to last Thursday. It was a nice evening and I had a few errands to run, so I decided that I'd take the MG. All was going well until I found myself on a 2-lane road with no shoulders and no good places to pull off-I started hearing a sound that sounded a lot like something dragging the ground. It was probably a quarter of a mile before I could pull off, which incidentally was my destination anyway. About the time I stopped the car, I heard a pop, steam started pouring out from under the hood, and the engine died.

Popping the hood showed me what had happened. Apparently, the aforementioned can of carburetor cleaner had gotten pulled into the engine fan. When that happened, it bent one of the blades in such a way that it sawed a nice, circular gouge in the radiator. The "pop" I heard was most likely when it finally let go-there was still a small stream of coolant flowing out of the radiator when I did pop the hood.

Even though a broken radiator is bad and meant I couldn't drive the car home, at least it didn't render it completely immobile. I drove the car to the nice, spacious visitor parking lot of the retirement home I was visiting, called a tow truck, and went in to visit the aunt I had come to see while I waited for the truck to get there.

The tow company did send their "classic car" guy out, who tied it down with webbing around the wheels rather than going over the axles with metal hooks/chains/fasteners. Once back home, I drove it off the truck and into its parking spot, awaiting repair.

My parts guy is waiting on radiators from England, which should be in by the end of the month. In the mean time, I can pull the old one and do a general clean up. Of course, since the fan is a bit mangled, I'm putting a 7 bladed nylon one on in its place. If I weren't short on cash both from buying the Marina and the O/D(that I need to go pick up) I'd use this as a chance to fit electric cooling fans. It's not happening now, though. I also checked into having the old radiator recored, but I'm at 2-3x the cost of a new one to do that.

The good news, though, is that in all of that, the radiator and fan sacrificed themselves so that a $1.50 can of carburetor cleaner came out completely unscathed. I do have that to be thankful for.

Also, I hate draining the coolant from the car, and at least I don't have to worry about doing that!

 

 

[1970mgb]

I realized I'd never updated on this.

The replacement radiator FINALLY arrived, and I got it installed with a bit of finagling. It didn't want to line up exactly, but I managed to get everything in place and happy. Also, the new hoses were a bit stiff and uncooperative, but I'd rather deal with them at home than on the side of the road.

I thought I had everything buttoned up, so I filled it up with coolant and started it up(I was working on this last part while I was waiting on the transport truck to get here with the Marina). I spent some time going around, squeezing hoses, and "burping" things to get all the air out, which there again is not something that's foreign to me.

Somewhere or another along the way, though, I noticed a drip that turned into a nice stream at the bottom radiator hose. After messing with it, I could only figure that the hose clamp had stripped.

Fortunately, I was able to wrestle the old off and a new one on, and it's now sealed up tightly. I only managed to waste a gallon or so of 50/50 in all of that-when I discovered the problem, I was kind of tied to home since I was afraid they'd show up any time with the Marina and I didn't want to get caught a few miles away at the hardware store.

All is well now. In fact, I've been more or less dailying it since Monday evening, and have put probably ~150 miles on it. It hasn't missed a beat!

[1970mgb]

Nothing too much to report on the car itself-it's running fine but temperatures have taken a turn for the colder so I haven't been driving it as much.

I did make a significant purchase, though. The engine is okay but is tired, so I've been wanting to do a rebuild to my satisfaction. I didn't want to yank the original and do that, though, as this one will be done as time and budget permit, so I figured I'd buy a rebuildable short block. A quick call turned up an 18GF out of a parts '67 GT.

I went to pick it up yesterday-it was about a 3 hour trip, but I had some things to take care of a further ~2 hours past there so I'm making a bit of a round trip "circuit."

I had also arranged for the purchase of an O/D from this same seller. It's a blue label I'm told out of a 1980, but is a good serviceable transmission. I'm going to take it up to the overdrive master up in Pennsylvania for a full rebuild as well as an internal conversion to a 3/4 overdrive(late blue labels are usually 4-only). It will go in the car at the same time as the rebuilt engine.

It was a bit of an adventure to get everything loaded in the back of my car, but it did all fit. I ended up snagging the head along with it, which will go out for a complete work-over. The guy I'm going to use for that likes using non=smog heads, and the 12H906 that I have is his favorite.

I don't have a great photo of it all in there, but here's the engine being dropped in. I guess that for now I can claim to have a 10 cylinder Lincoln

 

[1970mgb]

I started tearing down the engine today.

The first step was unloading it at work, where easy access to a hoist made the unload job easier. I'll strip it down to the bare block, which tips the scale at a bit over 100lbs but is a lot more manageable than the full short block.

Getting it out of my trunk and onto the loading dock, then down the elevator, took a bit of creative use of hoist. Fortunately I had the help of a coworker. We ended up using a fairly with the front wheels over the edge of the dock to get it out, then brought it up and set it down on the dock while we positioned the hoist a bit more stably, shortened the chain length, and moved the arm from the 1/2 ton to the 2 ton position to have more overhead clearance in the freight elevator. Once up on the dock and maneuvered into the elevator, the block went back down onto the floor so that the legs could be folded up to lower the elevator. Once down, we were able to drop the legs again then haul it back up high enough to place it on a flatbed cart, where it will stay through the tear-down.

So far, aside from the basics that I don't really even consider "tearing down" like removing the tappet covers and tappets, I've only pulled one piston out. I didn't have my socket for the crank nut with me(1 5/16) so I'll have to tackle that one later. I did realize that I probably need to leave a couple of other pistons in to help getting that nut loose.

The good news is that the block is fairly unmolested and I don't think has ever been apart before. The bearings on the one piston I removed look very good, and the piston pushed out the top with only a minimal amount of persuasion.

Also, tabbed washers are the work of the devil.

 

[PhilA]

15 hours ago, 1970mgb said:

Also, tabbed washers are the work of the devil.

I have to disagree on this one- the locktabs on my gearbox were the only thing preventing the fluid coupling attempting to eat the engine.

I like them. Simple yet effective.

 

--Phil

[somewhatfoolish]

As long as they aren't re-used; THAT really is the work of the devil and will likely as not fill your sump with shrapnel!

[PhilA]

They're OK if you anneal the metal to remove the stresses from being bent. To a degree.

 

--Phil

[1970mgb]

Well, I got impatient on the overdrive and decided to drop it off with my trusted mechanic for an install.

He drove it before tearing into it and said something felt "off" about it. He did some basic diagnostics(compression, leak down) then pulled the engine and started tearing into it. I stopped by a few weeks ago and he said "I'm glad you're here because I was dreading calling you. Let's walk over and have a chat."

Short answer is that the problem starts here...

 

And keeps going on deeper into the engine.

Short answer is that once the machine shops get back up, we're looking at a complete rebuild. Parts availability now means that I'm probably going to end up doing it 30 or 40 over-it would probably clean up at 20, but those pistons are out of stock.

I also have a fresh ported and polished head on the way, along with some 18V straight-cut rods(which are lighter than the old angle cut rods). All done, it's going to be what I wanted all along-9.5:1 C/R with a P&P head and a D9 cam. I just hadn't planned on it NOW, though.

 

[LightBulbFun]

like for the still getting what you want part

not for the "its fucking fucked m8" parts!

its amazing how its such a small crack, almost looks like its just a scratch or something, im curious how deep does it go into the casting?

[1970mgb]

I started digging into the head today.

First of all, the fancy valve spring compressor I bought was utterly useless. What did work well was a trick a friend relayed to me-use one socket to support the valve from the bottom, put another on the cap, and smack the top one with a BFH. Sure enough, a smack or two and the retainers popped right out.

Unfortunately, what I found didn't make me any happier. Aside, again, from the really deep seats,  my "big valve" head seems to have its "big valves" either been measured by a fisherman or a guy on Tinder.

I should have really pushed back when I saw things not right on this head 3 years ago.

 

[1970mgb]

The block is supposed to go out for machining tomorrow, so we'll see what happens.

 

Also, my replacement head, coming from Pennsylvania, went out yesterday. The guy who did it is also putting a set of 18V straight-cut rods in the box, which are ~250g each lighter than the heavy(~950g) angle cut rods. That saves about a 2lbs of rotating mass, which is significant in an engine this size. I have an angle cut rod and piston in my office at work, and people who know engines often ask just WHAT it's out of-the 18GB-18GK angle cut rods are heavier than a small block Chevy.

 

In other news, every time I stop by the shop working on it, we have another "you've got to see this" discussion. Today they showed me the #2 rod bearings down to copper. There was also a noticeable copper streak on the #3 main. The guy doing most of the work told me that when he pulled the cap off the #3 rod, the piston just fell out. Also, the ring gap on 2 and 3 was over 30 thou, which is about double the spec gap for these engines. 

 

Assuming 40 over will clean it up, I think that's the overbore size we'll go with. I've been told that very rarely will one of these blocks not  clean up with 20 over, but 20 over pistons are out of stock at all the suppliers now. I have explicit instructions with them not to cut before I check piston availability, and of course will have them bore to a size with a piston that I can get easily.

There's some light scoring on the crank, but my mechanic thought it would likely clean up with 10 thou cut. We'll see. Fortunately, bearings up to 30 over are readily available. If nothing else, I have the hook-up with basically the entire stock of NOS Vandervell bearings

[PhilA]

Sounds like it was run hard. "Never raced or rallied"?

[1970mgb]

This is almost too pretty to put on the car...

 

[1970mgb]

Finally on the other side of a full rebuild, which is deserving of a full write-up that hopefully will be forthcoming, and now I'm tidying up a few other odds and ends. The projects of this past week have been some brake work(replacing faulty pressure differential warning actuator, redo of rear brakes) and tracking down why my speedometer wasn't working. The latter is the result of a chewed up driven gear in the transmission, and fortunately Moss stocks the red driven gear for the blue-label overdrive.

This exciting little envelope arrived in the mail today, though, and I'm quite happy about it. If you're an MG owner in the US, all of this stuff is HUGELY significant. Funny enough, too, I actually called John with a question on Tuesday while I was on my back under the car(how do I get the stupid driven gear out?) and he said "Oh yeah, I mailed something to you today." This was a nice treat.

 

[Mrs6C]

Welcome back!

[chadders]

I'm envious.

Mines been stuck in a garage about 100 yards away for just under a year now due to Covid. It doesn't need much doing but they are still snowed under repairing people's dailies and that, of course, takes priority over my toy.

Mildly annoying but that's life at the moment, it could be far worse.