John buttons up an MGA

John can be seen here making adjustments to an MGA 1600 MK II with a long history with one Connecticut family.  When we first encountered it, the engine and TX were occupying the space normally taken up by the seats !   We rectified that early on, and after we sent it out for paint, we also completely reupholstered the car.  It was missing a few parts such as the pedal box, instruments, and dashboard that were attached to the car when it first went out to a New York Metro Area restoration shop, but that just meant we were able to reduce our surplus MGA used parts population.

Butch straightens a Healey throttle pedal

We’re also in the buttoning-up phase with an Austin Healey 3000 Mk II which hails from New Jersey, by way of Dusseldorf, Germany, where it was sold new, according to the British Motor Heritage Trace Certificate.  Externally, it’s a little unusual in that it has the separate turn signal lights which didn’t show up here until the introduction of the phase 2 Austin Healey 3000 MkIII in late 1965 or early ’66.

We initially thought it’s performance was a bit anemic, but Butch traced this to a significantly bent accelerator pedal shaft which only allowed about half throttle when fully open.

When you mat it, mat it carefully.

Traveling Wilbury

We’ve got the aftermath of the Elva engine’s catastrophic  failure cleaned up.  I hadn’t paid much attention to the rest of the engine, so I missed something that’s obvious in this picture: A piece of metal which had managed to travel from the blow up in #1 cylinder all the way down to #4 cylinder where it has the intake valve wedged open.  The presumption is that its path was thru the balance pipe in the intake manifold.

Win Some, Lose Some: We labored mightily on the big Jag, but the owner  pronounced himself dissatisfied.

Butch & John wash up the Mk9 before delivery. The owner was still unhappy

Shattered piston in #1 cylinder

Regrettably, the green liquid bubbling out of the Elva’s engine dipstick tube last week wasn’t Duckham’s QXR 20W50, it was coolant.

When we pulled the cylinder head,  #1 piston was well and truly shattered.  Also, a tinkling sound could be heard from below as we flipped the engine upside down because the oil pan was full of debris.

Blown out #1 cylinder wall

Click to enlarge this picture.  There’s a new high volume coolant drain-back hole just behind the water pump outlet at the front of the block.  Less obvious is the cylinder liner sleeve which you can just discern  because it’s started to pull out of the bore.  You can see it as a curved line across  the 15 degree exhaust valve relief at the very top of the cylinder.  Less obvious, but very much there, is a crack across the right side of the bore, and below it is another, much smaller, irregularly shaped hole.

Judging by the engine bearings, which were almost brand new, there wasn’t a great deal of time on this engine.

Eat what you kill: Mike Drew helps tear down his engine

Patrick believes the cylinder liner calved, but in my mind the chain of events began with an on-going failure of the cheezy aluminum valve spring retainers which allowed the #1 exhaust valve to float long enough to collide with the on-rushing piston, bending the con-rod and putting the wrist pin thru the cylinder wall.  Under my scenario, the cylinder liner succumbed to thermal shock.  Whether it was a primary or secondary cause, the head of the valve, barely recognizable, ended up in the oil pan.

Click for Debris field

As Oliver Hardy once said, “This is another fine mess you’ve gotten us into”.  There’s a mound of shrapnel in the bottom of the oil pan, and the mostly unrecognizable remains of #1 exhaust valve are sitting on top of #1 spark plug, but I put it there after I fished it out of the pan.   The rod bearings are still shiny, so are the skirts of the pistons.

Some other points of interest are the pistons themselves which have an additional oil control ring around the skirt.  This, to be polite about it, is an anachronism.  As most readers of these missives are well aware, the ‘Brits had horrible problems with oil control, and an MG TD or early Jag XKE which only used a quart of oil every 500 miles was an exemplery performer.

Patrick deaccessions the Elva engine

In consequence, one common fix was the “split skirt” piston which could be clearanced tighter in the bore, the hot piston skirt expanding into the slit.  An additional oil ring was another fix.  None of it was worth Jack’s Shirt, it was all a result of poor cylinder wall finish, which the lowest man on our  totem pole fixes with a Flex-Hone tool these days.

On the few occasions when we have to use these Neanderthal design pistons we throw the bottom oil ring away because we don’t need the increased friction, or the possible cylinder wall oil starvation, and that might in fact be the key to the puzzle.

We’re gonna try to talk Mike into a 5-main MGB bottom end with a large overbore and a cross-flow aluminum head, properly balanced, which this one wasn’t.  So, we shall see what we shall see.

Mike Drew was headed back up the grade toward Rutland on Rte. 103 over the weekend when, as he described it, “something went bang” and the Elva lost power.  We hauled it back down Monday morning .  The coolant was low and the engine oil was gray.  I poured two gallons of water in the radiator and on a whim I pulled out the dipstick again.  The results can be seen on this short video.

We don’t know what went bang, but we know it went bang in a big way.  Details next week.

An MGA engine comes out

There is a famous stretch of U.S. Interstate 5  between Los Angeles and Bakersfield, California  loosely known as the Grape Vine with its infamous “Five Mile Grade” where many, many motorists have come to grief boiling away their engines.  One successful strategy for going up it is to turn off your air conditioner and roll down your windows.  Another is to do it at night.  I did it a couple of times in my E-type with the A/C off and the top down.

A rebuilt transmission goes back in

Wednesday was hot & sunny so I took the white MGA, momentarily glimpsed in the video clip, down to Post Office in Westminster in order to thrash it back up our own ‘five mile grade’ to Westminster West.  In a much smaller way it’s an excellent proving ground for cooling systems.

It rated a ‘pass':  Good steering, brakes & suspension.  The temperature never got past 185, an excellent reading on an MGA which doesn’t have an oil cooler.

Big Jaguar Mk9 on the Grapevine

Even an MGA with a good cooling system will get pretty warm on a hot day if you keep your right foot in it long enough, but that tendency can be completely overcome by the addition of an oil cooler.  MGA 1600 MkII’s had ’em.  Consult us if you’re thinking about installing one in your earlier car.

Tuesday afternoon I put the big Jaguar Mk IX sedan thru the same paces.  We had it’s radiator reconditioned with a serpentine core which imparts about 30% more surface area for cooling .  You can see the results above at the left.  The whirly-thing in the lower right corner just above the blue wire is our speedometer cable counter.  We used it to calculate the correction factor to recalibrate the speedometer for the  3.54 LSD rear end we recently installed.  The speedo & tach are out at Nisonger Instrument now.

The Elva marks its territory

There are five different variations of the 3-synchro transmission for MGA’s & early MGB’s (plus two overdrive configurations).  After a while they all suffer from weak to non-existant 2nd gear synchromesh and moderate to extreme wear on the 1st/reverse end of the countershaft and needle roller bearing assembly.

Since we seemed to be doing one every other week at one point, my solution to the problem was to have Patrick build up all five gearboxes so that the entire job, with clutch work,  was an overnight affair.

Somewhat ironically, the British Motor Corporation completely solved the problem for the 1967 model year with a sixth variant which had a larger countershaft supported on four (instead of three) needle bearing clusters, and an improved 2nd gear and properly heat treated 2nd gear steel baulk ring.  The irony, of course, is that in 1968 BMC went with the absolutely bullet-proof  four synchro transmission designed to take the torque load of the six cylinder MGC.

In order to make the numbers work, that TX was also used in all subsequent MGB’s, all that redesign work on the old tranny going for naught.  And that is how the British Motor Industry ultimately lost the war…

Groom your pasture

While we wear out a couple of brooms a year sweeping up in the shop, most of our outside maintenance is performed with a lawnmower.  Every so often we do a major clean up, and this is a picture of Patrick scraping the corner of the lower hayfield which was used as a feedlot late last fall, on the north side of the shop.

Jesse, in the foreground, is backing away from the operation, a complicated manuever because he’s a three-wheeler.

Butch installs trunk upholstery

With the rest of his extensive punch-list completed, pending final testing and re-inspection, Butch turned his attention to installing the trunk upholstery in this big Jaguar sedan.

Sometimes this is referred to as ‘retrimming”, an entirely appropriate description in this instance because all of the panelwork was about 3/8″ too big.  We know the cause of the problem.  When the fabricator traced the panelboard from his master pattern, he

This little MG got an O/D

then cut to the outside of his line instead of the inside.  As a result Butch had to peel all of the panelwork and recut & re-glue it.  When the major catalogue parts vendor used to advertise “You  Are The Craftsman”, this is why.

Also this week an MGB got an overdrive conversion so the owner can use it to commute to work on the Interstate.  We had a used one lying around that looked O.K. and everbody got lucky.

MGA master cylinder resleeved in brass

As previously mentioned in these notes, all  original MGA master cylinders still in use have some pretty severe pits in the bottom of the bores where moisture has settled over the years.  We’re even starting to see that now with the TRW replacement cylinders like the one we keep in stock for customers who absolutely must have new parts.

Our preferred solution, however, is an original casting with brass sleeves installed because the brass sleeves will never, ever pit again. Not that it’s an excuse to skip the periodic maintenance, which is

MGA on test

changing the brake & clutch fluid (same thing) every other year.  To repeat ad nauseum: Brake fluid is hygroscopic, it absorbs moisture, and that moisture corrodes hydraulic cylinders internally.  Just as you change your oil to remove the contaminants which are the by-product of combustion, you also need to change brake fluid that has trapped the moisture which is the enemy of your brake system.  Got it ?

Our road test revealed good power, low oil pressure and no speedo or fuel gauge, so it was back to the shop for a few adjustments.