The MGA With An Attitude

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MGA Guru Is GOING MOBILE - (November 1 - November 15, 2023)

Wednesday, November 1, 2023:
Still in Pennsylvania this morning (barely), it's called Lower Oxford. Just made another appointment in northwest New Jersey in a day or two (not today).
This evening we are tiptoeing across the state line into North East, Maryland to visit Ted and JoAnn Dawson. Been here before, five years ago to the day when Ted had first procured his MGA. But we have a slightly different mission this time.
Nice old farm house, now used as a Bed and Breakfast. This is a farmstead still supporting horses and dairy cattle. A bit chilly this evening (not quite freezing). Say hello to Ted, strolling back from the barn to meet us. Tonight we will stay over and have a nice chat.
Not long ago JoAnn had written a screen play and produced a movie Cream of the Crop with the 1962 MGA-1600-MKII prominently featured. We had time to watch the movie. Pretty good movie shot right here in their home county, about problems of modern farm life and encroaching business development, bit of fun, bit of action, bit of romance, bit of drama, rated PG for the family, maybe a surprise ending, what's not to like? If you have a couple hours to spare, maybe check it out.

Cream of the Crop is dramatic, action-packed, humorous, and uplifting. Jodi Stafford, is a high school Ag Science teacher in a desperate struggle to save her ailing family farm from developers. Mike Jared is a driven real estate marketing specialist. When the two meet, Mike becomes deeply involved in Jodi's world and must ultimately decide between his love for her and his career with the real estate company determined to develop her family's land. His decision comes as a shock to everyone.

Streaming on Amazon Prime, Apple TV, Google Play, Christian Cinema, Hoopla, and Vudu!
You can watch the official trailer and some fun behind-the-scenes footage (password: dbm) of Ben Davies learning to drive the MGA.
DVDs are available at joanndawson.com and the DBM Film Store.
Yes this is a blatant commercial announcement, but it is an MGA.

Thursday, November 2, 2023:
Today we get to play with that MGA 1600-MK-II a bit. It is a daily driver, and they did fix the seats before filming the movie, but it could use a little tune-up work now.

There was a big table full of new and used parts (mostly used) that came with the car several years ago. We sorted through it, tossed out some junk, kept some of the good stuff.

A well driven car, some what dusty, a little slow to start on cool mornings. Start with adjusting the choke linkage to give full choke range and a little finesse for fast idle setting. A minor tweak for fuel mixture and slow idle adjustment. Seemed to need ignition timing adjustment, but the distributor base clamp was seized up, a victim of over-tightening in a past life.

The clamp was distorted beyond economical repair, so we pulled a new one out of the Magic Trailer, along with a few inches of small bore hose to connect the vacuum advance unit. After a nice jam session on tune-up tech, it was running well, so time for a good run on some neat county roads. Sweet.

By mid afternoon we bade farewell to the Dawsons and headed generally northeast. Rush hour traffic around Philadelphia was not much fun, but a couple hours later we arrived for a visit with Steve McMahon in Lambertville, New Jersey. Another quiet setting in the hills a few miles out of town.

We were here to check out Steve's MGA 1600 with a 1622-MK-II engine (1622cc high compression). He procured it as a project car, disassembled basket case. A pro shop did body work and paint while Steve was doing much of the mechanical work on the chassis. A couple years on this turned out to be a very nice restoration.

Steve was worried about a slight fuel leak and rough idle. After introductions it was getting late, time for dinner, so we would have another look at this one tomorrow.


Friday, November 3, 2023:
Someone from northern Illinois called looking for Chicagoland MG Club, wanting to sell an MGA. While chatting another call came from Nancy Fodor in McHenry, Illinois, happy that someone was wanting to buy her MGA, the one I was working on in late July to get it running and tuned up. Then I got a follow-up call from the potential buyer, wanting to verify the information before buying the car. Looks like that car is now finding a new home.

Posting a couple new tech accessories pages for period correct radios for MGA, Philips Tube type and Philips Transistor type.

Evening after work hours it was time to get serious with Steve's MGA 1600/1622. Steve was trying to install a new right angle speed reducer for the speedometer cable drive on the upgrade Ford T9 5-speed gearbox. The prior right angle unit was broken, probably from bump interference inside the transmission tunnel. This is a well known issue with the units made with machined rectangular housing with sharp corners, needing to have one corner ground off to provide some clearance in the tunnel.

Meanwhile the Magic Trailer coughed up a large P-clip and rubber grommet liner to secure the speedometer cable to top of the tunnel behind the engine. Then on to some tune-up to fix the rough idle. First install a tiny Tinnerman type push washer to secure top end of the wire link for the fast idle cam. Then some adjustment of the choke cable to give the choke arms and fuel jets and fast idle link the appropriate synchronized motions. The cable stop is a key part here, and my last one was just used, so need to reorder another one (or two).

The rear carburetor was running rather rich, which was likely contributing to the rough idle and run-on after switch off. With the carbs properly adjusted it was still running a little rough, so go after spark timing. I actually ended up advancing the timing a bit to get best running. I was a little concerned that might aggravate the run-on issue, but it didn't. After a nice test drive, switch off stopped the engine immediately with no run-on. Surprise! Start it up and switch off again, a few more times, and sure enough no run on at all. I recon these cars can behave themselves if they are tuned properly.

Saturday, November 4, 2023:
Since we finished all that work on Steve's car last night, this was looking like a day off (so to speak).
Posted a new Hydraulics tech page for discovery of an extra tall cover that might fit the MGA master cylinder, except it may not fit under the body cowling. Just something to watch out for if you ever happen to see one. -- Also updated a Carburetors tech page to add a picture and drill size for attaching the throttle arm to the throttle shaft. -- Then spent much of the day catching up photos and notes for the past few days. Now we can do a little more forward planning.

Sunday, November 5, 2023:
Travel day heading south from Pennington, NJ to Abingdon, MD and White Marsh, MD. Making nibbles on future visit contacts as we go. Stopped just north of Washington, DC anticipating an appointment near Fairfax, VA tomorrow.

Monday, November 6, 2023:
Our friend in Fairfax, VA begged off, having sold his MGA. But he did refer us to another friend who was supposed to have an MGA 1500 "Deluxe". Since there was never any such car from the factory, this one must be one-of-a-kind modified. Curiosity got the best of me, so an email and a phone call later we were visiting a working warehouse in Springfield, VA. Say hello to Ed Chan as we begin to crawl around the toys of two friends sharing the space here.

We think we're going in the right direction. The "other guy" seems to like Lotus cars, which we chat about for a bit but otherwise tend to ignore (for now).

Ah,there's the little beast, hiding behind an Austin Healey rear body cowling and a hardtop and under some more parts. Lots of dust, so this one has been here for a long time.

MGB 18GF 5-main bearing engine with heater and vacuum advance still in place. That seemed a little odd, and this one hints of a past racing life with roll-bar attachment points behind the seats.

No carburetors, but not to matter much, as there is another MGB engine. Story behind that one is he bought the MGB care (cheap I suppose) just to get the modern Roots screw type supercharger (a Moss Motors creation). There is the MGA Twin Cam type dual master cylinder assembly, which required a little panel cutting and a few more bolt holes in the goal post for installation.

Original MGA front shock absorbers are still there, as those parts were same for all MGA, including the Twin Cam. Then looking at the "meat" of the "Deluxe" conversion.

All four corners are sporting the Dunlop disc brakes and pin-drive knock-off steel wheels. The whole rear axle would have been changed to do that, while the front end parts are easier bolt-on at the suspension trunnions. Also relocate the brake hose anchor brackets and change the parking brake cable. Today we would consider this very expensive, maybe even a sacrosanct waste of good Twin Cam parts. But who knows, back in the day when Twin Cams had engine teething problems and were frowned upon in public as T/C production was being stopped. The brake pipes were not connected, so this conversion was never finished, but Ed does intend to finish it some day, along with the supercharged engine. We just wanted you to see this to know that it is real, and could actually be done, when some racing enthusiast wanted the Competition Suspension option (commonly known as All Round Disc Brakes) on his MGA 1500.

On the way out we got our second referral of the day, with a phone call and new directions. We high-tailed it down the expressway, and hour and a half later found out next destination. The last instruction was "Turn left on Four Wheel Drive", and it wasn't kidding. One look at the first rise and turn, grab 1st gear and stand on the throttle. Spinning tires, throwing gravel, but don't let up. Half way up, lots of wheel spin,losing ground speed. Three quarts up when the grade got even steeper, and it bogged down to kill the engine. Dang that's a steep grade, especially pulling the 600 pound trailer. Lucky the brakes work well and the hand brake at least marginally. Rev the crap out of it and slip the clutch to prevent bogging the engine down, and it finally crept up the last bit with minimal wheel spin. For sure we just lost two months were on the clutch disc in one minute.

But we made it! Say hello to Jeff Stoddard in (very rural) Front Royal, Virginia. He is obviously a strong MGB enthusiast (having dozens of them).

But there are a few Midgets and at least a couple MGA in the mix. No need to guess, that's a TR7 under the cover. We never know if the half-cars are being disassembled or reassembled.

This one is a Gilbern GT 1800, 2+2 coupe, made in Wales 1959-1967. First available only as kits, but later completely assembled. Tube frame chassis and fiberglass body. Early cars had either 948 cc BMC A-Series engine with an optional Shorrock supercharger or Coventry Climax 1098 cc engines, front suspension from an Austin A35. Later versions would be 1500, 1600, or 1800 B-series engines from MGA and MGB production, and coil-sprung BMC rear axle. 280 made in 8 years, maybe only half a dozen left here in the States.

Now you can play "What's Under Here?". BGT and Jeep CJ3 (yes 3, not 5).

Another BGT with a big V8 and dual pipes, and Studebaker Lark. As we climb farther up the hill there are a few of these steel "Butler" buildings sitting on terraces cut into the mountain.

More B's,and a TR7 (or TR8)

The VW bus was in exchange for an unpaid service bill. Finally there's an MGA hiding behind engine and stuff.

What can you do with all these parts in the play pen? Hey, sway bars.

Another Midget. Wait, there's an MG TC hiding under there. Enough seats to go around.

Steel building #3 (I think), and one more being built on the next terrace up. More cars sitting outside, just had to delete some of the pictures, too many to post.

Getting back down Four Wheel Drive was a lot easier than getting up, as long as the brake work and we don't skid too much in the loose gravel.

Good time to step out and take a few pictures we couldn't get on the way up.

Off to a truck stop half an hour farther west to process pictures for the day. Have to work on the notes tomorrow.

Tuesday, November 7, 2023:
At a rest stop this morning we were joined momentarily by a split window Micro Bus. The owner has similarly been traveling all about the country, good stories, but we had to run. -- An hour later we were sitting in Fairfield, VA, spending much of the day processing photos and notes from yesterday (much above). We have been noticing a car engine problem for the past few days, progressing from very little oil consumption to significant oil consumption. Now also fouling a spark plug and smoking on cold start, or after prolonged idling. It still runs okay on the road, and we have places to go.
Getting dark early these days, at 5:20-pm we still had a good run ahead of us, so fuel up and get it rolling. 2-hr 20-min later we rolled into Princeton, West Virginia to visit Micheal Crews. He has an apartment space available in his warehouse where we can stay as long as needed while we check out the car engine. So we go there to get settled. But first a little tour of the facility, which turns out to be Michael's private toy shop, and of course we have to take a tour. Say hello to Micheal Crews and a nice Daimler 2.5 V8 (or V8-250) sedan, 1962-1968, and right next to it the East German Trabant. Talk about contrast.

Michael does a nice job of restoring carburetors, quite a few of these in process. And he has a bunch of collector cars, lots of different brands, some of which I may have a tough time naming. This one is a Ginetta G4 series IV, 1981-1984, 1599cc Ford 4-cylinder engine, only 35 built in four years.

The grey one below is a Daimler SP250, 1959-1964 with the same small 2500cc V8 engine use in the sedan two rows up. Then the rolling chassis for a "Spridget". Don't know if it should be a bug-eye Sprite, or flat bonnet AH Sprite or MG Midget. And there is a Morris Minor Woody station wagon with original 1098cc (with the yard cat that likes getting into all the pictures).

An MGB with fresh paint, chassis restoration finished, needing the rest of reassembly and trimming. A Datsun Fairlady/Sports 2000, 1967-1970. Another AH Sprite behind the post.

There is a Marcos 1800GT with Volvo engine, overdrive, and De Dion rear axle. Then a Nissan Figaro 1991 one year only but more than 20,000 produced. 987cc turbo engine with 3-speed automatic transmission, 15-nches shorter and 200-pounds lighter than my MGA. The red Lotus Europa is beginning to look common by comparison.

An MGB on the rotisserie, and another one hanging. I'm surprised how many cars he has in process at the same time, none of them are stalled projects, all progressing and all will be finished. Nice MGC, didn't wait long enough to get rid of the cat.

Porsche 356 Speedster 1954-1958 roadster the early low windscreen). An MGB GT (with disrespect). And a Citroen 3CV(yes 3 not 2) 1973 made in Argentina. 602-cid (big block) 2-cylinder air-cooled engine, 29 to 33 HP.

Jaguar E-Type Coupe. Auto Union 1000S Coupe, 3-cylinder 2-stroke, 1959-1962. An early 70's MGB with a racing style front splitter.

Saab Sonnet (cat optional), a Rover 90 (sorry, couldn't step back far enough for that one), and one MG TC.

Last one for today is this nifty little Mazda Cosmo, which is credited for launching the Wankel rotary engine (2-rotor) into production in 1967 (prototypes as early as 1963). I seem to be particularly fond of this one. I was test driving Mazda RX2, RX3, RX4 in the early 70's. I nearly bought an RX7 when it first came out in 1979 (except the dealer wanted too much mark-up on the first one available). I did buy a '79 used in '83, and then bought a new 2nd generation RX7 in 1987 (which I gave to my daughter in 2014). The small light weight engine was a wonderful idea for a small sports car. It was peppy and mostly reliable, just somewhat thirsty for fuel. Unfortunately they got heavier with each successive model.
Then there was a generous stash of parts, and more parts, a lot of it for MGB.


There were some 100 year old nail kegs that still had nails in them (maybe came with the building when he bought it). There were a few hardtops, not always sure which cars they belong to. Then we began to see some inventory of hardwood.

There was this slow-turning synchronous lathe with a screw driven router that could turn wood spindles with spiral cuts. Not sure what that has to do with cars. But that's when we found out he was serious into wood working.


Wednesday, November 8, 2023:
Next morning, on the second floor we found the busy side of the wood shop. It goes on and on. Well, I saw it last night, but didn't have my camera in hand at the time.


Also some space allocated to upholstery shop. I think this is all for his own hobby, too busy for any commercial service. Some club space and library. In fact the longer we looked the more library and office space and computers we ran into, and thousands of CD ROMs. Some of it was for entertainment. Much of it was wood working and workshop manuals and parts catalogs. And he may be restoring the 100 year old house he lives in.

Since the MGA is ailing again, we evicted the nice Daimler and the Trabant so we could move the MGA and trailer inside to be handy (and out of the weather). We also borrowed a mini van and hit a local food store to stock the larders, as I suspect we will be here for a week or so (casual estimate). Seems like an open invitation, but hoping not to stay any longer than necessary to diagnose, order parts, and get the car fixed up again. -- Navigator's computer broke some power input wires and sopped up a few hours to disassemble it to solder tiny wires back together. Then a little social chat, and catching up BBS and email, so the rest of the day went away in a hurry. Now 24 hours since arrival, and haven't touched the car yet. Bummer.

Thursday, November 9, 2023:
A day late, but finally got s look at the MGA engine. We removed the spark plugs and gave it a crank first, and it was spitting a little fluid out of #3 spark plug port. Rather disheartening, trying to think how that much oil could be getting into #3 cylinder. But it turned out not to be the case. Did a cranking speed compression test, 110, 120, 85, 100-psi. I was thinking broken piston ring, and expecting lower pressure on #3. In any case, the head has to come off to find what's amiss.
Ah-ha, failed head gasket with water in the cylinders, not oil. That alone should be good news,as it is easy to replace a head gasket, and we are now hoping there is nothing wrong with the cylinders, pistons or rings. Close check of the cylinder head looks like it's okay, but tomorrow I will remove some valves to be sure there are no cracks into the water jacket from the ports behind the valve heads. I also intend to take a whetstone to the mating flat surfaces on the head and block to assure they are flat (among other things).

Meanwhile a short pause to show a neat stud puller that Micheal had lying around. I hadn't see this style before. It works like drill chuck with long inside relief so it reaches down past the thread on the stud. And left hand thread inside so it gets tighter as you unscrew the assembly with a 3/8" socket drive. Obviously for use with right hand thread studs only. Not my favorite stud socket, but it works well.

Studs out in short order, wipe off oil and soak up the water with paper towels. Call it a night, and we will come back tomorrow to hand grind the flat surfaces. Also pour some fluid into the cylinders to see if it leaks excessively fast past the piston rings.
Now I'm significantly disappointed about poor quality of the current supply of Felpro/Payen head gaskets. I've been using these parts for 25 years with no failures, always thought they were good stuff, and the quality had been improving in recent years. We had two successive compression failures in 2017 (kind of a mystery), but no more issues until we had the engine apart for over haul work in 2022. There was a compression failure with blow out between #2 & #3 last March. Then it had a broken piston to be repaired in June. Nothing to do with the head gasket, but it got another new one at that time. And now water leak failure in November. I haven't had a water leak failure with a head gasket in 55 years, so I am particularly PO'd about this one.
The deteriorating quality issue I see is that Payen had added silicone O-rings around the water holes. After a short period of being out of stock, the newer batch now has those O-rings deleted, and back to plain fiber with no rings around the water holes. And I suspect that's where it developed the current leak. Another good quality part changed to bad in recent years.

Friday, November 10, 2023:
Laundry day (among other things). Navigator's computer was still not well, even after reconnecting the internal charging wires. It would power up, then report "battery not present", which couldn't be right, because it would not turn on if there was no battery. If left on charge for a few hours it would charge up enough to run for 20-25 minutes before dead. So many other problems with this computer, so we finally gave up on it and ran out to buy another one. Unboxing and setup kept navigator busy for the rest of the day. Nothing done with the ailing MGA.

Saturday, November 11, 2023:
Posted a new Variants tech page for a replica of an MGA EX182/39 prototype car that ran in the 1955 24-hours of LeMans. Since none of the four participating cars has survived in original form, the builder went to extraordinary lengths to make this car an exact replica of the original.

National holiday "Veterans Day" here in the States, and there was a short parade less than a block away, so we might as well hoof over to check it out.

Plenty war veterans walking, some riding, all to be honored.

Global war on Terrorism, Pike View School, Princeton USA Gymnasts.

The Pike View High School marching band was pretty good (I used to do that with my trombone, way back).

Some nice vintage cars in the parade (most of these were new in my younger years).

Pretty near the end when you get the fire trucks and horses. With all respect, happy Veterans Day to everyone.

After the parade I was back to investigation on the MGA engine. Set the engine at 1/4 rotation with all pistons at the same height. Then pour mineral spirits into each cylinder 1/4-inch deep (above the pistons), and wait. After 15 minutes the fluid was still in all cylinders, which was a pleasant surprise. Then I got distracted, came back after 90 minutes, and it had drained down past the rings from cylinder #3. I filled it back to 1/4 inch in #3, and 1/2 hour later it was drained down again.
Checking out #3 cylinder wall with a bright light, the left side, right side, and front side all looked good. But the rear side of the bore was bad news with a wear ridge type step at the height of max up travel for the 2nd compression ring. Wild guess that a broken ring (or two) may have been from hydraulic lock as a result of coolant leaking at the head gasket. Looks like machine work to replace the #3 sleeve that was new in late August last year. Bummer. It's always somethin'. Being a holiday weekend, I suppose I get to fester for a day or two before we can call some shops to see if we can get some machine work done in some reasonable time. At least I know a sleeve is likely available in Charlotte, NC, not too far away, where I got a sleeve I needed in 2014. Time to sleep on this one.

Meanwhile, Micheal was showing me around his mini van that had some interesting conversion features as a camper van. Skip the common stuff like tables, seats, bed, water heater, refrigerator and shower. I was most interested in the Lithium-ion battery pack in the stowage space below the floor (space previously used to fold down the mid passenger seat). Also the battery power management system and 3000 watt DC to AC inverter that he uses to run a TV and computer (among other things).

There is also a DC to DC battery charger that is used to recharge the 24V LI battery pack from the high capacity 12V alternator on the engine. He must be taking lessons from Tesla.


Sunday, November 12, 2023:
Holiday weekend with Sunday to kill, we can find something to do. Down to look at Micheal's MGC that had a funny "screaming" noise near the rear of the engine when idling. The freshly rebuilt carburetors were separate from the engine when received. With carburetors installed, it starts and runs, but with rough idle. Two fingers placed lightly over the air intake of the rear carburetor to choke it made it run better. Spraying carburetor cleaner around the rear carb mounting also made it run better, so a vacuum leak had to be there somewhere.

I finally got one finger underneath the thermal spacer block to partially stop the leak, which also made it run better. That was easy to diagnose, but now the rear carburetor has to come off to replace a gasket or two. -- The dual remote brake boosters have some problem, not stopping the car very well. One of the vacuum diaphragms may be split, because the master cylinder reservoir loses some fluid. No visible fluid leak, so it must be going past a booster diaphragm to be drawn into the intake manifold. We have a Mityvac hand vacuum pump to test to see if one (or both) of the vacuum units may have a ruptured diaphragm. But that can wait for another day. There is one new booster unit in the box on the seat, so this may get fixed very soon.

Another mission with higher priority. Michael thought he might have a spare MGA 1600 engine or MGB 3-maim 1800 engines sitting around somewhere. So were were off to another house where he grew up (and one of his sisters still lives there). nice MGA 1600 there that Michael drives (I think).

The Jaguar E-Type (Series 2) belongs to a friend. It finished an expensive restoration, but now sits mostly unattended for many years. Michael has no idea why the owner doesn't drive it.

The blue Studebaker Avanti was Michael's regular driver for many years, now looking a little forlorn. The red one with flat tires looks okay, maybe ran when parked, but must have been parked for some time now. Beginning to think that some of these cars should be passed on to new caretakers.

The reason were here, somewhere in the depths of that shed there would be a couple MG engines. Turned out to be two MGB 1800 5-main bearing engines, one or both likely to find new lives in a couple existing cars. Wishful thinking, but not for me. One more shed for inspection, but nothing useful there either.

There were some more vintage cars here, but nothing to write home about. I recon the MGA has been there a while, and both of the MGB have seen better days.

MGB,MGA? Another MGB and a VW Beetle (although I wasn't quite sure even when standing next to it). And a Pontiac that seems out of place in this crowd. Time to get back to the future?


Monday, November 13, 2023:
A residual from yesterday's investigation that found a vacuum leak in the MGC at the carburetor to manifold joint. Guess what? Found one lock washer trapped in the gasket joint, for which Michael will be kicking himself for a while. But all in good fun via the School Of Hard Knocks, as we all make mistakes occasionally.

Holiday weekend now past, we made a quick run to the local engine shop to see what their workload and schedule might be like, because we need one cylinder of the MGA engine re-sleeved. First response was,
> "I'm going on vacation next week".
Slightly timid wishful thinking asked, "How about this week"?
> "Just one sleeve"?
"Yes".
> "How soon can you have it in here"?
"First thing tomorrow morning".
> "I'll see what I can do. Bring one of the good pistons for size reference".
Better than I could hope for. Okay, let's hustle. Two hours later the engine was out of the car and on the bench. Drain the oil now, and notice the magnetic drain plug. Fair amount of metal dust on it, as would be expected when one cylinder wall had a badly worn spot.

With two guys wrenching off parts all around, the sides were soon bare. Each tappet was taped and numbered to match original position, timing chain removed, and the camshaft extracted. Then we were after the bottom end.

Sump off, oil pump and screen, four con-rods out, three main bearing caps off, and the crankshaft out. Lots of parts set neatly aside. The best news of the day was, the #3 piston with all of the broken rings was still in excellent condition, so I don't have to buy more pistons. We took #1 piston off the con-rod, removed the rings and cleaned it up nicely to present to the machine shop.

Bare block with crankshaft removed, main bearing caps back in place, all peripheral fasteners removed, ready for the shop. We spent a half hour washing the block down with petrol, followed by a rinse with lacquer thinner and pat dry. Almost clean enough to paint, pick it up with white gloves maybe, the shop should like this. I also rubbed down top of block with a whetstone to verify flatness, which also clearly exposed the top edges of the prior cylinder sleeves.

Pack away the tools and loose parts, clean up a bit, ready to run to the shop in the morning. And a late night shopping run.

Tuesday, November 14, 2023:
Early morning run to the engine shop to drop off the engine block and one piston, check in personal information, and verify shop order and wishful delivery (as best we could). Then the primary chore for today was to put together a parts order and call it in by mid day, so it might be shipped out same day. Piston rings, gaskets and seals all around, new rod bearings (that had suffered though a couple of blown oil cooler hoses) and main bearings (that have run 300,000 miles since 2002), and a new oil pump and pick-up screen (also more than 300,000 miles on). Also new intake and exhaust valves to catch up an I.O.U. to the cylinder head outstanding since August 2022. Much of the rest of the day was occupied with clerical work.

As if I didn't have enough to do, I got carried away to post a new Accessories tech page with another way to install Air Conditioning on an MGA, WITH a Supercharger (finished before midnight).

Wednesday, November 15, 2023:
Received a request today from a friend in Tromso, Norway to post a detailed tech article for building and installation of a Timing meter for mechanical ignition distributors. This electronic stuff is way over my head, but the 93 page document appears to provide enough information to build and install a digital output and data logger for a mechanical distributor. Since it was based on a Lucas DM2 distributor (as used in MGA), this web site seemed like an appropriate place to post it in a public domain.

Was invited to dinner tonight. Nice dinner party, soaked up a few hours, making for some late night editing.