MGA Guru Is GOING MOBILE - October 1

The MGA With An Attitude
MGA Guru Is GOING MOBILE - (October 1 - October 15, 2024)

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Tuesday - October 1, 2024:
Good news, the new alternator arrived today, one day delivery. In the evening We were off to Darrell's garage for Tuesday night tech meet. We needed some 5/16-24-UNF Heli-Coil inserts, one for the new alternator. We know that Advance Auto Parts no longer sell this part. We stopped along the way to check Autozone, but they didn't have it either. Next stop was Napa West in York, PA. They had none in stock, checked the surrounding stores, found none at Napa East either. Nearest store that had them was an hour drive away, but they could have them delivered here by mid day tomorrow. Do they have two packs? Nope, just one. Okay, we'll take it. Be back tomorrow.

Thank goodness it finally quit raining by the time we arrived at Darrell's garage. We had about 10 guys coming and going in the next few hours, including one new friend/member we had met at the car show. Once most were present there was a short formality to deliver an award from the Saturday MGs On The Rocks car show, 2nd place in the chrome bumper MG Midget class. -- While the social jovialities were going on we unpacked the new alternator, drilled out the coarse thread for the adjuster bracket bolt, and tapped the hole to accept the 5/16-24 fine thread Heli-Coil. That would be easy to screw in the new insert tomorrow. Then we proceeded to install the spare fan and pulley with a new woodruff key and stash the new (spare) alternator in the magic Trailer. The failed alternator then went back into the shipping box to be returned to Moss Motors on the morrow.

Wednesday - October 2, 2024:
Sitting at south end of York for breakfast. At 2-pm, haul on down to Napa west in York to pick up the Heli-Coils. Alas, not there. The store an hour away thought they had them, but could not find them, so no-go. Okay, amble over to Darrell's place to see what we might do for the carburetor problems. That didn't take long. Found he front carb two flats rich, and the rear carb 2 flats jean. That will make it stumble and/or die from slow idle just for stepping on the clutch. A left over remnant from the late night carburetor install after changing pistons in Nevada. After proper adjustment it idles quite well. Give it a day or two to see how it does on cold start.
Chatting with Darrell about the trouble looking for Heli-Coils. I could see the light in his head go on as he said, "Grab your phone and call Al's Auto parts". We did, and waddaya know, Al had them. Miracles never cease. Trot right over there and lay down 8 bucks for a 10-pack. Been here before, this is the place selling alcohol free fuel. I recall buying something here before, just couldn't remember what or when. A quick review says it was cork gasket sheet in 2021. Al must be a car guy. He has stuff no one else has. -- North up the hill to Etters to kill the rest of the day. Soon as parked,we hauled out the new alternator and installed the Heli-Coil. Peachy, couple less things to worry about. -- With most of the freaky problems behind us (for now), it will be time to be looking forward to new travels, and decide what we will be doing in the next few weeks.

Thursday - October 3, 2024:
The car was rather slow starting this morning, so I recon it still has some carburetor or ignition issue. Also needed to top up brake fluid just a bit. Spent some time scouting around car clubs and events. Looks like we will go a little more east heading for Brits at the Village car show in Lahaska, Pa come Saturday. Late afternoon we moved a bit from Camp Hill to Hamburg, PA. That'll do for today.

Friday - October 4, 2024:
Moved a little closer to the car show, sitting in Coopersburg, PA today. Considering hard cold starting and not wanting to do slow idle. Will have another look at it when cool in the morning.

Saturday - October 5, 2024:
Car show today, but we have an hour to spare early morning. We changed the condenser, just for diagnostics, but it didn't make any difference. I had some idea what was likely wrong, so we did a compression test. 130, 120, 85, 120 psi. Bummer, but pretty much what I was expecting. Given a little more time to think about this over breakfast, I recon I know what's wrong with it, and what we will need to do to fix it. Just going to take a little time to get out of the depressive mood and become resolute to do what is necessary., because we're not going to feel any better until it's fixed.
So here's the deal, and it covers what has been haunting this engine for the past two years (near as I can figure). Two years ago in summer 2022 when the engine was truly worn out, we did a lot of engine work in California to sleeve all four cylinders and re-bore to 1600cc standard bore size with new pistons (among other things). I recon we neglected to tell the machinist that we no longer needed the eyebrows in the block, as we had long since gone back to standard camshaft without any extra lift. Then the machinist thought he would do us the favor of restoring the eyebrows in the block after installing the new sleeves. Unfortunately he buggered it up by cutting the eyebrows too deep in the block. It looked like the eyebrows were cut by hand with a die grinder. For the past two years I have been fooling myself with wishful thinking trying to convince myself those cuts did not go below the top piston rings. But now I'm ready to concede that #3 eyebrow was indeed cut too low. The ultimate solution would be to sleeve all four cylinders again, and deck it flat on top with no eyebrows, or start over with a different engine block. Food for thought.

Okay, off to the 27th Annual Brits at the Village car show in Lahaska Pennsylvania, Mid Atlantic Regional NAMGAR. Start with the MGA, just because that's where I was parked, and there were some MG T-types next in line.

One MGF-TF, one MG ZB Magnette, and one MG YB.

Two MGB-GT, followed by a bunch of 1975-1980 rubber bumper MGB, which were the featured mark.

Two cute bug-eye Austin Healey Sprite, and at least half a dozen big Healey (somewhat over-represented today).

Half a dozen Mini in a variety of flavors, a few Triumph Spitfire, and one sweet Triumph Super Six.

In the "Other British" class, a TVR 3000, a Jensen Healey, and a Morgan Plus-Four. One TR 4 and one TR 250.

There were at least half a dozen TR6. I had a number of failed pictures from a finicky camera, lost some Jaguar pictures, and there was one British motorcycle, don't recall the model.And there was this modern two-seat three-wheeler, unknown to me, but I think the license plate said, "Just write the ticket".

As the trophy presentations were running out, they handed me one for "Diamond In The Rough". How rough do you expect for 690,000 miles? Maybe they just didn't have anyone else to give it to. Got a nice dash plaque, which I will toss after I post the picture. Then this one last picture of some MG friends who wanted to get the MGA guru in their picture.

I was chatting with a few people about our engine problem. Haven't had enough time to think about it yet, but likely starting with a used block and boring it just once would be easier than replacing sleeves again. A friendly bloke Tomas Brobst in Allentown, PA may be offering us a spare 1500 block, which we could bore to any size we like. Food for thought. We will stick around until tomorrow to check it out.

Sunday - October 6, 2024:
Much of the day spent processing photos and notes from yesterday's car show. Posting text messages back and forth with Tom, busy guy I guess. By day's end we made an appointment to visit his place mid day tomorrow.

Monday - October 7, 2024:
Time to visit Thomas "Tom" Brobst in Allentown, PA. This is the guy producing the "Undo Stick" to easily operate the winged knock-off nuts for your wire wheels. Put one of these in your boot, and you can leave out the heavy knock-off hammer. No more hammering on your expensive wire wheels, no more accidentally damaged spokes, no more damaged chrome wing nuts. Loosening and tightening your K/O nuts is now a gentle one hand pull. The picture below center has Tom holding the larger version of the Undo Stick used for the larger K/O nuts on Jaguar cars.

Pictures here below show the smaller Undo Stick being used on the smaller K/O nut more common to most other British sports cars. you can find more information about this device at www.undostick.com

Now the real reason for our visit. If you have been following our travel log for the past year or so, you may know about problems we have had with broken pistons and failed piston rings. I have finally conceded that these issues are likely a result of engine work we had done in summer 2022 when we had four cylinders sleeved and re-bored to install new 1600-cc standard size pistons. We had removed the upgrade camshaft in August 2014, and have been running standard cam since then. It was our intention to delete the valve lift clearance eyebrows in the block at that time, reverting to flat top block as original. The machinist installing the new sleeves thought he was doing us a favor cutting new eyebrows, but the new cuts apparently went a bit too deep into the top of the block, and at least one of them is extended slightly below the top compression ring of the piston. Number 3 cylinder has since been having repeated ring failures. The apparent fix would be to re-sleeve at least one cylinder again (or more likely all four sleeves). Or it may be more prudent to procure a different engine block and just do a more simple 4-cylinder rebore.
Tom has offered us a spare 1500 block, which we are here to check out. He also has the original "15" head, but we don't need that. On first inspection this is a 1500 block with +0.020" overbore, and more wear on it since. the bores are scuffed up enough to need another rebore, but that's okay. We may consider reboring it to 1600-cc standard bore size. But then I noticed a rather large chip out of the block at top of #4 cylinder. Just a guess that this may happen when driving an old piston out of a worn cylinder bore, with a piston ring catching on the ridge at top of bore. Moral of this story is, you should ridge ream the bores before removing the pistons. In fact this does look like it was ridge reamed after the chip. This would need a sleeve before reboring, not an immediate deal killer, but I may hold off a day or two for consideration before deciding to carry it away or look for something else. If we can be in not such a big rush, this might be a good time to consider an 1800 block.

Tuesday - October 8, 2024:
Posted a note of explanation and inquiry on the MG Experience MGA forum to ask if there might be some other MG B-Series engine block available. got a couple of nibbles early, one likely non-serviceable, the other hundreds of miles out of our way for a pick up. Have a little more patience. -- Meanwhile I uploaded a new tech page to note the screw size for the ignition condenser mounting screw. Seems like a trivial point, but a lot of people are asking when they may have lost the screw, and this information is not published in factory documentation.

Wednesday - October 9, 2024:
Mostly a hurry up and wait day, having some patience while waiting for responses to our inquiry about available engine blocks. We have some offers, like one 1500 block nearby needing a sleeve and rebore. A large number of 1500 blocks and engines much farther away. A couple of slightly rusty 1800 3-main short blocks needing rebuild, a few hours away in the wrong direction. A suggestion of five MGB engines (unspecified models) a couple hours off course in the right direction, but no call back after leaving a voice message. After 10-pm there was an email message I didn't get to see until morning.

Thursday - October 10, 2024:
Good morning. What is this new email? An offer of an 18GA 3-main short block assembly (engine less head and peripherals) about 90 minutes away. Story is, it came along with someone's purchase of a car a couple years ago. Seems to have previously been rebuilt (likely overbored), clean cylinder bores lightly oiled with no rust, been sitting in a protected warehouse for the past two years. Okay, less than 100 miles, so we have to go check this one out.

And it looks like a winner. Not sure if we could just put a head on it and run it, but pretty close, about as good as can be for any used engine. We will do some partial disassembly for close internal inspection before making serious decisions. But this may be a historic turning point when the MGA With An Attitude may be about to get a little bigger attitude. I'm hyped. No turning back now. Just need to get it loaded up for transport. No way this thing would fit inside of the Magic Trailer without removing half of everything already stuffed inside. It will have to ride on top. This fiberglass box is pretty tough. Long time ago I had two complete 1600 engines inside, with flywheels, clutch, head, manifolds and carburetors. The top cover is tough enough to walk on, so it should hold the weight of the engine okay. Start with a sheet of 1/4-inch plywood to spread the load some and serve as a paint scuff plate.

I removed the left engine mount bracket to give lower profile when we would lay it down on the left side. Fifty feet of 1/4-inch rope would make it one with the tie-down rails so it won't move around on top. One ratchet strap over he center cinched up to the steel fenders will take load off of the piano hinge and toggle latches. Grab the engine and shake it back and forth with vigor, and the whole assembly moves as one with no relative motion above the leaf spring mounts. Peachy. Smile and drive it away.

The trick now is just take it easy and don't do anything stupid when towing. Our destination is just under 500 miles away in Princeton,West Virginia, mostly interstate highway, and we're not due to be there until Monday. Pump the little trailer tires up to 60-psi pressure for maximum load.. Follow a slow truck in the right lane at five under the limit, while leaving lots of follow space in front. 75 miles on at 4-pm it was time for a fuel stop in Jonestown, PA. Good to sit down for late lunch, feel good, and take some time to post these photos and notes. And need to post a note on the forum to let everyone know we're okay and we have an engine, thank you very much for everyone's consideration and assistance.

Friday - October 11, 2024:
Last night was cold. below 40dF before morning. A little better today, and not quite so cold tonight,maybe 50dF+, then warmer for the week end. So with plenty of travel time available, we elect to take the day off. Good move,time to relax and check messages, reply thanks, but we already have an engine

Saturday - October 12, 2024:
Up early for casual breakfast in Jonestown, PA, and check the MGA forum and email. Mid day is time to get moving more south. 70 miles on, casually pacing along behind a semi truck at 60-MPH in the right lane when lots of rumbling noise, oops, very sudden flat tire on the trailer. This was the last thing we expected, but we come prepared. The tire seemed to have had a sudden blow-out, instant flat. But the tread was also very bald, and the carcass hot to the touch, so maybe it was running with low pressure some of the time in the last 70 miles (just today). I would be happier if it had nail or screw in it, but no sign of any puncture, so no clue why it failed. No matter, get on with life. Install the spare, and roll off the next exit to adjust pressure at Southampton, PA. --- 52 miles on to a Harbor Freight Tool store that wasn't there in Martinsburg, West Virginia. Check tire temperature, seems okay at first touch. Another 28 miles to the next H/F store that was there in Winchester, Virginia. Check tire temperature again, okay.

Buy a new spare tire on wheel for $45, toss the shreaded one in the trash. Too bad we never have time to take pictures during a crisis on the road side. All of these pictures are after we bought the new tire. Navigator swapping on the new spare, and a couple pics of the failed tire. I think I finally figured it out. Found what looks like a puncture from a rectangular horse shoe nail in the outside shoulder (but no nail). Maybe the horrible tread wear and heat happened while the pressure was going down, before the tire broke loose from the rim. I'd feel better if I can believe it was a puncture and not a carcass failure.

Drive on. Another 22 miles to another truck stop in Toms Brook, Virginia, good enough for the day. Check tire temperature again, top up the fuel and take the rest of the day off. It just dawned on me that since having the flat tire we only drove 109 miles but have been in four states. ---- Normally loaded trailer is 600 pounds on the axle (yes we have weighed it). Estimate the short block assembly as 200 pounds added load, so 800/2 = 400 pounds per tire. These tires are Bias ply tire, 2-ply with 4-ply rating, load Range B, 590-lb maximum load at 60-psi up to 65-mph. Nowhere near the max load rating. Been using this type tire for 35 years with no problem like this, and these tires are just 7-months, old,installed in Florida last March. We had adjusted tire pressure to 60 max when we loaded the engine, just 140 miles back. Please, let me believe it was a puncture.

Sunday - October 13, 2024:
Sitting in Toms Brook, VA. Warning, off topic today, just a personal interest of mine in in the annals of space travel. I was up early to watch launch of Space-X IFT5 (Integrated Flight Test #5) of their super heavy rocket Starship. All I can say is, "Wow"! The launch was perfect, hot staging was perfect, boost back to launch site was perfect, and chopsticks catching the booster on the launch tower was as perfect as could be for the very first attempt. Likely nobody believed it could work on the first try.

Then the Ship was in long sub-orbital flight, and we got to watch re-entry through the atmosphere, lots of plasma heating as it was scrubbing off speed. Then the final controlled touchdown in the ocean, apparently spot on at the correct location in sight distance of cameras. Heat shield is not yet perfect, but it did indeed survive and perform admirably. Congratulations to Space-X.

We got a call from our friend in Princeton, West Virginia. He will be home tonight, and we have plans to arrive there mid day tomorrow. So far all good. -- We bailed out of Toms Brook, VA in the evening, winding up in Troutville, VA for fuel stop and late dinner (and a bit more WiFi time).

Monday - October 14, 2024:
35 miles on, breakfast in Christiansburg, VA. 60 miles from our destination in Princeton, WV. The closer we get, the more confident we are about getting there without any more problems. Anticipating unloading the engine so we can get into the trailer again. --- Not a big rush now. Lunch before departure, then take an easy 90 minute stroll through some hills. We arrived in Princeton, West Virginia at 3-pm. Remove the tie-towns, and get a lifting chain on the engine. Gentle lift with a fork truck, and get it inside out of the deteriorating weather. Set it on a work table.

Safe and sound like a baby in a cradle. We stripped he tape and thin plywood off of the trailer. Nice to find the trailer cover lid with hardly a scratch on it.That's one tough little fiberglass box.

We unloaded some of the stuff from inside the trailer to have some free space. Then time for a laundry run, followed by a Walmart run for some food supplies, few personal items, some shop towels and a jug of oil for the new engine (always the optimist). Then we could relax.

Tuesday - October 15, 2024:
Catch-up day. After a very busy week. I needed to return a few phone calls and email, answer some pending tech questions, relax and recover a bit.process and post photos and notes.