I had the same problem when rebuilding a Buick V6 from a Jeep. (Talk about
a kluge. I swear that Jeep's engineering budget in the sixties was spent
entirely on aluminum adapters. This car had a Buick V6 attached to a Chevy
Turbo 400 tranny attached to the smallest transfer case you could buy. Why
they put a tranny that would hold 500 hp in front of a transfer case that
could take 100 hp and behind an engine that put out 150 hp I will never
know but they had the adapters to do it. I think they just bought whetever
GM had extra that week and threw it into whatever was coming off the line.)
Anyway, the V6 had frozen over the winter so I had to take the engine out
and have the block welded. I had the crank polished and started bolting
everything back together only to find that the crank would not turn. I
figured thatthe welding had warped the block and that I was screwed.
After discussing my dilemma with the local automotive gurus, I removed the
crank installed it again carefully torquing the main bearing caps. It spun
freely and the engine went together. So I am not surprised that the crank
in your MG won't turn with just the middle two mains torqued. Before you
do anything else, just remove the crank, clean and relube everything, and
install all of the main bearings using the proper torque sequence. I think
that you will be presently surprised.
Regards,
Bill Eastman
61 MGA
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