Re:

[Charles N Horton <carolus@MIT.EDU>]

>  Strange, I've *NEVER* seen an LBC for sale cheap because
>of a catastrophic engine failure!
>
>  (intense sarcasm)

     Point taken, but I suspect most of those failures were not
caused by timing problems. As has been thoroughly hashed out here,
an MG is not a Toyota. You don't get 200,000 miles from a rebuild.
All engines can lose a bearing, drop an oil drain plug on the
interstate, or have a head-gasket fail. The '80 I'm considering
has a '77 engine because of choice #2 --

Charles.