Hi folks,
Well, the 77B is back to performing 110 mile/day commuting service again
after about a month off (two weeks of which were spent on vacation in Ireland).
As some of you may recall, I was having high oil-consumption problems (300
miles/qt). One day the car began laying a smokescreen and compression
disappeared from #4. Chose the route of pulling the pistons with the engine
still in the car. Discovered that the compression rings were broken in all
cylinders. The good news was that there was virtually no wear in the cylinders
and only a slight ridge. That follows, since the rings were not doing much
scraping. Also, the connecting rod journals on the crank showed no wear at
all. Discovered that the head was milled to its limits and was warped. Reamed
out the ridge, honed/crosshatched the cylinders, installed new Deves rings and a
new set of rod bearings. Also bought/installed a refurbished head from Lawrie
Alexander.
Put the car back to work last Monday and now have about 450 miles on it
with nary (sorry Nory) a sign of oil use and no more cockpit fumes. Will be
changing the oil and filter today along with retorquing the head and readjusting
the valves. I'll be driving it down to Washington (actually to Gaithersberg MD)
a week from Monday, about a thousand miles round trip.
Want to express my appreciation to Ed Kaler of JustBrits and to Lawrie
Alexander of British Sportscar Center for the invaluable guidance with the
project.
This list is amazing in terms of how much it shrinks the world and gives us such
easy access to professional experts like Ed, Lawrie, Skip Kelsey, et. al.
Time to go work on the B.
Bud Krueger
52TD
77MGB (on the road again)
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