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Smoke and oil, the final solution

To: "MGs" <mgs@autox.team.net>
Subject: Smoke and oil, the final solution
From: "Richard Spurling" <hobbes@senet.com.au>
Date: Sun, 17 Sep 2000 22:40:06 +0930
G'day Kids,

You may remember a month back when my MG covered itself with oil and
suffered a sudden and dramatic loss in compression in one cylinder. The
motor is with the engine rebuilder as we speak and will be back in my grubby
little hands in a week or two.

When they opened up the motor, the did not find anything disastrous such as
a holed piston. Rather, they found an incredibly worn motor. The main
bearing shells were down to the copper cores. All the top compression rings
were broken. The rings in the crook cylinder were described as destroyed.
All the oil rings were very, very worn. And so on. The speedo shows 98,000
miles - I suspect this motor has done a tad more than that, probably 198,000
if not 298,000.

Now for the DPO index. You didn't expect a story like this to escape with
some DPO input did you? While all pistons were in good shape, one was a high
compression piston, the others were not. Hmm, it looks like I'm not the
first person to open this engine up. It makes me wonder what else they did.
The scary thing is that before the rings went bang, all cylinders were
giving the same compression readings and the cylinder that suddenly lost
compression was NOT the one with the high compression piston.

And why did she go bang? The theory is that the PO just puttered around.
Well, I know she did. Then I get control of the B and start to drive it like
and MG (read "enthusiastically"). The pistons travelled a wee bit further up
the bore, helped no doubt by very worn bearings, came in contact with the
very impressive ring ridges, and bang. If my wife were the only one to drive
the car, it would still be puttering.

For a very worn motor, she ran very well. She should run much better when I
get her back. Completely rebuilt, slight overbore (he's leaving me one
rebore left), reground cam, head done up (but I forget exactly what's being
done). It's a hot up he does regularly and apparently produces a much more
powerful motor, with a little less bottom end, but retaining its drivability
and a smooth idle. Cripes, I might be able to blow off motorised scooters
now. A standard motor rebuild costs $3,000. The hot motor costs $3,300, and
prepared for unleaded fuel, $3,600. Why would anyone build a standard motor?

Along with the new heart, I'm lowering her to chrome bumper height, doing
suspension bushes, rebuilding the brakes and something else that I forget at
the moment. I couldn't afford the overdrive and wire wheels though if
someone could convince me they were essential...

So, in a week or two's time, I'll have myself a new MG...Hooray. I owned her
for a month, blew her up, then had her sit in the shed for two months.
She'll be back just in time for the nice spring weather. Mind you, she's not
back yet...

Cheers
Richard
'76 B
=================================
         Anne and Richard Spurling
 http://www.geocities.com/twisted-lines
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