IA 9142

[halbe]

Hello Mike,

This all looks really good, rather like the shade of red.
On my engine the side plates where the other way round , with the middle bit coming out not in.

Keep up the good work
Kind regards,
Halbe

[Ian Grace]

John, I can confirm that you have the side plates on 'inside out'! Sod's Law - if there are two ways to fit an item ... !

The well-known related law is that only as you tighten up the last bolt, do you find the gasket still on the bench.

[ian judd]

I think you may be confusing the M with the MG J type regarding bellville washers on the rocker shafts. The M has various lengths of ordinary type springs and spacers just like the Minor. The J has the bellville washer system but I don't know that it's any improvement. The best way is to use spacers and plain washers, carefully set up, this avoids the friction of the various types of spring and is how competition cars have it. I use the long springs on my head(M) with fibre washers and steel washers to stop any oil leaking from the bush.

Cheers,
Ian

[mike houston]

Ian, thanks for that which is very useful. I can now confidently progress! As for the side plates, well I prefer them that way! Just so long as they do their job and keep the water where it should be. Interestingly on the saloon engine the plates were just that, flat steel plates which I assume had been made up to do the job. The engine colour is an original MG maroon. It is quite deep , but looks much lighter using the flash on a camera.
Regards to all, Mike.

[ian judd]

Mike,
You really need to turn the plates round. You need as much cooling water around the cylinders as pos.
Sorry!
Ian

[mike houston]

Point taken, I'll add it to my to-do list!
Mike.

[mike houston]

A little more progress to report. Setting the head up took ages, and I lost count of the number of times it came apart and went back together again, but finally all seems to be well. It wont finally be tightened down until I am happy with the alignment of the dynamo. The final drive was time consuming also. Because the head has been skimmed down to 3.5" I've had to use a new shallow drive yoke (from S&V), and this fouled the seal housing. Grinding this down a bit cleared that problem, but then the bolts projected from the yoke and again fouled the housing. I've overcome that by having the bolts welded into the yoke and ground back to profile, (Pigsty Racing). Hopefully the picture makes it more clear. Anyway I'm currently annealing the copper pipes before fitting them, after the dynamo etc. So the end is hopefully coming into sight. Has anyone ever started up an engine while mounted on an engine stand??!! It doesn't seem feasible, but I wouldn't mind trying before fitting it in the car!Regards to all, Mike.

[ian judd]

Mike,

I don't quite understand how the boltheads can foul the housing. I've taken loads more off my head and this doesn't happen. Also, now that you have welded the bolts into the yoke, it means than when you need to remove the dynamo (which if you are unlucky is quite frequently ) you will have to take the head off first! Rather you than me!
The M head is 3.5in as standard and uses normal yokes - you shouldn't need shallow ones.

Cheers,
Ian

[Ronald]

Engines can quite simply be run on a stand...............

[Highlander]

Mike, The Regiment would be pround of you. No Guard duties for a week. Highlander.

[ian judd]

Mike, looking at your photos (which are not quite big enough for me to be sure) it looks as though the pinion is sticking up too much at the top. Have you got the right washers behind the cam gear - two flat ones with a big Belville spring washer between them? The cam gear and the pinion are supposed to be exactly aligned on the inside edges, so it is possible the camshaft has been pushed back and the pinion pushed up to meet it? Or too many spacers between the bottom of the pinion gear and the top of the pinion bearing?
See Halbe's head page 15 Re:VG2007
Regards,
Ian

[mike houston]

Ian,
This whole alignment issue is one that has been dogging me for some weeks. It hasn't been made any easier because the original vertical drive bearing has been replaced at some time by a solid bronze bearing and an oil seal. These together are fractionally deeper than the original. However using a combination of the correct size thrust washers and plain washer under the pinion I have now got what appears to be the 'perfect' mesh that you describe. I also have the washer combination you describe on the camshaft. So that end is OK, (?) However I will be double checking again in view of your comments. I will also be looking again at the bottom end to see if I can effect any better clearance than I can achieve with my modified yoke. I entirely agree with your comment re. extracting the dynamo in the future, but I am going too some lengths to ensure that it won't need to come out again, (famous last words)! I am hoping to achieve the final, final assembly in the next couple of weeks, and get the head bolted down. I have decided to get the engine mounted initially into the bare saloon chassis to test run it before it goes into the s/sports, this gets over any issues of running it in a stand!
Regards to all, Mike.

[Toby]

Mike, I have recently bought a stand just like yours and while I would run it in a 4 legged stand I think your decision not to do so on that stand is the correct one A friend of mine once fired up a motorcycle engine loose on the drive with a coke bottle fuel tank strapped to it, the throttle stuck and it was apparently hard to catch once running!

[Ian Grace]

Reminds me of a neat trick I saw when working as a student at Sperrys years ago. The foreman got a ball race, held it by the inner and then spun it up using an air hose until the outer was almost going supersonic - then just dropped it on the shop floor. It did about ten laps across the floor, up the wall, across the ceiling and back down again. Lethal!

Spent an hour or two in hospital last night after hitting my left hand HARD with a mallet trying to free a couple of recalcitrant brake caliper bolts on my Sable. On the way to the hospital, the water pump pulley came adrift on the bloody Taurus! So I took a sick day today. Managed to sort the brakes - one handed. Picked up a new water pump for the Taurus, but that will have to wait until the pouring rain stops, as it is stranded in a nearby shop car park. I also had to fix the dishwasher yesterday - a glass broke in it and a tiny glass chip jammed the pump - if you have seen Finding Nemo, you will know exactly what the problem was. So out came the machine, pump off, chip removed, re-assembled, refitted under the counter, runs sweetly. But it is now leaking! So it's got to come out again. It never rains, but it pours!

[Toby]

I no longer go near any modern vehicle, local garage job while i go to work and earn the money to pay the bill, cheaper in the long run, even sold my classic bikes and bought a new one instead. This leaves the few spare hours in the garage devoted to minors.....