And the misery continues. Some of you may recall my saga with my '74 MGB
with the '69 engine and Weber 45 DCOE 9 and the problems I have had this
summer. Well, it still isn't.
A quick recap of what has gone on for those of you who don't remember.
In June I took the B autoxing where I had problems with the engine missing
and backfiring. It ran fine under normal driving for about a week then
I noticed coolant coming out the side of the engine where the head meets
the block. Being the middle of the summer I didn't want to keep the car
off the road for long, so I just pulled the head and replaced the head
gasket.
It ran okay for a couple of days, but problems returned. It would miss
under acceleration and backfire under decceleration. Some of you folks
suggested timing/ignition/carburation as being the problem. Since then
I have gone through the entire ignition system - new plugs/wires/condesor/
coil and tried a different distributor (which I had checked out.)
I took apart the Weber, replaced all the gaskets, the needle/seat/floats,
the idle adjustment screws, and generally cleaned it up. It has been
suggested to me that it is over carburated. This may well be true, but it
ran fine for a year and a half, so I don't think that is what is causing
my problems. I replaced the timing chain and tensioner. All to no avail.
Finally, I took it in to the local MG guy who couldn't find what was wrong
with it either. He said either something internally with the engine
or it is way over carburated. Like I said it ran fine for over a year
with that carb on it. I tried to put the old set of SU's on, but I couldn't
get it to run at all with them. He also suggested that the head could have
warped when I blew the head gasket.
I decided that maybe I should have had the head checked for straightness,
for no other reason than I had nothing else left to do. So last week
I took it off. It looked like I had found the problem, there was some
rust on the walls of cylinders 3 & 4 where it looked like water had
dribbled down. Yeah! I've found it, I thought. I took the head in
and had it rebuilt (magnafluxed, valve job, new valve guides, neato
teflon valve stem seals, and milled to flatten it as they found it did
indeed have .004 inch warp.) The machine shop guy told me he could see
where coolant had flowed.
Excitedly, took to cleaning up the block Saturday morning. With Brakeleen
and a razor blade I cleaned every bit of crud off the top of the block.
Then I slowly and methodically put everything back together, even using
Permatex Copper Gasket Sealer spray. Everything went together perfectly
(well, one tappet had come out of its hole, but that was easily fixed.)
After changing the oil and adding new coolant, I turned the engine over
until I got pressure. Then I hooked up the plug wires and let er rip.
It started! Before I backed out of the driveway, though I knew it wasn't
right. Once around the block and it never ran right. Same old problem,
missing on acceleration. SHIT!
Back into the garage and I messed with the timing some to no avail, the #4
cylinder does not seem to be firing. Then I gave up for the time being.
I haven't done a compression test yet (let's just say that after 5 hours
in the garage and $200 for the head work followed by failure, I felt it
was best I not be in the same room as the car.) but it was in the 160-180
range before I pulled the head off this last time. I am worried that
coolant is still getting into #4. How can I tell without pulling the
head again. If it is, what are my options? I assume that I either
have a cracked head, a cracked block, or the seal isn't good between the
head and block. I doubt it's the head and I thought I did a good job
with the head installation. Will a leakdown test tell me what I want
to know? What would coolant in the oil look like? Any other ideas?
I am really hesitant to do anything else to it for awhile, I'm sick of
throwing good money after bad. Let's just say this summer has turned
into a $1000 teach-yourself-automechanics fiasco. (You'ld think after
dumping money into new brakes, new tires and new exhaust the car would
be happy and treat me right, but noooo.) Maybe I should branch
out and have a late night cable tv infomercial, "with our 5 step plan
you too can throw away dollar after dollar while accomplishing nothing!"
Anybody want to by a car?
Sorry this got so long, but I wanted to vent my frustration in as positive
way as possible. Typing beats throwing wrenches, I guess.
Thanks for any input,
Bob
P.s. I am going to be in Phoenix Wednesday night and Tuscon Thursday night
for work, if anyone in that area wants to get together.
P.p.s TeriAnn Wakeman, I was going through some old mail and I saw a note
you sent a long time ago about an extra center console (the part with
the arm rest for a B.) I have one and you wanted one. The one I have
is chipped and cracked around the hole where the gearshift lever goes,
but this would mostly be covered by the chrome ring. If you want it
let me know and you can have it for cost of shipping.
|