Dave Quirt wrote:
>
> Barney:
>
> I once had a '56 A coupe with original engine etc. That engine, from pan
> to head, was painted in the normal MG maroon and the INSIDE of the oil
> pan was unpainted. The BP15GB engine prefix indicates a MGA 1500 engine,
> so the dark green and the dark blue colours on it are NOT original at
> all.
>
> Dave Q.
>
> From: Barney Gaylord
> <snip>
> The engine is painted dark blue. I have seen MGA starters and
> generators
> painted this color before, but I couldn't swear they were originally
> from
> an MGA. I trust that this paint color came with the engine rebuild
> (.040
> pistons) and is not quite a match for the original color, because ....
>
> The inside of the oil pan is painted a dark green, something like
> British
> Racing Green. I have not before seen an MGA oil pan painted on the
> inside,
> although I have seen a variety of (non-MG) engine and gearbox castings
> painted inside to surpress casting trash. My guess here is that the
> this
> engine was originally this color of green, and that the fresh paint
> outside
> with the rebuild was intended to match the original color but was a
> slight
> miss. The timing cover is not painted inside. I do not have the valve
> cover. (Then again, maybe the oil pan is not original to this engine).
> <snip>
BP15GB '68bhp' engine was fitted to the early MGA 1500. The MG Magnette
ZA had the '60bhp' BP15GA, and later ZA's and all the ZB's had the
'68bhp' BP15GC,( virtually the same as the BP15GB.) I have seen ZB's
with blue engines, black engines, red engines, and gold ones, ( Gold
Seal replacement unit.) These are contemporary with the MGA 1500, and
the owners of the 'Z'ds insisted their engines were the original clours.
IMHO MG engines were virtually always a maroon/red in the 1950's, other
than BMC replacement versions.
BP15GD is the '72bhp' MGA 1500 engine, BC16GB the Twin cam, 16GA the MGA
1600 Mk2.( B stands for 'B' series; P stands for Pushrod; 15 is the
engine size as 1489cc, 16 can be 1588cc or 1622cc; C stands for Cam; G
stands for MG; the following letter A,B,C,D, etc is the modification
state.)
The dark green colour are the Austin, Morris, Riley, and Wolseley
colours. It is the normal run-of-the-mill BMC colour for engines &
gearboxes. Saying that, the engine ancillories are identical, ( ie
Austin A55 sump is the same as the MGA; the Wolseley 15/50 sump is the
same as the ZA/ZB; and so on.)
Neil ( though you probably all already knew all this.)
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