Curiosity of the day,
Someone on the mgs list recently reported fishing something like a ten
penny nail with oversize head out of the water jacket of a MG engine.
Reason for it presence was a mystery, maybe intended to be a sacrificial
anode. Well, I just went through a similar experience, but not so much fun.
Doing an engine overhaul on 1960 Healey 3000, got the head back from the
shop with new bronze valve guides and hard valve seats, and proceeded to
assemble the valve gear. When cleaning it up afterwards I noticed a
tinkling sound from inside the head whenever it was rolled over or jiggled,
sounded like a couple of small sleigh bells.
I solicited help of an asssistant, searchd & investigated to find the
source of the noise, much shaking & pounding, listening with stethescope
and poking inside with wire hooks (1 hr). Found a small steel rod
(probably a gas welding rod) aproximately 12" long loose in the water
jacket. It was in an obscure location on left side above I&O ports. This
may well be the source of a reported ticking noise when the engine was
running. My best guess is that some DPM was poking around in there in the
distant past to clean out the water jacket, lost the rod inside and
couldn't get it out.
When I tipped the head on end with the front end down, the rod came close
enough to the front that I could just reach the tip of a finger through the
thermostat opening to touch the end of the rod. I had a small mirror on an
articulated handle poked in through the thermostat opening and could just
see the end of the rod. It obviously had to be bent some to get into that
cavity via this opening.
I attempted removal of said foreign object with picks & hooks & other
devious methods, but no way to get it out (1.5 hr). Then I hooked it with
another gas welding rod with a tightly bent hook on the end and attempted
to weld onto it to pull it out, also unsuccessful. I finally passed a
welding current through the rod in the head, jiggled it around a bit to
cause lots of arcing inside, and managed to weld it to the inside of the
water jacket so it wouldn't rattle (0.5 hr). Maybe in another 30 or 40
years some DFM (Dumfounded Future Mechanic) will rediscover it and wonder
what the DPM had in mind.
Persistence pays,
Barney Gaylord
1958 MGA with an attitude
http://www.ntsource.com/~barneymg
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