Battery was changed in 15 minutes. Was pleased it was as easy as it looked. Seems to have been the problem, so should be good for a while now.
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The Car Thread ... !
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Indeed!
This is actually the first fuel-related issue I've had with the car, although it STILL isn't fixed.
Also, Thortons-the station that supplied the 3 or 4 tanks prior to my having issues-refuses any acknowledgement that they have an issue. All I can do is tell everyone I know to NOT shop at that particular station or any Thortons in general
. I'm doing a half-baked rebuild on another set of HS4 carbs to get me by while I send the ones that came on the car off for a full, proper rebuild(specifically replacing the throttle shaft bushings, which I'm not set-up to do). I called yesterday and ordered needle valves, the rubber jet-to-bowl seals that caused at least one carb of this new set to leak like a sieve(fortunately on the bench with alcohol, not gas in the car). Throwing a big middle finger to the EPA, I also ordered solid throttle disks-the OEM ones with a poppet valve were designed to reduce NOx when the throttle snapped closed, but in practice the poppet valve spring gets weak, causes uneven idle, inconsistent mixture, and a big blockage in the air intake.
Optics ...
[doublepost=1508018671][/doublepost]Had a little GT350 encounter up at the Harbor Freight store Owner was a super nice guy, older gent in his 70s, had a GT before, but just prior to the GT350 owned a Miata!
[doublepost=1508018671][/doublepost]Had a little GT350 encounter up at the Harbor Freight store
Owner was a super nice guy, older gent in his 70s, had a GT before, but just prior to the GT350 owned a Miata!
I always thought it possible you can have have a fuel tank flushed. Now what would they flush it with?
I've known folks who have taken tanks to an old-time radiator shop and had them "boiled" to clean them out. There are also solutions that will coat the inside of the tank and even take care of small leaks.
With all of that said, this tank is nearly 50 years old. It's had time to rust on the inside, and I'll probably end up having to drill the mounting studs to get it loose.
I'd probably be looking at $150 at least to have the tank boiled and then coated, plus the fact that I'd likely have to rig up the mounting since the hardware will likely be sacrificed doing it.
By contrast, a replacement that is in many ways better(stainless steel and baffled) will run $250 shipped. I'll have all new mounting hardware and effectively a clean start. To me, it's a much better and in the long run smarter option.
With all of that said, this tank is nearly 50 years old. It's had time to rust on the inside, and I'll probably end up having to drill the mounting studs to get it loose.
I'd probably be looking at $150 at least to have the tank boiled and then coated, plus the fact that I'd likely have to rig up the mounting since the hardware will likely be sacrificed doing it.
By contrast, a replacement that is in many ways better(stainless steel and baffled) will run $250 shipped. I'll have all new mounting hardware and effectively a clean start. To me, it's a much better and in the long run smarter option.
I was gonna collect a G4 dual 1GHz and 23 inch cinema screen sunday....
However some ****** slashed my tyre on saturday!
£70 for new one, but I had take car to garage.
Now I thought fit spare and ok get to garage.
ummm nope!
car been fitted with 17" alloys, spare is an original OEM alloy 15"
Wheel wrench in boot dont fit the nuts on 17" alloys.
The last owner changed nuts with the wheels so I was not able remove them in car park!
has get fiancee bring my tools to car to get rim off.
And new nuts will not fit the OEM wheel from boot/trunk!
Was not happy that day!
However some ****** slashed my tyre on saturday!
£70 for new one, but I had take car to garage.
Now I thought fit spare and ok get to garage.
ummm nope!
car been fitted with 17" alloys, spare is an original OEM alloy 15"
Wheel wrench in boot dont fit the nuts on 17" alloys.
The last owner changed nuts with the wheels so I was not able remove them in car park!
has get fiancee bring my tools to car to get rim off.
And new nuts will not fit the OEM wheel from boot/trunk!
Was not happy that day!
Yeah, less than twice as much, for a new part that’s also a notable improvement, seems like a no brainer!
Baffles are to prevent gas slosh from starving the fuel pickup, no idea how they might prevent getting sediment into the fuel system [thats more a fuel filter task].
Good grief, I hate when a simple chore becomes a huge ordeal. Plus it was due to some piece of crap ...
I’ve got a pump and fix-a-flat from the factory, hope that’s enough if I ever need it. To be honest I’ve been looking into an actual spare, my car has the space in the trunk for it - the trick is one that will fit, not be too far off from the proper ratio, and will clear the front brakes.
I can fit a 17" same as what is on car in boot/trunk.
There is a lot of room in a tiburon really
as only 1.5% bigger circumference than stock 15".
Only thing is the rims are £130 each plus shipping with no tyres!
There is a lot of room in a tiburon really
as only 1.5% bigger circumference than stock 15".
Only thing is the rims are £130 each plus shipping with no tyres!
My MGA is still(mostly) a pile of parts, but I made a significant step forward on it today-I bought the "bones" of what will be the engine in it.
The car comes with a block and head, but no crank, rods, or pistons. Fortunately, there are various other parts included, including some other necessary parts(more on that in a minute).
A 1958 MGA came with a 1500cc engine that, in stock form, outputs a bit over 50 HP. With the stock short rear end that I think 4.23:1 or so, it will scoot the ~1800lb car along well enough, although the rear end comes at a cost of top end speed(I'm too lazy to do the math, but the red line is 6K rpms, of course 4th is 1:1, and the OEM tire size is 165HR15, which works out to roughly an 82 series tire-do the math if you want to know).
After some internal wrangling about how "correct" I want the car to be, I finally decided to put an MGB engine(1800cc) in it. I didn't want just ANY MGB engine, though. There were a lot of differences between various MGB engines, mostly related to emissions, but probably the most significant one came somewhere around 1964 with a change from 3 main bearings to 5 main bearings. As far as I know, all the smaller displacement B series engines had 3 main bearings, but it was decided that this "big" 1800 engine(which is getting close to the limits for the block) was better served by 5 main bearings. The early 3 main engines are prized for being more "free revving" presumably due to the lower friction offered.
In any case, I'd discussed this a bit on the MG forum, and a few months back I got a private message from an engine builder out in Colorado. He said he had a couple of 3 main engines, named a good price for one of them, and to top it all off said that he could deliver it to Kentucky if I didn't mind waiting until October.
He piddled around a bit and rather than a complete engine, he offered a good 18GA block(a bit more desirable than the first series 18G due to better metallurgy) and associated bits and pieces.
Today was the day, and we met up in Lexington for me to get the engine from him.
The nice 18GA block as promised(he told me he usually leaves them greasy and grungy for storage to prevent rust-he offered to hot tank it for me, but I declined for the same reason).
Connecting rods original to the block
This is a poor photo, but this was the real prize-a new old stock, never used, factory replacement crankshaft
The block will get wear bored(probably .040 over) and line bored, then of course will get new pistons(stock high compression) and all the various parts needed to make a complete lower block out of. The MGA engine will donate its rear plate and flywheel(needed to make the engine mate to the MGA transmission) along with the front plate, dynamo, of course all the MGA intake and exhaust bits, and the H4 carburetors. BTW, yes I am keeping the dynamo and will most likely keep it positive earth. The engine will get fitted with a ported and polished '73-76 small chamber, big valve head(casting 12H2923, the same as I'm running on my MGB) which gives an approximate C/R of 9.5:1(8.8:1 is stock with the large chamber head and shallow dish pistons). It will then get a mild street cam that's a bit more aggressive than a stock cam, but will still give power at 2K rpms and let the engine idle at well under 1K. This combination is good for something in the neighborhood of 110-120hp-again a nice boost over 53hp from a 1500cc engine and ~90hp from a stock 1800 engine.
To add to all of that, the early block with a dynamo and H4 carbs is visually almost indistinguishable from a 1500 engine, so only someone who really knows MGAs will be able to spot the swap. Aside from the behavior of the 18G/GA/GB engines, this was a big reason why I wanted that particular engine.
The car comes with a block and head, but no crank, rods, or pistons. Fortunately, there are various other parts included, including some other necessary parts(more on that in a minute).
A 1958 MGA came with a 1500cc engine that, in stock form, outputs a bit over 50 HP. With the stock short rear end that I think 4.23:1 or so, it will scoot the ~1800lb car along well enough, although the rear end comes at a cost of top end speed(I'm too lazy to do the math, but the red line is 6K rpms, of course 4th is 1:1, and the OEM tire size is 165HR15, which works out to roughly an 82 series tire-do the math if you want to know).
After some internal wrangling about how "correct" I want the car to be, I finally decided to put an MGB engine(1800cc) in it. I didn't want just ANY MGB engine, though. There were a lot of differences between various MGB engines, mostly related to emissions, but probably the most significant one came somewhere around 1964 with a change from 3 main bearings to 5 main bearings. As far as I know, all the smaller displacement B series engines had 3 main bearings, but it was decided that this "big" 1800 engine(which is getting close to the limits for the block) was better served by 5 main bearings. The early 3 main engines are prized for being more "free revving" presumably due to the lower friction offered.
In any case, I'd discussed this a bit on the MG forum, and a few months back I got a private message from an engine builder out in Colorado. He said he had a couple of 3 main engines, named a good price for one of them, and to top it all off said that he could deliver it to Kentucky if I didn't mind waiting until October.
He piddled around a bit and rather than a complete engine, he offered a good 18GA block(a bit more desirable than the first series 18G due to better metallurgy) and associated bits and pieces.
Today was the day, and we met up in Lexington for me to get the engine from him.
The nice 18GA block as promised(he told me he usually leaves them greasy and grungy for storage to prevent rust-he offered to hot tank it for me, but I declined for the same reason).
Connecting rods original to the block
This is a poor photo, but this was the real prize-a new old stock, never used, factory replacement crankshaft
The block will get wear bored(probably .040 over) and line bored, then of course will get new pistons(stock high compression) and all the various parts needed to make a complete lower block out of. The MGA engine will donate its rear plate and flywheel(needed to make the engine mate to the MGA transmission) along with the front plate, dynamo, of course all the MGA intake and exhaust bits, and the H4 carburetors. BTW, yes I am keeping the dynamo and will most likely keep it positive earth. The engine will get fitted with a ported and polished '73-76 small chamber, big valve head(casting 12H2923, the same as I'm running on my MGB) which gives an approximate C/R of 9.5:1(8.8:1 is stock with the large chamber head and shallow dish pistons). It will then get a mild street cam that's a bit more aggressive than a stock cam, but will still give power at 2K rpms and let the engine idle at well under 1K. This combination is good for something in the neighborhood of 110-120hp-again a nice boost over 53hp from a 1500cc engine and ~90hp from a stock 1800 engine.
To add to all of that, the early block with a dynamo and H4 carbs is visually almost indistinguishable from a 1500 engine, so only someone who really knows MGAs will be able to spot the swap. Aside from the behavior of the 18G/GA/GB engines, this was a big reason why I wanted that particular engine.
Well picked up second Tiburon ("coupe" in my country).
The black one is mine and got the silver one today, for FREE!
The black one is mine and got the silver one today, for FREE!
Buy one get one free?Well picked up second Tiburon ("coupe" in my country).
The black one is mine and got the silver one today, for FREE!
I have had my black coupe since March.
Bought for £250 with 6 months mot, and passed it's last mot with only 3 advisories.
We saved the silver one from going to car park in sky.
As only 20 automatic transmission gen1 F2 models left in UK.
So now my fiancee has a gen1 and I love my gen2.
I am also Cornwall area rep for the owner club!
Bought for £250 with 6 months mot, and passed it's last mot with only 3 advisories.
We saved the silver one from going to car park in sky.
As only 20 automatic transmission gen1 F2 models left in UK.
So now my fiancee has a gen1 and I love my gen2.
I am also Cornwall area rep for the owner club!
I love this post so much, I wish I had the time and space to do a full restoration, build, etc.
this is one my projects...
Since this photo new front end has been fabricated by hand as no panels off shelf for this car!
Since this photo new front end has been fabricated by hand as no panels off shelf for this car!
That's fantastic, you should keep this thread more up to date with your progress.
Seeing a BMC/MOWOG A block does my heart good
I've posted plenty of B blocks in this thread and know the engine fairly well, but everything still looks very familiar on an A.
BTW, what's the carb set up on that? It looks like an HIF from your photo. Do they use a single HIF-4 to feed the 1300?
I've never seen or heard of that car lol. I like HP. How's the interior?
Unfortunately, I'm not equipped to do body work, so that's all being "outsourced" to a local shop that actually found and drug the car out of the barn. Still, I'm "steering the ship" so to speak and I'm going to be the one to track down some critical parts.
As an example, when we first started talking, my resto guy was pushing a walnut burl dashboard. It was appealing to him, I'm sure, since he thought it seemed very "British" and also is a readily available item.
The original dash would have been steel painted the body color(and padded on top with the interior color). When I showed him a few pictures of what the color combo I'm going for looks like, I pretty quickly swayed him toward the metal dash. Still, that leaves me with the task of trying to find one.
The engine will be entirely my baby, though. I've done my fair share of mechanical work-both top and bottom end-on these engines, but I've never taken one apart to a bare block, much less put it together. Granted I WILL have to outsource the machining, but then I don't know of that many pro engine builders(much less a guy doing it in his garage) who do their own machine work. I can/have used a Dingleberry brush to hone/cross hatch bores before, but that's as deep as I've gone into at-home machining.
BTW, the block I just bought shows cross-hatching. I need to ask the guy I bought it from if he did that in the course of cleaning it up-if it's factory cross hatching this is definitely a low mileage block.
lol... Yes, I've heard of a Ford Taurus. I've never heard of that particular V6-powered monster. I've yet to see one on the road in So Cal.