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MG Midget and Sprite Technical - Head gasket. 1275 Wire between the bores.

Watch this Janspeed video. At 58 seconds in, the builder uses evostick glue to place fuse wire between the bores.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XEaRMR-RZPo

Here's a still from the video.








Lawrence Slater

Yeah...thats a popular mod if the area.between the cly is bad

Im not sure what fuse wire is ...ive always heard it should should be a copper wire strand...but what gauge I dont know

Prop
Prop and the Blackhole Midget

Strange to see all that work done with no swearing, almost sacrilegious. :-)

Excellent vid...Thanks for sharing it!
Steven Devine

Prop.

Fuse wire is tinned copper wire, used mainly for protecting electric circuits when using rewireable fuses.

I have the head off the midget, investigating 150psi on 3, compared to 190/200 on 1,2 and 4. I've got leaky valves in 3, but noticed the usual 2/3 signs of hg leaking. So I might give this wire trick a go.
Lawrence Slater

It cant hurt...peter burguess is a fan of this idea, and done it several times, id imagine he have some insight

Prop
Prop and the Blackhole Midget

Prop ha ha ha ha..... headgaskets Ba ha ha ha ha ha ha
Steven Devine

Seriously?! And people mock the 1500 engine? Ha ha

:-)

Malcolm
M Le Chevalier

I just want to retract my last post about props head gasket... I think he will be ok but I know he is struggling with a new product he bought. Anyway just dont want to rain on his parade till he knows his car is ok!:-)
Steven Devine

Rain away steven,

I can use the humor

Prop
Prop and the Blackhole Midget

This is appalling.

I bother to post a serious thread, on an interesting subject, and all some people can do is drift and mock.

Go fishing if you want to drift please. ;).
Lawrence Slater

To get back to topic - the video shows a copper gasket being used. Would this tip work with the more normal black (MG Turbo) gasket) indeed does it matter what type of gasket is used?
Chris Hasluck

I have heard of it being used too, no drifting here Lawrence! (Don't think my half shafts would stand it...oops sorry.)

I would think it a viable technique whatever type of gasket is involved, realistically it is adding a 'little something' to the thinnest part of the surface area in an area we all know can be problematic.

Maybe Peter B will expound when he gets back on here after his winterbreak. ;)
Bill1

Ive never seen this trick.with a copper HG, its always with the composits.... I have a gut feel this wont do as well with a copper HG.

I saw some leaves in a puddle of water the other day, just "drifting" along

Prop
Prop and the Blackhole Midget

OK, ok, you wanna drift on my parade, feel free lol.

How about "Ramblin Man", "They Call me the Breeze", "I've Been Everywhere", and "Free Bird" for starters?

On topic, I'm guessing it would work on any gasket too. And apart from the glue used in the video, I assume the gasket stops the wire from drifting as well. ;)
Lawrence Slater

, I assume the gasket stops the wire from drifting as well. ;)

Thats why I dont think a copper gasket would work as well, I think the copper would be to prone to "drifting aimlessly" around and not addicly hold and seal the copper strand in place
Prop and the Blackhole Midget

Wow, I recognize the style Lawrence is posting in....but I just cant think of who it could be...
Hmmm....?
Steven Devine

Never drift aimlessly, always be a bum with a purpose. ;).

And when I come to put the head back on the Midget, if it blows again, I'll let you know what happened to the wire. I'll probably use a black payen though.
Lawrence Slater

Ah, Payen, good stuff at 2nd attempt for me. Who needs wire with such a gasket?
Dave Squire 1500

Nobody has yet said what gauge wire is used. I've got a pack of fuse wire with 5amp (thickness of a human hair), 15amp (thickness of cotton thread and 30amp (far too thick I would think). Which is used - the 5amp or 15amp?
Chris Hasluck

Looking at the still photo in the original post it could be 15A.

Certainly not 30AMP. As you say, much too much.
Bill1

Chris... theres the $1,000,000 dollar question... no one seems to really know

Fused copper wire...I dont think im a fan of this idea, ive been thinking about this and my fear, that the tin coating would melt off and find a new home to take up residence and probably not in a good place

Also once the tin coating found a new home after it melt, id think it could leave a wiggle room void between the now naked copper strand and the headgasket....ill let your imagination run wild and let you guess what that could mean

Does anyone know the melting point on tin.on fused wire and what the running temp is for that small spot between the cly.

Prop
Prop and the Blackhole Midget

Tin http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tin
melting point 231.9C so I think if it melts you've got other issues to deal with,
David Billington

232 C. Converts to just under 450 F for the rest of the civilied modern world...lol

Thanks david , it should be good to go with tin fused copper wire...my normal engine temp is 160 to 180 F

I think with tin coated it would adhire even better to composit gasket like payen

Prop
Prop and the Blackhole Midget

<<Converts to just under 450 F for the rest of the civilied modern world...lol>>

I assume that's a joke as you're rather out numbered http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fahrenheit gives 6 countries and a few US territories that still use Fahrenheit as the official temperature measurement unit the US being the only country of significant size.

I get the impression that the US is slowly being metricated by stealth. When I lived in the US, for 12 years up until 1982 you just would not find metric fasteners in a hardware store yet I read that now they're commonplace. I guess as much is made for a world market metric make sense and you need metric fasteners to repair thing made abroad or for the global market.
David Billington

Yes that was meant loving as a joke

At.one point in time we were becoming meticnized...but not as much today as in the mid 90s

Metric hardware is very common mainly due to so much import

The other common area is soda pop size a big bottle is 2 liter, 1 liter and 1/2 liter also water diving is in meters alot

But we still dominatly. Use mile acres yards, feet inchs ....pounds, ounces, table spoons and Fahrenheits as measurments

I think we have abandoned a metrics system because of our intentional dumbing down of our education system by out poloticians...basic charts of our USA place in the world of childrens knowledge can confirm that...in math and physical science vietnam children kicks our usa kids butts

Prop
Prop and the Blackhole Midget

Prop,

I found it odd looking back that all the science I did in the US in school was exclusively metric and if I had stayed in the US and done engineering there I would have had to learn the inch system of engineering units such a foot, poundals, and slugs instead on metres, kg, newtons etc. IIRC the US adopted SI metric units for all science teaching in the mid 1960s but industry stayed largely with the old units. One guy I went to uni with mentioned that he did work experience at a US engineering company doing work for NASA using the old units and he said it was the first time he had run across them and it was painful.
David Billington

David,

In a word.... its political and its getting worse. I cant imagin being a modern day scientist here in the usa, its so out of control the influance that politics has over math and logic

speaking about nasa it wasnt to many years ago that nasa lost a mars satellite because someone didnt make the conversion from metrics to SAE ...no telling how many Billions of dollars was lost that day

Prop

Prop and the Blackhole Midget

This thread was discussed between 28/12/2013 and 05/01/2014

MG Midget and Sprite Technical index

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