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MG Midget and Sprite Technical - One of those days...

Picked up the midget from its garage today to get ready for the Hughes rally on Sunday - lots of smoke from the exhaust. Compressions are 400,100,100,400. Head gasket I suppose..
d brenchley

Sounds likely. That's tomorrow's job sorted then!
Rob Armstrong

That should have read 140 not 400.
Head off and burnt between 2 and 3, can only find 948 gaskets in the box so will be out shopping first thing tomorrow...
d brenchley

Well I thought i'd cracked it - new gasket (metro turbo), all back together, run up to temp and then cooled down before torquing down again. Run up and the smoke is back. Whitish smoke that smells slightly oily(?), compressions all good (150). Buggered if I know.
d brenchley

O.K. expect I'll get shot down in flames here but:
Assuming the head gasket has been going/ gone for some time(started having trouble idling some time ago but was more worried about the gearbox at the time) have I filled the exhaust with incomplete products of combustion?
Only smokes when hot.
Breather working fine and all clear.
Plugs are "normal"
No pools of oil/water on top of pistons.
Maybe an early morning run down the motorway is called for..
d brenchley

Sounds reasonable to me mate

What I want to know is where did you get a Metro Turbo head gasket? I have never seen such a thing? Would love to know ? As all the ones I have seen (payen) are standard metro gaskets
Robert (Bob) Midget Turbo

Bill Richards - at least thats what was on the packet....
d brenchley

have you got the time to gt the head skimmed, or at least checked for flatness ?
p bentley

Sorry to be a pain but could you tell me what the manufacturer was and what was the gasket number?
I am very curious?
Robert (Bob) Midget Turbo

Bob - the gaskets I received in the past which came Unipart packeted and labelled as Metro Turbo were in fact BK450.
Paul Walbran

Bob,
Sorry all packing in the bin, but Paul is probably right about the number.
Head is flat by rule and lamp.
Still smokes after a 30 mile run so will be off again at the weekend for a really good eyeballing, guide seals being plan a.
d brenchley

Yes thats right Paul and as you know the BK450 is just the normal everyday Payen A series headgasket.

The only reason I ask is that I always explain to people that a special gasket does not exist for the turbo engine and I would hate to be giving enthusiasts incorrect information :)
Bob Turbo Midget England

Exactly!
Though IIRC when it was intordoduced as the "heavy duty Turbo gasket" Unitpart was suppying something as a "standard" 1275 gasket. But that might just be my crappy memory because it was quite a few years ago ...
Paul Walbran

Though I doubt whter mu memory is as crappy as my typing :-)
Paul Walbran

This thread was discussed between 25/05/2012 and 31/05/2012

MG Midget and Sprite Technical index

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