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MG MGA - Battery and oil

I thought this might be of use.
I have just returned from my annual pilgrimage to France in my MGA. This year we covered 2500 miles fully loaded with the wife and all we needed for a 2 week holiday.

From year to year we do have small breakdowns and this year was no exception. Half way through the holiday one morning pulled the starter cable and a moan from the starter motor suggested the battery was flat. Fortunately I was able to get a jump start from a very friendly French man and decided a new battery was needed.

Now the point of this message. Because I am always broke I modified my battery box to take an 063 battery which is the most common and therefore the cheapest battery available in the UK. This was a very lucky decision as a replacement battery in France was also easy to find. I am therefore pleased that I got rid of my 2 6 volt batteries and also did not replace them with a special. A point that others may want to consider when modifying.

Secondly I would normally get through about a gallon of oil on such a journey. This year though I had machined my valve guides to take modern stem seals and the result was staggering. I did not need to top up my oil at all and in fact the level has hardly dropped at all on the stick!!!

For Steve's information I averaged 33.4 MPG during the trip and I apparently have one of those fuel gobbling 45 webers, perhaps mine is set up correctly :-))
Bob (robert) Midget Turbo

Here is a picture of one of our stops


Bob (robert) Midget Turbo

Good MPG Bob. Was the shed a comfortable stopover?!

Steve
Steve Gyles

Bob
I seem to recall that you are still using the MGA gearbox, but what differential are you using 4:3 or 3:9 to get such good MPG?

Regards...John

J Bray

Bob, did you fit the new seals to all valves or just the inlets?

Neil
Neil McGurk

Neil I did both the exhaust and the inlet. Many years ago I had run an A Series engine on a road car with only inlet seals and the oil consumption was very poor.

Hi John, I have fitted a 3.9 diff and vac advance to the distributor direct from the manifold.

Steve the shed was wonderful NOT! :-)
Bob (robert) Midget Turbo

Bob, Looks like you had a good trip and the modern oil seal adaption sounds worth while - are details of this posted somewhere? cheers Cam
Cam Cunningham

This thread was discussed between 03/09/2008 and 04/09/2008

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