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MG parts spares and accessories are available for MG T Series (TA, MG TB, MG TC, MG TD, MG TF), Magnette, MGA, Twin cam, MGB, MGBGT, MGC, MGC GT, MG Midget, Sprite and other MG models from British car spares company LBCarCo.

MG MGA - Water in the oil

1588cc recently fitted with a 1622 Burgess head. Took her for a short run to check the rebuilt carbs. Lost power on a gentle incline and got her quickly home but billowing blue smoke. Water low and oil level too high. I guess it must be the cylinder head gasket. Are there other idiosyncrasies to investigate ?
Roger Walker

Sounds like bad luck Roger.
Pull the dipstick out, if the oil has water in it, it will likely have a creamy look about it
Graham V

Good advice - thanks. It hasn't had time to get creamy yet but water there is. The problem now is to find the right gasket - the one on it at the moment is copper - in the past, I have used Payen but they no longer make them for our cars - need to find another composite type.
Roger Walker

My friend Roger Martins car suffered a head-gasket failure on our way up to Ullapool and the Outer Hebrides. The main symptoms of the failure were a misfire and lots of white smoke out of the exhaust. The gasket failed between cylinder 1 and 2 which allowed coolant into number two and this kind of steam cleaned the top of the piston. See link below to a YouTube clip of us tackling this job in the hotel car park in Stornaway.
https://studio.youtube.com/video/BY5MCWAZz6s/edit

Cheers
Colyn
Colyn Firth

Colyn, that was bad luck too.

Interesting reminder from Peter Burgess for anyone chasing a Payen cylinder head gasket for the A, they are identical to other B series engines most notably the MGB. MGOC and MGB Hive each have it in stock.
Hope you won't need one just yet.
Roger
Roger Walker

Thanks for the info Roger, I need a replacement Payen gasket for my 1950cc engine ( I recently used my spare Payen when I had some head work done)

I will give MGB Hive a call

Cheers
Colyn
Colyn Firth

Colyn
Is that a typo?
I thought you had a stock of 6 head gaskets in your mobile MGA warehouse
Graham V

Hi Graham,

I must admit that I usually begin to panic when I get down to single figures in one item in my spare parts. But because we have scarcely been allowed to go anywhere in the MGA over the last two years, I have not felt the urgency to send for replacements.

Over the years, I have though been caught out a couple of times by the suitability (or lack of) of the spares I do carry though.

I needed to replace a fan belt a couple of years ago, but when I tried to replace it, it turned out to be too short to fit and I had to borrow the correct one from my friend Roger Martin. The worst thing was that I had been carrying that fan belt as a spare for over 10 years!

A similar thing happened when I had to change a set of oiled up spark plugs, the new plugs were fine but the spark plug socket was the wrong size to fit them and I had to borrow a spanner to make the change.

Again I had been carrying that spark plug socket in my tool roll for 10 years without realising that it wouldn't fit.

I plan to go through both my tool-rolls and all the spares to see if what I have will actually fit the car.

Cheers
Colyn



Colyn Firth

Colyn
I remember in the old days, they used to say don't worry if your fan belt breaks just find an accommodating lady and ask her to remove one of her stockings for the purpose.
It never happened to me and I'm not sure if it would work.
And anyway if, in my youth, I had found an accommodating lady, I certainly would not have bothered worrying about my fan belt!
Graham V

This reminds me of those that insist on having and carrying a spare (wheel) tyre (and jack and brace) but when I check the spare tyre, or when they need to use it, the tyre is flat and they don't have a foot pump (which I carry instead of spare tyre).

Colyn,
when you are making your servicing and preventative changes of parts those are the ones you should keep as spares (if you really must) as you know they did at least work when last fitted and that they do fit (unless you change what they fitted).

In my 45 years of driving and passengering experience I've never heard of a fan belt breaking, though I have seen emergency fan belts (IIRC red plastic thing). I know of the stockings for fan belts but when I was young girls didn't wear stockings.

There were the dances (with dance bands) with spot prizes for things like first "chap" to bring a pair of stockings/tights(?) to the stage, and then anyone with a full set of black teeth.


Nigel Atkins

Well - I will certainly make room for a head gasket if I ever take the A overseas again. The philosophy runs on the lines of a spare being the best form of insurance that it won't be needed.In more years of motoring than I care to remember I have only needed; water (MGA) top hose (morris minor)fuses (MGBV8 and Peugeot cabriolet) accelerator cable (MGB1800)pedal spring (MGBV8)spare wheel (Peugeot 504 estate and the caravan). For France in the BMW or MG a sparewheel is essential - and for the BMW with four coils ontop of the cylinders in the 2Ltr N43 engine we carry four spare coils.
Yes, I do resent giving up bootspace in the BMW but the total cost of using BMW's glue kit and pump is painful (even if it works). In short, I am with Colyn - reasonably insured.
Roger

Roger Walker

Colyn,

I had a problem with that youtube URL you posted but by fiddling with it a bit was able to view the video - very impressive 4.5 hr fix!

Here is the URL I used:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BY5MCWAZz6s

- Ken
KR Doris

Roger
Have you pulled the head off yet--
I'm a bit interested-
Did you fit the head and rebuilt carbs at the same time or has the car been running previously with the new head
Any pics of the blown gasket--?
Interesting combo of a 1622 head on a 1600
Are you running flat top pistons or was the head modded to suit dished 1600 pistons-
willy
William Revit

Well done Ken.

I've seen the video before, reminds me of younger times of tipping Redex into the carbs just to see the exhaust smoke or fill you mate's car with smoke as he's parked behind with the windows down.
Nigel Atkins

Roger,
in spite of me carrying all the spares, there always seems to be something I have forgotten!
We later discovered that we had 3 spare head gaskets between the 4 MGAs (and one MGF) that took part on the trip, but none of us had thought to carry a torque wrench and a scraper. Fortunately, we found a local motorist discount centre in Stornaway who sold them.

So, yes, I do now carry a torque wrench and scraper on my longer trips, hope I never need it though.

Thanks Ken for sorting out the YouTube link, I posted it in a hurry and it was from my YouTube Studio page instead of from the regular YouTube pages.

The 4.5 hours gasket swap was down to having three of us working on the car and passing tools etc, but it would have been even quicker if one of us hadn't got carried away and removed the heater control valve from the head, I think it must have added at least 30 minutes to the re-fit. And yes, it was me!

But we did stop for a sandwich and a cup of tea during that time.

Here is another Youtube clip from the Hebrides trip, which illustrates the dangers of parking your MGA beneath a tree when you are near to the sea!
I think this one works.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w4OLjo9AnjU

Cheers
Colyn



Colyn Firth

This thread was discussed between 02/02/2022 and 09/02/2022

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