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MG MGA - Which is cylinder #1

It appears that my distributor is set up so that the rearmost cylinder (closest to bulkhead) is #1.

However I was looking at some motors in clausager and it appears those motors are set up so that the foremost cylinder is labeled #1.

I can't find a reference in either the workshop or the owners manual as to which is considered #1.
Tysen

Tysen. The cylinder nearest the front of the engine is number one, followed by number two, three, and four as you proceed rearwards (towards the back of the car). Remember that the engine is a four stroke engine and the crankshaft will demonstrate top dead center, and various degrees before same, twice, on each stroke. Watch your valves. When the intake valve closes (second from front of the engine), you are on the compression stroke for number one cylinder, the one you are timing off of.

Les
Les Bengtson

#1 is the foremost cylinder. It sounds to me as though your distributor drive has been incorrectly assembled at some point in the past. This simply means that the plug wires on your car are not in the original factory position. This is very common and is nothing to worry about as long as the car is running well.
The Wiz

Simplest way is to relabel the leads from the distrubtor! i.e. the one from the distributor to the front plug relabel as 1. etc.

Steve
Steve Gyles

Tysen,
They sell neat little tags that you can put on each lead to the sparkplugs, I have seen both metal and plastic. THey are numbered one thru four ( or 6 or 8 depending how many cylinders that you have ) and just clamp onto the wires-- makes it really easy when you have them all off and are wondering which one goes to which plug. Moss sells them but so do most auto parts places.. This would not be they way the factory delivered the car, and would probably cost points at a Concourse de'elegance, but it sure makes life a lot easier.
FWIW
/ gil
P.S. maybe the last guy that fiddled with the ignition was a Jaguar mechanic--- they had the number one cylinder in the back. ( It took me a day and half to discover that )
gil

Maybe your engine runs counter clockwise, check your gearbox, I reckon you've got 4 reverse gears


Will
Will Brace

The mga twin cam uses #4 cylinder on compression to set both the camshafts and ignition timing. Counted from the front.
The really odd one is the Triumph Stag V8 engine which uses #2. Figure that out.

Mick
Mick Anderson

This thread was discussed between 29/06/2006 and 30/06/2006

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