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MG TD TF 1500 - St Patrick's Day Parade

I washed and waxed Lily Christine IV and cleaned the chrome and the glass. Everything seems to be running nicely and I've got her running in the carport to see how warm she gets after an hour or so.
We are slated to be in the Tucson St. Patrick's Day Parade on Sunday (if all goes well, knock on my head) and I promise to post photos!!
Geoffrey M Baker

Well, the parade went... as parades do. It started off wonderfully, an easy drive across town and then we sat and talked and hung out till the parade started. One grueling hour later, having driven about half a mile in the heat, the water temp got to about 220, nothing bad, and then suddenly at the last corner it raced a little bit, and then cut out. We stopped, let it cool, and tried again and it did the same thing, immediately racing a bit, then dying. We pushed it past the finish line (to cheers) and parked in a friends driveway. With jumper cables we discovered that the battery was fine, the fuel pump wasn't a problem, she just didn't want to turn over more than half a turn. Sinking feeling...
I had her towed home and pulled the head. Nothing terrible there, and I could watch as I used the starter to turn her over, and did not see any signs of damage to the cylinders or cylinder heads; but same issue, she only wanted to make half a turn before dying.
My thinking is a damaged bearing? Something is requiring a lot more force than usual to turn the crankshaft, but we have heard no horrible breaking noises or thunks or sudden freezing... Anyway tomorrow I will drain the engine, pull the sump off, remove the pistons, and have a good look at the inside.
Any thoughts?
Anyway here are some pictures to cheer ME up...


Geoffrey M Baker

Some beauty queens passing by wanted to pose...


Geoffrey M Baker

And the conclusion:


Geoffrey M Baker

Geoffrey -

I feel terrible for you. Your car was decked out perfectly for St Paddy's. BRG ... no finer color for the event.

I hope that you can squeeze that little rogue leprechaun out of your engine before he does any major damage. I'm sure that members of the BBS can guide you in the right direction.

Now I understand why the members of our MG club almost kicked me out when I suggested that we enter some parades around the Orlando area. I've done one parade in my '54 Chevy pickup. It was a lot of fun waving to the crowd and throwing candy to the kids. But the truck is configured as a mid-50's work truck and can run in first gear all day long and still stay at 160-deg F.

Good luck. Keep us posted.

Lonnie
TF7211
LM Cook

Before you pull the sump, have you tried to turn the engine over with the starter handle?? Do you get the same resistance? This will eliminate any problems that might be associated with the starter motor,,

You said >>she only wanted to make half a turn before dying<< do you mean that it actually ran ?? or it just cranked for a half turn???
Steve
Steve Wincze

That's why I stopped doing our July 4th parade! Good luck.
Ed
efh Haskell

I'm going to start this in a new link because I think the title should reflect the subject (now it's engine failure, and I meant it to be just pictures of the parade) and because I think a lot of knowledgeable people who might want to chip in might not be reading about parades anyway. Thanks for the input so far...
Geoffrey M Baker

This thread was discussed between 13/03/2015 and 16/03/2015

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