MG-Cars.net

Welcome to our resource for MG Car Information.

Recommendations

Parts

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 TD TF 1500 - Stalling when hot

My 53 TD runs great for about 30 minutes then it stalls out and won't restart until it cools down to about 80cen. then it is fine for about the same time period.? Timing? Too lean? Vapor Lock? Too Rich? carbs not in sync.? any advice.. Thanks peter
peter jengo

Your problem sounds very much like vapor lock, which of coulrse is caused by too much heat in the engine compartment. Most often, vapor lock occurs in the passage between the float bowl and the carburetor. A heat sheild between the exhaust manifold and the carburetor float bowls will minimize this, but it doesn't completely cure the problem (e-mail me for pictures and instructions on making a heat shield to fit with the ZPAG engines. theother thing to look at is the angle of the slats in the grill. To often, we close the slats too far to show off the nice paint job on them. They should be aligned so that they produce the least amount of obstruction tothe air flow through the radiator - you should be able to see the radiator plainly through the slats. Cheers- Dave
David DuBois

hello peter, david is, as always, right on the money. i would also ask when was the last time your radiator was serviced? how much paint is on the radiator? is the engine timed correctly? are the valves properly set? are your carbs set up properly? is the coolant at the proper level? as you probably know, all of these things can contribute to creating heat under the hood. eliminate these factors...the engine runs cooler...less heat under the bonnet..less vapor lock. regards, tom
tm peterson

You don't mention what your temp gauge indicates when the problem occurs, that would be helpful.

I used to have heating problems, and the biggest contributor was that someone added a heater connection at the back of the head, in the cover plate. When I got the car, the car, the heater was out, but they ran a hose from the the back of the head to the radiator tank. The affect of this was to bypass cooling the head properly. I put it back to normal and it is much cooler and more stable (temp wise).

The other things was that the radiator slats on my car almost completely blocked the radiator. I bent them (after seeing some original ones on ebay that had some more angle to them), so that they funneled more air to the radiator. A big help.

regards,
Larry
Larry Ayres

Peter, yes, vapor lock is common on the T-series cars, but I have never heard of it causing stalling. I have really overheated and boiled my TD, but it never stalled at all. Most common vapor lock with my personal car is after shutting off for a few minutes causing the float bowl gas to boil off. It will still run, just really poorly for a couple minutes. First determine if ignition or fuel. When it stalls, check for spark. A weak coil or bad condenser can fail when it gets hot. Likewise a failing fuel pump. If you have spark, carefully remove the float bowl lids and see if ther is fuel or not. If not, it could be pump trouble. George
George Butz

peter, i should have included one additional item...brakes...if your brakes are a draggin' the motor is working harder which will also result in more heat under the bonnet. regards, tom
tm peterson

Peter,
I agree with George, I haven't heard of vapor lock stalling and engine,,, I would running the car untill it stalls out, then check the plugs. Their condition will tell you if it is a fuel problem or an ignition problem.

SPW
Steve Wincze

I've had stalling problems in my TF 1500 - once it was caused by vapor lock that occured during a parade, was going way too slow, got reallly hot and stalled out, but that only happened once. I installed a heat shield modified from an MGA piece, had the head "flowed" and avoid parades - that problem has not repeated.

Another stalling problem occurred later on, very similar to what Peter described, car ran great until warmed up, then stalled - it was not even hot. Turned out my distributor was so worn that I was loosing the ground of the iginition as the distributor housing expanded when it warmed up. I added a ground wire from the housing to the block which kept me running until I was able to get the distributor rebushed. That one had me totally baffled for some time.

Joe B
Joe Buchmiller

Peter,

I had a similiar problem. I received information from Bud Krueger that led me to believe the problem was in my distributor. If you have a distributor with points and condenser inside the heat from the engine passes into the distributor housing and does strange things to the condenser. I put a pertronix ignitor in my distributor in place of points......problem gone.

j
J FLESHMAN

Is it not fair to assume we can buy condensers that are fine in the heat? Do we have to buy them in bulk to find a good one? One could buy a few for the cost of a Pertronics.
Tom

This thread was discussed between 17/06/2007 and 24/06/2007

MG TD TF 1500 index

This thread is from the archive. The Live MG TD TF 1500 BBS is active now.