Saturday, May 11, 2013

Slow, Slow, Stop,Go !

Another confusing title ?
Well what else would you expect from good ole Lostsock.

Very little progress has been made this year. Mostly due to the weather ( winter !!) However now the summers here its time to get a move on.
There are only two things to possibly prevent this :-
                                                                                     a/. The Weather
                                                                                     b/. Money
there is also another possibility, work. Our Rota's been changed to a 38 week cycle with supposedly more weekends off, fewer night shifts and less 7 day continuous shifts. Six weeks in and it feels a lot worse than it looks on paper. Maybe I just chose a crap place to start and I know the two people responsible for the rota worked very hard to make it fair/better or that we are still understaffed by 20%. Rant over, back to things MG.

I left the MG in a bad state engine wise tuther winter which saw last summers engine start up mix oil and water together (again) after head re-skim, pressure test, block head stud hole chamfer  and new Payen gasket. So, I've had all winter to re-think after some considerable considering a new/refurbed/second hand "good"/complete engine out/rebuild thinking it may be that the block is cracked.

After some discussions with knowledgeable people I've come to the following conclusion.
Cast Iron blocks rarely crack hence the design of core plugs. Twas the discovery of two leaking ones that lead me to suspect a cracked block in the first place, the oil/water mix confirmed this after the head skim.
I was wrong.
 It is more likely that the head studs have " bottomed out" or some dirt got between when fitting the head. So, come time off of more than one day that coincides with a dry wind free day and wife has not nagged about some doom laden urgent DIY task to be done, I'll start on the engine.

Firstly is a good tidy up of the driveway then to the cars inside where all my tools and stuff are stored.
What prompted the post is that I've just done a big spurt of DIY garden related stuff viz :- removed front fence to be painted by wifey ( done, waiting purchase of new fence posts and me/son1 to refit) chopped down three large conifers and took to dump-it site (70% wifey 30% me). In a fit and flurry of "got to do it now" from wifey, she's been a blur of activity and arranged a professional tree surgeon to remove the huge Douglas Fir tree in the back garden ( and take it away) and he needs good access along the driveway to his tree munching machine. So since the MG has developed flat tyres at the front and he said it needs to be "repositioned" out of the way of lumberjack type blokes with chainsaws, a local garage put wind in them for me. A very helpful chap he was too and a classic car enthusiast ( He has a 2.8 Capri). The local fillings stations wind machine that just emits continuous burps of 20/30 psi just wouldn't do the job. Helpful chappies machine give 150 psi max,  and he did it for free.

To keep it interesting here's a shot of the "Mix" Opposite # 4 cylinder.


and the new Black Payen gasket before head fitting.



 I hit a crappy section of the Rota now which means lots of 4-12pm shifts with midweek days off. So wish me luck that fate, the weather, Wifey becomes nagless kind/ charming and enthusiasm/wisdom returns. Sounds like the strapline for "The Perfect Storm".......Hahaha......int life great !