mgbv8 wrote:
THE COPPER HEAD GASKETS HAVE ARRIVED
And they failed after 5 seconds and pessurised the water system
After only getting ther engine back together at 9pm last night I came very close to unhooking the trailer with the MG on it and driving home, never to return to the Pod..
Luckily I have good mates around me and I stepped back for a tea break to rethink and walk away from the frame of mind I was in before I did something stupid. So after a civilised tea break in Skoda Steve's new car trailer / mobile home wagon I calmed down.
I guessed the sealant I used was not good enough. I rang my Son and asked him to drop off the torque wrench and some spare gaskets. I undid the first jubillee clip to drain the coolant system at 10.45am. By the time my Son arrived at 12 the engine was stripped and the heads ready to come off. My Son Jason then got the heads off while I rested my tweaked back by laying flat out in the back of his Transit van. I very nearly fitted a set of stock comp gaskets. But I had promised that I would test these copper gaskets and I dont break my promises. Obviously Hylomar was not up to the job at hand. So I rummaged in the back of the truck and found a tube of 250C rated boiler flue mastic sealant. This is what we use on flue pipe joints.
I cleaned everything up spotless and ran a 1mm bead around all the holes on the gasket and set it on the block. I did the same to the heads and set them on the gaskets. Initial nip down was 50 ft/lb. Then after 10 mins 60ft/lbs. Then after 20 mins 70ft/lbs. Then after 1 hour 78ft/lbs.
Me and Jason put everything back together and at 3.45pm I turned the key. She burst into life and idled nicely. I let it warm at idle to 70C while checking for leaks and for bubbles in the coolant. All was well and I shut her down. Between 3.45pm and 5.45pm I let her idle to 70C and then cool to 30C. The last test fire of the day saw me gewntly building revs and then giving short WOT bursts with no problems. That was enough for me. I'm happy that in the morning I should be able to run on the strip with no problems. I'm going to run as early as possible because if she breaks I want it to be by 11.30am. This will give me time to rebuild by 4pm to try again.
Now the Show stuff!!
Between my Son arriving and starting the engine we took short break to watch the Drag Racing and handling circuit runs. It was a really good day out to be honest. A great variety of cars on site. And all the guys we met were petrolheads.. The old MG got a lot of attention and folk could not believe that we were actually doing a top end rebuild in the pits on the trailer
We got a good few thumbs up and respect when folk heard the MG fire up in the afternoon and saw that it seemed to be ok.
I'll let Steve comment on the antics of the 2 Skoda's from today. But the one thing I will say is: The Skoda boys just laugh in the face of problems and keep on racing
They drop ice cubes down the back of bad luck.... They see the bringer of engine doom and gloom arrive...... And they just give him a wedgie and keep on racing anyway
As well as the PPC challenge, the folk from 5th gear were on site filming as well. So we may even get on the telly again
