The checks I mentioned in the previous post about this 1967 MGB showed up a few things, as you can probably make out from the photo. I looked into the quitting problem first, starting out with the distributor, and found that the top of the rotor arm was black with soot and the tip of the carbon contact in the distributor was worn away, the likely cause of which was a poor quality condensor. Just for the sake it I carried out a compression test, cylinders 1 through 4 came out with 150, 70, 90 & 160 and as the valves weren't being held open there was nothing for it but to take the cylinder head off to see what lay beneath. Basically the engine is worn out, the bores were very shiny, heavily lipped at the top and the gap between piston and bore is so big you can clearly see the piston rings. Today I pulled what was left of the engine, it looked like it hasn't been out, or even apart, for many years. Tomorrow I'll strip the rest of it down and start to plan the rebuild. Reconditioned engines are 'available' but as the warranty is somewhat paultry and they take 8 weeks to deliver I'll be rebuilding this in house.
AFTER finding the ‘right’ MGB, provenance, colour, era, price – I soon also had to find the right classic car craftsman.
Having little to no mechanical ability means finding the right person to nurse your car back to mechanical health is vital.
And stumbling across Chris on Lancaster and Morecambe Classic Car’s Facebook page proved an excellent find. He talks to me at my level, makes sensible suggestions around modifications and importantly politely ‘parks’ some of my unhelpful suggestions.
The MGB arrived seemingly working fine but was cutting out after a 40 minute or so run, and the firing after a 10-minute hiatus.
The previous decent, honest owner who was a very skilled motor engineer replaced the fuel pump and…