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Day 2 of 4 (originally 7) – heading to the South East (ish) with some stops along the way…
A nice short commute this morning into Ely where it was good, as always, to see Philip, this time for work on his new acquisition, a 1998 MGF 143 (in paint code JRJ). He’d bought the car knowing that it had a few issues, including the inevitable head gasket failure, and hadn’t even heard it running, but thought he’d take a punt on it, given that it’s a VVC with not a massive amount of miles on the clock, plus it was a bit of a bargain.
So this morning we set about with our investigations. We had a spark, we had fuel, someone had fitted new HT leads, so we checked that they had been connected correctly for the firing order, we then discovered that the timing was completely out, the exhaust-cam was three teeth advanced and the inlet-cam was three teeth retarded. With concerns that there may be valve damage we set about taking everything apart.
A Mk II elastomer gasket was fitted, and there had been quite a bit of heat in there, as the cam-cover gasket was completely delaminated. However, we were very pleased to find that the valves were all in tact. We found that three of the roll pins on the cam timing cogs were severely damaged and crushed too.
New roll pins fitted, everything put back together, including carrying out the cambelt service and she fired up nicely on the first turn of the key. Excellent timing just as Philip was walking back up the drive on returning from work. Really pleased for him to have it running. We look forward to our return in a years time for the cambelt service on his other MGF.
Big thanks to Philip for the cream cakes, which Jon enjoyed back at the digs, while I made the most of the good weather and remaining daylight with a lovely walk back, along the banks of the River Great Ouse, what a beautiful spot. – https://ift.tt/365IZ9x
