This was an interesting one to do, this P reg MGF mpi with only 18.5k miles on the clock hadn’t ran since 2007 and had been through a few ownerships and eventually was bought by Don a couple of years ago in a stripped-down state, having been left in a garage for quite some time.
So on our way back from delivering Richard’s car to him in South Wales on Sunday we called in to Trowell to collect it and take back to the workshop.
First thing Monday we got cracking on opening a fair amount of boxes of parts that Don had been amassing for the past few months. One of which, was a stripped down recon cylinder head. This was cleaned up and put back together along with the cams out of the old head that came with the car. We removed all 4 of the liners and replaced with new.
All 4 of the pistons were in good condition, but replaced all the rings with new sets. We then also carried out full cambelt service, replaced the engine bay coolant pipes with stainless, new thermostat and housing.
The inlet manifold supplied was damaged so this was replaced with one from our stock and all ancillaries swapped over; fuel rail, injectors, IACV etc. All the engine bay wiring had to be refitted. New stainless exhaust back box fitted, along with TOYO stainless manifold, new cat and Lambda sensor.
MLS head gasket fitted. New sump and upgraded lower oil rail fitted.When filling up with fresh coolant, we then found that the hose to the radiator was disconnected.
Then when it came to firing the car up found there was no fuel left in it at all.Once this was sorted we eventually turned the key, the lifters were sounding a little bit noisy, which is understandable from being stood, a bit of Wynn’s hydraulic lifter cleaner was added, which freed these off.
However, the car still wasn’t behaving and noticed on code reading the temperature climbing, which we traced to be a blocked radiator, so a new one fitted, plus the new thermostat wasn’t opening. Thermostat removed and tested, which proved that it was faulty, new stat fitted and that issue then resolved.
However, we’re still not entirely convinced that all is not as it should be as we believe the stem seals have hardened over time on the head that Don supplied us with, he will see how things go over the next few weeks whilst he does a bit of a tidy up with the inside and outside of the car and then will take it for the MOT and let us know how things go.
While there is minimum smoke at an even rev, if the car is revved hard and throttle eased off there is evident blue smoke. This is a sure sign of when stem seals let oil past on the overrun. Again only time will tell when car has been run.
Don had already replaced the underfloor pipes, he’d done 3 of the brakes, but one was being awkward, so this was sorted, brakes all bled and the clutch wasn’t working, so this was bled too. New battery fitted to enable us to drive the car on and off the trailer. As when we picked the car up we had no brakes, which proved interesting on loading up.
So we think Don was very pleased to see everything fettled and being driven back on to his driveway this afternoon. Really good one to do and so pleased that Don wanted to invest in saving it. We look forward to seeing the car again when it’s had a bit of spruce up.
