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We left our digs in Worcester yesterday morning, and headed to Kingstone, near Hereford to see what was happening with Keith’s MGF 120 mpi (in JRJ).

The car had suffered from a blown cap and after replacing with a new one the car then overheated, so Keith erred on the side of caution and left it until could take a look.

After all our checks the cap that he replaced it with was good, but when he’d filled the coolant back up hadn’t bled the system fully, which had caused an airlock and restricted the flow of coolant. System subsequently bled and ran up to temperature, and all good. Shame not to see Keith on this visit.

We then ventured further south west to our next digs just outside of Cardiff.

A short commute to our work this morning, where it was great to finally meet Geoffrey, and his MGF 120 mpi (in JRJ). He’d only owned the car for 5 months before experiencing issues with overheating and had to be recovered home. Following a recommendation from his friend he had got in touch to see when we could get over to see him.

So this morning we replaced the head gasket, the water pump and fitted a 52mm throttle body. Unfortunately, the car had at some point had the dreaded k-seal added, so this was cleared out as best as we could.

Bit of a challenge given the conditions, rain, sleet, thunder and lightning! We got the main bit done before it really chucked it down! After sheltering in the van a few times we finally got everything done.

Geoffrey had wanted a remap carrying out too, but wants to wait until he gets used to the car once more, now that the head gasket etc has been sorted. It’s a cracking car and he will now carry on with the things on his list of things to do.

Thanks to Geoffrey for lots of tea, well needed. Good also to see Ian for a quick chat too, mid storm!

Back at our really lovely digs for a second night, and time to get everything dried off. Room service steak may well be needed tonight.

Photos aren’t the best due to the inclement conditions, but they’re virtually the same car on both days anyway! – https://ift.tt/u1TbeWw

Back to it and on with 2023 and back on the road at very early o’clock this morning…

Our first call of the day, with a late start due to an absolute load of holdups, simply due to traffic volume, despite putting in a contingency of an earlier departure time, was in Kingswinford where it was great to meet Richard for work on his fab looking TF 135, (in JFV) that he’s owned since June of last year. The car developed an issue where it would turn over briefly but then cut out, on our investigation we found that both fobs needed reprogramming to the alarm unit, once this done it fired up straight away and stayed on running. Great result for Richard. Minor service was carried out too and a date to be arranged for cambelt service and a couple of other things.

We then headed down to Redditch where it was great to meet Richard! His fab looking MGF 120 mpi (in GUF) was in need of a head gasket replacement. He’d bought the car last year, but then found that it was over-heating so tried replacing the cap and the coolant expansion tank. All up and running lovely again this afternoon. Date to be arranged to replace the radiator that was looking a bit suspect. So pleased that Richard and his wife can get out and about again and enjoy some top-down runs, having both been bikers in past.

Apart from replacing the head gasket on Paul’s car, in Hull last Tuesday, we enjoyed a week off to recharge our batteries. A really nice break it was too, well apart from servicing the van for Jon and doing some maintenance on it, a load of cleaning and sorting for me in the house, and what is now finally ours, we’re so pleased to say, we found out just before Christmas, (after a fair amount of faffing), yippee and phew equally.

All went smoothly on Paul’s TF (in MNX), so he’s pleased to have that sorted and is now looking forward to having some fun over the summer months, then coming over to the workshop at the end of the year for underfloor treatment and a remap. Thanks Paul for the endless supply of tea you supplied, very appreciated on a pretty cold day!

Now tucked up in our first digs of the week, in Worcester. A fab airbnb complete with microwave for Jon’s tea! – https://ift.tt/xAWm8YU

An interesting week at the workshop to round off the year…

Tim brought over his race spec Caterham, from Ilkley, first thing on Wednesday morning. Tim had bought the car from a friend of his who used to race it, but hadn’t turned a key for 12 years. When the opportunity arose Tim fancied the idea of taking it on and restoring it to its former glory. With quite a bit to do he set about the list with his son in law, Martin, and sorted out all the electrics, the gear linkages and various suspension components etc etc. The next next step was to have all the mechanical issues sorted. He knew that when he bought the car it had a misfire and no compression on cylinder 4, so he got in touch and asked us to look at this for him.

Once we removed the head we found scoring to cylinder 2 and on removal of the cam rack found the valve spring cap in two pieces, amazingly though although there was nothing holding the valve in place it hadn’t dropped into the engine and we even found both of the collets that retain the valve. With all parts accounted for, and as a matter of course, we replaced the stem seal, the valve, the spring and the collets.

Sump removed, and piston dropped out to replace the liner on number two, this sounds simple (and it should have been), but one of the bolts in the sump had been previously snapped and corrosion had set in, obviously this needed removing to take the sump off, 5 hours later this was achieved! Poor Jon!

Everything put back together, on firing up we noticed that the tick-over was slightly high, an air leak was traced to a blanked off air supply, which was leaking. Once this was sorted the car was sounding very smooth.

Tim and Martin came over today to collect her. Once they’ve worked through the rest of the list they will be enjoying taking her to some track days next year to kick up her heels again as she rightly should! We’re looking forward to hearing of the further developments and seeing the final result.

Lovely to see Adrian on Thursday who popped over from Beverley to have a remote battery isolater fitted to his TF.

Warren dropped off his TF 160 with us on Tuesday as the EML had come on. This was found to be the Lambda sensor, as suspected. Unfortunately, the old sensor wouldn’t come out, and despite trying retap the old flexi section as can happen too many of the threads had stripped out. New flexi and Lambda sensor fitted.

A really good end to the year, and apart from going over to see Paul, in Hull, to sort the head gasket on his TF next week, we will be having a few days off to recharge our batteries, before heading back out on the road again.

Happy New Year to one and all! 🎉 – https://ift.tt/wOqBJoX

🌟🎄🌟 MERRY CHRISTMAS 🌟🎄🌟

Wishing everyone a wonderful festive season, may you find some time to spend with your family and friends. 🥳

Can we please just say a huge, “Thank You”, for the amazing support we have received the warm welcomes we have found on our extensive travels throughout the U.K. this year.

We’ve visited some amazing and interesting places, along with meeting so many fantastic people. A shame we didn’t get to work abroad, as planned, due to the crazy increase in travel costs. It’s been really fab to welcome everyone to new workshop, that we moved into in June, which, we have to say, the move over from the old one couldn’t have been achieved so seamlessly without the huge amount of effort from our friends.

We were fortunate to get to a few events; Pride of Longbridge, The Highlander, Harrogate MG car club annual event at Pateley Bridge and MG Live! Always good opportunities to have time to catch-up with friends from near and far.

2022 has proved to be a challenging year for so many. Let’s hope that 2023 brings about some welcome changes.

Here’s to safe and enjoyable travels, work commutes, runs out, trips to the shops, events to attend and holidays to go on throughout 2023 in your MGs!

Warmest of wishes wherever you may be.

🌟🎄🌟🎄Jon & Claire 🎄🌟🎄🌟 – https://ift.tt/u7w5H3L

Workshop week has gone well, we got cracking on Monday morning with the lists of things to do on a couple of John’s fab fleet.

John had dropped off his ZT 120 on Sunday and we then went over to collect his TF and drop John off at home in the process.

Full underfloor treatment carried out on the ZT, spring protectors fitted to the front. New bonnet cable to be fitted tomorrow morning.

The TF (in PBT) also had full underfloor treatment carried out, rear brake pads and one new caliper, one of the wishbones replaced. Welding to both rear sills. Plus a few other things to get everything sorted on the car, won’t be boring a do a list! Now all ready for the MOT that we’ve booked in for the morning.

Both cars to be returned back to John tomorrow. It was nice to see him today when he popped over for a brew.

Paul brought his Abingdon over from Barmby on the Marsh for a pre MOT check and subsequent MOT first thing on Monday. The car is looking fantastic following the respray he had done. It’s certainly looking really good now, complete with new hood and dipped console and vent surrounds, (should have got a pic!) bit of a contrast from when we first saw the car, so good to see the car being invested in and saved. Good to have a cuppa and a catch-up with Paul.

Not many ‘glam’ outdoor shots this time, there wasn’t really time, thanks to John for pinging me over a couple of shiny ones! Did get a glam one of Jon though 😃

Pleased that the weather rose to above freezing this week, making things a bit more bearable. – https://ift.tt/IVUsXQP

We left the relative warmth of the workshop on Wednesday and headed over to Barnsley, on a very frosty morning, with delays on the way due to another crash, fortunately everyone involved were alright when we passed by.

It was good to meet Steve and his TF 135 (in CMU). He’d had the car into a local garage for a few things previously and they’d noticed that the water pump was leaking, so Steve asked if we could replace this for him. Unfortunately, as has happened before in extreme temperatures one of the bolts sheared off, despite running the engine and warming things up a bit. The rest of the bolts that came out were heavily corroded. Once the pump was off we removed the stub with our amazing ‘saves you a ton of pain’ bolt removers. All bolts replaced with new when fitting the new pump. While we were in the engine bay we noticed that the top torque-tamer was hanging loose. So this was duly fitted back in place with the correct bolt, hopefully there will be less banging about when Steve changes gear now! The coolant cap was dodgy so new one tested and fitted. Thanks to Steve for a plentiful supply of warming brews.

This morning we headed back over to Hebden Bridge. More delays not far from home due to another crash. Again everyone involved seemed to be alright, thankfully. This weather wreaking its usual unwelcome havoc.

We had gone over last week to see Emma’s MGF for a few things, one of which was query head gasket failure. On doing all of the usual checks and replacing a dodgy coolant cap, and running the car up, we couldn’t find anything conclusive. However, on a run out and under load a couple of days ago Emma noticed that the coolant had gone again and had overheated.

Even though the pressure test had not shown any coolant loss, we took minimal parts off at first to see which gasket had gone. After taking off the inlet manifold and seeing the state of that, it had obviously undergone a previous attempt at repair with some strange sealant (see pics) and combined with the smell of burnt oil, it was decided that the head gasket will have also suffered, so decision made to replace this also.

The thermostat housing was leaking and on removing that, it was found to be full of k-seal. New stat and housing duly fitted.

On firing the car up, the tick-over was noticeably lower than it had previously been, this was because we had cured all the air leaks, unfortunately, somebody had adjusted the tick-over to be correct with the air leaks. So we then had to set about readjusting the throttle body to its correct position. Car now running lovely and smooth. Emma can enjoy running about in Gina once more when she returns from her hols.

Bit of a different week, in the end, we had a car booked in for a subframe swap, but that’s been postponed for a while, date to be planned some time later. George’s Copperleaf MGF was due to be dropped off with us at the weekend, but they had to postpone for now. So some last minute and waiting list ones booked in, which was good to get those done and sorted.

It’s been absolutely Baltic and a struggle working in this weather, there is a limit as to how many layers of clothing you can wear before you can’t actually move. Plus big thick gloves don’t work very well with little bolts! Brrr, need it to get above freezing at least. 🧊

Couple of cars to collect over the weekend and take to the workshop ready for a busy week with them next week. Have a great weekend everyone and keep safe and warm. 🧤🧣 ❄️ – https://ift.tt/h4CuApm

Stephen had his MGF steptronic couriered up to the workshop from Llanelli, in South Wales, and Daryl had his TF 135 couriered up to us, from just near Telford.

With doors firmly shut and space heater on full blast we got cracking on with them both on Monday morning.

Stephen’s Steppy (in MNX) was booked in for full cambelt service and check over of a couple of things, but the list had grown slightly in the intervening time of his first enquiry. On all our recent visits to South Wales we just hadn’t been able to factor in a visit to him, so in the end he sent the car to us. This is a really nice example of this model.

Full cambelt service duly done, we set about the other things on the list, one of which was an oil leak, which on inspection was actually quite substantial. We replaced the cam cover, which was leaking everywhere, the cam oil seals and the oil pump seals were also leaking oil, so these were all replaced. A good clean up of all the areas and all resolved. In the boot was a new stainless exhaust flexi section and manifold, these were replaced along with a new Lambda sensor as the existing one was a different size. The back box required a couple of repairs, the main inlet pipe Jon rewelded, and the hanger had a sheered off bolt that required another one welding on. Underfloor coolant pipes were replaced with a stainless set. The coolant cap was replaced as the one on it was one of the yellow plastic ones that are renowned to fail, ultimately causing problems.

Daryl’s TF (in MBB) had quite a few fails and advisories on his last MOT that he wanted us to tackle. The two front mounts on the front subframe we replaced with stainless ones, as these had definitely done their time, discs and pads replaced all round, parking brake sorted, boot brake light sorted, exhaust minor leak sorted.

Darryl asked if we could have the car retested for the MOT, which was done this afternoon.

A full-on busy couple of days, getting everything done, and both cars are now ready for collection by their respective couriers. – https://ift.tt/5PDGT1Y

Driving back home now down a very busy M6 after a very cold day spent working in Dalton-in-Furness.

It was great to meet Adrian and his Mk II MGF 1.8 mpi (in LQW), that he had bought a few months ago, and very shortly afterwards the proverbial happened. Having owned MGs in the past and also an owner of an MGB he’s fully aware of the potential issues.

Head gasket replaced, the one on it was a Mk I elastomer one and had been replaced once before. Took quite some time draining off a load of oil with the severe cold, and which resembled cake mix. It is a very good looking car underneath the thick covering of ice.

Adrian had taken the spheres off his previous car so asked if we could fit them to this one. We were late arriving this morning due to a couple of delays on the way up, but everything all sorted for him before it got dark.

Yesterday morning found us in Sowerby, near Thirsk for head gasket replacement on Will’s TF 135 (in PBT). Will had done a load of work on the car, absolute kudos to him, but unfortunately the head gasket hadn’t taken, and he’d got a bit fed up with it. Happily now everything is sorted the car will be going back to Uni with him after Christmas.

From there we went on to Guisborough where we were saw our first snow of the season. It was lovely to see Kevin again and his fab Trophy that was looking a bit on the low side, so we pumped her up. The drivers window had become very slow, so we took a replacement one with us to fit. Good to have a catch-up with Kevin and Amanda before heading back home.

It’s going to be a bit of a long haul home now according to the SatNav, though gives me time for me to get caught up on the admin and feed Jon chocolate! Have a great weekend everyone, hope it’s not too chilly! ⛄️ – https://ift.tt/P98AzWH