Joy and Tears – end of a roadtrip

After doing 1000km in six days with the MGB I finally started the last section – my way back home. I am very thankful that a colleague took over on of my assignments so that I could leave earlier from Nuremberg.

The typical busy 4pm afternoon traffic made the B-roads not attractive and I decided to just go home via Autobahn A3. Sunny weather & good mood got me thru the many road construction sites. After a while there was less traffic and a BMW 320 was kind enough to get me from the middle to the left lane a few times. Now, i believe on streets without speed limit the left lane should not be used if you don’t intend going more than 130km/h. Therefore I accelerate on the left lane and Maggie easily will do 175km/h (measured on the SatNav GPS – the Smith will show 190km/h). This is with approx 4800rpm.

But this is not even close to full throttle. And as the road allowed it, I pushed a bit more. And on a short section I got 190km/h on the SatNav – the needle on the Smith was beyond the 200max.

Downside was that this driving style will consume more fuel. In Würzburg I stopped at the fuel station and filled up. The BMW also pulled out to and the lady driving it came over to my car. She asked me if I drive a MGC or if this is really just an 4cyl MGB. Apparently she and her husband also have a few and she said that she never saw such a quick MGB before.

After the stop I followed her on the Autobahn again – usually doing 160 to 175. Just after passing the exit Marktheidenfeld I noticed a lack of power. I pulled over to the right lane and soon after the engine started making a unhealthy sound. It felt as it is just running on 3 cylinders. Next possible exit was the filling station Spessart Nord. And while rolling to a parking spot the engine died on idle.

After letting the engine cool down for a while, I checked oil and coolant. Both looked OK. After a few attempts the engine started again – but only with higher idle RPM. The valves sound was horrible. I decided to check valve clearance and found that valves 4 and 5 both had zero clearance.

My assumption was/is that either a valve “failed”, maybe the valve seat is damaged or maybe it is just the head gasket. Either way – no point in driving on. The ADAC Premium membership proved valuable again. About an hour later Maggie was in Weibersbrunn and I got a rental car to get home – which took another 2h.

Today I managed to get the MGB back to my garage, but the only thing I could do is a compression test. Cyl 1 and 4 are good – but both cyl 2 and 3 have an issue. Classic car joy and tears can be close together