Getting Maggie back home last week on a trailer was exhausting. A number of tasks at work and gardening chores kept me out of the garage until Saturday late evening. Obviously, I wanted to find out what went wrong – even though it felt like having a Deja-vu. Back in 2022 I decided to get a bit of help pulling the cylinderhead. But since then I gained a bit more experience and confidence after working on a few Mini and MGB engines. The carburetor came off first – which was the easiest part. Instead of removing the entire exhaust and manifold, it was easier to take out the studs – the Maniflow system sits close to the steering and there is not a lot room to wiggle.
Next I flushed the coolant. It looked perfectly clean – which is good sign. The removal of the coolant hose to the heater valve and the temperature sensor followed. Once this was done I took of the valve-cover, slowly took the tension of the rocker shaft nuts and removed the entire rocker assembly. The compression test already showed that the problem is between cyl 2 and 3. I was concerned that head or block might have a crack. But after lifting off the head I saw a large piece missing in the cooper head gasket. The valves all looked ok to me – so do the pistons and bore. After the removal of the head I had enough and went home,
On Sunday – following a recommendation from Michael, a fellow MGB GT driver from Belgium – he and I met in Houten in the Netherlands. The British Car Club Day is a great spare part exchange. Not as big as the one in Stoneleigh park I went to in 2022 – but fairly large. I hoped to maybe find a good spare cylinder head. The cylinder head on Maggie’s 18GB engine is not the orginial 43cc Westlake heart-shaped combustion chamber 12H1326 unit but a later 12H 4736 casting with a 39cc kidney shaped chamber. Mildred’s 18V581 and the my spare 18V582 have a 12H 2709 casting cylinder head. Like the 12H 2923 it has a larger intake valve and a bit thicker walls around the intake ports.
There were a few other cylinder heads for MGAs, Triumph but I could not find a 12H 2709 unit – which would be my preference. Other parts I was looking for include the early dashboard glove box rubber bump for the glove box lid, another pedal box and a spare center console. Later on is a part I managed to find for a reasonable price.
Today, I drove the Morgan to the Rheinlandgarage in Cologne. After too many attempts to get it setup correctly, I decided to get help from Ford experts. When driving the radiator cools done the engine alright – but as city traffic or a jam and just idling will bring up the coolant to quite high temperatures. They will weld a Lambda port to the manifold – which allows more accurate timing. Even though I think I overhauled the carburetor correctly, I did not want to take any change. A new Weber 32/34DFT arrived – which I bought as NOS when the chance came up.
Additionally, I also managed to drop off Maggie’s cylinder head at KS Motortechnik. With a straight edge over the entire head, it was clearly visibile that it was not perfectly flat anymore. This seems to be the reason for the burned gasket between cyl 2 and 3. The head will be skimmed and the valves and valve seats will also be checked thouroghly. This does not take long and I am hopeful to get the engine back together before the end of the week.
Fixing C6622 
Leave a comment