Cracked radiator

I'm right in the middle of my qualifier exams at the moment -the exams every PhD student has to take in order to keep receiving funding, and to stay in the programme. It's a two week gruelling event ended by an hour-long presentation on a topic you've only known for two weeks, during which professors get to grill the hell out of you asking everything from 'what does that electron do' to 'why are my pants blue?' It's murder.

Anyway, car stuff doesn't stop for anything. So I thought I'd share some recently acquired experience with you so you don't have to pay $60 to be towed 15 miles:

When your radiator starts leaking, PATCH THE LEAK OR REPLACE THE RADIATOR!!

Here's what the radiator (in my Altima) was doing one day:

In the video you'll notice a small bubbling leak coming from the top plastic part of the radiator, right where the Nissan logo is. I didn't think too much of it and just patched it up with some tape. I figured I'd replace it eventually.

I drove up to Jersey and back (4 hours each way), but on the return trip noticed that my AC wasn't working too well. Looking down at the gauges I saw a needle way past H, and eventually saw smoke coming out of the hood. So I turned off the engine, pulled over (without power steering - quite difficult in this car), and waited for AAA. Here's what the radiator looked like afterwards:
Note that this crack spans from the centre till way into the left side of the radiator (sorry, cell-phone pic). Thinking about this for a second, you can understand why: a radiator at high temperatures does generate some steam inside. Steam builds up, leading to pressure which was trying to vent through the pinhole. At one point it just got so hot and the pressure was so high the radiator gave way and cracked. Not bad, actually, for a 16 year old radiator.

The radiator was very easy to take out (collect your coolant properly! I let it run and later found squirrels drinking from it. If you don't want to chase squirrels all day collect it properly.) All-in all it would have taken me about an hour to replace.

Not a huge deal, RockAuto was willing to ship a new radiator to me for $95 (everything included). But time was of the essence, so I decided to go to Advance instead. Their website said a new radiator was $127, but the in-store price was $137 ("Yup, that's the store price" the sales associate told me when I asked why the bill was so high). I guess I was willing to pay $30 more, but $40 was starting to push it, especially if you consider the $60 towing charge. Also the principle of the matter didn't sit well with me. I contacted Advance about this (to bring it to their attention, not to demand a refund) and they got back to me on this, apologising for the incident and offering a gift card. Oh, and make sure you get the right radiator for your car (manual vs automatic, not the same!!), which set me back another day (plug any extra holes with silicone).

You should know this is unlikely to happen in an MG radiator, mainly because it's entirely metal. Though pin-hole leaks can happen, pressure will not build up the same way it did in my Altima. A good radiator cap should prevent any explosions, which should also be minor seeing as metal is much stronger than plastic (and a pin-hole will remain as such for much longer).

They really don't make things the way they used to.

A Sad Day for MG Enthusiasts

I was very shocked to find out yesterday that University Motors, known for its excellent MG self-help videos, is shutting down. To quote the website:

University Motors will cease fulltime business on Wednesday, July 1 st , 2009 , after 34+ years of service to the MG community. When our Governess promised in her 2006 State of the State Address that "In five years, you're going to be blown away by the strength and diversity of Michigan 's transformed economy," little did we imagine that it would be our own business that would be demolished in the ensuing economic storm.

John Twist's videos proved invaluable during those shaky first months when I really had no idea what I was doing. (This MGB is the first car I've ever really worked on.) It's a sad day and a real shame that we have to see something so wonderful go away. It's odd, because I always figured it'd be there. At some point I even planned on going to Ada, Michigan, to get something done, just to say I went there.

Luckily the videos will always be there, thanks to Youtube. Mr Twist always uploaded his videos to Youtube, that will keep a permanent record of it. I'm not too sure about how long the website will stay in existence, so I've copied the technical videos portion and put it on my server as the video organisation goes lost on Youtube: The original is here, mine is here.

Though there are many MG help guides online, very few are as clear as the University Motors videos. Most give general instructions but don't actually stop to give a good explanation of how things work. And, much to my annoyance at first, many are written in technical jargon or with details left out (such as, where's spark plug 1?) which rendered them useless for me. Haynes manuals and such are convoluted with too much information, unless you know exactly where to look. University Motors was a great place for a beginner like me to start.

The goal of this blog was to help other people in my situation get started by speaking in a very non-technical manner, which I hope I've somewhat accomplished. John Twist has accomplished this with his excellent series of MG technical videos.

Oil warning

I just found this article online about automotive oils. If you own an old car, you should care a lot about this:

http://www.mgtoronto.com/pdf/Tech/Oil.pdf

Apparently not just our fuel has become more environmentally friendly, but also our lubrication oils. Unfortunately, as with the added ethanol (that's not exactly environmentally friendly either...), the new oils also do significant damage to your car, more specifically to your camshaft and lifters. The oils lack certain 'pollutants', and the new materials replacing them seem to eat away at our cam shafts. This affects pretty much all oils, except certain brands. Redline Oil still makes racing oil (non-EPA approved, which is why it's still good) that you can find in the 10W20 etc. varieties. Castrol 20W50 is still OK as well, but not their other oils, which I have been using.

Here's a list from the article linked above:

• Castrol: GTX 20W-50, GTX Diesel 15W-40, GTX High Mileage 20W-50, HD 30, HD 40,
• Syntec Blent TRUCK 1 5W-40 (Semi-synthetic), Tection Extra 1 5W-40, Hypuron S 1
• 5W-40, TWS Motor sport 10W-60 (Synthetic).
• Redline: 10W-40, 10W-40 (Synthetic oils)
• Valvoline: Racing 20W-50

People should also know that the addition of ethanol in fuel results in gaskets and rubber being eaten away prematurely, as well as a higher running temperature (which results in poor mpg's and early engine wear). If anyone knows a place that sells ethanol-free gas please let me know.

Once again I'm pissed at treehuggers that won't let me drive my car, when the real demons are:

1. The energy industry (coal, gas for power? seriously? are we still in the 19th century??)
   
2. The commercial transportation industry (diesel trucks with NO emissions regulations driving hundreds of miles daily,diesel trains, a giant presidential limo that gets less mpg than a 70s Buick)
3. Agriculture (cows farting is more polluting than beltway traffic. I dunno, stick a cat conv. on their backs or something...)
4. Real clunkers that are still on the road (but hell, I'll defend their right to drive till I die)

Anyway, enough politics. I'll be getting back to MG stuff soon. In the meanwhile I'm trying to get some body work done.

And feel free to check out my twitter account for more ramblings such as the one above: mgFreak

How to care for your car...

I just found this PM article on Google Books detailing how to care for your car ... in 1980. Most things apply to my '77 MGB, so I thought I'd share with people. They list 50 things people should do to keep your car running, such as (detailed instructions on) testing engine vacuum, cleaning the exhaust system, checking and maintaining the emissions system (which is actually quite interesting since most of those things have changed now)...

http://books.google.com/books?id=D9oDAAAAMBAJ&lpg=PP1&pg=PA139

Why don't they publish articles like this anymore?? Is it me, or have we as a general public become so dumb we can't find detailed technical articles in popular magazines anymore?

Carburettor Madness Part II (pictures this time)

• Carburettor (Weber DGV) fine-tuning
• How to adjust the idle speed screw, the long way (when all else fails)
  

• Actually got to drive around the neighbourhood for once, reliably.
• Managed 60 mph, easily (couldn't go over 30 before...)
• Fixed rough idle
  

Last time I discussed some general things concerning Weber DGV's and MGB's. I did some more fine-tuning today and learned that the 1.5 turns out on the idle mixture, as suggested by the webpage I discussed last time (by the way, still the best Weber DGV tuning page I've found) was not enough. I'm at about 2.25 turns out now which seems to be necessary to keep things running well (possibly due to the Peco header). The idle mixture screw is the one on the bottom of the carb, closest to the intake manifold (in an image further below I show where the idle mixture screw leads to). It's not the easiest screw to get to, but with some persistence you can get to it.

Much more frustrating is the idle speed screw, which is conveniently located in a completely inaccessible position while the carb is mounted (this may have been fixed on newer Webers). I found another screw next to the choke that links some stuff to that screw, and so in essence you can directly adjust the idle speed screw from there. I haven't tested the long-term effects of this, and I could be completely wrong, so if you try this be careful. The screw I'm talking about is shown in the picture below. Note that it is not directly attached to the choke, and as far as I can tell only affects how far the choke opens, but has a larger impact on the throttle plate.


My carb was so far out of wack I had to visually inspect the idle speed screw and the location of the throttle. When you turn the carb upside-down and look in the shafts you should be able to see three holes (open the throttle; see image below). These holes are outlets of various fuel circuits, and are activated based on how open the throttle is (interestingly, note that the secondary shaft only has two holes which are only activated when you're really flooring the accelerator; not shown).


I adjusted the idle speed screw directly linked to the throttle (so, not the screw near the choke as described above) so that the right hole, the 'highest' of the three holes, is just covered. The image below shows the right hole just peeking out, and thus how you should not have things. Make sure you cover that hole entirely. Put the whole thing back together, and make fine adjustments from the screw near the choke.


In a previous post I called the Peco exhaust noisy and unpleasant, leaving me with a ringing in my ear afterwards. Having properly adjusted the carb the sound, though still rather rough, was pleasant in the sort of roar one expects from a performance vehicle. Idle was very quiet, full throttle ear-deafening, in between pleasantly throaty. I bought this exhaust for it's performance aspects (which I have already noted - it works), but if you're looking for a comfortable drive I wouldn't recommend this.

Carburettor Madness

• Rebuilt the carburettor (Weber DGV)

• Fixed fast idle
• Got normal gas mileage (~23 mpg instead of 7)
• Misfiring and backfiring resolved
  

Diligent readers will have noticed that it's been a while since I've last posted. There are various reasons for this -work, travel, family, etc, I'm writing this in Poland- but the most pressing one would have to be that when I replaced the B's exhaust, as described in the previous post, I killed the car.
It just so happens that the various systems of this B were working together in perfect harmony. I was always aware that the engine was running rich (7mpg is not very good, not even for an old MG), and that the exhaust had a massive gap under the hood and was sending exhaust fumes into the cabin. But I didn't know that the exhaust gap was indicative of a clog further down the line, and the exhaust fumes not being vented were choking the engine, which was compensated for by having a richer fuel mixture. When I replaced the exhaust system the engine was free to breath again, and the excess fuel was burning off as it should. However, this resulted in an engine refusing to go lower than 3000 rpm (and would stay high if you tapped the accelerator), an exhaust manifold turning bright orange, and flames shooting out the carburettor and the muffler (worse than before). My car was shitting itself while throwing up, but still devouring gas. It was bad.

There were several problems with the carburettor after I rebuilt it, mostly linked to the previous owner not having the right settings and overcompensating for the asphyxiated engine. Rebuilding a Weber is quite straight forward (I bought a manual but have yet to read it); essentially just grab a screw driver and pull stuff out. In a next post I will post pictures with descriptions (once again, I'm in Poland right now). Here's what I've learned, and some tips on what to do when rebuilding your carburettor (specifically, the Weber DGV):

• Unless you really need to change everything, don't bother with a rebuild kit. Buy the gaskets separately, and get all the rest from a local hardware store. Rebuild kits are about $35 for stuff you can get for less than $15. Also, in my case the parts were of inferior quality (previously metal parts are now plastic or even paper!). This brings me to ...
• Buy a new power valve. I guarantee you, if it wasn't already broken you've broken it now. A broken power valve is what caused my engine to race and not idle below 3000 rpm (the power valve activates circuits supplying fuel for conditions requiring more fuel than at idle). It's an easy replacement I highly recommend, but is not included in most rebuild kits. It costs about $20.
• If your car comes with a vacuum advance vacuum port on the distributor, keep in mind that ported vacuum from a Weber acts differently than manifold vacuum, the system the distributor was designed for. The engine goes crazy when I connect the vacuum port from the Weber to my stock distributor (the original one with an amplifier in my '77). The engine runs fine without it, so I'm leaving it disconnected for now. UPDATE: This does not happen anymore. In fact, connecting the vacuum port to the distributor actually reduced misfiring. I think there were too many other problems at the time I wrote this article. Alternatively, you could buy a different intake manifold (a non-Weber manifold) which has more vacuum manifold ports (you'll see what I mean if you care about vacuum). As I'm replacing most things, I'm replacing the distributor entirely at some point.
  
• Do all fine-tuning before putting the carb back on. On my B the fine-tuning screws face the wrong way, towards the engine, making fine-tuning a pain in the butt. Also, with the carb out you can see what the fast idle screw is doing to the throttle, and how it's placed with respect to the fuel lines of the various circuits. I'll go into more details on this later.
• The float was another source of frustration. Too high, and fuel will spill over the holding tank and go everywhere, which could result in a mini aurora-borealis under the hood. Too low, and the car will never run on it's own. Weber manuals describe correct heights of floats, and I strongly recommend you stick to them. Unfortunately my float did not appear in any manual, and as it was a brass one (not plastic like the new ones) I wanted to keep it. So I just fiddled with it a few times till fuel wasn't overflowing or starving the engine. This took a while, and was very frustrating.
• British fuel pumps are garbage. One minute they're too weak, the next they're so powerful the intake needle won't close and fuel shoots out everywhere. I recommend buying a fuel pressure regulator and setting it for 3.5 psi.
  
• WEAR SAFETY GOGGLES!!!! Flames shooting out the intake almost cost me all my facial hair. I guess I'd recommend at the very least keeping the air filter and cover on while doing any work with an engine running... Also, I had to often remove the fuel line while it still had some pressure, resulting in fuel shooting out. Fuel in your eye can result in blindness! Wear goggles! (Well, atleast while doing stuff with fuel and oils.)
  

The trouble with carburettors is that they are very fine-tuned pieces of equipment. Screws slightly off can result in complete chaos. For example, if your mixture is too lean the engine won't start or stay on at all. Too rich, and you could blow off more than just your eye-brows. In either case, long term usage of bad tuning can result in severe engine damage (slightly off is OK).

General Weber tuning instructions can be found here. These are very good instructions that helped me get things started again. Remember to adjust the timing after this.

Some documents of interest:
Quick trouble shooting guide (did not help me)
Complete Weber installation guide

Note (from below): These files and links are posted for informational purposes only. No profit what so ever is generated from these files. These files can be found everywhere on the internet and are simply collected here for reference purposes.

UPDATE: I have done many more things to the carburettor. Click on the 'weber' label on the right for all updates.

New exhaust, new woes

• Installed new complete Peco exhaust system
  

• No more exhaust fumes inside the cabin
• Engine can breath freely
  

I plan on eventually turning this car into a real performance car, so the first step is always to put in a decent exhaust. The previous exhaust had bulged open at the end of the exhaust header and was letting exhaust fumes into the cabin, which led me to believe that it may be clogged somewhere (which is not surprising if you consider how much time this car has spent under a tarp over the past few years). So I decided to pull it and replace the whole thing.The exhaust header, though rusted, was still in great shape. I thought of just sanding it down and repainting it, but had a hard time finding head pipes to connect it to a new exhaust. The rest of the exhaust was in good shape (barely any rust), but seemed clogged. In the end I bought a new Peco header (see image above) with the rest of the exhaust system, a 2-inch straight through system (and a big FU to the EPA). Note that in Maryland classic cars are exempt from state emissions testing, and so removal of the catalytic converter (if there is one, mine did not have one) is legal. This is not the case in California, where pretty much any exhaust or emissions modification is illegal. So check your state regulations to make sure it is as cool as Maryland :-) (if you're in a southern state or Michigan, you're good to go).

Update: It has been brought to my attention that removing the catalytic converter is illegal by federal law. Though Maryland is not going to check (assuming you have historic tags), you would apparently still be breaking the law if you remove the converter. A car must always retain its originally installed emissions regulation equipment, even if it fails (!). So draw your own conclusions...

There are several considerations when purchasing an exhaust system, but it generally boils down to whether you want a comfortable or a sporty ride. My Peco system is incredibly loud, and after a short drive my ears were ringing (this will probably improve when I put in sound insulation). It only has the one straight-through muffler, so not really ideal for comfortable riding. If you're looking for a comfortable ride you'll need a decent muffler or a 2-muffler setup (more common on the MGB). If you're a tree-hugger you'll also want to throw in a cat convertor.

When picking a header one should pick one with the least amount of curves, thus improving the flow of gasses. More angles mean a slower flow, though this is generally a very modest decrease. On the MGB there are only 3 exhaust ports for a 4 cylinder car, which seems wrong. This was a conscious choice by the engineers to save manufacturing costs, but was designed in such a way that with it shouldn't impede exhaust fumes too much, however, efficient expulsion of those fumes is very important. The centre two exhaust valves are connected (the so-called 'siamese' system) and go out through one pipe, so naturally that pipe should be larger than the other two (which each serve one valve respectively). The Peco header has a larger centre port which merges with the other two towards the end of the pipe, thus enabling a better flow of exhaust fumes. There are MGB engine upgrades available that allow for four intakes on one side and four exhausts on the other side of the engine (but be prepared for some machining).
A major issue when picking exhaust systems for the MGB is picking the right setup. Over the years the exhaust and intake system changed many times, so a 1980 MGB will have a completely different setup to a 1965 MGB (and I mean radically different). Later models have catalytic converters (under the hood, not in the back) and different intakes. I would strongly recommend retrofitting your car to the old-fashioned exhaust system as I did, but you will also most likely need to change your carburettor and intake manifold for this. This allows for a better freer flow, and will bring your engine closer to the original 98 hp it once had. Consider the Weber DGV (downdraft) if you do this conversion.

The exhaust arrived and I set out to install it, which is a very simple procedure in principle. As it differs on most cars I'm not going to give detailed instructions. Rather, just take a look at your old exhaust and figure out a way of putting the new one in. Don't know what to do? Just start taking it out, and make sure the new exhaust system fits snugly and doesn't move. If it is designed for the MGB it will fit, you just have to keep trying. Here are some tools you will need:

• An electric saw (to saw through pipes and bolts that won't give way)
• A wrench set
• Ramps !!! (I used jack stands and a floor jack, which I do not recommend)
• WD-40
• Muffler clamps (to hold together the pieces of the exhaust system; typically not included)
• A friend to hold stuff
  
• Patience. Lots and lots of patience. This took me 2 days and was incredibly frustrating.
  

Note that on some exhaust systems, as was the case on mine, the intake header has to be in place before you put in the exhaust header. Use a mallet (or a hammer if you get fed up like I did) to get everything in place. The Peco seemed to touch the rear suspension, but that was because I had the pipes in the wrong order, so be mindful of that.
Now, I was planning on posting a video showing the before and after sounds. Unfortunately my carburettor is acting up, and the damn car won't rev lower than 3000rpm. As I had the intake out anyway I thought I'd rebuild the carburettor. Apparently I did something wrong. As soon as I figure out what I did wrong I'll post it and my solution. In the meanwhile, if anyone has any suggestions....