The Webmaster Zone

Gosh its nice out. Went for a drive this morning before heading to work, first to Octagon to pick up a caliper repair kit and some new gaskets for the carbs, then over to Canadian Tire for a few odds and ends. The air is cool but the sun is warm, perfect temperature for driving with a sweater on and the top down. The engine purrs along, the dry leaves swirl around as you drive by... I love Autumn!

Well I went to get my insurance renewed and suprise, my emissions certificate was expired. I was still going under the testing the previous owner had done, I could have sworn it ran out in November. So this Saturday I got a day permit and started in on it. Pulled off the rocker cover and adjusted the valve to tappet clearance using the rule of 9 (number the valves 1-8 put the car in 4th and roll it until a valve is rocking. Take its number and subtract from 9, that is the valve to work on. Rinse, repeat). Several valves were quite tight. Scraped out the old gasket and the top of the head with a razor blade. Ran a thin bead of blue silicon gasket sealer around the rocker cover and pressed in the new thick cork gasket, let that dry a while, then lightly oiled the mating surface on the head with fresh engine oil. Replaced the nut cover washers and grommets and torqued it down to 8 ft lbs. Hopefully that will eliminate some of the oil leaks around the engine, I still have to replace the short oil pressure hose as well. Then I adjusted the point gap and set the static timing (retarded ever so slightly), checked the spark plug colour (biscuit is the goal) and gap and replaced. Fired it up and it ran really well so I tried my luck at the testing station. I came very close to passing, I passed all the categories except hydrocarbons at idle by 30% so I'm sure after I adjust the carbs (the front is running slightly rich, the rear quite lean), perhaps retard the timing a little more, I can get it through. Damn I'm good *cracks knuckles* heheh

Kim being the sweetie she is brought up the replacement oil cooler kit Moss sent up last week after discovering their error. Installation was fairly basic, after I managed to get the old bypass hose off. I had to remove the oil pressure gauge hose (which is leaking, gotta replace that) and the distributor cap in order to get enough purchase on the nut. Note that you must put the grommets on the hoses and then feed them through the radiator shroud and into place. Secured the hoses and put the rubber straps in place and fired it up to look for leaks. None were found and as it was a nice (if windy) day today a test drive was in order, we picked up some lunch to go and drove over to Point Grey for a nice meal overlooking the ocean. Great improvements in pressure! I was running about 14/32 psi at idle/3000 r.p.m. before when the engine was really hot, now its running 30/50 thats about a 50% gain not bad at all! I'm very pleased with the results. Coming up next (next paycheque that is) we have a caliper rebuild, and hopefully I can tackle the front suspension finally. Need to get a quote on a set of minilite replicas all around too (I can dream can't I?), it would be nice to make a cosmetic improvement for a change ;-)

Well the new coolant is definately keeping the car a lot cooler, in the lineup at the border where I always have heat problems, I didn't have to shut the car off at all. When I got down to Seattle though I was greeted with an unpleasant suprise, my Moss Motors order got messed up and instead of sending a box with oil cooler hoses and a box with the cooler, they sent two boxes of hoses and no cooler. Called them up and they will ship out a new oil cooler kit Monday, so it will be another 2 weeks before I can finally get it installed. Bit of a drag.

Last night after work I ventured down to the garage and tackled the cooling system. Drained the radiator and the back tap, and flushed a few buckets of the old coolant back through the radiator to try and clean out a bit of gunk. Looked pretty dirty. Then I removed the three old hoses (didn't replace the heater hoses - do that another time) and put in new ones, replacing the worm-drive type rad clamps with the proper wire clips. Refilled with 1 bottle of RedLine Water Wetter and a 60/40 mix of water and antifreeze (which works out perfectly to 3L of water and 2L of antifreeze). Let the car run for a while, doesn't look like there are any leaks. I'll find out how much difference it makes in the border lineup tomorrow! I almost always have to turn off the car for a while in the line to keep from overheating. Another thing to check off my list, the short rubber tube off the bottom part of the radiator was cracked and looked just about ready to expire. Better to catch these things before they catch you, I say. I also took a good look at the front calipers and it looks like the chrome piston is seized on both sides. Not good, I'll be searching the MGs archives for information on rebuilding those... I got my 13-row oil cooler from Moss as well, I'll install that on Friday and of course post a full report on its effect on my oil pressure.

The welds holding the bottom of the seat frame to the rails have come apart in three corners (drivers side only) so I pulled the seat out last night after work. Pretty easy, slide the seat all the way back and undo the front screw/bolt, slide forward and do the same to the back. Removed the two nuts holding the seat back to the bottom and carted the bottom part up to the apartment for a closer inspection. Originally I was worried that I couldnt' get it welded back into shape because of the (flammable?) material etc in the way, but on closer inspection it seems dead easy to take the whole seat apart - remove leather cover clips, remove foam, remove springs and diaphragm. The diaphragm is ripped so I'll replace that, and get the frame welded on Friday. Barring any problems, another DPO bodge fixed. Update [Aug 7, 1998] All done... took the bare frame to a couple places near home, one body shop wanted $75 to weld the frame!! I laughed in his face, and took it to Octagon Motors where I picked up a new diaphragm and they recommended a welding shop across the street. One hour later and $10 poorer I had a reconstituted lower seat frame. Pays to shop around. Got home and put it all back together, wire brushed the rust off the rails and smeared a bit of grease from the kingpins along the edge to ease seat adjustments and bolted it into place. The seat has never felt better, no doubt due to the new diaphragm. Mark I seats are dead easy to work on, too bad I don't have some extra cash or I would have replaced the torn leather covers and put in new foam while I was at it. Oh well, another time. Fixed another broken (cut?) wire in the loom at the back of the car, now I have license plate lights... everything electrical works now! I feel like I'm winning the war ;-) Its off to Seattle tomorrow, it will be nice to have a radio for the long straight drive down the I5.