Monza Red MG 1600 R series

[Doctordiesel77]

Your lucky the dusts shields are still there, front strut removal looks not easy job from your pics. When I did the red digidash both front struts were that rusted on I had to also remove the driveshafts and hubs etc as one

Yes, I was very pleased when dust shields were ok, they are hens teeth! The strut was not as bad as it looked, no grease on bolts, but they came out ok, my guess is that in the distant past it had a lot of work done to it, then got parked up undercover when the block cracked. Started on the head today, some the valve clearances were a bit off, but valves looked in very good nick, just needed a quick once over with fine paste, so hoping I can get them set in one go tomorrow.

[Doctordiesel77]

The head locating dowels were absolute pig to get out, I'll have to make some tomorrow, if anyone else has the same problem, the dimensions are: small end (fits in block) 1/4" diameter, 0.225" long, big end 13/32" diameter, 0.4" long. Having got them out I found that the head was worse than the straight edge suggested, luckily it hadn't been skimmed before, the limit is 10 thou off and that is what I had to take off to get it flat. The manifold face needed similar treatment and a tap running through the stud holes. Machining on the top face was a bit like a ploughed field, but not critical so I left well alone!

[Doctordiesel77]

Knowing that I had taken 10 thou off the head, I worked out the approximate area of the combustion chambers, without going to great lengths to be super accurate, I got to about 6 square inches. Therefore each chamber has had its volume reduced by about 0.06 cubic inches (approximately 1cc) . Given the quality of modern petrol I decided that increasing the compression ratio, however slightly, might be a bad idea, so I ground approximately the same volume off the block in the area under the valves, something that a tuning guide recommended years ago. I don't imagine it will produce a vast increase in power, but shouldn't do any harm.

[Jeff Turbo]

Great job there John, that a Bridgeport Mill? Used to use one of those in the late 1970's when I was an apprentice tool maker and they were excellent. With cylinder heads then we used to put them on a large sanding machine and sand them flat.

[Doctordiesel77]

Great job there John, that a Bridgeport Mill? Used to use one of those in the late 1970's when I was an apprentice tool maker and they were excellent. With cylinder heads then we used to put them on a large sanding machine and sand them flat.

It is an old Milwaukee, so probably not too different, no cnc doofers to go wrong (or for me to program incorrectly ha ha ha) still does the job though
Got a couple of new dowels made up today, but had a few hold ups when I decided to sort the gear linkage out. The short link varies between 4 and 5 speed boxes..not a problem, as I had the correct one...but the earliest cars had a long link with a different part number. Until today I had assumed that it was no more than a pointless part number change...now I know different, the older one is a fair bit longer. I think I could have worked around this by adjusting the gear selectot rod, but might have made reverse and fifth a bit far apart. In the end I cut the new rod in two, threaded it, then threaded a bi of tubing I had lying around. The rod was a bit small for 8mm (or 5/16"), so I loctited it after adjusting it so that the gears were engaging ok. If it becomes problematic it will be easy enough to weld in position later. Looks as though tomorrow will be cylinder head day...

[Jeff Turbo]

CNC was just coming in at the time, had to set out a program then type it in., gear linkage looks good and it's adjustable so top marks there

[Doctordiesel77]

CNC was just coming in at the time, had to set out a program then type it in., gear linkage looks good and it's adjustable so top marks there

Cheers! I read the bit in the book about having to replace the selector rod lever every time you need to adjust the linkage...it sounded as though it would be a bit expensive, if not impossible. Adjusting the link I made involves taking a joint off, as both ends are right hand thread, hopefully set right now anyway. The pg1 is a lot simpler! I've never had much to do with cnc, but thē bloke I got the miller from replaced it with a cnc...set it up & get the kettle on apparently. Got the head back on now, put new oil water and fuel pumps on as well, they are comically cheap & I'm not short of them, so no point keeping the new ones as spares. Old oil pump looked in good nick, so I'll keep it as a spare. Replacing the oil pump on an R series is unbelievably easy, 4 bolts underneath the crankcase & that is it.

[Doctordiesel77]

While changing the fuel lines nd adding filters I noticed an odd thing on the fuel flow transducer... a return pipe to the tank, this isn't featured in the parts list, factory workshop manual, or Haynes...very odd, hopefully it works, so I won't need to find out why it differs from the book.. Got one carb rebuilt, glad I stripped them, it seemed like it might be uneccessary work, but the fact that the carb to manifold joints were plastered in silicone and the cover gasket had some other sealant all over it and various jets that shouldn't be blocked were sealed over, implies that the last person in there didn't have any plans to do what it says in the book. One odd thing was that one hole that was capped in the left carb had a pipe in it on the right one. It looked as though it had been capped, so I tapped and plugged the pipe. The book doesn't mention a pipe there, so I assume I've rectified a problem, rather than creating one...time will tell!

[Doctordiesel77]

This is the blocked off pipe, with the capscrew in it. Also another picture of the silicone sea...I'm not averse to using silicone myself, but not on any part of the fuel system!

[Doctordiesel77]

Got a little bit more done today, the second carb wasn't as badly gunged up as the first, but had one of the accelerator pump jet sealing washers missing, not sure if this would have a dramatic effect on anything, it has a new one now tho'. Got one front spindle and hub put loosely in place, just to keep the various bits out of the way.

[Doctordiesel77]

Gainful employment slowed things down a bit, but got carbs, manifolds, thermostat housing (with new thermostat ant temperature sensor) fitted, as well as new radiator and hoses. With a bit of luck it might be running by next week.

[Doctordiesel77]

Got more done than I expected today, fitted new manifold studs, the one that the stiffener attaches to is supposed to be longer than the others, so I fitted a Triumph one, which has a shorter thread into the manifold, which makes it seem longer! The others are series two Land Rover ones, cheap and easy to find. The old front pipe was difficult to remove from the centre pipe, but I was glad I persevered, it wasn't in very good nick when inspected more closely. For some reason all of the downpipe gaskets I've ever ordered for this have turned out to be too big (correct part number or not), so I had to make one using copper wire and high temperature silicone. Having connected the fiendishly positioned throttle cable and various fuel and vacum lines, giving it a quick spin over seemed like a good plan. Oil light went out fairly quickly, fuel pumped through fairly quickly and it started fairly quickly. All good so far, but sounded a bit rough, checking the timing with a strobe explained this: it was set to tdc, rather than 21° btdc. Got this put right then called it a day, always nice to hear them running again though!

[Jeff Turbo]

That's excellent work there john. Quite a few Range/Land Rover/Truimph parts are in Maestro's and Montego's as thankfully they used the parts bin. I'm guessing the exhaust downpipe gaskets are for a 2.0 but from memory the 1.6 is smaller?

[Doctordiesel77]

That's excellent work there john. Quite a few Range/Land Rover/Truimph parts are in Maestro's and Montego's as thankfully they used the parts bin. I'm guessing the exhaust downpipe gaskets are for a 2.0 but from memory the 1.6 is smaller?

Yes, exactly right, 1600 looks the same as 2.0, but is smaller in every way. Somebody in the past must have screwed a cross reference up (as happened with van/car wheelbearings once iirc), I've always used original number for 1600, but always received 2.0 ones. Maybe I should have ordered 1300 ones On the plus side, I'm not short of copper wire & silicone!

[Jeff Turbo]

Yeah 1300 should be the same size as a 1600. It's going really well so I'm guessing it'll be roadworthy soon