Somehow I had stopped getting emails from this forum and lots of water has gone under bridges since my last connect with the forum. , I lost my ‘76 MGB to a crash in the Michigan Upper Peninsula. A jacked up,diesel, quad cab Chevy pickup pulled from a stop in the median right in front of me. No possible way to miss him. The pickup driver admitted fault and was ticketed, but Michigan is a ‘no fault’ state so the ‘hit’ for my car went entirely on my insurance company. They stood by me and paid the agreed value on the car. Not much at $8K, but I am wondering if that will affect my rates on our daily drivers. - Had just departed Traverse City, MI after attending MG 2019, the North American show of the NAMGBR organization.

My ‘56 Effy was welcomed and parked with the MG club cars at a show in DuPont (Patriots Point - Hot Rods for Hero’s). My Effy is no show truck and certainly not a hot rod, but it is presentable as a stock / original and it was well received in a show with many upscale vehicles.

Another MGB has been acquired. It was known to several club members as a very nice car, but it has turned out to have many troubles. Although it ran well, it went to a shop in Tacoma for a rear main seal oil leak fix. On opening the engine LOTS of problems appeared. I have sourced a buildable core and my crank, heads, carbs, etc. are being used to save some $$ on the rebuild. While at the machine shop and on the machine for grinding, the crank broke in two through a counter balance lobe. - Very strange!

Here are some pics of the past 6 - 8 months.


Effy goes “back to the farm” in Adna, Washington.

New wheels & tires and a complete transmission rebuild wth only 5 hours driving since rebuild. Tranny went out enroute to Michigan & was trailered from Rapid City, SD. Into a shop in Grand Haven, but missed the national show by one day. Crashed next day on first day of drive back to SW Washington.

For a brief moment, I thought I might be greeting St. PETE at the pearly gates.

With no MG, Effy was my ride for an outing with the MG club to a show in DuPont, Washington.



Broke on the grinding machine at the machine shop. I wondered if by accident they might have dropped it from an overpass bridge. What else can go wrong. (I know, it’s British, there will be more surprises.) Trying to have it ready to drive with our club from western Washington to Calgary, AB, Canada for NAMGBR MG 2020 in late June.

 

Real sorry to hear about the troubles with the B's, Rob. The mechanical issues in combination with the wreck must have really ruined what should have been a fun week of driving. Glad to know you're OK after all that.

Cranks just don't break like that for no reason. It would be curious to know what really caused that. It sounds like the people in your club are real 'car guys' and it's nice to see that they can appreciate all kinds of brands and types, and not be snobbish.

 

Hello, 52 Merc!

Yes, the MG Car Club North West Centre (Washington, essentially) is a pretty nice group. For many, many years they have organized and hosted a driving event in April called The Tulip Rally. It begins near Burlington, WA and goes onto Fidalgo Island (Annacortes) and Whitby Island and traverses 50 - 70 miles seeing many tulip fields, numerous bays on the Puget Sound and many other items of interest and fascination. There are about 50 - 60 questions on what participants might see. Last year there were upwards of 150 car / teams participating. British sports cars of all sorts, but Italian, German, French, Japanese, and American cars as well. All are welcome. There were Tesla’s, Corvetts, Lamborghinis, Mustangs, Corvairs, some pickups and even a motor home or two. Most of us have very eclectic tastes in motor vehicles.

On my crankshaft, we observed on inspection that a machined face on the side of a main journal (next to where it broke) was worn to a sharp edge. It is where a thrust washer would have been installed. We wondered if from an earlier engine rebuild if the thrust washer had been correctly installed or if it had failed. Perhaps that generated a heat / stress crack into the crankshaft. The shop owner also said that towards the end of MG production that the 1800 engines were getting light, cast, (weaker) Austin Marina crankshafts in order to achieve savings for British Leyland.

My 1798 cc engine had also had cylinders bored 0.090” to increase displacement to about 1950 cc. Compression had increased to about 180 - 200 psi, up from normal of 140 - 160. That may have contributed as well. This rebuild has been popular with many MG owners in the Pacific Northwest and an engine shop in Seattle has done many of these rebuilds. - I did not know this about the car when I bought it and that feature would not have been a plus for buying it.

MGs are not and never have been powerful “muscle” cars. They are slow, but lots of fun seeing the scenery go by with the top down. A Corvette, a Mustang, or a Hellcat would be a better choice for power and muscle if that’s what you want. As the shop rebuilds another engine for my MGB, we’ll keep the ported heads and the retro dual carbs, but I want the engine back to original specs as close as possible. We are also going to use a smaller, heavier, forged crankshaft that the shop owner had from an earlier MG engine. I prefer reliability to high performance. Some would suggest that you get neither of these attributes in an older British car. I guess that is part of the hobby!

Have we corresponded before, Merc? I think we have but it may have been a couple of years ago.

I hope you are well. All the best to you and . . . . . . THINK SPRING!

 

Hey! Indeed we have exchanged messages before. In 2014, before I moved to Washington from Indiana, you were offering help when I was struggling with a really bad off ‘52 F-1 project I had acquired as a “retirement project” I was way over my head with that one. Here is a screenshot of a help message you provided on putting on new fuel lines. Thanks again!



Help from 52 Merc from six years ago!

 

Wow sorry to hear about the MG. That broken crankshaft is very suspect.... What would cause a break like that? I had a old camshaft out of a Olds engine that I was going to throw away. A buddy said "If you drop that it will break in half". I didn't believe him but then dropped it on the concrete from about 5 '. It did snap right in half!! So what ever you have worked out with your shop I guess is up to you.... But that certainly does look suspicious...