MGA-Register

Hot Coupe

by CLAYTON SPEAR

This is a potted history of a 1600 Coupe, which has been in my keeping since August 1995.

The car was in an unfinished state at that time, having had all the mechanical items rebuilt to an apparently high standard. The body had been refurbished, resprayed tartan red and remounted back onto the chassis before being abandoned through lack of interest by the owner, this after 22 years of ownership. He had originally found it in a fairly rough condition on an Army base in Germany in 1973. It has been rebuilt three times since then and had previously changed colour three times. As the previous owner was an army officer it was moved about quite a bit between Germany, Wales, Northern Ireland, Wales, Germany, Wales, England Wales and finally back to England. The car has now been re-united with its original registration number.

I set about completing the rebuild hopefully to be ready for the spring of 1996.

The car was completed in time and used during the spring and summer of that year covering nearly 3000 miles, not entirely without adventure. The bogey of overheating being the longest running saga. The engine never did feel happy, when running under load giving the impression that it preferred to run on three cylinders, while at the same time the engine temperature climbed up to the 200° F mark. In fact on the first warm spring day whilst attending the MGB gathering at Bowood House, Wiltshire, it actually boiled over when travelling up a slight incline at a steady 50 m.p.h. and would boil over when standing in any traffic queue.

Danny Waters at the above meeting had a quick diagnostic check over and in his opinion the grill was of a reproduction type and the slats were too flat to the incoming air so these were bent to give less resistance to the cooling medium. Unfortunately this exercise now presented 28 razor blades to the front of the car, also it did not cure the overheating but it did help a little.

Discussions with various MGA owners over last summer, some having much the same problem, really did not come up with any dramatic cures. Indeed, it would seem that the cure would be the sum of many small tweaks, e.g. clear out the water passages between the bores, back flush the radiator, check poundage of radiator cap, test temperature gauge readings against thermometer etc.

Having removed the cylinder head to clear the waterways, which contained quite a large amount of rock hard sludge, the valves and seats were in a deplorable state. The engine had been reconditioned seven years before and not run since. The valves and seats were reground in and large deposits of tarry varnish removed from the valve stems. The thermostat was checked in hot water against a thermometer, as was the temperature gauge.

Amongst all the spares that came with the car was a completely dismantled grill. This was rebuilt and the difference between the profiles of the slats of the reproduction grill and the original grill has to be seen to be believed, Abingdon knew what it was about. This rebuilt grill was then re-installed into the surround giving the car a much more open aspect to the front also getting rid of the 28 razor blades.

The one pearl of wisdom (as usual put on the back burner) was to get the distributor’s advance curve reprofiled.

Hey presto! The number on the Distributor body showed it to be for an early 5 bearing MGB ("Oh it’s exactly the same" I was assured). Oh no it isn’t. MGB’s have 25D4 number 40897, MGA’s have DM2P4 number 40510 for 1600’s. To rebuild the 25D4 to MGA standards I was quoted £120, a little too expensive for my mind and as it was the "closed season", and I had at least 5 months to seek an alternative.

At the N.E.C. Classic Car Show last November a refurbished DM2 with the correct code stamped into the body was purchased at a reasonable price. This Distributor was fitted and timed using a stroboscope (I find using the static marks gives a retarded spark). The next thrash up the road was eagerly awaited.

The Stoneleigh M.G. Day Show provided the excuse, not a particularly warm day, 8° C air temp but at least it should show up any tendency to run hot on the seventy mile journey over give and take roads.

The temperature gauge hardly ever went over the 160° F mark, even after a "spirited" return drive along the dual carriageways of the Midlands, chased by an equally spirited driven MGB, the temperature barely reached the 190° F mark and what’s more the engine now fires on all four cylinders and has given the car the type of performance which must be close to it’s design parameters that have been missing up until now. Roll on the warmer days!