another HGF

[r10crw]

Mates MG just had HGF on his 1.8 K. It heated so bad the engine stopped but when cooled down and fluids topped up she started no problem and ran okay but the damage had already been with compression on 1-4 as 200, 120, 125, 200. So lifted off the head and found a HG in a dreadful state, plastic away all the way round. The worst thing is the face of the head with very deep scarring around the firing ring but only on the exhaust side? So Im of the opinion the head just needs replacing but am also a little concerned as to the bottom end. The liners on 2 and 3 are very slack able to spin freely by hand, in the past these have been very tight like the 1st and 4th.
So what would be the best option, complete engine (standard EU3? engine) or would the bottom end be okay (assuming liners have stand proud)?
Anyone have spare engine/head?
Now the most shocking part of this story, its the engines first failure and its done 180k
Cheers Craig

[Rich H]

You have to be very careful with the liners while the head is off as they are loose when the head is off as I recall.
By moving them you will have disturbed the sealant so the liners will need resealing with hymolar.
IIRC that means the hole lot needs to come to bits

[andyc]

Sell the rest of the car and a Lotus

[Rich H]

On the plus side a head off a later rover 100/200 k series will do and will cost buttons. (Dunno about EU3 though)
180k is good going though!

[r10crw]

Your quite right about the seals but should be able to do this in situ with the big MG by dropping the sump and oil ladder. Thing is we did not tun the engine over just used paper to dry out the bores and when turning the paper the liners turned very easily. Since the compression was low on two and three I wondered if this was perhaps the cause?

[Rich H]

Shouldn't affect the compression, the liner seal will mix the oil and water, unless the oil rail is knacked.

LR uprated oil rail?

[Scotty C]

clean the head with some emery torq the head back down and trade it in

[roadboy]

If it's got really hot then the piston rings will be fooked, hence the low compression.

I would be looking to just swap out the entire lump.

HTH

Dan

[robin]

It doesn't sound like there is a lot of good stuff left on that engine - probably as well to replace the entire thing ... unless you cut a lot of corners, a by-the-book rebuild of the engine will see you buying liners, pistons, piston rings, cylinder head casting and god knows what else.

Cheers,
Robin

[r10crw]

Thanks guys, a new engine it is, or at least a cheap replacment. So who has one sitting about?

[r10crw]

PS this is the newer style K with the coil packs under the cam cover, is this the only difference? ie is the block and heads the same? or do we need to worry about what engine we buy?
Also whats the going rate now? I sold mine for £450 but thats back 4 years.
Thanks Craig.

[Corranga]

I'm clueless, and this is maybe a really silly idea, but I'd imagine it's cheaper to get a 1.4 or 1.6K. Is there much else that would need doing if the smaller capacity engine was fitted.

Might be the best way to get it going and sell it on/live with less performance...?

Other than that, 180k
I'm on my 2nd engine and my car has just passed 66!

Chris

[r10crw]

Thanks Chris but with the smaller capacity the ecu would need changing also. There are some on ebay for £400 from MGTF's, there even the 135 variant so believe this should be okay with the standard ecu.
thanks Craig.

[Corranga]

I knew there would be an easy explanation as to why not

[roadboy]

1.8 lumps normally fetch about 300 quid.

I actually just sold one yesterday!

The only difference on the later engines is the cam cover so just swap that over.

Dan