If your engine won’t start easily when hot, and has good fuel delivery and good spark, it may be because heat soak is making the fuel expand and rise enough
Engine completely and suddenly dies
If your engine has been running fine and suddenly dies and will not fire at all while cranking on the starter, check:
Fuel – assuming you have some in the tank!
Remove
Pushrod cover gaskets & seals – rubber or cork?
Both A series (except the 1275) and B series engines had cover plates on the side of the block providing easy access to the cam followers. On the 1275 (except
Fix those noisy tappets!
Excessive tappet noise is an indication that something needs attending to. Even the B series engine, renowned for tappet noise, is quite quiet in the valve gear with newly reground
Have I got hardened valve seats?
It is often difficult to determine whether valve seat inserts have been fitted before, when viewed only from the chamber, – the original machining usually left a pattern which is
Valve seat recession and unleaded fuel
I often get asked what is the best way to deal with this.
The options are:
Additives added to the tank when you top-up with fuel
In-line tin-based canisters
Stainless valve seat inserts.
Stainless valve
Engine freshen-up – what to check
An engine freshen-up is a term that means different things to different people.
In the context of the following I have taken it to be replacing the rings and bearing shells
Burning oil in an MGB or Midget? It may not be as bad as you think!
There are two faults which show up in the breather systems of Midgets and MGBs which cause dramatic oil consumption and lots of blue smoke, even with a reconditioned engine.
B series water pumps – Which one?
MGA, MGB 3 main bearing, and MGB 5 main bearing engines all had different water pumps. MGB 5 bearing engines also had two types of water pump, differing in their
B-series Cylinder head markings
All 1800cc heads have the number 18 embossed on the top of the head next to the rear stud (on the spark plug side of it). 1600 heads have a