What did you do to your Marina today?

[Morris McKinnon]

oh man, I hope not! Now that I think about it, she does seem like the old lady in that movie "Legion" ...before she turns! All sweet and innocent then POW, sh*t gets real

[locost_bryan]

Arranged for a local engine reconditioner to pick up my engine on Monday, strip it down, and see what needs replacing. A parts supplier is having a "retiring soon" sale, and he's offering good discounts on a range of bearings and pistons for the ohc 1750 motor.

[PHUQ]

You do pick 'em Gareth! That said- the yellow Coupe is lovely (underseal tidemark excepted). And it at least sounds like you'll get some cake out of the deal...

[Morris McKinnon]

Story of my life, mate, story of my life! Cake is all I'll get out of the red Special, she offered the car to me! Not because it'll cost too much, I haven't even given a price as I don't really want to take it on, but she knows I'm an enthusiast and the car would be in safe hands with me. She genuinely love the car, talks about the memories she has with it so much I feel like I've owned the car myself. I was reluctant to do the work even if I got paid for it but now it would be like me taking on another project so have no idea what to do. It needs saving and I'm probably the only one who won't scrap it. It is bad and realistically should be broken up for parts but I can't do that cos I know how she feels about the car, I felt the same way with REP and would only sell her to someone I knew who would look after her. So there you have it, I've been offered a car I have no room for, no enthusiasm for and certainly no money to restore it as of yet, but if I leave it it'll stay where it is getting more rotten and end up scrapped alltogether.

[Morris McKinnon]

Sorted out the engine mounts on that yellow Marina today, while I was there she had a few spares to give to me. Not sure if I want to go back for the rest, there were some serious looking spiders where the parts are kept!

[locost_bryan]

Engine reconditioner came and picked up my TC engine. Young bloke and his older offsider. The older guy began reminiscing about Marinas, had fond memories of the Marina pickup they had as a work hack. Younger guy mentioned they'd done a few engines for MGs and Minis, seemed to have a good appreciation of them. Just have to wait until I hear back as to what they find needs doing.

Link to their website http://www.waer.co.nz/about-us.php Tempted to get them to install the engine, and run it on their dyno to see what it actually produces.

[locost_bryan]

Heard back from engine reconditioner. Engine has previously been bored out 40 thou, pistons and bores in good condition, crank just needs a polish, then new rings and bearings. Head has been crack tested, only needs hardened valve seats for unleaded fuel.

They're going to have a chat with their camshaft supplier to see if he can give it a slightly sportier profile without reducing the base circle too much.

Chuffed with that news.

[drinud]

Heard back from engine reconditioner. Engine has previously been bored out 40 thou, pistons and bores in good condition, crank just needs a polish, then new rings and bearings. Head has been crack tested, only needs hardened valve seats for unleaded fuel.

They're going to have a chat with their camshaft supplier to see if he can give it a slightly sportier profile without reducing the base circle too much.

Chuffed with that news.

[MarinaCoupe]

Good stuff Bryan. Do you know what the current camshaft is? There may be a alternate BL cam from another car, with a better profile.

[locost_bryan]

Good stuff Bryan. Do you know what the current camshaft is? There may be a alternate BL cam from another car, with a better profile.

I have these figures from the factory service data for the later 150/175 four and 262 Six. My parts book lists the same part number for the cam on all the fours, so pretty sure it will be the same profile for the TC :-
Inlet Opens BTDC 9
Inlet Closes ABDC 53
Inlet Duration 242
Exhaust Opens BBDC 48
Exhaust Closes ATDC 13
Duration 241
Overlap 22
Lift .360"

That is longer duration than the 1800 (5/45 40/10), but about the same duration as the 1700 (15/45 50/10).

I haven't been able to find the cam specs for the twin carb Maxi or Allegro 1750, but since BL quoted the same power and torque figures, I would expect them to be the same profile. The other option might be the R-series MG Maestro 1600, that had a ported version of the same head and made 103bhp.

MG Maestro R-series cam timing was :-
Inlet Opens BTDC 20
Inlet Closes ABDC 52
Inlet Duration 252
Exhaust Opens BBDC 55
Exhaust Closes ATDC 17
Duration 252
Overlap 37
Lift .380"

Combined with a slightly higher 9.5:1 compression ratio (versus 9.0:1), gave a healthy 65bhp/litre, comfortably more than the Marina's 52bhp/litre.

In theory, with the extra 50cc from the .040" pistons, using the MG cam and compression ratio could give up to 116bhp and 112lb/ft, although that might be pushing the gearbox reliability.

[timspencer]

Took tara for her MOT, one advisory on the n/s trunnion but passed ok!

[First-Car as Marina]

I can't see myself getting much done on these over the winter, apart from the doors and exhaust on PDA which will keep me busy enough until spring with everything else going on and it'll be a couple of good jobs off the list . REW will be pulled out every now and then just to keep it going, but I can't do much with it till the seat is back

So I bought them a present each and they'll be all dry with VGV, well as dry as they can be, over the winter

[lock1506]

Used the van to pick up a load of stuff for my metro project

[locost_bryan]

Had a phone call from the engine reconditioner. Head is back together, just waiting for cam to come back from grinder. Short block largely reassembled.

They found a couple of issues. The oil pump drive shaft is worn, the square ends are nearly round, so needs replacing. Leyland Australia fitted a thick backplate that covers over the water jackets at the rear of the engine, and this has corroded, so they're going to weld metal onto it and then machine it true.

[david painter]

Antifreezed the marina and MGB along with tractors down to -25deg C
Dave