MG Midget 1965 MKII Restoration Project

Water Pump fitting

My water pump was a complete mess and in order to remove it from the block I had to chop it to pieces due to the amount of corrosion.

New water pumps are cheap and easy to find. However there are different types that you should be aware of.

I had a bit of a mission ordering the pump that I felt was correct for my car as the part numbers can be the same but there are differences as you can see below.

Now I probably would have gone with the revised pump of the left had I not noticed that the dowels that help keep the pump in place didn't fit the holes in the pump. So I sent that back to the suppliers who did provide a refund.

I also noticed that the gasket which came with the pump also had the wrong size holes for the dowels. So word of warning to double check everything you can before fitting...

Because this isn't doing what it is supposed to!

Anyhow fit both dowels and ensure the surface is clean.

Then the gasket.

And tighten up the bolts.

Looking nice and shiny and ready for the fan.

Not bad at all!

Distributor Overhaul and Fitting

This is the only photo I have of the distributor before I took it all apart and cleaned it. All I can say was that is was covered in grease and oil.

It wasn't too difficult to put it back together either, but I did have to refer to a detailed diagram to make sure I had the spring loaded rotational arms the right way round.

Slightly annoyed I didn't take photos. However the lower half of the dizzy is very mechanical and there is only really one way it can be reassembled, which left the top half.

I decided not to mess around and bought new points and condenser.

I found a video online that explained how to test the condenser, there are several. It is all about the resistance test and my old one wasn't reading correctly, so removed it. along with the old points.

Now when fitting the points it is very important that you ensure when the red arm of the points is against the highest point on the rotor cam lobes the points are open. How much depends on you decide when it comes to tuning your car. Somewhere between 0.014in and 0.016in is typical for engines up to the 1500. The 1500 needs a bigger gap I believe. You'll need to adjust the points with a feeler gauge. It is best practice to adjust this when fitted to the car.

Fitted the new condenser and connected up the black lead that connects the wiring from the coil.

You should now be able to fit the distributor to the engine. It is though very important you set this up correctly.

First turn the engine over with a spanner off the pulley until the engine is in top dead centre TDC on the first cylinder at the front of the engine.

If you have set this correctly you should find the spindle that links the distributor to the camshaft is in this position.

Be aware that the slot pointing to 2 o'clock is slightly larger than the slot pointing to 8 o'clock. This is because this matches the rotor arm on the distributor.

As you can see here.

You can now push the distributor down into the shaft and make sure it fits correctly into the spindle.

With the engine still in TDC you should have you distributor set up similar to this. The rotor arm pointing down to the 7 o'clock position.

You can now adjust the points setting using the 0.014in or 0.016in feeler gauge, by undoing the screw and pushing the points up to the feeler gauge. Then tighten the screw before removing the feeler gauge.

Next you have to connect the distributor cap with the HT leads in the correct firing position.

You can see in the photo that the rotor arm is point down to the 7 o'clock position which should also be where the HT lead goes to number 1 spark plug. As the correct firing order is 1,3,4,2.

Therefore as the rotor arm turns anti-clockwise the next spark plug to fire is 3. Then 4 and finally 2.

To make sure the timing is completely accurate you'll need a timing strobe and have the engine running.

I'll cover that in another post.

Fitting Engine Head

Now that the engine and gearbox was in the car I needed to attach the head.

Straight into it and need to place the new head gasket, but before you can do that you must thoroughly degrease all the surfaces and ensure there is nothing but smooth clean metal.

On both surfaces!

The gasket was supplied by the guys who did the engine rebuild. It has one side black and the other copper. Copper goes against the head.

It is also recommended that you fit the water host that connects the water pump to the head at this point, as it is nearly impossible to fit after without potentially damaging the hose.

Then, very carefully lower the head into the gasket.

Once you're happy the head is down and flat you can slightly tighten the main 5 nuts, but only finger tight to hold the head steady, whilst you prepare to fit the rocker. This includes sliding the push rods into place. It is advisable to dip the end of the push rods in oil before dropping them into the cam followers.

Next you need to fit the rocker. The guys that worked on the engine had already cleaned and fixed a few issues with this, so I could just slide this into place. Unfortunately when it all came back I was missing one of the studs so I had to buy a new one.

Plenty of suppliers to choose from but settled on one from ebay as they had speedy delivery. Big mistake!

When I first went to tighten up the nut the stud threaded.

Had to use a nut splitter tool to remove the nut as it would come off, which was fairly scary.

Ordered a new one from a A-series engine specialist who assured me it would be ok.

To ensure the main bolts are down tight into the block and head I used the double nut method, where you screw two nuts tight together to give a good grip on the bolt so you can tighten it properly without threading the bolt.

Just before you lower the rocker into position it is recommended to poor some engine oil into the cups of the push rods to give some lubrication on initial start.

Then you can lower the rocker and fit the washers.

You should now be ready to torque up all the bolts. I found that I needed to undo all the rocker adjuster bolts to make sure there was no resistance when tightening down the head.

You must refer to your engine manual to ensure you have the correct torque settings and the correct order which to tighten them, otherwise you're in danger of having to repeat this process again and having to buy a new gasket.

But here is the correct order for my 1098. The four rocker pedestal nuts are to be torqued to 25lb f ft (3.4kg f m) and the nine cylinder head nuts to 40lb f ft (5.5kg f m).

All seemed to go well including new stud which held up to the torque settings.

With the head in place you can now start the process of adjusting the rocker arms so they operate correctly.

You'll need a 0.012in feeler gauge to ensure the correct gaps are maintained between the values and the rocker arms.

You then have to follow the correct order as shown in the manual as shown below when setting each valve.

Turn the engine over using a suitable spanner until valve number 8 is completely open. You might need to turn the pulley backwards and forwards a few times to get it right.

Then moving on to value 1 start to adjust the rocker arm by loosening the nut (if not already) and tightening the bolt with a screw driver until the rocker arm is just touching the value.

Then insert the feeler gauge and adjust again so that you can feel a slight resistance when you slide it back and forth.

Once you have it right then move on to value 6 buy turning the engine over so the value is completely open and then checking and adjusting value 3.

You just have to keep going, working on each value in the order shown above. I did about 4 or 5 passes through the whole cycle to make sure I had everything correct.

Once that was done I could fit the rocker cover gasket and the cover.

Make sure you don't overtighten the bolts. The cork gasket will work very well under the correct torque settings of only 2lb f ft (.27kg f m) which isn't very much at all.