Six months ago I posted an entry under the heading “Replacing the starter motor”, based on the “diagnosis” of the AAA man who we called out when our MGF ground to an unscheduled stop.
Now, many thousands of dollars later, our MGF is back on the roads and looking good. To all those who responded to my post and have offered suggestions and help over the past six months, I offer my sincere thanks.
If you happen to receive the MG Driver magazine then you may have seen in the March/April 2024 edition a letter from Mark Jones to Dave Brawn about our car’s travails, covering the earlier part of the saga. I have emailed both Dave and Mark a summary of the activity that has occurred over the past few months leading up to the car’s resuscitation, which may appear in a subsequent issue.
In summary: the engine was found to be in a really bad state due to pistons and valves not being where they should be, but the cause was not the infamous K-series head gasket leak that had been predicted by both our garage in the UK and most of the MGF community in North America. At first sight this was puzzling, as the timing belt was also intact, but on closer examination it was found that a ribbon of the belt had come adrift along some of its length and had become caught up in the pulleys and ground the car to a very speedy and unplanned stop.
So, “Cobber”, from Australia, was, sadly, correct that a) the timing belt failed and b) we would need to replace the engine; “Notanumber” kindly informed us that he had searched the Internet and found a replacement VVC engine for sale in the UK, which we snapped up quickly – but not quick enough to miss a significant increase in what was already a very steep freight charge from the UK to Texas!! The suggestion from “Airportable”, however. to save freight costs by putting the engine into a “fat suit” in a wheel chair and sending it across the ocean as a disabled passenger did seem just a shade over the top!
One aspect that had not occurred to me was that the replacement engine is a few years younger than the car, so we needed to a) “cloud the issue” as to the age of the engine when bringing it through US Customs and b) overcome the fact that the car and the original engine were built using MEMS2 technology whereas the replacement engine has been built under MEMS3 standards. This may become an issue for other F owners in North America, as it seems that we are now set up on a combination of MEMS2 and MEMS3 electronics.
So, thanks again to Mark, Dave, Tom (who, despite being a Triumph man, took on the task of fixing our car and must surely now be considered one of the leading experts in Texas on the workings of an MGF) and the many members of NAMGBR and AMGA who have offered advice and encouragement to bring our F back to life.
