Guess what - HGF

Thanks for the recommendations - unfortunately, a phrase we in my part of the world get very familiar with is "excludes NI"

The ride of shame.......on the back of a tow truck!

Hogweed wrote:

So... my local guy is now showing signs of not wanting to do it - though he used to be a specialist, that's years ago now, and I think he's less keen than expected.

There is still a semi-local expert, but he's about 15 miles away. So the question is... I've only driven maybe 20 miles since I noticed the problem. Would it be very inadvisable to drive it slowly to him, with maybe an hour's break in the middle, or would this be seriously risking making things worse?

Ta

When I acquired my F I drove it home about 15 miles topping it up with water every now and then with no big problem,  but my Son followed in his car with a tow rope just in case but it wasn't needed. When we got it home it was a split hose that was leaking, but all the same to that I did do the H/G,  its not that hard to do on an F!  Finding it far more of a job on the 2002 160 VVC. So my advice would be:  get it insured then get a friend to tow it gently to the person you have in mind to do the repair.  Good luck Glyn  (D4KGP) 

If that becomes a plan, do make sure that you affix the tow strop to a point where the front bumper is still with the car & in one piece, on arrival. Particularly if you have a front splitter! My advice would be to remove the bumper, there may be eyes on the subframe, these are for for tiedowns & not a near horizontal pull.
M

Hogweed, I have a 1.8VVC working engine in the garage if needed, let me know,

No charge,

Mat, Galway,

Blimey, what a very generous offer

True but it can be towed GENTLY as I said.

Restores faith in human naure.

I should think. Almost as good as my free MGTF 2002 160VVC gifted to me by a very generous man by the name of ALAN RITCHIE of Hereford. Can never thank you enough ALAN! Regards as always Glyn.

Thanks again everybody, and in particular Mat! Sorry, for some reason the site doesn't send me notifications when people post, then I forget to look
Mat, that's an incredibly generous offer - but she's booked in with the local expert for next week hopefully.

I wasn't sure what to do, then heard about this guy - I trekked up a long deeply potholed path in the middle of nowhere, and found his yard with what must have been £500,000 - worth of Range Rovers, all awaiting his attention. Apparently he used to do maybe a dozen MGRs a year, but now just sees Range Rovers!

I'll post any updates here - thanks again to everybody, but please don't think I don't want to talk to you - I just don't get notified
 

I would agree regarding rough luck racing, according to their map https://www.roughluckracing.com/mobile-mg-rover-mechanic-services/
they cover N.I.

OK at last an update. The guy I was hoping to get to do it has about 15 cars on the go at the moment, and I just know if I left it with him it would disappear into the pile for an indefinite period, unless he took a liking to this job in particular - which he might, ‘cos he likes them.

My original mechanic who we’ve been with for like 30 years, and used to specialise in F/TF, has now pressure tested the coolant system for 5 hours and no loss anywhere, so he thinks the head gasket isn't gone. He's cleaned and flushed the whole system out and feels it'll be OK.He says the rad is OK (I believe they can corrode), but if it was him he’d replace the pipes with stainless. He had a pair hanging on the wall for at least the 7 years I’ve been back here, but fitted them to someone’s TF the other day Don't know what to think now, but I took it for a blast and it's now at home… I guess time will tell I did check one of the mobile guys in England, he came back immediately and said yeah, NI no problem – but when I asked him for a rough price he disappeared again.Will pretend it never happened for now, and see how she goes…