Not much progress. Another daughter rescue took a lot of my time and sanity. Weather has got in the way too. Need another kick up the arse I think! Plus I tried changing the rear springs on the A4, broken spring what a pita! Need special tools for that job.

Kids eh ... who'd have 'em ...

Eldest about to finish his A levels so he's been like a bear with a sore head for the last few weeks. Hope things have settled down now.

Happy to provide the boot .... :soldiers::rambo: :dumbells:

Haha cheers Dan. Doesn’t take much to lose the momentum. Difficult finding the time to put in when you have a family, three dogs and grandkids. Guess I’m just fortunate to still have the zed and a space to keep it.

One of the rear springs has just gone on the 159, I'm not sure if I should just to replace that one or fit some Ti springs that are slightly lower and stiffer. Rears are easy, fronts are a mare.

Progress will be slow now. Gina has decided to bring her wedding forward to June 2020. So that’s me poor for a while. My ZS plans to get it roadworthy have taken a big hit. S6 also sitting there, can’t find a buyer as it is. Cars eh!

I’ll do what I can on the ZS with what I’ve got, replaced one rear arm bush, had to buy the tool, glad I did, right pig to get out. Refurb that before I refit it and then do the other side.

END UP AS A RETIREMENT JOB.

money goes out quicker than it comes in, unfortunately.

Yeah but weddings are great fun .... :beer2:

Little update. Weather hampering progress, sound deadening removal carried out when raining! Bit of a faux pas with one of the steel side sills, bought a 2” hole punch/swaging tool. Thread stripped and reverted to using a flypress, that messed up the steel and distorted it which lead to that being scrapped. Ordered a replacement from Spedeworth Fabrications (known for national hot rods) but that turned up with the wrong angle on it, 15 degrees out. Apparently a design change due to clearance issues on the latest 2.0 hot rods. Anyway a trip up there yesterday afternoon I managed to swap it for an old stock one. So that part of the build will be back on once I get a decent weather window, that could be 2020! Spedeworths have some kit up there, machine shop, CNC, and a chassis build, quality stuff.

Pity that you hit that hiccup - by the sound of it one of those annoying things.

Weather's not been great so not surprised it's a pause for now!

Furlough has meant some days spent working on the zed.

• Rear suspension rebuilt with new bushes and paint, refitted.
• Replacement rear ARB hangers fitted.
• Rear brakes rebuilt.
• Front brakes refitted.
• All four wheels back on and on the ground.
• Interior cleaned, stripped of sound deadening and painted.

Today I started stripping the top of the engine in readiness for the cambelt service and possibly fit the Piper Cams. Found a water leak so good job!

Good man...

Sounds like you've been making good use of your time! :)

Might as well. I have jobs for rainy days so I’m doing dry day jobs for now. That means MG work! Well it does to me.

Well this week is plenty of rainy day jobs ahead I think!

But glad you're making progress again :)

Indeed. As I have partially stripped the top end I have cleaning jobs to do in the garage of all the parts. :shifty:

Well, shopping list drafted to refurbish the engine, sitting at just under £300! Think I’ll wait until after my birthday, I did request DMGRS vouchers, got £40 from xmas still to use! Takes the sting out of it a little. Got my furloughed wave to look forward to yet! :no:

Order placed with DMGRS and weighed in a fair bit. So during furlough I aim to

• Fit Piper 270 cams and oil seals.
• Full cam belt service, water pump and tensioner.
• Set of spark plugs.
• Fuel filter.
• Oil service.
• All new gaskets to cam covers, inlet manifolds.
• Replace the thermostat housing and sensor whilst it’s accessible, was done several years ago but not worth risking it.
• Total clean of all brackets, covers and might even try to polish the cam covers.

sounds like a plan, hope it all goes well.

Clutch OK.

:):):)

Gonna be a busy boy with all that....

Hope it goes well... :)

Update:

• New thermostat assembly fitted.
• New water pump fitted.
• X6 sparks plugs fitted.
• Piper 270 cams fitted (with issues).

So, the Piper cams. All fitted and torqued as per the book. Went to fit the main cam belt then the primary locking tools. I can’t fit the tool to the front bank. After much checking and questioning my sanity it appears I have a duff camshaft in such that they have machined the sprocket notch in the wrong place, about 90 degrees out. I offered my original camshaft up against the new one and it is different. So I have some thinking to do to get around this.

One thing I have learned from this strip down, the cam covers mesh filters are located where the breather push fittings are, one fitting is a large hole, the other looks like a solid wall, no it is not! There is a diameter 1.5mm hole there! Mine were blocked, couldn’t see it. Could cause an issue with crankcase pressures apparently.

Have you got an idea of location (picture or whatnot) of those breather holes? When I have got T16 on the road, its on to FE54 to ger her back running again!

I’ll check which ones and let you know Sam.

Well the last two days were very productive. With the cam issues I decided to remove the cam covers as was not convinced by the problems encountered. To cut a long story short I was either tired or I failed to check the contents of each box but I had the cams in the wrong position on the front bank. After checking each set and happy with layout I rebuilt the cam carriers. I can honestly say that the cam belt service is probably the worst I have done. Not user friendly, the secondary set-up is a right pita. I would go to say it would be easier with the engine out. It is now slowly going back together. Cranked it over by hand, no dramas and everything lined up again. Just a case of trying to torque the crank pulley bolt up with no flywheel locking pin. Even in gear and wheels chocked I can still move the car! Guess it’ll have to wait until the brakes have been bled then get a helper to stand on them. Now to get the fuel filter changed, tidy up the loom then rebuild the manifolds and plenum.

well done, getting there.

Bet the first start up will be exciting.

Short lived excitement. Informed today by pure chance that the cam seals fitted are incorrect. Apparently they have changed and it appears I have to strip it all down and refit them in the opposite ends. Or should I say wait for replacements and fit them. So totally effed off and lost interest. Felt like scrapping it after hearing that. Going to leave it alone for a while.

Disappointing, but keep at it, put it down to hands on learning.

Sounds a complicated engine, thats why I enjoyed working on the BMC "A" and "B" engines in my midgets and MGB GT's. Also easy to take out and put back in. Still thats progress I suppose.

:):):)

Decided to carry on with the rebuild. Can’t see what affect the seal design will have on the current usage. It’s only a tiny design feature so will see how it fares.

Plenum on and off a few times due to routing of pipes and access.

Fresh oil, fuel pump relay removed and it actually cranked over! Oil light out, coolant filled up. Tried starting it, it really struggled, igniting down the exhaust. Finally started once the fuel filled up the filter and pipework. It ran rough, 4 or 5 cylinders. Left it to dry out, front bank plugs were wet. Not sure on the HT leads as the fit is different With the new plugs. The HT leads on the old plugs were snug to the cam cover aperture, now it sits proud so dirt ingress easier down the plug hole.

Try again another day, getting there.

Its all progress though Stanford :) Even if it is slow, you are still moving forward each time you do something on the car.

I tell myself the same thing, my back has been playing up (lack of excersize during lockdown and sitting at a desk all day doesn't help) so can only manage short durations working on a car, but each time it is moving forward towards the goal :)

It will all be worth it in the end, when you finally get the car back on the road and drive her again :)

Cheers Sam.

Well......I was browsing through my photo archive and was looking through the MG ZS folders. Saw an old engine shot. I had a closer look as was curious as to why my HT leads didn't fit as before. They were fitted 1,3,5 order as the leads were numbered.

Noticed that the leads were not fitted in number order. So checked a photo from 5 years ago, same layout. So I swapped two leads about and now it breaths on all 6! Woo hoo! 🤣🤣🤣🤣

Seems the loom is not right and the coil packs and injectors don't align with their cylinder number. Must have been a Friday afternoon build! Thank f@@# for that!

Good result, and even better a cheap fix.

:):):)

Thats good news :)

And you are welcome, however I am now having to tell myself the same thing (check out my new thread!) as it is so easy to loose focus and enthusiasm for an old car when these things try us. But Like I said, small steps forward, it will be worth it in the end! :)

All the arch work was completed today. Just need to tidy up the inside of the arches, seam sealer and stonechip. Paint is going to cost around £240 plus labour to get it finished. My ‘to do list’ is getting shorter!

Well done, getting there.

Would "wrapping", it be a cheaper option??

I doubt it. I have considered that but reckon it’ll degrade unless covered as won’t be used much.

No, wrapping the whole car will cost more.

I looked into wrapping, and it's the same as a complete/full respray - if it had been cheaper that's what I'd be planning on doing on the mustang due to the paint issues it has.

The grandson bought one out in Texas and he had problems with the paint.

Known to be very thin, they said come back in 6 months and it will be fixed under warranty.

He chopped that one in for the bigger engine one. First one was black, the new one is white. He had that ceramic coating put on the first one to help the paintwork.

:):):)

Small steps. Tidying wiring and getting gauges sorted. Will need to replace them as not weathered well, protective film has bonded itself to the dial face. :no:

Fresh RON98 added as ran dry. Starts on the button now, what a lovely noise!

well done.

Getting there.

:):):)

Little update.

Front jacking points wire wheeled, degreased and Bill Hamber Hydrate 80 applied. Looks so much better and not as bad as it looked before. Requires a plate both sides to reinforce the area that does beg a question as to why it was designed as a water trap!

Front suspension legs cleaned, painted and refitted along with fresh fixings.

Both driveshafts rebuilt with new cv joints and boots.

Braking system refreshed and bled with RBF600.

Prepping to get the cover on for winter.

Good to see you still have the love.

:bow::bow::bow: