MGF freebie

[The Arch Bishop]

Had Robin over today to weld up the hole in the sills. Due to the value of the car, it's a patch job as it's not worth major surgery yet.

All done in a few hours on my driveway. Very pleased with the neatness!

Needs some black stone chip over the top and it's job done. The other side is a pig to get a picture of, but is as neat. Some of the trailing edge could also do with some derusting and paint as while it's solid, it's started eating through.

Just the emissions to sort out now but I don't know where to start. Wish these were ODB compliment, but sadly they need an expensive 'Testbook' reader to interrogate the ECU. May need to speak to MJS about that though as I don't really want to be throwing money at parts randomly.

 

[yippeekiay]

Nice to see some decent welding for a change. Some of the pigeon sh!t I've seen on this site is so funny and it's described as a good job. :lol:

Give Robin a pat on the back from me

 

[The Arch Bishop]

He is very reasonable too! I'll be sure to send on the praise. You can be damn sure I'll be using him again!

 

[XAF]

Looking good Lee! Fingers crossed you can get the emissions sorted now too. I guess some fuel system cleaner and a vigorous drive won't be enough to to clean it out?

 

[The Arch Bishop]

Sadly I think not. Cold starting is hit and miss. I let it idle by itself for a few mins this morning and it died after about 30 seconds and was a pig to start again!

Once it is idling, every 30 seconds or so it attempts to stall for a brief second then recovers. Got to be an engine management issue as it's cyclic.

 

[XAF]

Damn! How's the stereo wiring?

 

[The Arch Bishop]

Non-functioning! :lol:

I haven't investigated fully yet, but it doesn't look like it's in the immediate wiring. I will have a dig over the weekend though!

 

[The Arch Bishop]

The MGF(FS) has received a bit of attention today. A bit of a 'durrrr' moment meant three things were fixed in one small tweak.

I had a root through the manual and found that the clock, interior lights and the stereo were all on one fuse. Now I'd read that the oil temp light that I had problems with was on the same fuse as the stereo and had replaced the fuse, fixing the oil temp light but not the stereo. However, this was another fuse, and sure enough when I checked the 15amp had blown. A new fuse and;

And even the clock now works!!

The stereo was very kindly donated by XAF by the way. He is a top, top chap who I now owe quite a few favours!

With these small victories, I moved on to the repaired sills. They had a coat of red-oxide type paint on them but I wanted to give them a coat of something decent, so I went on Amazon and found Gravitex U-Pol, which seems to be a well-regarded stone-chip paint. It is meant to be sprayed on, but it seems that it can be easily stippled on with a paint brush giving a slightly textured finish. An old paint brush in hand, I had a go at a first coat;

And the inner-sill;

Pretty good stuff! I'll be giving it a few more coats over the week until it has the right texture.

My farther-in-law, who used to sell MGFs when they were first released, also surprised me with the following period key rings;

Really pleased with these!

 

[XAF]

Looking good AB!

Glad you for got the stereo working, just the minor detail of the MOT now!

 

[The Arch Bishop]

Well, I'm going to bung it down for a retest next week. The plan is to put some Cataclean in the tank, razz around on the back lanes between here and the MOT station, after 15 mins fill it up with some posh fuel then slap it in for the retest. If it scrapes through, it gives me options to get it repaired. If it fails, I've not lost anything!

Having a look underneath, the cat' doesn't look too much trouble to remove and hopefully, once that's off, I can get the manifold off to get a proper look at the lambda.

That's the plan anyway.....

 

[tuonokid]

Good luck AB from me.
Barry

 

[The Arch Bishop]

Cheers Barry! Fingers crossed! If it doesn't pass, it's not unexpected this time at least!

 

[The Arch Bishop]

Boo....emissions still way too high but not surprising! Still, got to give it a really good razzing around. It goes very well indeed and, wonky steering geometry and the rather slow steering rack aside, handles tidily. Plenty of front end grip and traction from the rear - I actually really enjoyed myself! :thumbs:

Also had the roof down and after a few minutes of feeling a bit self concious, quite enjoyed that too!

Anyway, first order will be for a decent catalytic converter. The tester said that the sort of results he was seeing always turned out to be that and you can hear it rattling when on the move. It's very accessible to remove once the rear is jacked up too, so it's just a case of getting rusty old bolts off. I'm pretty tooled up for that so should be fine... cough....

 

[Wild E. Coyote]

Fingers crossed! Glad you enjoyed the car a bit!

 

[DOH]

With regard to the emission failures . It would have been useful to see what the 4 gas readings were, to offer you advice?

 

[The Arch Bishop]

Ok, here's the previous fail;

Sorry about the naff cheap tablet photo!

 

[DOH]

Its mainly the co reading being too high. The co is almost a pass on the second fast idle test. The 1st fast idle is way too high & i am wondering if although your temp guage may Hits read normal perhaps the sender or guage reading incorrect., meaning the engine wasnt actually fully warmed up yet.Faulty colent temp swit h can cause it to give high co as its effectively run.ing on choke.Make sure airfilter is ok &if it is,run some redex injector through concentrated i.e 1/2 bottle with 10 lires of fuel & also check pcv valve isnt clogled up.

 

[The Arch Bishop]

Engine was definitely up to temperature as the engine fan cut in. It's also had cleaner run through it and the air filter is clean as I checked it a few days ago. Not sure about the coolant sensor, as it drops off high tickover after a few mins so I figured it's sending the right info to the ecu.

The reason I'm looking at the cat is because I can hear rattling in the exhaust. The back box looks fairly new. By PCV is that the idle valve? It does have a slight idling issue.

 

[tuonokid]

Hi Ab
PCV is Positive Crankcase Ventilation ie the breather between the sump and the air filter...usually.
Barry

 

[DOH]

The Cataclean is good for cleaning the Cat , especially if it's clogged. The Redex or STP injector cleaners are performing a different task and will help free up a sticking injector, as well as a clogged injector.
It might be not fully closing, weeping letting in too much fuel. It's inexpensive to buy a bottle of either. It will make the car run much better anyway :thumbs:

Also check the condition of the plug contacts going onto each injector, a corroded , green connection could cause the injector to fire the fuel at the wrong time , passing unburnt fuel down the exhaust, hence high CO reading. The HC reading will be better than those readings on the printout,when you get it running better.

A lot of the build up in the exhaust may well be due to how the engine was running prior to the rebuild, it may well clear after a hard drive.

Re The idle valve,How steady is the idle speed when the engine is warmed up , is the rev counter needle steady?