sfisher@abingdon.wpd.sgi.com (Scott Fisher) (02/01/90)
Well, it's been just over a year since I bought the MGB, and though I've done a fair bit of maintenance on it, I hadn't tuned it up since I picked it up from the shop where I bought it. (Well, I did twiddle the carbs a bit after the smog shop wrecked the balance so that they could charge me the additional $35 for trying to get it to pass, but that's another story.) It had been running a little rough lately, with an idle that I didn't care for, so I plunked down for the genuine Lucas points and condenser and a set of four Bosch Platinum plugs, as well as a can each of engine cleaner and carburetor spray. The good news started when I yanked the old plugs. They looked just exactly like the pictures in the Haynes manual that is captioned, "This is what you want your plugs to look like because it means your engine is running just dandy." (Well, maybe it doesn't quite say that.) All four looked good, a light brownish-grey with a fair bit of carbon around the outside ring of the rear two plugs that hinted at too much richness. I finished the four plugs, replaced the points and condenser, and turned to the carbs. Sure enough, the rear carb was several flats too rich (left over from the smog tuning?) I did the usual things -- put the Unisyn on and got the flow rates just right, then pushed up on the lifting pin and listened to the idle speed. When everything was well in balance, and I got the idle speed down from 1500 back to about 1000 (again, only the rear carb needed adjustment for this), the car idled smoothly and was happy to rev when I'd pull on the throttle connection. Before I put the air cleaners back on, I took the dashpots off one at a time and cleaned them with a paper towel. (I'm sure most of us know this, but never use any abrasives on the inside of the dashpots. Each instrument is a precision fit, no really and stop laughing now, and if you make the fitting too loose your car will never run right again.) There was a tremendous amount of cruft on the top of the throttle body, under where the piston drops inside the dashpot; I cleaned the carbs inside and out, clucked over the huge air- passage obstruction that my spring-loaded throttle buttons cause (now where did I put those '67 throttle plates...?), and put them all back together with new dashpot oil. I tried the sewing machine oil that I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, put the air cleaners back on the car, and went for a test drive. Yee-HA! What a difference a little tuning makes! We have throttle response, we have low-end torque, we have top-end power, we have a Sports Car again! I picked the bugs out of my teeth and parked the car in front of the house (I had to rotate the tires on the GTI before the next autocross, and the garage is the only flat space). When I finished the tires, I asked Kim if she'd like to put the MG in the garage. For some reason, she has never driven this MG -- the responsibilities of parenthood, the necessity of fitting a third passenger with the current child-seat laws (sure, they're a good thing, but riding in the XK-120 didn't kill me -- a little brain damage, maybe, but...), whatever. She found the seat adjuster, fired it up, and went vrooming down the street. Hey, the car sounds pretty good from the outside! From time to time I could hear its exhaust note wafting over the houses and trees in our quiet neighborhood... "not a raspy, rough exhaust note, full of the byproducts of poor combustion and bad scavenging, nor yet the lumpy, raucous exhaust note of a hot-rodded teenager's car: it was an MG exhaust note, and that means Sports Car" (with apologies to Professor Tolkien and his description of a hobbit-hole). Then she rounded the last turn and I could see her heading for home, the sunlight glinting on chrome strips set amid a green curve of fender and flank; the gentle but insistent whine of gears and the throaty purr of the exhaust carried up the street as she snicked the gearbox up to third, then down to second and into the driveway. "Why have I never driven this car before?" she asked. "It's a little better than my last B, isn't it?" "Torrey and I can get around just *fine* in this car," she said, and pulled it up into the garage. Now I might have to get another one...