Hi Mates
Question 1
OK. I have looked all through the owner's manual and found nothing about
the TD tewmperature gauge. My car has one. What is the typoical operating
temp? At what point doi you have to worry about overheating? My car has
never overheated, but of course I don't know that for sure.
Question 2
I'm taking a night school class, The instructor offered us use of his
"engine clkeaning machine." This is a commercial unit that you hook into
your fuel system. You then operate the engine on a mixture of gas and the
cleaning solution for an hour. Basically, a way to "de-coke the head"
without taking the head off. It sounded good to me. Better yet, car dealers
charge $150 for this and the teacher charges $10 (cost of the cleaning
solution.)
To attach to the TD we unhooked the fuel hoe at the electric fuel pump
outlet on the firewall. You then loop the regular fuel feed back into the
punp. You hook a hose on the machine into the fuel inlet line so the
gas/cleaning solution mixture goes directly into the rear carb. The machine
runs off a 12-volt battery. The solution goes from a tank in the machine
into the rear carb. Since the MG is + ground, we decided to run it off a
remote battery.
The car ran for an hour on the solution just fine. At times it was barely
masintaining idle, but it never stalled. The temp got up as high as 90 c,
but never boiled over.
The machine stopped before reaching the end of the cycle. It turned out
the remote battery was pooped out. We hooked it to the car battery + to +
and - to -. This kicked the fuel pressure on the machine up (about 8 pounds
for just a second I think) and some gassquireted out of the pin & bushing
assembly on the front carb. Lowering the pressure fixed the problem. The car
ran even better for the next 20 minutes or so. By that time the cycle was
completed. We unhooked the machine and reattached the fuel inlet line to the
fuel pump.
The car seemed smoother and peppier, though it's hard to give it a good
test in the dark at 11 pm. But basically everything seemed fine, so I
started home -- about 18-20 miles.
About halfway home I slowed while passing through a small village, then
turned a corner and sped up again. I got about a mile further and the car
started bogging down. It didn't bark like it does with fouled plugs. It just
kind of slowed down gradually, almost like running out of gas.
This happened just outside a car repait place, but of course -- being an
MG guy -- I did not want to leave the car there. I restarted the engine and
it ran about another half mile, then did the same thing. This time it
actually died on its own. I pulled over. It was dark and cold. The small
flashlight on my key chain needed a better battery. But I looked under the
hood on both side. I expected to see gas leaking, but I saw nothing wrong.
After rechecking both sides again, I shut the car off, then restarted it.
This time it ran normally. I hopped in and drove the 9-10 miles to home. The
car never balked again. It seems fine now. But who knows?
I can imagine several reasons I had the problem and I'm sure you can
guess the same or even more. My guesses are:
1- There was still cleaning solution in the system and the car couldn't run
well on it.
2- Some carbon let loose and something in the engine or carbs hung up on it.
3- I hit something on the dash by mistake with my hand.
4- The pressure spike upset something in the carbs.
5- The plugs were just cleaning themselves after the solution washed them.
But what I'm wondering is if there is any way the engine cleaning machine
could hurt something/ Has anyone else ever used one of these machines on an
XPAG engine? Are they good or bad?
John Gunnell
Old Cars Weekly
Iola, WI
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