For the person who sees the 1 and 4 cylinders not pulling their fair
share of the load. With siamesed intake ports and a 1342 (or, in a more
enlightening order, 21__34) firing order, you end up with the middle
two cylinders having 540 degrees of crank rotation to fill while the
outside cylinders only get 180 degrees. If the fuel was weightless and
perfectly mixed with weightless air, this wouldn't make any difference.
However, the fuel/ air mixture does have inertia and there is raw fuel
flowing at the bottom of the ports so 1 and 4 tend to run leaner than 2
and 3. If you tune such that 2 and 3 are perfect then 1 and 4 will be
lean and may not pull their fair share. They may also get hot but that
is another issue. Anyway, tune to the rich side to compensate. On the
other hand, the siamesed middle exhaust port services two cylinders that
fire 360 degrees apart as do the two outside branches. This is whey a
long center branch extractor adds power.
On the red MGA that calls my garage home, I felt the brake pedal slowly
sink towards the floor today at a stop light. I suspect the rear slaves
but we shall see. In any case the A will be off the road until I fix
her. Any inputs would be appreciated.
I heard once that a German MG supplier could supply a new MGA body but
that it was a bit pricey- around 20k US. Anyone know more?
As far as BMW introducing an new MG, I consider this to be inevitable.
The discontinuation of the 4 cylinder Z3 may be the first step in this
direction. Would this steal marginal sales from the more expensive Z3?
Most certainly but I am sure that BMW would rather loose these sale to
MG, which they own than to Honda, which they don't. This would also
fit with BMW's steady movement up market. If BMW is to survive as a
separate entity, it has to fill out it's product line. Top drawer
merger candidates are quickly disappearing. After all, who would want
to join with Fiat? I expect that, in the long run, you will see the
English Marques as the larger volume, middle price models while BMW
fills in the upper middle and Rolls rounding out the top. From a
business standpoint, BMW would serve itself best by maximizing all
assets and, as the F has shown, the MG name still carries a lot of
weight.
In any case, I will stick with the old stuff.
Regards,
Bill Eastman
61 MGA hydraulically challenged today.
58 Jaguar XK150 fhc project- Canadian expatriate
Enough extra Jag parts to choke a horse
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