I had an unfortunate incident that has developed into a mystery. While
cruising at highway speed in my MGA 1600, the oil gauge hose blew out
gushing all my oil into the engine compartment. I pulled over when I
heard a racket under the bonnet and opened it to discover the oil soaked
engine compartment. My wife came to the rescue with 4 quarts of oil. I
put three of them into the engine to bring the oil level to mid between
min and max on the dip stick, and started the engine. It purred at
idle, so I tried to limp it home. It would not provide power above 2000
RPM and became overheated after two miles, so I had it towed home.
Although my oil gauge is a bit gamey, it used to register pressure of 60
lbs at speed. Now if reads 20 to 40lbs. I did a quick compression
check and got 120, 110, 105, 120. The spark plugs looked good and there
is no discernible oil burning out the rear exhaust. But when I try to
rev the engine past 2000-2500 rpm, it loses power and stalls.
What is going on? Could the distributor components or other ignition
circuits have gotten befouled with the oil? I looked under the cap and
it did not look like it was compromised. Any clues on where to start
unraveling the mystery? Also, any hints on how to prevent the oil gauge
hose from becoming disengaged in the future will be appreciated.
--
Robert Guinness
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