That's right, I've bailed on taking my MG to Myrtle Beach. Wednesday
night I was driving it when I noticed the oil pressure was a bit lower
than usual, it was about 30 psi, instead of its normal 70 psi. I
stopped immediatly to check into it. It turned out I was about a 1
1/2 quarts low. It struck me as odd that I would be that low on oil,
but I reasoned that maybe I hadn't checked it recently (though, I think
I had in the last two weeks) and maybe I had a leak because it didn't
seem that I was burning any. So I added a couple quarts of Castrol
GTX and went on my way, the oil pressure was back to its normal 70psi
and everything seemed hunky-dory. Yesterday I decided to put as many
miles (about 50) on it as I could just to make sure everything was okay.
Everything seemed fine, it was running great, so I breathed a big sigh
of relief. I was relieved until I checked the oil again. It was
already a little low (about 1/2 a qt.).
Again, I figured it had to be a leak, so cleaned up the bottom of the
engine and looked for leaks. Nothing presented itself as more serious
than the typical lbc leaks. Then I decided to check the spark plugs.
Plug one was perfect, as was plug two. Plug three had a little carbon
fouling, but nothing major. I pulled plug four. Uh-oh. Plug four
was soaked in oil and had chunks of gunky looking metal stuck to it.
Oh shit. I checked the compression - 130 psi dry, 150 wet. My guess
is I have a broken piston ring, my hope is that the bore isn't too
trashed. Sigh. The MG's not going to Myrtle. Oh well, the engine
diagnoses will have to wait until I get back. (Does a broken piston
ring sound logical?)
Anyway, it looks like I'm going to have to yank the engine. Now I'll
have to decide what I want to do with it, i.e. keep it stock for
autocross purposes, or build it up a bit for a more fun street
machine, or do something evil like track down a Rover V-8. :-}
Bob "At least it didn't happen it the middle of nowhere" Jones
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