Subject: Re: [Mgs] another oil question? really?

From: "Eric J Russell" <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 7 Jul 2014 19:56:59 -0400 reip=0.000, cl=1, cld=1, fgs=0

> Yes! Ok, I've had my 62 mga engine rebuilt 3 times by "experts". The 
> current
> iteration seems solid - put a couple thousand miles on her. But she sips 
> oil
> modestly. The guy who did the machine shop work for my 59 Land Rover told 
> me
> that most machine shops and rebuilders machine the cylinder walls wrong.
> They make the cylinders round instead of slightly oval toward the bottom 
> of
> the stroke which considers the pull and push rotation of the driveshaft 
> and
> connector arm. Seems reasonable to me.
>
> So the question. Should I increase the viscosity of the oil to allow less
> oil burn, and/or, go to synthetic which won't burn off?

How would a machine shop make part of the bore oval? Many years ago Honda 
did something like that with their motorcycle racing engines but it was 
extremely expensive (they also made oval pistons!). And it was likely not a 
good cost/benefit ratio.

Anyway, how did you break in the engine? There are two camps - the 'baby' it 
for many hundreds of miles and the 'run it hard right away to seat the 
rings'. See: http://www.mototuneusa.com/break_in_secrets.htm

And I doubt that an engine that burns regular oil would burn less if 
switched to synthetic oil. A higher viscosity may help it burn a little 
less. Maybe.

Eric Russell
Mebane, NC
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From: "gordies garage" <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 8 Jul 2014 06:52:43 -0400 s=q20140121; t=1404816763; bh=PBChS+i7JAHJczqNHfrPPh2RbXhl5tS8ZHalU5fe1Os=; h=Received:Received:Message-ID:Reply-To:From:To:Subject:Date: MIME-Version:Content-Type; b=p+4/2WrO+vP3locXXe8dYrc5qMB2iwaxZmBUueFEY11AZC8DfuXG/tB/T/ZNut7W3 KyiIwD0KFycCPnv5w+2MUD/G0SBV0cJdje1vcOJEitB2Y0fuTTh58peRwuNgdU2fYn 42XYDzfuxXXjRas8z9I2Wrap1KpnRNUXEch0Numz3boDfAJirTUYz7YRQFb9/DJ4ig aURgvXlVkgXqSJ70/y8NdoizTImYspiLmNy0FUNO3sl3HPT5xEi61rHRc5PozOkIST CuXGE1otmQDGDbO3Zdg39NU6zO/DrIATYV8rgQgKAMcEBfEK8dCQ9MlueA4eAlchAu RAPz5oCynCQbw==

> switched to synthetic oil. A higher viscosity may help it burn a little 

Burning, yes, but, could a synthetic prevent an engine from leaking as much? 
Clearly an MGA engine is going to leak a bit from the rear main where there 
is no seal, but do synthetics have any "swelling agent" to help seal 
elsewhere?  Thirty years ago, synth was thought to cause leakage from the 
seals, but that problem has been corrected (if it even existed).

Gordie
'62 MGA 

[email-masked]

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From: "Clayton Kirkwood" <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 8 Jul 2014 10:05:11 -0700

Don't know how he supposedly did it; he may have canted it to one side and
then did the other. It may be something specific to VW engines as he is
widely known for his VW rebuilds.

I took it easly for the first 500 mile keeping it changing and under 4K then
I steped it up with harder accelerations and I will go up to 4500 rpm.

As to the synth oil, it was my understanding that synth doesn't burn.
Probably wrong about that.

Clayton

-----Original Message-----
From: Eric J Russell [mailto:[email-masked]] 
Sent: Monday, July 07, 2014 4:57 PM
To: [email-masked]
Cc: [email-masked]
Subject: Re: [Mgs] another oil question? really?

> current iteration seems solid - put a couple thousand miles on her. 
> But she sips oil modestly. The guy who did the machine shop work for 
> my 59 Land Rover told me that most machine shops and rebuilders 
> machine the cylinder walls wrong.
> They make the cylinders round instead of slightly oval toward the 
> bottom of the stroke which considers the pull and push rotation of the 
> driveshaft and connector arm. Seems reasonable to me.
>
> So the question. Should I increase the viscosity of the oil to allow 
> less oil burn, and/or, go to synthetic which won't burn off?

Eric Russell
Mebane, NC

[email-masked]