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MG MG Y Type - Oil pressure after engine/ clutch work

Over the last few months..well since October I have had the engine and gearbox out to replace the clutch and flywheel and generally sort things out. With winter and delays I have only recently got the engine and gbox back in. I refilled with oil
and was unable to get any oil pressure when cranking the engine with the plugs out. I had primed the olil pump so I removed the brass plugs on my YB and added more oil and still no luck. I tried all sorts of checks and eventually removed the brass plugs again and noticed some air bubbles which showed that I was able to get more oil in....quite a bit more oil in. Fortunately this time when I cranked it on the starter I got pressure at the gauge...crikey what a relief...from e mailing Neil Cairns and internet searches etc it shows that repriming the oil pump after work on the engine can be problematic and sould be done carefully. I was dreading the thought of taking the sump off again or having the engine out again to check I hadn't fitted the sump gasket incorrectly thus blocking the oil feed hole in the sump face. Phew.
D MULLEN

Always a feeling of dread and impending doom ... until the needle moves ... then relief.

Paul
Paul Barrow

I had my TD engine rebuilt by a local so called "specialist". They fitted a rear crank seal conversion which leaked badly so pulled the engine again to fix. Luckily I called in whilst the crank was out again and noticed that all the shells were heavily scored despite being new with a regrind. Odds are that they didn't prime the pump and build pressure before running. Just another ****up by this specialist MG garage. The image shows the shells after about 3 hours running. (I write this here as I also have a YA).


P Downing

Peter,
You raise a very valid point. From my experience speaking to many owners I've heard stories of garages either being too slow or making mess ups putting it politely.
I heard another classic specialist packed up recently near me, another is due to go, hence taking on no new work, a garage I use for MOTs intends packing up in 5 years time, in my view outlook is far from great.
Richard
Richard Knight

The use of good quality engine building lubricant is essential in an XPAG, however some believe that engine oils are so good these days it will do the same job - it won't.

For the sake of a few extra dollars/pounds, the security of an engine being able to spin for 2 minutes without oil pressure is money well spent.

Those shells are very sad to see.
A L SLATTERY

When discussing this topic with an experienced mechanic of veteran vehicles, he told me that he sometimes uses "heavy grade" gearbox oil to top up and prime oil pumps.
Apparently the heavy oil helps to build up initial pressure. This made me think and I am going to try next time when being confronted with the problem.....
Anton
Anton Piller

I suspect that the bearing scoring was more likely due to a failure to clean out the oilways properly.

I always power flushed the oil system using kerosene / paraffin and built using either Graphogen or cam lube on the journals / bearings and assemble the oil pump using cam lube.
Chris at Octarine Services

Good points Chris and advice (from you) that I have followed :)!

Excellent to see you and your contributions on the Y-Type BBS are always informative and welcome.

Paul
Paul Barrow

Chris, I had also put this too them but of course the boss had an answer for everything.
However, a decent mechanic was finally put on the job who washed everything out and assembled the re-polished crank with new shells and lube.
P Downing

This thread was discussed between 05/04/2019 and 06/05/2019

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