1959 MGA Twin Cam Coupe - Full Restoration
Home Page: Chip B
Broomfield, CO, USA
| Total Posts: 3 | Latest Post: 2025-08-29 |
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I tore down the engine for my new Twin Cam Coupe (see here), luckily with no major surprises in the engine block. A few notes that may be helpful to someone in the future, although probably pretty basic to any seasoned experts out there:
Cylinder Head Studs were removed using the double nut method, lots of patience, and plenty of penetrating oil. I have "JB Blaster" oil which I probably picked up at Walmart - don't love it, but it seems to be working ok. I let the studs sit with oil for several days and they finally came out after some enthusiastic "tapping" on the top and sides of the studs with a wrench or hammer. Nothing to bend or deform the studs, but enough to loosen any gunk. Felt like I dodged a bullet by non breaking anything.
Oil Pan of course came off uneventfully, and I was disappointed but not surprised to find quite a bit of "bits" in the pan. Lots of metal chunks. Hm.
Pistons and Rods removed without incident. #4 piston had already been removed at some point by a previous owner, so I'm disappointed I can't see exactly what was wrong with it. The other pistons actually look fairly decent and seem to be the higher compression design appropriate to the earlier '59 car. I'm planning on reusing the connecting rods once they're magnafluxed to check for cracks.
Main Bearings were accessed by pulling the bearing caps off using an appropriate screw and some 2x2s as spacers (see photo). I felt like this was much more controlled and comfortable than using a slide hammer as is often recommended. A bit of penetrating oil and all three caps came right off. The bearings look pretty decent. I'll plan to replace them but I'm happy they don't look shot.
Crankshaft seems to look ok. Haven't yet mic'd the shaft to see if I need to worry about bearing fitment but but nothing looks too bad.
The Cylinders look ok aside from #4, which had the piston removed and has some rust along the top half of the cylinder surface. The bores measure: (1) 2.980, (2) 2.977, (3) 2.976 (4) 2.975”. This is a max of ~0.011" over STD, so I'm thinking we'll need to go with 20 or 30 over pistons. I'm going to take it to the machine shop to see how much material they think they need to take off and then order pistons.
I'll do another post about the cylinder head - much more "excitement" found there.
Cylinder Head Studs were removed using the double nut method, lots of patience, and plenty of penetrating oil. I have "JB Blaster" oil which I probably picked up at Walmart - don't love it, but it seems to be working ok. I let the studs sit with oil for several days and they finally came out after some enthusiastic "tapping" on the top and sides of the studs with a wrench or hammer. Nothing to bend or deform the studs, but enough to loosen any gunk. Felt like I dodged a bullet by non breaking anything.
Oil Pan of course came off uneventfully, and I was disappointed but not surprised to find quite a bit of "bits" in the pan. Lots of metal chunks. Hm.
Pistons and Rods removed without incident. #4 piston had already been removed at some point by a previous owner, so I'm disappointed I can't see exactly what was wrong with it. The other pistons actually look fairly decent and seem to be the higher compression design appropriate to the earlier '59 car. I'm planning on reusing the connecting rods once they're magnafluxed to check for cracks.
Main Bearings were accessed by pulling the bearing caps off using an appropriate screw and some 2x2s as spacers (see photo). I felt like this was much more controlled and comfortable than using a slide hammer as is often recommended. A bit of penetrating oil and all three caps came right off. The bearings look pretty decent. I'll plan to replace them but I'm happy they don't look shot.
Crankshaft seems to look ok. Haven't yet mic'd the shaft to see if I need to worry about bearing fitment but but nothing looks too bad.
The Cylinders look ok aside from #4, which had the piston removed and has some rust along the top half of the cylinder surface. The bores measure: (1) 2.980, (2) 2.977, (3) 2.976 (4) 2.975”. This is a max of ~0.011" over STD, so I'm thinking we'll need to go with 20 or 30 over pistons. I'm going to take it to the machine shop to see how much material they think they need to take off and then order pistons.
I'll do another post about the cylinder head - much more "excitement" found there.
TC engine as received from previous owner
IMG 5839
Timing chain, minus sprockets and cams
Jessi scrubbing the engine so we can see what we're doing
Mounted up to the engine stand, studs removed
IMG 7603
Setup for extracting the bearing caps
IMG 7682
Camshaft removed
Pistons 1-3 (#4 missing)
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