This turned out to be a very cool day. Donald Trump said a lot of stupid s**t about Covid-19 as usual. Up here in Canada our Prime Minister said what Donald Trump rambled about one week ago (we are a little behind the world in the frozen North) which is also stupid s**t but that’s what he’s done for the past few months and… we have oil pressure in my MGB GT. How cool is that?
Getting oil pressure in my MG engine wasn’t as smooth as I had hoped but that doesn’t matter. Car restorations are an adventure and in these crazy days a good adventure is worth writing about! Let’s forget the BS that’s going on in the world for a few moments and celebrate successes. Raise a glass!
I ended up redoing quite a bit of electrical work before attempting to turn over the engine as I had reinstalled the remote solenoid months back after forgetting that the new high-torque starter has a built in solenoid. This required lengthening a number of wires and eventually I’ll have to re-wrap the wiring harness to make it look good. At the same time I wired the alternator, Pertronix ignition and a few other minor areas. It felt great to have most of the wiring harness plugged into something.
I added 20-50W oil and a bottle of ZDDP to the engine and dumped a little oil down each spark plug hole. This helps lubricate the cylinder walls initially and will produce some beautiful blue smoke when I first start the engine. I’m not sure what ZDDP additive costs in most of the world but up here in Canada a 4 oz bottle was about $30. It seems expensive everywhere but is highly recommended during the break in period on these older engines. It’s only money.
The strangest part of the day was not getting power to the new starter when the ignition switch was turned to start, in fact I can’t even turn the lights on. I figure this is just a minor electrical problem so instead just went directly to the battery to turn the engine over. Amazingly enough it only took 3 perhaps ten second runs of the starter before the oil pressure jumped up to the 60-65 pound range. I don’t have any idea whether 60 lbs at this stage is good but I imagine it’s a very good number while just cranking the engine.
There is only one oil leak which also is a good sign. Another 1/2 turn with a wrench at the oil cooler and all is good. Tomorrow I’ll start the engine.
