A Cautionary Tale.

This will only affect RHD cars with oil coolers and you may be aware of it already but it's worth a mention.

Went out for a drive over the moors today in pouring rain, but still great fun.

After passing through a village I gave it a blast up the hill and a quick sweep of the instruments showed zero oil pressure.

I killed the engine and stopped pretty darn quick. An inspection of the engine compartment revealed the distributor side of the engine compartment covered in oil, lots of oil. It won't rust now :D.

As I didn't have any oil with me I called the breakdown service who arrived about an hour and a half later, put some oil in and started it up. Thankfully no knocks or rattles so I think I've been lucky.

The leak was soon detected. The oil cooler hose from the block was touching the steering column UJ and it had worn a hole in the line.

The car came home on a recovery truck and now awaits a new hose.

If you have a car with this set up, it's worth checking that your hose has clearance from the steering UJ. I'd hate it to happen to somebody else.

The day wasn't a total loss. We had a great lunch in a pub whilst waiting for the breakdown service, and as I knew I wouldn't be driving the recovery truck I had beer whilst waiting for him.

The other weak link is the oil line leading to the gauge. The replacements have a bad reputation for failing for no reason. This happened to me, but I had just glanced at the "safety gauge" and saw the gauge falling like a stone. Cut the engine, coasted into a parking lot and discovered an engine bay bathed in 3 qts. of oil. It was a Sunday and I had to be flatbedded home. All for a $17 hose. RAY

On LHD cars you often see the lines rubbing the coil. Takes much longer, but can still rub through over time.

A number of people remove the cooler and lines completely and just add a return line in their place. (see later model B's for example). I had read that the coolers make the engine run overly cool, and that they are completely unnecessary. Comments??

Owen, you should have a bracket to hold the hoses up away from the steering column. Also, be sure the fitting at the block is angled correctly. Here is a reference photo...

Scot, an oil cooler will not make the engine run too cool unless you're in a very cold climate. In such places the cooler is indeed unnecessary, but for those who drive in a variety of climates the solution is a thermostat. See lower left of this photo...

Thanks for the picture, Steve. That bracket isn't there on my car, and with it being new to me I didn't realise there should be one. A lesson learned for me.

Scot. My engine doesn't run cool. It reaches normal operating temperature even in our cold weather. As a concession to faster warm up times I've blanked off the front of my cooler for the winter

Scott is speaking of getting the oil up to temp, not the coolant. A long debated MGE subject.

Owen...Sounds like you caught it in time. How much oil did you lose?


Steve...You sure have some beautiful cars!!

I have my views on that, Clay, but I'm not about to debate it here.

Paul, I was very lucky, but I'm one of those drivers who frequently scans the guages so I can't have driven far with the leak. When we found the leak it was pumping out at a fair old rate.

Unless somebody slipped a shorter dipstick in while I wasn't looking, I lost almost all of it. The bottom of the stick had just a smear on it.

Some B's came without heaters but had oil coolers. Tell you something?

Thanks Paul, but they tend to look nicer in the photos, especially older photos. ;) As for oil running too cool, all i can say is that those MGs I've seen fitted with oil temp gauges never reported running too cool. I don't recall if more than one was MGB however, but I suspect there would be little difference between models. More likely climate would be the contributing factor of oil temp, imho.

Steve,

Wonderful color. I have never seen that color on a MG before. I remember seeing something similar on a AH 3000. What is the color?

Thanks.

It's Grampain Gray. It was used on only one year and model of M.G. - 1967 MGB GT. No roadsters or any other years.

yeah, i had an oil cooler line get in a fight with the pulley fan on the alternator once. guess who lost.

actually they aren't Steve's cars, their mine. he just does the restoration, upkeep, and exercising for me. some day i'll go pick up my rightful car collection and bring it home. ;-)

Sounds good to me! So when can I expect the check so that you can rightfully call them yours? Of course I expect to be allowed to continue exercising them, as they have become accustomed to it and would miss me if we were separated. ;)

jeez, steve. always with you its about the money. you, you, CAPITALIST you. um. but boy, if i ever win the lottery you'll be hearing from me!

I've got this crazy idea about paying bills and things. I know it's a wacky concept but that's just the way I am. :D

Uh, now, just hold on a second.. I already got dibs in on Steve's GT... Just waiting for him to run up a big bill that he needs to pay so he'll sell it....LOL
BTW what brand of oil thermostat are you using? I'm thinking of putting one in during my rebuild?