rods

As you guys all know, my mind is pretty much into my engine right now!! I was thinking about a few things, and one of the biggest ones that has me puzzled is what are the oil holes in the rods for if they point away from the cam?? When my original pistons were installed on my original rods (bent one and all) they were done backwards!! I straightened that out in Boise, and of course I will do it correctly this time around, but why?? Why do the face away from the cam?? Oh, I just was checking them out and noticed that one of the rods (the bent one) has an oil hole on either side!! No big deal, because I will use a new set of rods! I noticed that JDW said that this is the only engine that he he has ever seen that the oil holes go this way!! I have to admit that I have never seen another one like it either, and I just don't understand why!! Anybody?????

Them Brits were still PO'd about the Boston Tea Party. They knew that we Yanks would figure that they went toe other way so they did it just to get even.

Well, us Canadians are still a little PO'ed about the invasion of 1812, and they never told us!!! :o) So is it bad to have them in backwards??

and I'm still po'd about triumph and British Leyland, and I think it would hurt the oiling and make them wear early

Well Chuck, a guy like you will always be PO'ed about something!! :o) Nah, just joking!! Now why are you PO'd about Triumph??
I am dead serious though with my question!! Obviously it was done for a reason!! What could it be, and would it matter??

because the idiot who finally ran BL into the ground was a Triumph guy and he decided to close down MG and try to save Triumph in 1980. This may be a blessing in disguise because we MG guys might be living down the TR7.

and I was serious about my answer

Make what wear early??? I don't get it!!

the rod bushing

Why???? I don't get it??

I've never had one of these apart to look at it but looking at the pic on the octarine page, somehow the upper rod bushing is splash oiled. if it is in backwards, the splash action may not work and the upper bushings may not be adequately lubricated.

NOPE!!! It has oil pressure going in there!! I can no see how it could hurt the rod bearing!! Oil pressure is good in these babies, 80 lbs is hard to keep out of anywhere!! I was under the impresion that it was a 'sqirt hole' so oil should come out of it. Am I wrong?? It won't be the first time!! :o)

then maybe it squirts on the cam?

normally that is what it does!! This time it is backwards!! They are away from the cam!!

Beats the crap out of me. Old Detroit inlines used those holes to help oil the cam lobe area. I don't even see any reason to have them holes if they don't do that. I don't think it would actually hurt anything if they were turned the other way, after all, the only one you had trouble with was bent out of shape. Maybe one of them oils something up around the distributor shaft; who knows?

If it does, maybe that was supposed to be the one with the double holes and they wrothe the book backwards??? :o)

Just call it crazy Brit sh!t and forget it.

Hey! That rhymes.

I'd love to!! I just can't!! When Tom comes on, we will know!! :o)

No he won't. He'll tell you the same thing I did in my last post. ;^)

Obviously!! He would have put in his $.02 by now if he knew!! :o) So, should they go in backwards??

No, put them in the way they belong, it's too expensive to experiment with, talk sombody else into doing it and watch what happens.

That is what i meant!! Backwards!! :o)

Sometimes you're simply impossible, even worse than me, I'm getting lost in this crap. Who cares? Everybody but me has dropped out and I'm feeling dumber by the minute for hanging in there.

OK, nobody laugh at me when I say this. I'll be the first to admit I've never actually held or inspected an MG rod, so I really don't have a clue exactly where this hole is or how it's oriented. So this is probably dumb. But with that disclaimer out of the way, I think I read somewhere that some MG engines (no idea if the B-series is one of them) shot oil onto the the underside side of the piston to cool it. Could the hole be there for that?

Just got back to work and read this thread. Actually, the hole is there to oil the bottom sections of the cylinders on the side opposite the cam. Everything else in there gets a pretty good splash oiling. Or so I've been told by a longtime LBC wrench. So Bax is real close!!

Gary, with the rods installed backwards & you zipping along at continuous high speeds on your way to Boise, could those 2 things combined have caused metal overheating due to a lack oiling to the point where it bent your rod (they wouldn't all go at once & your bent one is pretty far away from the oil pickup point)? Another reason to follow David's philosophy of having the book open & handy everytime you build an engine...
...&, Gary, are you sure that was a matched set of rods...or do you have one of the tapered rods from a GH/GJ engine?
...oh, out of curiosity, what's your engine #?

gotcha!! :o)

Tony, I don't have the old block anymore and I never did worry about the engine number!! I may still have the tag if I look real hard!! As far as bending the rod?? I really doubt it!! No, they were not a matched set!!! They all look the same until you examine them real close and you will notice that there are 2 oil holes on the one that is bent!! It also has a slightly different numbering set-up on the sides, but other than that is identical!! I did not originally worry about it, because I had the engine balanced and the rods reconditioned!! In hind thought, I probably should have!!!
Thanks Ken and Bax!! As I was looking at the setup yeserday, that is what I saw!! It is squirting right at the bottom of the piston!! I am surprised that it needs cooling!! Thanks again for the answer!!

So, mystery solved:
- Unmatched set of rods incorrectly installed driven at high speeds caused the odd rod to bend thus snapping the wrist pin circlip!

Just read it in the shop manual that came with the 63. They are there to provide "jet lubrication to the cylinder wall"...

The machine shop that pressed the pistons on my rods put them on backwards also thinking they were to oil the cam...

What year Blake??? Press fit was after something like '72 or '73!! Furthermore, who has a manual from a '63 besides you?? :o)

No!! You must have missed it!! There are hammer marks on the rod in question!! The machine shop just did not do it's job!! Maybe I should send them to you!! I will, if you want, but I do want it all back!! I am OK with when you come here next year though!!

Same same....I think all B series engines had the oil hole and it faced away from the cam and was there to oil the cylinder wall. Either way if it was faceing the wrong way it may not have the correct angle to do the job...

What about the hammer markes???? Must have missed that....

I believe some a$$hole tried to straighten it!