With the crazy warm weather we had around here in March, the car rolled out of its winter lair on March 18th with only a couple of minor projects to be addressed before the driving season of 2012 officially began.

I finally completed a project that I started some two years ago, abandoned and then restarted. That was to grind down an original set of SU carb throat plates so that they would fit inside the conical K&N filter housings. The plates couldn't be set between the carbs and the filter housings due to a lack of space between the rear carb mouth and the brake booster. So they had to be put inside the filter housing and that required some reshaping to allow the filter medium to mate with the filter back plate and avoid friction wear between the filter medium and the throat plates while still keeping the shaping effect of the throats. Done - with all of the bottom outside ring of the throat plate ground away and the holding bolts replaced by countersunk cap screws.

I also addressed crankcase ventilation as my previous arrangement had been looked at somewhat askance by Mr. MG - John Twist - at Reno. I had the tappet cover breather connected through a Datsun PCV into the manifold. The SU's that I have are an older version that doesn't have a port for crankcase vacuum. So, I plumbed the breather hose through a y-connector and into the back of each of the carb filter housings. There's probably only a wisp of any vacuum there - more likely just slight negative pressure - but any crankcase vapours are being "burnt" rather than vented to atmosphere. So far, so good no signs of any oil or dirty vapour staining the inside of the carb.

My other project after all of my OD and drive shaft concerns from the Reno trip last year for MG2011 was to replace the drive shaft with a new part. The old shaft had suspect out-of-round u-joint mounting holes in the flanges and I had blown a bearing cap forcing a replacement set of joints into place. So the new British Heritage part - made in India by the way - complete with grease nippled u-joints went into place. I would have liked to replace the connecting bolts between the transmission tail shaft and the drive shaft but it apppears that you can't get the uniquely-headed bolts out without removing the tail shaft to get some clearance. And - the supplied nuts with the new shaft are standard, not nylok, with lock-washers.

But with those jobs done and the regular minor tuning, the car has been back on the road now for some 400 sweet-running miles. This Friday, a group of five cars from our club - me included, are off on an around-the-lower-lakes tour of some 1800 miles through Buffalo, Cleveland, Detroit and Orillia. Fingers are crossed for some sunny days.

And in a fit of vanity, I got one of the Australian Overdrive badges to mount on the back of the car. In OZ, they were mounted between the boot octagon and the boot lock but there is a big web inside the boot lid at that location that was going to cause me nothing but trouble in getting the badge cleanly mounted and secured. So I opted for putting it on the left side body between the reverse light and the licence plate and it does look like it belongs there.

Well it's been a few months since I last made an entry and the car went to bed on Halloween so I have no more excuses.

The odometer registered 8,928 miles for this season. Not a single breakdown. There were a couple of near misses with loosing all of my gearbox oil and having the driveshaft work loose but those were stupid human errors. The car covered up for me amazingly well.

She garnered a 3rd in Class at MG2011 and then got a 3rd in a 200 mile Time, Speed and Distance Rallye run by the local Jaguar Club and open to British marques, Beemers, Minis and Mercs. Not bad for an old darling.

So what did I learn over this season? The cooling system works just fine without any monkeying around on my part. In fact, it was my putting in the electric fan and taking out the stock plastic fan that was the source of my high running temperatures on the way to Reno and back. Since putting the plastic fan back in and offsetting the electric to one side and putting it on an on-demand switch, the car has never run over the "N" even in similar temperatures to what we had running across Kansas.

I also learned that I sometimes have to moderate my own strength - and I'm not that muscle-bound. In changing the driveshaft u-joints, I followed advice and provided a liberal smear of grease inside the bearing caps to ensure that the needle bearings remained vertical. Even with the zerk fitting left off, I succeeded in blowing out the end of one of the caps when I used the vise to force the caps home. You would have thought that the grease would blow the rubber seals but no - bulged and cracked one of the caps. Of course it was the last one of the eight and I had got used to the loud bang as I squeezed each one home. Turn the vise, apply pressure, get a pipe on the vice to get some more leverage - bang - cap now moves smoothly home. Oh!Oh!

So for next year, I think I will change the drive shaft out. Might be a bit drastic but with the vibration, heat and now cap issue; I have some doubts that the yokes are round (maybe they've ovalled) and there might be a bit of slackness in the sliding gear.

I'm also going to get a new set of needles for my AUD135's. I'm unsure what is in there now (I had the carbs rebuilt when I converted the car) and when we were in Reno there was just no adjustment left to lean them out for the high altitude. Although the car ran and pulled in the high mountains, provided you could keep revs above 3000, it wasn't happy and I do notice a lot of soot in the tailpipe and my mileage is a little too low. And in a Fall run with some Miatas the guy behind me was complaining about my exhaust smell - no smoke though.

In my spares on board box, I've never carried a spare coil but almost everyone I've talked to seems to think that this a must have. So I'll address this as well.

So now winter thoughts turn to what we are going to do next season - either MG2012 in Dillard, GA or a club trip around the Great Lakes. Probably won't do 8,000 miles plus next year but we will work a little closer to getting into the 100,000 mile club.

With number one son now in the co-driver’s seat for the trip home,, we pulled out of Reno on a bright Friday morning enroute to Wendover, a town right on the Nevada/Utah border and home to the Bonneville Salt Flats.

After an uneventful Interstate run to Wendover and a couple of Provo Girl beers at our overnight stop,, we pulled out on Saturday with a planned stop at the Bonneville International Speedway. When we got to the Speedway, we were met by a uniformed Sheriff’s Deputy and a couple of catering trucks. The Deputy cautioned us from taking any pictures in one certain direction and told us that the salt hadn’t set-up yet and if we were going out on the Speedway to be sure we stayed to the left, or was it the right. As he wasn’t forthcoming about why we couldn’t take any pictures in his direction, and as there was standing water on the Speedway track, we decided to just take the tourist shot and get back on the road.

We swung off the Interstate just west of Salt Lake City and headed south and then east through Provo to get over to the 40. Quite some interesting country back in the hills including a trip past quite a huge US Army chemical weapons storage site – no stopping allowed. Provo Canyon was quite a nice trip though and it wasn’t too long before we were into Colorado.

Our plan for Colorado was to detour through Rocky Mountain National Park, stay north of Denver and then get over to 34 for our trip across Colorado. Up and up we went in Rocky Mountain Park, through snowblower cuts over 10 feet deep until we finally hit the highest spot on the highest highway in America at some 12,200 feet. While engine performance wasn’t sterling, especially in lower gears, as long as we could keep revs above 3000rpm she would run and pull. Soon though we were up and over and hurtling down Big Thompson Canyon to be dramatically spit out on the grasslands at Loveland.

We were overnighting inWray, CO, and while enjoying an end-of-day beer we started to hear radio tones announcing storm warnings. Severe thunderstorms, large hail, and possible tornadoes in the area. Luckily, no tornadoes or hail materialized but it wasn’t an easy night’s sleep.

Next morning we were enroute to Hiawatha, KS, and the skies were black and the winds stiffening. Our plan had us heading south out of Wray to get over to 36 for the crossing of the plains. Things definitely weren’t looking good to the south and it was with some relief that skies started to brighten as finally picked up 36 and got some miles on in an easterly direction.

That night in Hiawatha, the radio warnings started again and it wasn’t long before the town’s tornado warning sirens started going off. I was just hoping that my insurance was going to cover me if Abejita was going to be taken for a ride or a sand-blast in the hail machine. One of the locals had already warned us that, “Dorothy and Toto – that ain’t shit, this is Kansas, man!” Although rain came in sheets and the winds howled we passed through the night unscathed - even though, it was 3AM before the tornado warnings were lifted.

Weather checked and things looking OK we beat our way out of Hiawatha for Tuscola, IL. Save and except for a few showers we were in Tuscola high and dry when a huge thunderstorm hit with torrents of rain that almost immediately killed the power at the hotel and surrounding area. Later when it stopped, we had to jump flooded ditches to get across the road to go for supper.

Even since leaving the mountains, I had noticed while sitting as a passenger, that there was some vibration in either the rear wheels or the driveline in the 55-60mph band. So finally, taking advantage of a fuel stop nearby a WalMart where there was a large tire and lube bay that was relatively empty, I asked the guys there to take a look at the balance of my rear LE-type wheels thinking that maybe I had lost one of those stuck-on balance weights. They redid the balance even though the wheels were pretty much right on but we noticed a thin streak of oil on the inside right – a rear wheel seal going? So up on the rack to check the differential level – fine – and I noticed that I was missing one of the four bolts on the driveshaft to differential u-joint and the remaining three were only finger tight. Into the store, got a pack of bolts, a pack of lock-washers, installed a new bolt and tightened everything up, paid the bill of $12.08 (balanced two wheels, pack of bolts, pack of lock-washers, no charge for anything else) and smoothly back on the road thanks to the Waltons.

We were on our way to Mansfield, OH with a brief Gleek detour through Lima, OH, to get a picture for the Glee fans at our house and do a search for Rachel and Quinn although I am a Brittany S. Pears fan myself. Unsuccessful. Mansfield was reached in good order but the rains continued to dog our tracks and there was some localized flooding necessitating detours. Mansfield is home to the old Ohio State Reformatory, the locale for The Shawshank Redemption, as well as a Bob Evans were I ended up getting food poisoned.

Next day, fortified by some gas station pink stomach remedy to keep things under control we headed out across Pennsylvania and the Grand Army of the Republic Highway for New York. Rain showers most of the day and traffic was fairly slow but after a very long day with lots of hills and bends we crossed into New York and were only a day from home.

Quickly up the Interstate the next morning after a thunderstorm-laden night and we were soon back into the horse and buggy country and getting lined-up for the bridge across the St. Lawrence and back to Canada. Traffic on the bridge was backed up from the Customs point a considerable distance and while we were there in line the mother of all thunderstorms broke right over top of us. Man, the car leaked everywhere – we were later to find out that they had 3.46 inches of rain. When the Customs officer asked how our trip had been and was told, “Fine except for almost being hit by lightening on the bridge within sight of getting home.”, he deadpanned that we wouldn’t be the first to have been hit and waved us through.

An hour later and we were in our driveway and Abejita back in the garage her 6,612 mile expedition done.

June 4th - "Being in all respects ready for sea....." the car was loaded and self and number two son headed out to catch up with the Rallye on US50 at Chillicothe, OH.

Our route would take us through New York and Pennsylvania and down to Chillicothe where we would pick up Highway 50 and run up to Newport, KY/Cincinnati, OH, the Rallye's second night stop. At our first overnight in Franklin, PA, fate intervened as we were later to discover that the re-used lockwashers on the overdrive sump had loosened and in consequence we had lost pretty much all of our gearbox oil. No oil - no OD, but funnily enough no other symptoms such as heat, noise, hard shifting, etc.

We got the sump cover squared away the next morning and with Advanced Auto's best recycled 20W50 loaded on (you can't seem to find new 20W50 in this corner of the Penn State) we were half-a-day behind getting started on the run south to Chillicothe so Interstates would be the order of the day to make up time.

We were loyal to the plan and joined 50 at Chillicothe and got to Newport in the early evening in enough time to join the Ohio State MG-er's beer trailer and to swap stories as well as pick-up our Rallye markings.

The next day it was off through the heat to St. Louis. Arriving there early in the afternoon we got the car cleaned up in a sponge bath courtesy of Miz Ellen's bucket carried from the janitor's closet up to the 5th floor. Dinner that night with the St. Louis MG Club at Dubliner's and heard the plans for a commerative photo shoot the next day at the Arch. Much talk about Plan A - Arch flooded, and Plan B - Arch dry.

The next morning we left the hotel garage en mass (cough, cough, hack, hack) en route to the upper parking level at the Arch. The river was in full flood and the forecourt of the Arch was flooded so the parking lot was used for the shoot with a helicopter getting the cars in the foreground with the Arch in the background. Then, after some of us went up in the Arch while others beat a quick start to our next stop - Lenexa, we hit the road in almost 100F heat. By now we were clued in to avoiding sunstroke by riding top-up and rear window out as we were both sporting pretty good burns.

Next day in Vicky Brit's hometown we headed over to our host's for a Kansas BBQ and a tour of their facilities. And a chance to enjoy some discount pricing and easy access to any "needed" spare parts.

Dodge City - next stop, and once again amazing heat - 105F in some small towns according to their bank thermometers. In Dodge we were parking downtown to give the locals an MG Car show while we loped off to enjoy some sarsparilla and a gunfight up on BootHill.

Next morning, leaving Dodge was quite cool and jackets had to be resurrected. We were on our way to Canon City, CO. An uneventful trip but although we started undercover we were soon back in heat. As we would be quite near Pike's Peak,, we decided to head on up that way when we hit Pueblo and circumnavigated the Peak heading through the backwoods of Cripple Creek and Victor. Round one to the mountains as this was the first time that the car started to sput and complain about altitude. But she kept going although there were a few puckers in Victor when we hit stop signs at the top of steep inclines and discovered no power in 1st gear. But we made it through and headed through alpine meadows and mountain cattle ranges down to Canon City.

From Canon City it was off to Grand Junction where we had another BBQ from Classic MG Magazine. And discovered the next morning that no matter how hot it gets you don't park under a tree. The overnight roosting birds had ddone a real number on us.

Leaving Grand Junction we took the advice of an MGE member and made the trip through Colorado Monument National Park on our way to Utah. Nice road and fantastic scenery. We needed the scenic break because Utah was pretty bleak as we made our run to Ely, NV.

Ely, NV was a stop to steel ourselves for the trip to Reno across the Loneliest Highway but really it was anti-climatic compared to the Utah experience. Just outside Reno, at Carson City, we all assembled at the high school and proceeded into Reno en masse. At least that was the plan but congestion and construction split us up and we arrived on the main drag in front of the Reno Arch in drabbles and bits.

With Reno now clocked in, all attention was turned to the activities of MG2011. And, on the showfield, our little yellow B "Abejita" did it again and got a 3rd place in her class repeating her showing from MG2010.

I'll post the return trip in the Journal later.

Got the car out of storage on March 31st and started the projects to get the car ready for Reno.

Pulled the heater valve and replaced it with a "Lowe's" special. While the system was drained,, took the rad in to a local shop and had it flushed and tested and had them install a drain cock. Pulled the mechanical fan and installed a 10 inch thermostatic electric pusher. Powered the whole works from a new relay.

Installed an oil cooler and this does seem to make a positive difference in oil pressure when the car is good and hot. While the system was drained, changed the oil guage feed line off the block and plugged off the old anti-run-on switch (which had a very fine leak) so that now it is a union.

Installed a new brake booster and while the master was out decided to flush the DOT3 and change to DOT5. Had one instance two years ago with a leaky shuttle that left me with a good span of removed paint in the engine bay and didn't want a repeat. Plus DOT5 has better temperature handling characteristics than DOT3. You should have seen the sludge that came out of the bleeder on the left rear and I had changed those wheel cylinders and rear brake lines two years ago so it had built up pretty quickly.

Pulled out the Euro-spec 45D dizzy that I put in at rebuild and re-installed the original 25D distributor that I had Jeff Schlemmer rebuild over the winter. Car does run with a lot more snap.

Reset the valves and have agreed with myself to put up with tappet noise echoing back at me when in traffic at stop lights. Better I hear them than I adjust them so tight that I don't hear them and burn a valve. Checked my compression and a good 135 across the board dry on this low compression 18V engine. Put my new vacuum guage to work and happy to see a good solid needle with no flickering or pulsing and a steady 18 psi at idle.

Wouldn't you know it though, but on my first shake-down trip of about 100 miles, the OD won't disengage on the outbound leg. Pulled the fuse to bring her home and after about 30 minutes I noticed the OD had engaged by itself even with the fuse in my pocket and no power on the solenoid. The boys on the board suggest that there is a blockage somewhere in the hydraulics of the internals and a good cleaning is in order. Drained the gearbox and the OD, removed the solenoid, oil pump, relief valve and filter and cleaned them all up. Ordered new o-rings and washers and still waiting for them to show so that I can get the car back together to get some miles in to make sure that all is OK.

While the car is out-of-service and up on stands decided to pull the calipers and clean-up and lube the pistons. With that done and still no OD parts, decided to pull the passenger seat and finally get after that recline mechanism. My seat is sort of stuck with too much recline and maybe my co-driver won't appreciate 6000-plus miles in a slouch.

Those parts better show up soon before I get tempted to try to get the hazard flashers to work. Or maybe I should try to get some of that seepage from the sump gasket addressed. How much time do I have left before the June 4th blast-off?

Made the plunge and put my money down for a spot in Reno and on the Rallye to Reno. About 3300 miles out and the same back has me really working the worry beads.

I've already got a second alternator for a major spare, will be sending off my 25D dizzy to be Schlemmerized and using the 45D EuroSpec for a spare, and will get my hands on a spare water pump. All to add to the usual spare belts, hoses, points, condensors, wires, bulbs, bolts, oil, etc. that I normally carry. Will it be enough?

And, in the Spring, I'll get around to installing a new brake booster to put the power assist back in the brakes. Some of those passes on the Rallye are up around 11,000 feet. That's a long downhill. Maybe I'll flush the brakes as well and move them up to DOT4 from DOT3 for better hot temperature results.

Wonder how hot it's going to be? What about sun-stroke? When is tornado season on the Plains? Will the car be OK overnight in some of these stops when I can't see it? Am I going to have enough room for bags and tools - how badly do I need clean clothes anyway? Have I got all the leaks fixed? Worry, worry, worry ........ but I wouldn't miss it for the world.