Where does that go?

Well, there has been a lot of work but not much progress.   I continued trying to unblock the drain port so I could be sure that all the engine coolant was properly drained and solve my overheating issues.   The deeper I dove into that problem the more apparent it became that I needed to start disassembly of the engine…   This isn’t something that I took lightly since

A.  I have never done anything remotely similar to that before
B. I could just as easily make a bigger mess.

Will the first run in the MG be the last?   In the back of my mind I was formulating the sales ad.  “Partially assembled MGA looking for a good home”

But I did have the thought that at least I would know what shape the engine was in if I took it apart.

 

So here is a look at the engine with the carburetors, valve cover, valves, water pump, and radiator removed.   Your basically looking down into the cylinder heads.

This is what the top of engine looks like when spread out on a folding table…   At one point I was looking at a pile of bolts and wondering “where did those come from?”

The good news is that the engine looks great and I was able to clean up the block replace the head gasket while had it all apart.   I was also able to get the water column unplugged and the rest of the coolant drained from the engine.   With those two items accomplished it was time to start to put her all back together.

At the end of the day I was able to get most of the major components back on .  I just need to re-connect the radiator and see if it will start again.  Next weekend I will either be dancing in the street of crying over a smoking pile of MG where the shed use to be…