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The Newsletter of the MGs of Baltimore JUNE 1, 2014
OCTAGRAM
2014 GET THE DUST OFF RALLYE HELD
The MGs of Baltimore car club held the "Dust Off" on May 4. The event began at Eric Salminen's
home in the Jerusalem area with registration and organizing. Participants were given the usual set of
directions to follow as they travelled roads to the finale at the Dejon Vineyard later in the day. Secreted
along the route were checkpoints that the cars had to pass to verify they had followed the correct route.
Directions were given using tulip symbols and some very brief word descriptions and distances to test
the competitors abilities to follow directions and find landmarks. 30 Cars were entered in the event.
After everyone had checked in at the close of the rally, folks were able to taste test various wines and
make purchases as they chose. Having brought along meals or snacks, everyone settled in for food
and conversation and award presentations. Awards were issued in the form of bottles of wines.
The weather was wonderful and provided a great day for the event and everyone seemed to fully enjoy
themselves and the day.
Once again, Eric Salminen and Dennis Blevins did a terrific job of planning and thanks to Eric's wife
Mary who kept the grilles going with food for the group. Thanks also to the people who manned the
check points and any other of the tasks it took to put on this event.
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Officers &
Committee Chairs
President - Richard Liddick (410) 817-6862 [email protected]
1st Vice Pres. & Regalia- Ken Olszewski
(410) 893-1661 [email protected]
2nd Vice Pres. - Mike Lutz (410) 592-8610 [email protected]
Treasurer, Tool Meister, Tech. Sessions
Randy Kegg
(410) 592-3733 [email protected]
Secretary, Rocks Registrar - Tracy Tro-bridge
(410) 489-7444 [email protected]
MGs On the Rocks - Jack Long
410-420-1385 [email protected]
Librarian - Barb & Larry Heaps
(410)-452-5349 [email protected]
Newsletter – Roger Marshall
(410) 747-3586 [email protected]
Membership - Kathy McHenry
(410) 817-6862 [email protected]
Webmaster - Marc Siegel
MGs of Baltimore Affiliations North American MGB Register North American
MGA Register
American MGB Association
MG Car Club UK
TIDBITS
Thoroughbred & Classic & cars Facts & Feats The Ultimate Guide
Separately adjustable reclining seats were fitted to the
1959 Rambler
NEW MEMBER/S
Dan & JoAnn Weiss 1951 MGTD John & Carmen Darlington 1977 MGB
APRIL MEETING TECH TALK
Randy discussed throttle shaft wear and re-
placement.
TOOLS TOOLS TOOLS
Need special tools for working on your LBC ?
Contact Randy Kegg to borrow the club’s tools
at MGOB price, FREE !!!
MEMBERSHIP
Submit address changes or membership applications to: Submit postal or email address changes to:
Kathy McHenry 5237 Glen Arm Rd E
Octagram is published monthly by the MGs of Baltimore Car Club. Opinions expressed herein are not necessarily those of the Club, Club officers or the newsletter staff. Tech-nical information is believed to be accurate. However, any repairs or mechanical advice is attempted at the reader’s own risk. The Club, officers, or newsletter staff will not be responsi-ble for any misinterpreted or incorrect technical information. If in doubt, consult with a certified technician. Articles appearing herein may be used by other automobile clubs and organizations in their newsletters and for other infor-mational purposes provided appropriate credit and recognition of the source is given. Classifieds: Items for sale or wanted may be advertised by MGOB members for free.
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Photos from Get The Dust Off Awards
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Thanks to Robb and Wendy
Stahl for allowing me to swipe
their photos from FaceBook.
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WATCH WHERE YA SIT BUDDY!
I frequently watch Wheeler Dealers, a Brit car rehab show on Velocity. Mike buys cars and Ed works on them. As Mike was
discussing a car he wanted to buy with the owner, he was shown something that really caught my attention. The seat. Yes,
the seat.
The car was the FSM Syrena 105. It is a Polish automobile model first exhibited at the Poznań Trade Fair in 1955[1] and
manufactured from 1957 to 1972 by the Fabryka Samochodów Osobowych (FSO) in Warsaw and from 1972 to 1983 by Fab-
ryka Samochodów Małolitrażowych (FSM) in Bielsko-Biała.
Data above obtained from Wikipedia.
As Mike tried to get into the car for a test drive he ran into the "belly test". Yeah, the belly test. Could he get his belly behind
the steering wheel. Some of us have discovered that test.
He climbed out of the car, looking for the track release to let
the seat slide back a little. What a surprise he got. The
owner reached in, tilted the seat backward and lifted. The
entire seat lifted off the tracks. More like a rack than a track.
There was a series of holes in the top of the track. On the
bottom of the seat was a metal rod sticking down and it had
a dog-leg in it.
As the end of the dog-leg was inserted into one of the holes
and the seat was laid down on the track/rack, it was locked
into place. Nothing like having to get out of the car to move
the seat location. Simple, inconvenient, questionable safe-
ty feature, workable. As an aside, they also showed how to
reline brake shoes because they were not available.
Roger Marshall MGs of Baltimore
PRODUCT EVALUATION
By Rod Barkley
One of the negatives with our LBC’s is the heat in the heat in the car on a hot summer’s day. One of
the contributors to the heat is the exhaust pipe that runs right under the driver’s seat. I have to
credit Dave Densmore with discovering a way to reduce the heat generated by the exhaust pipe. He
installed some heat shields from Summit Racing on the exhaust under the seat. He also wrapped the
header with insulation from Summit Racing. Based on Dave’s recommendation, I installed the heat
shields on the exhaust on my ’77 B. We both took our cars to Dillard for MG 2012. We both noticed
a definite reduction in the heat in the cab. So, we would both give this product a thumbs-up.
They are manufactured by Thermo-Tec and are called Clamp On Pipe Heat Shields. They are availa-
ble from Summit Racing in Tallmadge or on line at SummitRacing.com. They come in 4” and 6”
widths and 12”, 24” and 36” lengths. They are simple to install. The clamps go through the flexible
heat shields and are deigned to hold the shields slightly away from the exhaust pipe. They work well
and, I think, they are well worth the investment.
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The Original British Car Day (OBCD)
37th
Annual Meet
Sunday, June 1st, 2014
Lilypons Water Gardens - Adamstown, Maryland
The Chesapeake Chapter of the New England MG “T” Register is proud to invite you to the 37th meet of The Original British Car Day. This event is held for the enjoy-ment of all British car and motorcycle enthusiasts.
The event is held annually from 8:00 AM until 4:00 PM at the beautiful grounds of Lilypons Water Gardens. Come and enjoy this gathering of all British marques in one setting and the beauty of the water gardens. Bring your leashed pet and picnic lunch or partake of the food and drink offered by our food vendors.
Whether you are displaying your car, or just coming to enjoy the event, the drive is beautiful no matter which direction you come from. Lilypons Water Gardens is lo-cated in Adamstown, Maryland on Lilypons Road. It can be accessed easily from the North I-70 or I-270 via Route 85, or from the South via Route 28. Please visit their web site at HYPERLINK "http://www.lilypons.com/" \t "_blank" www.lilypons.com for directions and more information about their establishment.
The contact person for OBCD is John M. Tokar, Chairman, who can be reached at 410-775-0500, or by email at [email protected]
For more information please visit our website at: HYPERLINK "http://www.chesapeakechaptermgtclub.com" www.chesapeakechaptermgtclub.com
We look forward to seeing you on Sunday, June 1, 2014!
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LED Stop & Brake Lights A Saga of Unintended Consequences
by Don Harmer, mgTalk, May 2014, The Souheastern MG T Register, Ltd
After Geoff Kent's inspirational Tech Session in March on “LED’s, Owls and the Quest for Enlightenment” we decided to outfit my TF with LED taillights. Scott Sew-ell presented a somewhat easier LED solution for those of us that use 1157 or 1156 bulbs in the tail and side lights as in the TD and TF superbrightleds.com offers non-polarized dual intensity high power LEDs in white, yellow and red in the 1157 bulb. If just replacing the tail lamps, the original flasher may be used. If the side lamps are replaced also then a suitable flasher must be added if you have turn signals.
The installation was easy as it just required removing the old incandescent 1157 bulbs and inserting the new super bright non-polarized 1157 based LED bulbs. A test showed the tail-lights, stop lights and the turn signals all worked without in-stalling a LED compatible flasher.
Pleased with the ease of conversion, we also installed positive ground, screw based dash lamps from Moss. You could finally see the instruments at night. After all our conversions we closed up the garage.
Fast forward a few days. I went to get the TF out for a run and had trouble starting it. Even with using starting fluid it would run only a few seconds and shut down. Drove my Detroit iron instead. Thus began a search for the problem, was it a gummy alco-hol based gas causing fuel line or filter plugging, or some other fuel problem? Checked the power to the pump and cleaned connections. No help!! still would not start. After removing the fuel line at the carb and seeing only a single click of the fuel pump when turned on, we decided that my 40 year old SU pump had finally giv-en up the ghost and ordered a new solid state one from Moss.. When the new pump arrived Scott installed it and the new pump didn’t work either. DANG! Tested both pumps directly connected to the battery with jumpers !and both worked. Was the tank filter or the line to the pump clogged? We were set to drain the tank, clean fil-ters, blow out fuel lines. Etc.
Then I remembered a similar problem on the MGB when the fuel pump ground at the license plate was bad, but the pump worked until a taillight burned out. We tried a separate good ground to the pump and it chirped happily away. Changing the tail-light to non-polarized LEDs had created the problem somehow. WHY!!!! To under-stand, one must look at the grounds. The fuel pump, tail lights, gas gauge and li-cense plate lamps are all grounded by separate wires to the 5/16 bolt that secures the spare tire carrier to the frame, creating a stack of 5 eyelets and two washers. held on by a single nut. If dirt or corrosion keeps these from getting a good connec-tion thru each other and to the frame then the pump is no longer well grounded. However a path thru the tail light filaments to the hot lead of other bulbs in parallel and thru them to ground can occur (so called leakage currents). Note that the front marker light, dash lights, and perhaps the license lights filaments are all in parallel providing a low resistance path to ground. Installing the “polarized” LED’s inserted diodes in the leakage path that prevented current flow thru the other bulbs to ground. So now the fuel pump no longer had a path to ground. and could not work. Unintended consequences!
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Spit Petrol by Spanner Rash
The Boot, Hood and Bonnet Monthly Newsletter of British Cars of New Hampshire
May 2014
’Tis Spring and your classic is ready to roll. All the checks have been made. Once in the pi-lots seat, it’s “switches on” and “Light the fire!” We have life and as you drive down the road with an ear-to-ear smile, full of pride, other drivers stare at your passing classic. Into the gas station you roll for a fresh tank of gas, still beam- ing as other drivers smile at your car. OK, dream over, let’s cut to the chase, ‘eh? Some things change; others never do. As is the case with fuels and the combustion process within your engine, the petrol that went into your classic in the ’60s & ’70s before it rolled off the line in England is not the same petrol that you have just filled up with, but the com-bustion process is the same. Combustion is a chemical reaction so fuel burns much the same now as it did years ago. What has changed is the amount of BTUs (British Thermal Units); heat energy within that fuel. Most modern gasoline has around 116,000 BTUs per gallon. By the way, the octane number has no effect on the amount of BTUs in your gallon of gas. Regular or premium, octane is a fuel’s resistance to detonation and the octane you need is set by the compression ratio of your engine. Your classic may have a compression ratio of 7 or 8 to 1; quite low by modern standards. Even modern engines with a compression ratio of, say 10 to 1, run on regular gas. It is when we get to the higher compression ratios in modern cars or cars with forced induction, blown or turbo charged, do we need high octane gas. The effect of high octane is to slow the combustion/burn process so that the unburnt fuel in the chamber does not explode with the heat from the advancing flame. Look at it this way: the spark plug ignites your fuel and air mixture in the combustion chamber. This initial burn is called the “flame kernel”. It moves away from the spark plug in the form of a “burning halo”, a band of flame with burnt gas behind it near the spark plug with unburnt air/fuel ahead of it as it moves across the chamber to consume the unburnt mixture. If this flame moves too fast it will pre- heat the unburnt fuel to the point of ignition before the advancing flame gets to it. This will, in effect, give a second halo and cause a sudden spike in combustion pressure. This is the pinging you hear when detonation occurs. From this we can see why higher octane fuels have additives to slow the burn and reduce the speed across the combustion chamber so that we do not get detonation. Other factors can add octane to fuel. On modern engines with EGR the exhaust gas fed into the intake adds octane by mixing burnt exhaust gas which buffers and slows the burn in the chamber and reduces detonation. Also, taking in moist air on a damp morning adds octane. Steam/water injection also adds octane. CONTINUED ON NEXT PAGE
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Go to a race track during practice in the morning when it’s cold and a bit damp. The engine of the race car will have ignition timing set to the conditions of air temperature and humidi-ty. Later in the day, when it warms up and the air is drier, the ignition timing will be reset due to those changes. Something else that has not changed is the point at which your engine needs maximum pressure on the piston to make the most power. Your engine is a system of “levers”. The pressure on the piston from combustion forces the connecting rod lever down onto the crankshaft lever. The position of optimum leverage to start is around 9 to 11 degrees after top-dead centre (TDC) of the piston with the maxi- mum piston pressure at around 15 to 20 degrees after TDC. Old or modern engine, this is where we want the power, the “sweet spot” of the motor. The other part of this operation that has not changed is the fuel burn time. Think about why we need to advance the ignition timing as the engine RPM goes up. Higher speeds with more fuel going in takes longer to burn so we give the engine more time to burn that extra fuel by starting its ignition earlier. Simple, eh? Let’s jump back to BTUs and the en- ergy in your gas tank. We are all aware of the horror stories of ethanol in modern gasoline. If your fuel system is not designed for it then it can damage fuel pumps, fuel lines, carbs, etc. Ethanol is hygroscopic; it absorbs water. It also reduces the amount of BTUs in your gasoline. This means that to get the correct amount of heat energy that your engine needs, it has to burn more fuel. Case in point: in a recent chat over the phone to a fellow BCNH member who owns a Triumph, the subject of fuel and carbs came up. The member had the old Stromberg carbs removed and twin Webers fitted in their place. The engine had major “flat spots” on acceleration. This was cured by an in-crease in jet sizes to allow it to take in more fuel. Think on this when you have your carbs rebuilt to the original standard specs. Chances are the jets and/or needles will need to go up from “standard” to “rich”. Fuel filters and water separators are a must-have when we run fuel with ethanol but stay away from paper type fuel filters. Water in the fuel will turn them to mush. Anything but pa-per is good. For those who wish to run ‘pure gasoline’ you may want to seek out your local airfield or marina. They usually have ethanol-free gasoline. Take some cans as they usually will not pump straight into your car. If this is out of the question for you, take all the safeguards you can to pre- vent damage to your fuel system. I hope this article gives you insight into fuel and the combustion process. Feed- back and comments from other members is most welcome and I hope to pen other articles in the fu-ture. “Spanner Rash” by BCNH member Terry Haines
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See Registration form on next page of this issue
September 27, 2014
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Calendar
June
3rd MGOB meeting 7:30
7th Classic British Motor Cars show. See flier
7th Everedy Square Car Show -
http://clusteredspiresbcc.com/Home.html
15 - 19 Mon - Thurs MG14 - French Lick, IN
22nd Brits By The Bay see flier
July
8th MGOB meeting 7:30
August
4th MGOB meeting 7:30
1-3RD The Roadster Factory, Armagh, PA
24th Taste of Britian, Lancaster PA
Sept
5th Grand Prix Festival, Watkins Glen. NY
8th MGOB meeting 7:30
27th MGs On The Rocks flier in side
2014 MGS ON THE ROCKS
1970 MGBGT, primrose/black, overdrive, Dayton wire
wheels, exceptional paint and brightwork. Low miles on
engine and transmission rebuild. New rubber throughout.
California car with all original body panels (except bonnet).
Very impressive car and a real pleasure to drive. $10,500.
Also; Monza sport exhaust for 62-74 MGB, new in uno-
pened box, $200.
65-67 MGB door panels (NOS) black/red piping.
Easily modified for 62- 64 cars, $65. ALAN TUCKER
(717) 632-1778 [email protected]
