regularman
Yoda
Offline
Hello everyone. It has been a long time since posting for me. I just finished a EE degree and now I can focus back on Spridgets.
I had an interesting thing happen last weekend. The bride and I took the midget up to mount Mitchell and the car behaved flawlessly and that is a pretty steep climb.
I kept my eyes on the gauges and all looked well, but on the way down I took a different route down to the low lands,and on the way down everything still looked OK.
I went down to Marion, NC and then took US 70 to old Fort and was preparing to climb the mountain Via I-40 and I noticed that the car was spark knocking at little bit but the temp looked OK.
I barely got on the interstate and the car started really spark knocking and losing power. Pushed the clutch in and the engine quickly locked up.
We had the top up and it was raining. The car was really smoking once we stopped like I had never seen. It smelled hot. I looked under the hood and could immediately see that the head had gotten so hot that the green paint had turned black.
Evidently the water was so low when I started out that it wasn't really touching the sensor is all I can figure.
I only had a 12 ounce bottle of drinking water. I took the cap off the radiator and it blew steam with very little water. I poured in the 12 ounces of drinking water and it chugged and churned and blew a lot back out.
I had about a mile to walk back down the interstate to civilization and I started out. Cell phone battery was dead.
I figured the motor was damaged but I wanted to see what happened when it cooled down. while walking I came across 2Litre jug someone had threw out. I still had my 12 ounce bottle and I saw that water was running off the road like a creek in one area and I filled the jug and headed back to the midget.
I put that water in the midget and it chugged again but kept some water so I made the trip several times till the radiator was full and I had some extra.
I had an extra quart of oil in the trunk and poured that in as well.
I tried to start it and it fired up and ran decent.
So, then we started back up the mountain for the 6 mile climb and just kept to 45mph and the car ran ok and I could see that the heat gauge was functional.
I made it all the way home. I could not believe it and figured we would need a wrecker.
I pulled the head today and checked for cracks or warpage and I can't see anything wrong with it. How tough it that !
I am going to put in new valve seals and lap the valves and put it all back together.
Or, I have another head that needs valve seals and I may try it. The original head used to sip water and I replaced the head gasket with some permatex copper sealer and it did well for years, and I did not need to check the water as often, or so I thought.
Driving and MG, one is never at a lack of adventure.
Kim
I had an interesting thing happen last weekend. The bride and I took the midget up to mount Mitchell and the car behaved flawlessly and that is a pretty steep climb.
I kept my eyes on the gauges and all looked well, but on the way down I took a different route down to the low lands,and on the way down everything still looked OK.
I went down to Marion, NC and then took US 70 to old Fort and was preparing to climb the mountain Via I-40 and I noticed that the car was spark knocking at little bit but the temp looked OK.
I barely got on the interstate and the car started really spark knocking and losing power. Pushed the clutch in and the engine quickly locked up.
We had the top up and it was raining. The car was really smoking once we stopped like I had never seen. It smelled hot. I looked under the hood and could immediately see that the head had gotten so hot that the green paint had turned black.
Evidently the water was so low when I started out that it wasn't really touching the sensor is all I can figure.
I only had a 12 ounce bottle of drinking water. I took the cap off the radiator and it blew steam with very little water. I poured in the 12 ounces of drinking water and it chugged and churned and blew a lot back out.
I had about a mile to walk back down the interstate to civilization and I started out. Cell phone battery was dead.
I figured the motor was damaged but I wanted to see what happened when it cooled down. while walking I came across 2Litre jug someone had threw out. I still had my 12 ounce bottle and I saw that water was running off the road like a creek in one area and I filled the jug and headed back to the midget.
I put that water in the midget and it chugged again but kept some water so I made the trip several times till the radiator was full and I had some extra.
I had an extra quart of oil in the trunk and poured that in as well.
I tried to start it and it fired up and ran decent.
So, then we started back up the mountain for the 6 mile climb and just kept to 45mph and the car ran ok and I could see that the heat gauge was functional.
I made it all the way home. I could not believe it and figured we would need a wrecker.
I pulled the head today and checked for cracks or warpage and I can't see anything wrong with it. How tough it that !
I am going to put in new valve seals and lap the valves and put it all back together.
Or, I have another head that needs valve seals and I may try it. The original head used to sip water and I replaced the head gasket with some permatex copper sealer and it did well for years, and I did not need to check the water as often, or so I thought.
Driving and MG, one is never at a lack of adventure.
Kim