Evening all,

I have managed to get the head off my Barchetta so that I can get it reconditioned and after many disconnections, the only thing that is stopping me lifting it out of the car is the connection for the blue hose that goes to the inlet manifold on the left had side of the engine. Anyone know how to get this connection off or is it a case of just pulling the pipe off the fitting with a bit of brute force??

Ta

Chris

Post a picture of the pipe so its more clear.

will you post what will you actually do to head... how will you recondition and else... thanks.

How I recondition the head.... send it to a head shop in inverness with a note "Please Recondition!" - only being silly, sorry.

I was going to post a big long thread detailing all I did to remove the head and put it all back together but it just didnt happen, I may try to do it when i put it back together as a 50% job!. Basically, i spoke to a nice fella in Inverness and he has said that in his experience, it will just need new valves and seals with the valves lapping in and a head skim. He quoted £260 I think if all 16 valves need replacing but the price comes down if only the inlet valves are knackered (which he says is normally the case) so if it only needs 8 valves, the price drops by £64 (£8 per valve).

So it isnt a fully reconditioned head, more of a head made to work! ANyway if I manage to disconnect this last pipe I can check the state of all the valves. i will try post a picture of it this evening.

Regards

Chris

Pictures as requested, any help really appreciated so that I can finally get the car on the road and drive it!(never driven it yet! belt tensioner let go before I could do that!)
The pipe in question is the blue one going into the intake manifold just behind the fuel intake and return connections



Whilst I was at it I took a photo of my other "B" that the Fiat "B" sits next to ( I know the garage is a mess but I will tidy it when the B can be moved!!:

if I'm right, brute force... it's just perched (jammed, put by force..) on pipe...
(sorry, don't know right word)

Tha very much, brute force to be applied over the weekend then!

nice MGB... what year? '[FONT=arial,sans-serif][SIZE=-1]76?[/SIZE][/FONT]

No, much older than that, 1965. Getting quite sort after now as it is an early one with pull door handles and the 3 bearing crank engine. Apparently as MGA prices go up, people are looking to MK1 MGBs as an alternative, thus pushing those prices up. I will get around to putting some good pictures of the 2 "B"'s together when I get the modern one going!

The MG did a 3000 mile run from aberdeen to Le Mans in the Summer with no problems, the Fiat did 0.00001 miles from the garage to the drive and broke!!! As D-Ream once sang, "things.....can only get better.."

My brother had an MG like that, but with a V8 in it. Very scary!

Your brother, or the MG?

Now that I think about it, a bit of both

So its finally off, all 16 valves have a mark on them so its 16 new valves for starters. With the head and the intake manifold out of the way, everything is very accessible, can anyone think of any things I should do whilst it is in this state? (apart from tidy all my tools back up!!) Can I do anything to remove the carbonisation on top of the pistons? I cant think of a way of doing it that wont leave loads of crap in the cylinder - maybe not worth doing anything with??? also have a fair bit of cleaning to do and need to try removing the bolts that hold the expansion tank on as they sheared when removed, the loom to repair under the battery tray where it looks like a leaking battery has burnt through the conduit (but thankfully not the insulation on the wires). A selection of photos below for your viewing pleasure.

Looks like you're doing a good job there, you're braver than I am!

The only things I can think of are to exhaust wrap the manifold as it's easy to get to (if you fancy it) for the moment. Perhaps give the throttle body and idle valve a good clean.

Good luck with the re-assembly, I guess that'll be in a week to ten days?

Yep Matt, should be something like that although it may take longer to put back together than it did to take apart! Maybe budget on 2 weeks! Although all the bolts are labled where they came from so it may not be so bad. As for wrapping the manifold, thats not a bad idea as the heat shiel is missing anyway so that wouldmean I dont have to worry about finding a new one!

Hat's off to you!! Great effort, once finished I bet she will run and smooth as anything...............

Good idea about the exhaust wrap Matt, mine made a huge difference when I did it (once it stopped smoking that is!)....

I was thinking of getting mine wrapped isnce the shield is breaking away allready, any ideas where I can get the thermal bandages from?

Guys,

There is a lot of chat about wrapping exhausts my fellow MG 'ers look at this when doing V8 conversions, they have concerns with corrosion under the lagging (only common if you drive in crappy weather all the time), there are concerns you can warp the manifolds due to the manifolds not radiating heat and thus getting too hot, also passing additional heat to the head and causing problems there. I cant say I have ever heard this is an issue on Fiats and I am sure it will not be a problem, even on V8 mgs, where wrapping is common, opinions vary.

For me, i will probably wrap it! I cant see it being a risk but just thought I would share the thoughts with you lot.

Regards

Chris

PS a quick search on ebay for exhaust wrap brings up loads

My brother did it to his old style Mini and it seems to have only been a positive. As I understand it, the hot gasses come out of the engine and don't start losing much heat (after the wrap) until they hit the CAT. This should be better for the CAT and help the exhaust work slightly better.

I can see that the CAT could get hotter than normal but I'd expect any extra heat from the manifold to soak out the CAT side as it's the cooler. of the two. I would have thought the manifold gasket would prevent much extra heat getting back to the engine block itself.

Just guesses.....

You shouldn't wrap your manifold. The heat can cause it to crack, sure it keeps under bonnet temperatures down but you don't need to because you already have a cold air box and a heat shield to protect the radiator. Whats more it will probably damage the CAT over time. There isn't sufficient evidence that it increases performance anyway.