MG Car Club of South Australia
MGC NEWS MGC conversations by Richard Mixture ,
H
March 2018 More advance less speed
ello , it ’ s Richard here again . That nice young Register Co-ordinator showed me a letter he ’ d received from one of the MGC owners in our Club . Putting it bluntly he wanted more speed . There can ’ t be too many MG owners who haven ’ t said that at least once over the years . Anyway , Lynton and his ‘ C ’ toddled off to Specialty Tuning , a business that evidently specialise in “ distributor graphing and carburettor overhaul ”. While I ’ m not sure what graphing a distributor is , anyone who can overhaul a carbie these days must be worth a look .
So this is what Lynton ’ s letter says ;
“ Thought I would share with you my recent ‘ C ’ experience .
Although smooth and easy to drive around the city the engine has always felt like it was running out of puff above 3500rpm . Towards the end of last year I took my friend in my ‘ C ’ on a high speed hilly run on a warmish day . I was concerned to notice the engine pinging ( detonating ) above 3500rpm uphill with more than 1 / 2 throttle .
I consulted Neville Smith at Specialty Tuning , Marion . He advised that , although he had not worked on a ‘ C ’ before , he had extensive experience with Lucas distributors and believed the distributor may be over advancing .
Neville took base line figures on chassis dyno as a starting point . He removed and bench tested the distributor and found a total centrifugal advance of 65 ° ( 28 ° is standard ). The distributor had been modified ( butchered ) to give the extra advance . Neville commented he had seen this modification before with Lucas distributors and someone local is mistakenly butchering them thinking they are doing the right thing . He reversed the mod and replaced the centrifugal springs to correct the advance curve . Finally he chemically cleaned the induction system to remove built up gum and carbon .
The final dyno reading showed a 10 % increase in total power but more importantly the engine now pulls easily to the red line with smooth and constant power .
I would recommend Specialty Tuning to anyone who is looking to get the best out of their MG .”
Well done Lynton , a bit less advance provides a bit more speed . I recall attending to this problem back in 2008 along with several other Register members and wrote about it in the November Club Magazine that year . We fitted electronic ignitions and had our distributors overhauled and found a wonderful improvement in performance .
Lynton goes on to say ;
“ I too have fitted electronic ignition . It was one of the first things I did . Purchased from eBay and fitted in situ with static timing reset . It made a big difference .
I did not know the dissy had been butchered until Neville bench tested it . All I knew was there was something not quite right . The pinging and running out of puff above 3500rpm being the main issues .
He quoted for a full tune including
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