Fast Marina Magazine

Since I discovered them I've only bought the red rotor arms. Good or bad (and I know brand names change owners) the stuff I've bought from Mini Spares is branded Lucas. Back in the day I used to buy Intermotor ignition spares from places like the Motorist Discount Centre, allegedly made or sourced local to me in Nottingham. I thought they'd gone out of business but they've still got a website. A neighbour of mine is ex-garage trade and one day last week when discussing my Marina with him he said "Don't buy Intermotor". He was also giving the new NGK BP6-ES spark plugs I bought a hard time, preferring Champion N-9Ys that you never seem to see....he said stockists prefer the profit margin on NGK and Bosch plugs. My chap at the local garage was very keen to avoid buying any distributors made abroad (read China, probably) saying things like there would be no telling how long they'd last, and the car 'needs to be right'.

Just had a really interesting call from my garage man. Story of the usual s**t with this car. Its been giving him the runaround. No time to tell you now, more later. In the meantime, anyone know where I can get a back box and middle section exhaust for a 1.8 HL sooner than Earlpart's 10-12 weeks?

This firm advertises on eBay sometimes. I don't know anything about them or their products.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/MORRIS-MARINA ... 2519911669

Is the exhaust blocked then ?
Dave

Yes Dave. About an hour ago I drove the car about three-quarters of a mile home, and it was the best drive I've had in it. It now sounds ripe for having a number painted on the doors though, and being taken around a cinder track, because its running without a back box. There was back pressure. Glyn fitted the new 'used' distributor and timed it up, then started on the carbs, and in his words, the more he did, the worse it got. Which has pretty much been my experience. It was foxing him as he was trying to rev it higher than I've ever done, and the more he did it, the less it revved. Then he decided to drop the exhaust and instantly it revved to the red line.

But there's more. Take a look at this old picture of my inlet manifold, taken when I was trying to tune the car last year.

Have a look at it now.



I've never has a 'TC'. Or an MG. So I don't know what the inlet manifold is supposed to look like. I thought the front bolt was threaded in. So did Glyn. But in setting up the carburettors he was getting signs of an inlet manifold air leak. He put a spanner on the front bolt and found it was just 'glued' in. And leaking. So while it doesn't look pretty, he's sealed the leak with a piece of rubber pipe, a bolt and jubilee clips. And this solved the carburettor tuning problem. Before he discovered the loose bolt he had the jets out, which is something I'd be scared to do for fear of doing something I didn't know how to get back right, but he said it is jetted correctly so at least I know the carburettors have been built correctly, although I realise it might not have been necessary to have them done in the first place. That was a gamble I was prepared to take over winter.

I asked again about my old distributor. Was it seized, or fitted with the wrong springs? Because I'd been told on this forum to check for rotor shaft or baseplate seizure and I was sure it was all moving. The wrong springs, said Glyn. There was movement, but far too much resistance.

So, despite the 'history folder classic car enthusiasts dream of' to quote Mathewsons auctioneers, and all the original documentation from new, this car has had a blocked, disintegrating radiator filled with Radweld, a hot wired starter circuit with a button hanging under the dashboard, wiring held vaguely together with plastic tape and chocolate block connectors, a badly refurbished starter motor, a messed up distributor, a blocked exhaust, a bolt glued into the inlet manifold, and the transmission leaks ATF and the passenger door only closes on one 'click' because someone has adjusted the striker plate incorrectly and the top screw is chewed and now seized. Or at least it was when I last had a stab at undoing it, but that was a long time ago in the scheme of things. Trivial in comparison to a car that couldn't be used.

Im going to a show with my MG tomorrow. I will take a picture of my manifold so you can see what its like. Well done for the perseverance though, you got there in the end following a logical path. Blocked exhaust will also contribute to engine running hot.
Dave

the pipe on the end of the manifold is for the anti run on valve pipe which they fitted to mk2 HL and GT models for some reason its been taken off.

Been following this - best bit "and it was the best drive I've had in it.'. Hope this continues.

Thanks Dave. It's been a real trial. I said earlier in this thread, I did contemplate taking the car to a professional mechanic earlier on, but for some reason I believed twin carburettors required a carburettor specialist, and my neighbour with the garage trade history suggested I try D&B Carburettors at the Cattle Market in Nottingham, a business I'd heard about some thirty years ago, but when I went to make inquiries, with a job list, but going in my modern Volvo (because the Marina was so undriveable) I found out the bloke had retired and the business had been taken over by younger people more interested in ECU mapping. That was roughly September last year. I'll admit I don't work as quickly as some people would, but with the other faults on the car, such as with the cooling system and the starting problems, it just didn't feel like a car I could take in for a tune up. The radiator was done last year, so with the starter motor rewind and the starter relay added since April, and the carburettors bolted back on and my own attempt at setting, It was time to try to get it MoT'd where I usually go, and with Glyn giving his thoughts about it running so badly, one thing led to another and I let him have it. It's not a Rolls Royce-standard garage. You don't get a cup of coffee and some cars waiting for work have to park on a grass verge at the side of the road. But he's always been fair to me. He reckon's he's had some earache off his wife, who is the receptionist (I like her though) because he's spent about five hours on the car but only charged me for two, but he says he's enjoyed it. My main problem now is chasing down an exhaust. He told me I need the centre section and back box. The centre section is still on but I've not looked underneath because as soon as I got home, the heavens opened. I can only guess mating a new back box to the centre section might be out of the question due to corrosion. I phoned Earlpart at Loscoe because exhausts are their thing, but they were on a 12 week lead time, which pretty much takes care of the rest of the summer. If I can get one, Glyn will put it on for me, which will be better than me lying on my back under ramps and axles stands. I've not really hit the internet yet but I'm ready for Marina exhausts being extinct. Glyn had already tried some of his suppliers but come up with nothing.

marina12 wrote: Fri Jun 30, 2017 7:39 pm Been following this - best bit "and it was the best drive I've had in it.'. Hope this continues.

IVOR DENNEY wrote: Fri Jun 30, 2017 7:38 pm the pipe on the end of the manifold is for the anti run on valve pipe which they fitted to mk2 HL and GT models for some reason its been taken off.

Chris said the other day, when I was reading the 'Mystery engine' thread, that my car should have an anti run-on valve. I'd not seen it, now I know why!

Well done so the car is good now? just need a new exhaust then. The small side street garages are the best for older cars.

Morris McKinnon wrote: Fri Jun 30, 2017 10:50 pm Well done so the car is good now? just need a new exhaust then. The small side street garages are the best for older cars.

Well, lets not go jumping to conclusions. I've only driven it 3/4 of a mile, and despite it having a fresh MoT it is now very illegal without a back box and sounds like a stock car, so I won't be going anywhere else in it just yet. Either I need to sort out, or I need to get someone else to do the leak on the transmission, otherwise it runs the risk of running out of ATF, and going on the evidence so far I think I ought to start looking at many of the usual things, like brake lining thickness and differential oil level, that so far I've not been bothered with (because I couldn't go anywhere) just in case something has been neglected there, though the paper evidence says the brakes have received new cylinders in recent years and they work okay. My experience with the car though points to the paper evidence not meaning a lot. That said, my short drive from the garage to home showed the car to be performing more normally, despite the noise, than it has before.

I've just been on the internet searching for exhaust suppliers near me, in the hope that I'd spot something that looked like a side-street garage and not your regular bang-it-on-and-get-you-out discount place, and I remembered before I had Minis (where everything I needed was online, mail order) I used to use Parts For Older Cars in Mansfield for a lot of stuff. I've just given Martin there a ring and he's got to phone around his suppliers on Monday, so I don't think there's much point in me doing anything else at the moment. If he finds someone with an exhaust it will obviously beat Earlpart's lead time of 12 weeks, although it also occurs to me that while a mild steel exhaust system will be fine from the viewpoint of me doing low miles, chances are anything left over from the 80s or 90s might be a budget system and I've little doubt that's what I had, that clogged up! Years ago I can remember my old foreman at Concordia saying his Cortina Mk4 had been giving trouble, and he booted it down the A52 one day and there was a puff of smoke in his rear view mirror and something popped out of the exhaust and bounced down the road behind him! After that, the car was alright!

Hi mick I have some new mild steel rear exhausts here made by walker they are straight ends but the larger box type as fitted on Ital,'s not the more rounded Box on a marina let me know if I can help baz