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MG TD TF 1500 - Engine number mystery

My TD1523 with a build date of 3 May 1950 originally had engine number 1285 however some PO at some time has replaced it with engine number 22357. I have contacted Kimber House and they are unable to help me. Would anyone be able to share any light on this. I purchased the car which was completely in pieces and in boxes about four years ago with the previous owner having it stored in his shed for some 20 years before that.He said he purchased it from another person where it laid in a shed for 20 years before that. It has lost it's identity, however I have 95% restored it to near it's former glory but I would like to find out from where the engine originated.
John..Sydney
John Walton

Assuming it is a TD engine and not a Wolseley one, it came from TD21917 built Nov 1952 for North American export.

Matthew.
M Magilton

Matthew, with your font of knowledge do you know the TC that XPAG 7730 came from.
Regards, Don TF 4887
D J Walker

Hi Matthew. I have to ask how is it that you have this info? I'd also love to have access to this source. I contacted the M.G. Car Club in England & they sent me a stamped colour photocopy of the actual Abingdon TD logbook page showing the details on my car. I also know Tom Lange has microfish records & that the Merson list gives current owner details. Is there yet another source?
Cheers
Peter TD 5801
P Hehir

Gday Don. Your engine came from TC7288 which was sold new by Barclay Motors in Sydney (no info since).

Peter, its a combination of assistance from the T Register (we have exchanged info) and my indexing of chassis numbers, engine numbers, owners and rego numbers for Australian cars. I do not have production record copies. Always happy to check my lists.

Matthew.
M Magilton

Thanks Matthew, it will help me decipher my chassis number.
Regards, Don TF 4887
D J Walker

Many thanks Matthew this seems to answer the mystery but I wonder how it got to Sydney? perhaps that will always be the brick wall which I will be unable to knock down.
Thank you once again.
John
John Walton

John: Is your car a NA Export or a Australian car? It was very popular in the US to do engine swaps in the 50's and early 60's when engines needed to be rebuilt versus actually fixing them. Got owners on the road faster. My own car is a victim of such as swap.
Christopher Couper

Christopher,it is a right hand drive and shows no evidence of being changed from a left hand drive. So I guess :) it is an Australian car. The PO can't help me for he has dementia.
John...Sydney
John Walton

Matthew, re John's engine number 22357, would there have been that many Wolseley's built with the XPAW engine, (which is often used in place of a unsalvageable XPAG?) Cheers
Peter TD 5801
P Hehir

It may be of interest to those of you who use the TD dataBase in WordPerfect, that I have been able to successfully parse the name field, putting the family and second names in separate cells.

This now makes it possible to put the entire file into a sortable dataBase with separate cells for all values. In this case sorting on an engine number would now only take seconds to find its original owner.

Still quite a bit of work to do as I want to make this dataBase cellular and relational, and expand it to include other useful information, such as "car birthday". Also considering making a data entry form to go with it; and some macros. So don't look for it before January. I'm doing the work in QuattroPro, but will publish it to Access or Excel, as I expect very few of you work with QuattroPro.

When its ready to be published, I'll post it to the correct archive. The only danger in this, is that now with a sortable dataBase and a data entry form, each one of you will be able to have your own personalised TD dataBase. So remember that irrespective of what you may have, there can only be one master dataBase, and that will continue to live with Bud Kruger.

Stand by ...

Gord Clark
Rockburn, Qué.
Gord Clark

Terrific Gord, I look forward to the database come January sometime.
John
John Walton

Peter, I have XPAW's in the 60,000 bracket residing in T types. (And don't ask about Holden engines LOL).

Matthew.
M Magilton

I'm amazed Matthew at that number. Thanks mate. Cheers
Peter TD 5801
P Hehir

Gord, thanks very much for the considerable effort this must have taken!

Regards,

Bill
W. H. Troyer

Hi Mathew
Another challenge for you if you don't mind please. I have been trying to locate my TD that I had during the '60s when I was living in Geelong. The Engine Number was XPAGTD2 11837 and Reg No GLT802. Doug Hastie has been unable to throw any light on things and I presume that you and he would be continually exchanging data so I guess that the odds are against me.
Kind regards
Peter (TC9356)
Peter Malkin

TD2/11837 was fitted to TD11705, made on Nov. 15, 1951.

Tom Lange
MGT Repair
t lange

Good catch Tom.

Peter, Doug must have been having an off day when you called him because you are on page 192 of his Australian TD register as a past owner of TD11705, reg GLT.802 (reg in 1956).
Info came from the MGCC of SA where presumably the car is now but no name was provided. Hopefully it will come to light one day. You could send a letter to the editor of their magazine asking about the car.
I also have two TC's mentioned under your name.

Matthew.
M Magilton

Matthew or Tom

Could you check and advise which car engine # 13640 originally came from. It is the engine (in parts) that came with my '53 TD when I purchased the car in 1974 from Dave Wastie.

Stuart
Stuart Duncan

Stuart - XPAG/TD2/LHX13640 originally was supplied in car TD13259, made on 28 January, 1952. Don't be confused when you look that up on-line - that is one of the long numbers where the last digit is omitted.

I promise it is right, though!

All such questions happily answered.

Tom Lange
MGT Repair
t lange

Thank you Tom, I did not have that engine number.

Matthew.
M Magilton

Mathew and all - the on-line database is a TERRIFIC resource, and I have nothing but respect for it. But the above issue is just one of the inconsistencies generated through inputting errors - there are literally hundreds of those numbers where the final digit of the engine number is omitted, and the ONLY way to find the right number is the Production Records.

These sheets do not really belong to me (although I paid hundreds of dollars to have them printed out); the originals are in the UK, and the owners, the MGCC (I believe) have an understandably proprietary feeling about them. I worked from an old US-sourced microfilm made in the 70's, which itself has problems - omitted pages, fuzzy images, cropped entries, etc.

I also have the on-line database information in a computer spread-sheet, and can search by number. In Stuart's case I had to search for engine 1364 since I knew the final digit would not be there, and go back and forth between the two to verify every possible number in the hard-copies until I found his final missing "0".

As time permits I have been compiling corrections to the list, but it would take hundreds of hours to comprehensively examine every chassis and every engine number and make all the additions and corrections, enough to make the head spin! I am noting such addenda as replaced (defective) engines at the factory, and any other factory comments, such as identifying the one car that came from the factory with a supercharger.

I'm happy to answer any related questions, on- or off-line.

Tom Lange
MGT Repair
t lange

Mathew and Tom
Many thanks for your efforts. I will try and trace the car thru the SA club.
Mathew - I only have TC9356. The second car went many years ago as a parts project. I'm unsure as to why I'm still recorded as owning it.
Peter (TC9356)
Peter Malkin

Peter Malkin, if you contact me with details of the TD I can tell you the best person in the MGCCSA to contact, or I may know the car if it is in SA.
Regards, Don TF 4887 TC XPAG7730
D J Walker

This thread was discussed between 04/11/2015 and 07/11/2015

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