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MG TD TF 1500 - Sump and filter questions - 51TD

The dirtiest job of all arrived this morning, cleaning out the sump. After draining the remaining oil, and then scraping the gunk off the bottom, I cleaned it with degreaser and then Simple Green, then disassembled the plate and oil filter. Here's what I found: the plate broke at some point, and was welded. It has broken again on the other side. Should I just weld this up? It suggests the possibility of major engine failure at some point in the past...
The other point was where the oil filter line bolts onto the side of the sump to connect to the oil pump. There are two bolts holding it, and neither, I believe, is correct. One looks like it was cut short, and the other looks like someone drilled out the bracket and then added a different bolt, grinding the head so it would fit.
I can probably live with this, but once again it shows that a very ham-fisted mechanic worked on this car in the distant past...
Below, a photo of the sump plate...

Geoffrey M Baker

And a photo of the oil filter bracket and two wrong bolts.

Geoffrey M Baker

Geoffery - You might want to download and the chart, Fasteners for XPAG/XPEG Engines in the Other Tech Articles on my Homepage at: http://homepages.donobi.net/sufuelpumps/ for your adventure in rebuilding a XPAG engine. Cheers - Dave
D W DuBois

That sump plate is a common break, due to vibration, and not necessarily a catastrophic engine failure. I would weld up both sides well, maybe with a reinforcing bar, and leave it.

Tom Lange
t lange

I've rebuilt several TD engines and can attest to several of them having cracks, or broken baffle plates like yours. There must be a lot of vibrating forces going on in the oil pan to cause it. However, I have welded all of mine successfully without further problems noted some time later in their service life; although the really long term results is still not known.

The original bolts holding the oil pick up to the side of the sump were 6X1MM with a lock wire hole drilled in the heads. The threads in the brass attaching fitting must of been stripped at some point on one of yours so it was drilled through and fastened with the modified bolt and nut arrangement. If you wanted to go back to the original hardware or a close resemblance, one could fit a 6X1mm heli-coil thread repair kit in the brass fitting if the hole isn't wallowed out too much. The instructions in my 6X1mm heli-coil kit says to use a 1/4" drill for the heli-coil insert tap, so you can determine if yours is beyond this size.
Richard Cameron

Geoffery - Download and print this document, a whole lot of good information about the engine.
http://www.iot.ntnu.no/users/oddk/mg3/downloads/XPAGEngine.pdf
Cheers - Dave
D W DuBois

FYI Geoff the bolt on the left in your second pic looks like a big end bolt. Note the flat on one side. Cheers
Peter TD 5801
P Hehir

Agree with above, all the plates crack. Nothing wrong with using the nut/bolt either. If repairing the threads, it must be a really strong repair. The two bolt mounting pickup must have had problems, as it was changed to four later in production. George
George Butz

I welded the plate yesterday and cleaned up the other weld on it, all looks good. I'll just reuse the bolts that are there... they work, after all, and short of helicoils or brazing/redrilling/retapping, I can't fix the part any other way.
I'm glad to hear it was likely a common vibration issue, rather than an internal explosion :)

On to the next project... thanks for the input!
Peter, I think that was just a PO grinding the head so it would fit, it's tight up against the bracket.
Geoffrey M Baker

Geof,
I added a new post "oil baffle fractures and repair" so it can be looked up in the archives later on. You might want to view at it while your baffle is still servicable.
JRN JIM

This thread was discussed between 27/03/2015 and 29/03/2015

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