Despite My Best Efforts...

I will not be taking the MG to MGs By the Bay tomorrow. I just couldn't get the car back together in time. Though I'm a tad disappointed, I'll be attending the show nonetheless.

The head came back from the shop about one in the afternoon. An hour or two later, after collecting the head, parts, and some much needed advice from Brian, I was back home reinstalling the head.

Step one: Find Plans.

I spent a little while inspecting the parts, locating my tools, and going over the manual again. After a quick installation of the head studs and head gasket, I mounted the head in place. I then installed the thermostat, thermostat housing, and temp sender into the head. Then some much appreciated help arrived in the form of Rich.

Step Two: Save World.
....or, well, car.

I proceeded to torque the head and rocker arm in place. Note to self: remember to replace push rods before torquing head next time. So I had to loosen the head, install the push rods, and retorque the head. If nothing else, I gave Bob's new torque wrench a workout.

Somewhere in here we realized that I although I had bought entirely new head studs and hardware, I had not bought new rocker studs. This would have been fine but one of my old rocker studs was stripped and therefore unuseable. I'll have to pick one or two of those up on Monday.

Rich and I then struggled unsuccessfully to mount the thermostat housing to the smog pump. After about a half hour of failing to reconnect these parts, we decided to move on to the intake and exhaust manifolds.

The nuts holding the manifolds on were a real bear to remove. Replacing them wasn't going to be easy. But with Rich's help, it didn't turn out to be all that bad. Not that it was easy by any means, but having two people certainly simplified matters.

Having completed most of the tough stuff, we started to reconnect the remaining loose items. The air cleaners, hoses, etc. are all attached now. There was no way I was going to be taking the car tomorrow, so we stopped at nine pm.

After installing the new rocker stud and remounting the thermostat housing, the next order of buisness will be to adjust the valves. I've never done this before; and frankly I'm a little intimidated by the task. I know what I'm supposed to do, but I still feel uneasy.

If I can get the valves adjusted passably, then it'a just a a matter of replacing the rocker cover and changing the fluids. Which brings us to...

Step Three: Get Out of My House.
...and take the car to Brian for inspection and tuning.

I'm hoping to bring it in on Monday. Though I didn't manage to get the car ready for the show in time, it was a valiant effort.