# MG Maestro Tickford Turbo #502



## G51 NAV (Jan 14, 2007)

Perhaps I have a bit of a cheek putting this in here because it's not a detail where I can say "look what I've done today", in fact it's fairer to say I've been hacking at this engine bay over a period of nearly five years!

When we bought the car in 2002 the engine bay looked like this:










The car had at that time covered 27,000 miles over its then 13 year lifespan and the engine bay was looking sorry for itself. The red engine block was barely recognisable as red, jubillee-clips and all brightwork had corroded or faded to a dull finish, and everything was just caked in a layer of filth. You just didn't go in there without gloves.

My main 'tools' for the clean-up have been AG Engine Cleaner, my Karcher jetwash, Betterware Oven & Stove Cleaner, a squishy sanding block, Meguiar's Metal Polysh, toothbrushes (lots!), coffee and elbow grease (lots!)

Here are some of the pictures I've taken over the years during various stages of the cleanup. All comments welcome


----------



## xlfive (Feb 18, 2006)

Well worth the wait :thumb:


----------



## GlynRS2 (Jan 21, 2006)

It keeps getting better - as time goes by the engine bay continues to look newer - weird  :thumb:


----------



## corksta (Mar 5, 2006)

GlynRS2 said:


> It keeps getting better - as time goes by the engine bay continues to look newer - weird  :thumb:


LOL

Great work on that Maestro mate. Well worth the effort :thumb:


----------



## Naddy37 (Oct 27, 2005)

Seen this one before over on the Megs forum. Nice work...


----------



## CK888 (Apr 23, 2006)

Fantastic effort there mate:thumb:


----------



## Fursecul (Sep 12, 2006)

Looks good:thumb:


----------



## tompinney (Jan 29, 2006)

Thats one exceptionally clean O-series you have! 

How are they like for leaking oil? They anything like the T-series? As fast as I try to clean my engine bay it leaks more oil.... I'm slowly finding and fixing them tho! Currently the source appears to be the cam cover gaskets and the rear camshaft seals on mine.


----------



## G51 NAV (Jan 14, 2007)

tompinney said:


> Thats one exceptionally clean O-series you have!
> 
> How are they like for leaking oil? They anything like the T-series? As fast as I try to clean my engine bay it leaks more oil.... I'm slowly finding and fixing them tho! Currently the source appears to be the cam cover gaskets and the rear camshaft seals on mine.


They all come with a standard 'weep' under the rocker cover near #1 sparkplug, because it's not a particularly great design on the later O-series cars. It doesn't amount to much, and on the dipstick would probably be unnoticeable during the entire life of the car. No one had cleaned up the dried-in residue of the 'weep' for the first 27,000 miles/13 years and when I cleaned it off the engine-block using AG Engine & Machine Cleaner I was greeted with perlectly-preserved red paintwork .

Some MG Turbos can appear to have head gasket failure with all the usual symptoms (increased temp, water loss, 'mayonaise' stains) and it ends up being nothing more than insufficient torquing of the head-bolts causing the head to lift under boost (particularly if the car has been 'tuned up'). I know of a couple of MG Turbos that were bought cheaply with such a misdiagnosed 'problem', and which were subsequently resold, with the 'problem' fixed, at quite a profit. Sadly I've never been able to make a quick buck that way :wall: :lol:


----------



## P.M.V.Gavin (Feb 21, 2007)

tompinney said:


> Thats one exceptionally clean O-series you have!
> 
> How are they like for leaking oil? They anything like the T-series? As fast as I try to clean my engine bay it leaks more oil.... I'm slowly finding and fixing them tho! Currently the source appears to be the cam cover gaskets and the rear camshaft seals on mine.


the T16 engine leak from the front right corner of the head gasket common fault but easy repair chage it with a klinker h g


----------



## cheshiresport (Mar 2, 2007)

Very nice, i love the maestro turbo a mate of mine had one of these years ago


----------



## P.M.V.Gavin (Feb 21, 2007)

ive had at least 5 mg 2.0 efis sold every one wish i kept em selling well on fle bay


----------



## G51 NAV (Jan 14, 2007)

:thumb: We've had four MG Maestro EFis. They're one of the most underrated sports hatchbacks of their time. I don't have many pictures of mine and I wasn't 'into' detailing then  When Austin Rover binned the lousy under-developed twin-carb 1600 units and replaced them with the electronically-injected 1998cc O-series unit, it transformed the MG version from a substandard lukewarm hatch to a class-leader overnight. It's a pitty the image & build-quality let the side down: as an overall package, it was debatably better than the Golf, which at the time in GTi guise only ever had three doors and had less interior space.


----------



## P.M.V.Gavin (Feb 21, 2007)

mine was 1 nice met blue and 2 white 1black 1 et light blue all 2.0 EFI s fast as fook


----------



## topcat36 (Apr 29, 2007)

Cracking job, well done :thumb:


----------



## G51 NAV (Jan 14, 2007)

P.M.V.Gavin said:


> ...all 2.0 EFI s fast as fook


Wait til you try a Turbo: over one and a half seconds faster to 60mph, even in standard form  My one and only gripe with the EFi version was the relatively-low 5th gear: while there was always plenty of steam left, 3,400rpm in top at 70mph was tiring on long journeys. The Turbo versions have a different final drive making the gears a lot more long-legged; the "all-important" rolleyes: ) 0-60 can be dispatched with just one gearchange (ie from first to second) at 35mph. But the low-down torque on the EFi was exceptional: up hills at 30mph in top, didn't even break into a sweat!


----------



## Spoolin93 (May 27, 2006)

Cracking old skool turbo power there  .


----------



## P.M.V.Gavin (Feb 21, 2007)

i know a guy in crew cheshire has one and fitted a T16 with T28 turbo so quick its hard to keep it from spinning


----------



## G51 NAV (Jan 14, 2007)

lol yep, as always with FWD the trick is keeping the power down. Lowered, stiffened suspension and poly bushes helps a lot. At least (in standard form) they don't overly torque steer. When I was young(er) a mate had a 16V Astra GTe which he used to drive like he stole it. Every rush of acceleration was accompanied by a fight with the steering-wheel to keep it in a straight line. There were times I feared for my life. If a standard MG Turbo suffers from torque-steer, it's usually the fault of worn bushes or bad tracking.


----------



## Brazo (Oct 27, 2005)

Looks great mate :thumb:


----------



## Rasher (Mar 6, 2006)

wow, what a transformation mate that looks great!!


----------



## tompinney (Jan 29, 2006)

P.M.V.Gavin said:


> the T16 engine leak from the front right corner of the head gasket common fault but easy repair chage it with a klinker h g


Its defo not the oil gallery weep. For a start I replaced the HG (with an elring multilayer aka Klinger) 18months ago during a head rebuild to fix the pre-94 engines carbon build up problem with the valves. However there is still a leak coming from teh very top of the engine, hence the guess at teh cam covers or cam shaft seals. I think its a combo of both, but I'm monitoring the situation having cleaned the ending up again the other day.


----------



## Stampy (Mar 1, 2006)

That's ace 

Old skool cool, can't beat a bit of MG


----------



## john185k (Mar 14, 2006)

excellent work, on the look out for a metro turbo myself just now.


----------



## rst1990 (Apr 29, 2007)

looks really well :thumb:


----------

