Hello from Dorking!

Hi everyone,Just joined the forum and wanted to say a quick hello! I'm Martin Szczypka, based in Dorking, Surrey. I’ve recently become the proud owner of a very unique MGF some of you might have seen on the  PistonHeads auction block .. Even though I had never considered the MGF/TF as an option for my "midlife-crisis-toy", the moment I saw this heavily modified "Cheetah" I was hooked! I'm looking forward to learning more about the car, sharing experiences, and hopefully contributing to the community. 

While I am very happy with my purchase and it had genuinely been well looked after, those hardened MGF owners will accurately predict the litany of gremlings the Cheetah came with... Just under 3 weeks since I picked up the car I am already having to embark on an engine drop to deal with (you guessed it!) persistent overheating issues now all pointing to a headgasket failure, do cambelt replacement and a whole host of smaller jobs. I'm a competent DIYer when it comes to servicing and basic repairs, but have never embarked on such extensive engine work so forum member's support will be highly welcome!!!!Looking forward to chatting with you all and getting stuck in!Cheers,
Martin

 

 

 

 

G'day, welcome to The-T-Bar, may I suggest having a look at the new owners and members checklist,  https://www.the-t-bar.com/forum/54-how-tos/99326-a-check-list-for-new-owners

Welcome, I saw that auction in May and meant to put a post up on here about it.

It's quite the machine, love the number plate placement and considered doing that to mine

Hello and welcome!
Your car is..hmmm..very red and very nice!
You don't have to remove the engine or lower the subframe to replace the head gasket.

Thanks @TA22GT! I know it's possible and still a bit on the fence whether to drop it or not, but there are quite a few niggly jobs to be done around the engine and potentially a a clutch replacement so encouraged by the super helpful walkthrough in the amazing "How To Collection" I am leaning towards dropping it at the moment. It has overheated twice now in a quite spectacular fashion (visualise rubber pipe explosions followed by white clouds of smoke )  so I want to be able to properly inspect the engine as I suspect warped head, potentially block issues, etc., Not to mention the Turbo Technics Supercharger kit  makes working in the engine bay even more tricky...

It certainly is veeeeerrrry red - the internal kit the original owner installed is certainly an acquired taste..... I plan doing a bit of an interrior refresh, tone down the bright red plastic look and try my hand at wrapping elements in PU type "leather". Well, at least once I can get it working reliably first!

I see your point about dropping it now. Makes perfect sense to replace the clutch and all the belts etc and will be much easier when it is on the floor.
Good luck. Lot's of info in the How To's section.

Welcome. That looks a very interesting and unusual Mk2 MGF. Its quite rare to see one with a bodykit these days let alone the amount of detailed extras someone has lavished on this.
Out of interest what's the history of the Cheetah. Was it one of a special run produced by a specialist MG Rover dealer at the time or a previous owner's one off vision ?
It would be great to know how the supercharger is fitted and and if the engine is a 118mpi or a143/ 160 VVC ?

Can you say any more about the overheating, a few of us here have been through it and emerged the other side. I spent weeks recently trying to chase down the cause on a Mk1 F with symptoms that made no sense even to people who work on them everyday for a living. Turned out in the end to be a very rare fault that was very simple to cure though it still needed a head gasket once that was resolved.

There can’t be more than a handful of Cheetah s on the roads these days. Glen Turner has one & that’s it to my knowledge, not that I make a habit of tracking them. This might be different.
What year does it purport to be, there are contradictions; Mk1 Speedo & windscreen surround, yet Mk2 gear stick surround & console switches.
The air intake on the boot lid is interesting as are the side vents on the rear quarter.
More pictures please, especially of those areas which step outside the norm, such as the engine & the Gofasterspinnything & pipe work.
We’ll done you & welcome.
M

Thanks!

The history of the car is a bit of a mystery I'm still trying to piece together.. It appears the car was originally bought by someone in Guernsey and it was this first owner that appears to have completed all of the extensive modification. It was later bought locally by an older petrolhead lady  before she relocated back to the UK with it in 2018. Since then it was mostly parked up and driven very ocassionally.
Is it really a "Cheetah"? That is a good question, but based on the fact that it has the genuine Turbo Technics build plate (Serial no: 0008, built April 2004) I believe it qualifies as one. My understanding of the Cheetah story was that it was always meant to be a "pick n' choose" package; this one certainly has most of the options list ticked off, key one being the full supercharger kit with the extra injectors, custom intake manifold, etc. (the base engine is the 1.8 Mpi rather than the VVC). It also has the sports hydragas adjustable dampers, 17" wheels, sports exhaust and I believe uprated brakes (yet to confirm). I expect a lot of the styling mods probably come from the Cheetah list, but the kit is definitely more extensive (and better looking in my opinion) than what the Cheetah looked like when test driven by the georgeous Vicki Butler-Henderson on the old Top Gear.

As for the overheating..  It was fine on the test drive, but once we hit double carriage and steady 60mph+ speeds the water gauge started climbing rapidly. We managed to nurse it for the first 100 or so miles of the return journey from Clitheroe (with frequent stops, enging breaking, heater on, etc) before it spectacularly boiled and blew one of the cooling pipes (the one with the jiggle valve on it) somewhere on the M40. 13h of recovery saga later (RAC are just the worst....) and finally  back home, I flushed the whole system, cleaned up the expansion and radiator caps, refilled with fresh coolant and bled the system, finally getting the car to stop overheating for a week or so... Last weekend,  lulled by the false sense of security, I decided to take my 6 year old for a nice road trip  to Littlehampton until it started overheating again! Almost exactly same behaviour as on the first drive, ok on even most spirited drive down the B-roads, but the moment it reached a steady motorway speed it would immediately start to overheat. No amount of bleeding etc would make it better again and during a test drive yesterday it blew the 3rd bleed screw next to the engine. I tested it for  headgasket failure using one of the cheap kits before and strangely did not show any sign of exhaust gasses in the cooling system. I also have not noticed any "milk" when did the oil change (although quite a bit of brown staining on the oil caps). The way it overheats, with a huge amount of pressure in the expansion tank (with overflow constantly pouring water from the top of the tank), especially during motorway driving really starts pointing to a HG issue. Even if it's something else, like a sticking thermostat which I am yet to try, with the 2 major overheat episodes I really think inspecting the head is a must at this point....

Of course advice of the wise forum heads would be super appreciated and invaluable at this point!

 

Do a compression test and replace the thermostat. I've had a stuck thermostat blow the top tank off a radiator due to over pressure. Not on an MG but it is possible 

Thanks! As per my response just above, there are a lot of discrepancies here look-wise with what the Cheetah package appeared based on the scarce internet materials I could dig - I think this is where the original owner went full out purchasing whatever shiny piece of body kit he could get hold off, ehich must have been tricky in Guernsey.. On the other hand, the "Gofasterspinnything" (love that!) install looks to be very professionally done, with Turbo Technics logos embosed on multiple elements, most prominently on the inlet box, the fancy ECU and the injectors are also present.
The base car was one of the very first MK1s, built in 1995 with a serial number ending in 300, so probably 50th or so car of the production line! The TT built plate indicates the Cheetah conversion was done in April 2004, so car would have been 9 years by the time it was done. Despite being 30 years old, the car is unbelievably well preserved - even surface rust is limited, especially comparing to some of the how-to pics taken from much newer cars.
One interesting quirk I found is that the car is completely stripped of some equipment that appeared to be standard: no airbag, no ABS (Bosch ABS was mentioned as part of the Cheetah package) and no power assisted steering, with the first one being definitely removed on purpose, while the latter might never have been fitted in the first place (any guidance here welcome)

The PistonHeads posting is the best compendium of pictures, much better than what I can muster for sure, but I promise to take photos of what I find hiding in the engine compartment as I proceed with the scary deconstruction....