Ruined my engine on my MG F. Help a novice find a replacement.

Thought i'd give you guys another update just so you have a (near) conclusion to this wacky story.

Rang them up on the Monday to let them know that I didn't need the rear window replace (thanks BruceTF135). Tried multiple times and nobody answered the phone (1pm, 3pm and 5pm). Got through to them on the Tuesday and was told that the keys were actually on top of the key safe instead of inside and that I could collect. I told them that nobody in my family had a car and that my mothers boyfriend was the only one that could drive me the 15 odd miles. Asked if there was anything they could do their end? The owner said I could come at the weekend again. Me being the bitch that I am said I would see what I could do.

When I told this to my mum she was livid and rang the garage and told them to come pick me up and drive me there.

Hour later the company receptionist turned up and drove me to the garage. She didnt seem to know exactly what was going on and when we arrived she said has everything been paid for? I said yes and she said well the keys are in the car off you go.

I got in the car and drove to the ramp to get on the A1. Noticed that the fuel tank indicator was below the E so brought up a map for nearest petrol station. Found a Texaco 2.7 miles away and started driving. Unbelievably about half a mile to the station (I could see it on top of the hill) I lose a lot of power to the engine so shut the car down immediatly, terrified of what might happen if I suck through the crud in the bottom of the fuel tank. I free wheel it into a bus stop and got out and hike the rest of the way to the petrol station. Petrol station didnt have a jerry to lend me so i purchased one and topped up the car. Drove back to the petrol station and handed the jerry can back to the assistant and told him to lend it to the next person that had trouble.

It was as I was filling my car to the brim I noticed that they had replaced rear window. When i got home i told my mum about this and after some back and fourth about whether or not I should pay for this I compromised with saying i'll call them tomorrow and explain that I havnt paid but would it be OK if I pay for it in a couple weeks? I'm unemployed and slightly in my overdraft atm and have anxiety and I honestly cant stop dwelling on the fact that I've kinda stolen a rear window.

Anyway, car makes a loud blowing noise when accelerating but after about 200m down the road sounds normal. This is only on cold starts so i think its probably nothing.

My only issue is the clearance, i used to get over those flat top pyramid speed bumps no problem but after then engine change it makes a hell of a crunch. Not sure what i'm hitting but it sounds like its by the engine on the passenger side.

Further update the coolant temperature gauge didn't move from zero when i started the car this morning. Drove around for a couple of miles and still nothing. Garage didnt want to come and get the car and told me to drive it in tomorrow. Watched some videos on how to replace the coolant thermometer and got totally lost. To me it looks like the thermometer is just below the engine's inlet manifold closest to the driver side and the temperature lead that feeds back to the dashboard is even closer to the driver side just below the timing belt.

Sources:

I used was this video:

and the image from this thread: https://forums.mg-rover.org/threads/temperature-gauge-not-working.457118/

Anyway, i poked around and couldnt see anything lose so gave up. Drove the car off the stilts which fired the stilts into the garage and took a chunk out of an old cabinet. Glad nobody was behind the car when i did that.

Temperature gauge started working again, after I came off the stilts, so I hooked up my ORB2 and took the car for a spin down the country roads. I really gave it some for a good 30 minutes and couldnt get the coolant temp past middle on dash or past 94C on the ORB2 readout. Have done my research and apparently this is a really good temp and MG Fs can hit 150C without issue.

Not sure what to do about the car since the UK lock down starts tomorrow. I don't want it stranded out on the garage forecourt for months.

djkeenan wrote: ….. and couldnt get the coolant temp past middle on dash or past 94C on the ORB2 readout. Have done my research and apparently this is a really good temp and MG Fs can hit 150C without issue.....

Operating temp for the k series is between 88 and 110' for coolant.
For oil it's between 60 and 130' but ideally around 100' in normal use.

94' is good but I would expect something to explode at 150', especially the coolant.

Also worth noting

1) the correct position for the needle as at just under half way, this point covers 88 to 110'
2) OBD2 data is far more accurate

Unless gauges are re-calibrated on a regular basis, they can't be regarded as accurate. so the values that they indicate should be taken with a grain of salt.
That's not to say that they are useless..........far from it!
Over time you get to know where the needles normally sit when all is well, for instance, your temp gauge normally sit at the half way mark and in hot weather it may sit a smidgen higher on the dial, whereas mine might normally sit at about 5/8ths on the dial rising to 3/4 on a hot day.
What we are looking for is not the numerical value indicated, we should be concerned with any unusual readings which once noticed should be checked and acted upon as soon as possible.

Just recently on a 600km trip in my Ford Falcon ute I noticed a higher than normal and rising temp gauge reading.
I pulled over and checked the engine, coolant. fans etc.
No it definitely wasn't hot.........I continued up the road with caution. driving with 1 eye on the gauge.
Still the needle crept up, the weather wasn't hot in fact it was raining at night.
Then I started getting a misfire on hills.
I had a full load on board so the engine was working harder, but that wasn't it.
The problem was a loose battery terminal. As I was on a country road I had the headlights, high beams, spotlights and foglights on.
Add to that load the windscreen wipers, heater fan, stereo and whatever else was consuming current. The alternators output was being used up without any help from the battery. So the gauge wasn't getting sufficient voltage to give a normal reading.
I was too busy worrying abut the damned temp gauge to notice the bloody volt meter!
Tightened up the battery terminal and everything was back to normal.
If I'd noticed the volts I would've figured it out straight away.

On scraping speed humps-Check the height of the suspension, from the centre of the front wheel vertically to the wheel arch should be 368mm +/- 10mm. They may have depressured the suspension and not pumped it back up whilst fitting the replacement engine.

Judging by their poor work, I strongly suspect they have cracked the original window while working on your car. That's why they were so keen you have a replacement.

The blowing sound must be exhaust leak somewhere. As they have replaced the manifold, again I suspect they have not tightened something up properly.

djkeenan wrote: .....When i got home i told my mum about this and after some back and fourth about whether or not I should pay for this I compromised with saying i'll call them tomorrow and explain that I havnt paid but would it be OK if I pay for it in a couple weeks? I'm unemployed and slightly in my overdraft atm and have anxiety and I honestly cant stop dwelling on the fact that I've kinda stolen a rear window......

Sorry, I missed this before.

To be honest I would wait until they ask as it was a member of staff that told you it was all paid for.

They should give you the rear window to make up for the inconvenience that they've put you through.
Don't feel guilty, I bet they don't!

Thank you all for the kind and very helpful replies. The story about the loose battery connection was particularly insightful. I'll try not to tunnel vision too much on the engine and keep all options open.

Sorry for the late reply, been down in the dumps but my doctor doubled the dosage of anti depressant so i'm back up. Anyway, the day after my last post I contacted the garage about the temperature gauge and asked if he could have a look at it. He told me to bring it in the next day. A few hours after the call Boris declared lock down.

To cheer myself up I took the car for a drive, the next day. As I was driving the amber engine light came on. I drove past the garage and it seemed to be open so pulled in. I asked the owner if he could take a look and he said he'd sent the staff home and was going into lock down. He told me to bring it in next week. I didn't argue and got in my car to leave. As I was leaving I let him know that I hadn't paid for the window and he said he knew i'd forgotten and told me to pay over the phone. He also told me it was brand new, which was strange cuz the window was slightly scratched and muddy when I picked it up. I've taken some photos, see what you guys think of the job.

Anyway, I got home and did the usual checks: oil, coolant, orb reading. The oil was below the minimum so I filled that up with half a litre. The coolant wasn't halfway up the expansion tank so filled that up. The orb told me that there wasn't any error codes and that I would need some diagnostic tech specifically made for the car.

So as of right now I have a car with a mystery engine fault and I still need to pay the garage for rear window (will do that once my Universal Credits are paid in at the end of this month).

Unless the window is perfect I wouldn't pay for it unless they chase, I wouldn't chase them again

And in future do not go back, for any reason.

I would put the mg away for now and self isolate for a while..just too much going on there for a unemployed person to cope with.

mgtfbluestreak wrote: I would put the mg away for now and self isolate for a while..just too much going on there for a unemployed person to cope with.

Now the lockdown is over I phoned the garage since they hadn't replied to my email. I explained the problem (yellow engine light after a full engine replacement) and that all my OBR reader could tell me was it was an issue specific to the make of car. He replied that he was 99 percent certain that the problem was with the oxygen sensor in the exhaust as OBR readers wont display this specific issue.

He wants me to take it into the garage next week and have it looked at and i'm terrified that i'm gonna now have to buy a new exhaust. What does this mean for me and what should I look out for? Anything I can do before I take it back to him to make sure its the oxygen sensor?

P.s. i've got a job interview this friday, whoop whoop!