Chalky

I'b about to pull the engine out of my car (1.8 petrol B series) for the same problem. The petrol engine has a a number of common leak points and I assume that they're common with the diesel since the basic engine design is the same - with the exception of things like the pump. Most BMC petrol and diesel engines of this vintage were based round a common architecture and tend to have the same problems. You've identified the tappet chests. On the petrol engine it's common to fit a rubber gasket to the rear cover and a cork one (off an MG A) to the front due to the different cover designs (crank case ventilation). Also you need to change the O-rings in the bolts that hold the covers on. Other common leak points Oil filter housing / bypass pipe - on some versions the bolt holding the filter housing works loose and causes a leak. If there's an external bypass pipe these can leak at the ends. Crank shaft oil seal. Runs down engine back plate and can look like a leak at the sump. - very common. On the petrol variant the seal is in the back plate and there's a gasket to seal the two together. If the gasket has failed then this can also leak a lot of oil. Timing chain cover and oil seal If you remove the sump make sure its flat round the bolt holes. If not gently flatten the relevant area of the flange with a hammer and a hard surface. Be careful when removing the sump. The main bearing caps at the end of the block seal to the block using cork blocks. Make sure these are back in otherwise it will leak - lots. There are a number of bolts (oil pressure relief valve) and plugs that seal oil ways however these usually don't leak. If you google MGB oil leaks you'll find lots of details about how to identify and fix them.

I used a teflon tape on the underside of the hatch, the whole lot sliding on the steel work. The tape is teflon on one side and a fibre glass matting on the other with the fibre glass having an adhesive backing. I's been there for about 4 years and worked well. I got it off a contact in the materials science dept at the university... There's a spray version of it that's commonly used in the automotive industry to stop annoying squeeks. Spray on and let the solvent evaporate and it leaves a teflon coating behind.

Ignoring the long term reliability and availability of spares (likely to be poor) it's also got the potential to be horribly inefficient. If you generate electricity to power a motor to drive the prop its going to be a horribly inefficient compared to driving the prop off the engine/gearbox.

If it's the 140A device they're very good. I've used them on a couple of vehicle split charge systems and also on also on a robot. Wired it up using 50mm CSA cable and used eyelets that fitted the cable and the studs.(they're available from automotive stockists). I also fitted a 150A megafuse in the cable. I had to modify the relay case to get the cable and terminal in. Make sure the ground wire has a good solid connection - a poor one will shift the switching point and it may not charge well. The relay closes at about 13.2v and opens at 12.6v (from memory). If your batteries are in poor condition or the charging system is not working well the voltage at the first battery wont be high enough to switch the relay and charge the second battery. I made the terminal connections using a hydraulic hex crimping tool. 140A is a lot at current and it doesn't require much resistance to generate a lot of heat.

We've got our inverter screwed to the engine room wall. Not an attractive location but power electronics need lots of cool air. I've worked with power electronics for a number of years and they need to be kept cool to be reliable and have a good life expectancy. Put it somewhere dry where it can get lots of cool air.

I would suggest that the smell of the smoke would be highly indicative. Diesel fumes, hot fuel, coolant, oil vapour, hot electrics, scorched insulation, burned PCB, charred wood etc all have a different smell and can be highly indicative, if you know what they smell like. In terms of probability oil spilled when filling the engine is the most likely cause. Exhaust damage is possible. Checking rubber hoses for witness marks caused by rubbing on things would help - if there's no mark than the hose is probably ok and not leaking. Checking hose couplings for leaks is also worth doing. Also if you've got access to an IR thermometer then this can help, if you know how to use it and know what the readings are telling you. Others may have a different opinion.

The temperatures are in farenheit, not celcius 250 F = 121 C 750 F = 398C

It's not the methanol, its the ethylene / propylene glycol that ignites. Mixed with water it's not an issue until it gets hot enough to boil off the water. At that point the glycol ignites. I've included a couple of references from a number of sources including a published conference paper. http://www.croberts.com/coolant.htm Conference paper - International Symposium on Fire Investigation Science and Technology 2008 http://www.reifire.net/text/ethylene.pdf http://www.nfpa.org/safety-information/for-consumers/fire-and-safety-equipment/home-fire-sprinklers/current-requirements-for-sprinkler-systems-containing-antifreeze

If it smells sweet then it could be coolant. If it is keep an eye on it and fix it soon. There are various consequences from coolant leaks ranging from head gasket failure through to fire - the antifreeze is highly flamable.

Other things to look for. Some engines have ventilated breather/ oil filler caps. Have a look and see if the vapour is coming from there. Also does the smoke have a smell to it? Does anything feel hot (be careful with this just in case). If its in the vicinity of the electrical cupboard are any of the cables rubbing on anything?

Leon Bismark 'Bix' Beiderbeck. Born in Davenport Iowa. Died tragically young in 1931. His playing was describes as sounding like 'a girl saying yes'. Great music.

There's a thread on MG experience about sealing the core plugs (actually there are several!) http://www.mgexp.com/phorum/read.php?1,3054188,3054188#msg-3054188 http://mgaguru.com/mgtech/cooling/cool_105.htm The engine discussed is the petrol version however the core plugs use the same techniques.

Our boat is painted in Rylard Navy blue, which is darker than Oxford blue, but looks good. The colour lasts well and hasn't faded over about 10 years however it can get very hot in the sun. We changed the roof colour from blue to white which helped but the glare and it being difficult to keep clean means it's now painted in red, the rest of the boat's blue.

On our boat the wardrobe door opens across the boat to separate the areas.

My brother-in-law bought a boat based on a 4 year old survey (despite advise not to). He ended up paying for an emergency lift out on a bank holiday Monday and significant plating. He didn't have much change left from £5k. get your own survey.

Cellulose paint has gone the same way however there are exceptions. You can't buy it for industrial use however you can buy it for restoration work etc. I would expect that oil based paint would still be available, but would become difficult to get hold of.

The obvious answer is a big FET or an IGBT. You wouldn't be switching it fast so the gate drive wouldn't need to be anything special.

There are some really good micromachined accelerometers out there that aren't that expensive and can give really good results. A lot of them are designed for robotic navigation (can give really good results with an extended Kalman filter) however they may not have the bandwidth you're looking for. I bought a 6DOF IMU with I2C interface off ebay for about £3 and a 9 DOF one isn't much more. You could get far more interesting data than just engine vibrations!

A friend of mine had a washing machine on his boat and managed to reduce the electrical power needed considerably. He had a horizontal drum machine so he removed the motor and arranged a drive shaft to come through from the engine with a magnetic clutch on it. When the controller demanded the motor it simply closed the clutch. It did require the engine to be running and the spin speed wasn't terribly fast, but it didn't use much power.

Check things like the engine earth connection at both ends and the alternator connections at both ends. These are connected to the engine which will vibrate and could work loose / break. We had flickering lights and traced it to a damaged engine earth making intermittent contact. I re-crimped it and the flickering stopped.

If the battery becomes disconnected from the alternator whilst it's running the alternator will produce significantly more than the nominal 12 - 14V possibly up to 60V. This is called load dump and can destroy electronics connected to the alternator. TYpically this is a problem caused by loose battery terminals not battery switches. Automotive grade electronics is designed to survive it, domestic 12V devices aren't and it could destroy them.

Also if your fitter has not worked on boats before get them to go and look at a few and read things like the boat safety scheme. Very little of the BSS will apply to the bathroom however it gives a feel of how things are different from a domestic installation, especially running drains and how high they need to be above the water line. Also make sure they think about how you're going to access the pipe work to fix it or unblock a pump, not something you get in houses.