MJA Engineering in Broomsgrove – warning

Posted on 28-October-2024 by Henrik Morsing

I have had the mis-fortune of dropping off an engine block for re-manufacturing at MJA Engineering in Broomgrove and want to warn other against this company as they really don’t know what they’re doing. I think it’s a case of “Don’t attribute to malice what is adequately explained by stupidity”.

I dropped off an SBC block at MJA Engineering to have it re-manufactured and bored over to become an 383 stroker. All seemed fine, they were friendly and appeared knowledgeable, no alarm bells ringing at this point. I picked the block up again, £940 lighter.

Upon inspection in my workshop, I noticed a scratch in one of the bores. It was black and you could feel it with your nail. You could also clearly feel the hone pattern with your fingers. Not being an expert, I posted the photo of the scratch on a forum. And yes, I know people on fora are not necessarily experts either, but feedback and discussion can still be helpful.

Everyone on the forum was in agreement though, and I even started PMing with a machinist about the honing. It was absolutely too rough for modern rings. MJA had used a grit (150) that was only fitting back in the days of steel rings.

I contacted MJA about this and they told me that:

The scratch was not an issue and
They had used that grit for two decades without issues

(They later admitted they did not have any stones above 150 grit and they don’t even appear to have a plateauing stone)

I obviously could not continue this build with 20 people (including two machinists) telling me this was badly wrong. I took it to another engine remanufacturing company who were quite shocked at MJA’s workmanship. They agreed to take on the block and sleeved the damaged cylinder and plateau-honed all the cylinders to a much better finish.

MJA’s work was just shockingly bad and ignorant. To make matters worse, their business card had the FER mark on it (Federation of Engine Re-Manufacturers) but when I contacted FER to complain, they said MJA were no longer a member. I queried the reason for this with MJA Engineering but they did not answer this question, so I can only assume they were expelled.

In short, don’t use MJA engineering in Broomsgrove, even if they were on TV. It doesn’t make them experts (clearly).

Bought a lift…

Posted on 14-August-2023 by Henrik Morsing

After seeing a ready made garage pit at the NEC 20 years ago, I have been thinking about getting a pit or two-post lift. It always seemed too complicated, too expensive, just too much…

I started following “Seaside Garage” on Youtube, who described the difference his mid-rise scissor had made. It’s not a full height lift, but cheaper and much more convenient! I started looking around and found Strongman and their apparently popular “Clifton” lift (previously “Montford”?).

Link to Seaside Garage: Seaside Garage – YouTube

It wasn’t the cheapest lift, but fitted the bill perfectly. Delivered within two days, and despite weighing 500Kg, I set it up myself. Here it is in situ (yes, I fitted the ramps to the wrong sides, handles need to be on the outside):

Still not hooked up to the “Control Tower” and it needs a commando socket installed. Will post a video of the first test run. (EDIT: Now posted below)

First run of lift.

The red lamp on the Control Tower, and the manual does not mention this at all, is not a fault indicator as I first thought. It is a warning to everyone in the shop (and my neighbours) that the lift is lowering, and it is LOUD! So loud that I put some Duck tape over it, which brought it down to a more pleasant sound level.

I swapped the control tower connection side to be by the wall, which, TBH, I don’t think it was really designed for. The only slight issue is that the cable bracket for the stop switch has no holes to be screwed into on the other side. Double-sided tape should hold it in place.

The Chinese Google-translated manual is awful. Poor quality photos, lack of information, and written in bad English. The hydraulic line joins were not tightened from the factory, so oil leaked everywhere the first time I ran it. The dip-stick for the oil reservoir is also shiny metal, so useless. I will try to mark min and max with permanent marker on the reservoir itself.

The motor is a 3HP motor and uses 18A at cos φ .54 as seen below.

Rebuilding my old Commodore 64 setup

Posted on 18-March-2022 by Henrik Morsing

Back in the late eighties, I had a Commodore 64C, a 1541-II floppy drive, Okimate 20 colour printer, light pen, two joysticks, and most importantly, a COMAL80 cartridge. I’m obviously getting old, as I suddenly felt a desperation to get all this back.

I have bought a COMAL80 cartridge, a very rare item, which should be on the way, and the 1541-II I bought has just arrived, photo below. I have not dared power it up using the old power supply. I will get a modern power supply for it.

I’m bidding on a C64C and have to my surprise found several Okimate 20’s in the US but shipping costs are prohibitively expensive. I will keep you posted.

Volvo VEA D4 cambelt fitting trick

Posted on 14-September-2021 by Henrik Morsing

(Or how to get Volvo D4 cambelt on)

I just quickly wanted to share an easier way of slipping the cambelt over the last pulley to what VIDA or Youtube suggests. I did this on a Volvo VEA D4 D4204T5 2.0 diesel engine in a V70 from 2014.

VIDA says to pull the belt over the cam pulley last, but it’s not very easy. Instead, feed the belt up on both sides as tightly as you can and leave the belt running across the top idler (pointed to in the photo).

Put a small breakerbar or similar on to one of the bolts on the cam pulley and pull down, and as it turns, the section of belt across the top will slacken and you can easily push it under the centre idler.

Just make sure, as I spent an hour before realising this, that the bottom of the belt is tightly looped around the crankshaft pulley and not hanging down below the pulley. You won’t ever get it on if that is the case.

Anthony Dunkley

Posted on 30-January-2021 by Henrik Morsing

Anthony Dunkley, aka Tony Zheng is a scammer / scam company. Don’t engage with them.

http://www.anthonydunkley.co.uk is a very believable website, even has a certificate issued by Cloudflare, but Anthony Dunkley / Tony Zheng is just a scammer.

Don’t visit anthonydunkley.co.uk, it is very well done but don’t fall for it.

Anthony Dunkley will send you a glasses case from China no matter what you order and pay for.

SCAM!

B230E valvetrain refresh

Posted on 24-August-2020 by Henrik Morsing

After 250 000 miles, I finally got around to renewing the valvetrain components of my Volvo 240. Springs and hushers being the main items to replace. I also adjusted the fuel distributor system pressure, control pressure, flow plate and CO mixture.

Cam out and new valve springs in

All back in!

Next up, tuning fual distributor system pressure

System pressure was only 4.6 (not shown in photo), so I carefully got the pressure regulator out and added shims to it. Quite a lot of shims was needed, I think the spring had gone weak.

After that, I centered the air flow sensor plate and checked the rest height. To be able to tighten the flow plate nut without it moving, fold over a piece of A4 paper and slot it down all round the plate. This has the right thickness to keep the plate centered.

Next, CO tuning. Incidentally, if you can’t find a photo of this either, this is what the bung down the CO adjuster screw tube looks like:

I screwed a little screw down the tube and pulled it out.

That’s it. Next, replacing the power steering pump…

Laying lower track

Posted on 29-April-2020 by Henrik Morsing

I’ve realised I probably did this in the wrong order as I have had to disconnect and flip up the upper station layer. Lower track is near down, and once the stattion is back down, I can fit the Woodland Scenics riser and track all the way round.