Saturday, October 17th 1999. Wonderful weather, the first day off after weeks of constrains.

Todays schedule was the installation of the new cylinder head for the MGA, prepared by Peter Burgess.

I have met Peter at Silverstone 99. We have a lot of discussions, and at the end it was clear that for daily driving the ECONOTUNE would be the best choice.

ECONOTUNE means: Combustion chamber optimized (e.g. buretting), slightly modified inlet and exhaust channels, leadfree conversion, but compression rate and valve size as standard.

With K&N filters and richer needles, there was a plus of 15 to 20 percent expected. total cost around 250 GBP (plus tax). A sherpa van head (12H1670 casting) was the starting point.

So far, so good. I began the saturday with a visit at my MG dealer, buying all the needed nuts and bolts and gaskets.

And the end was as expected: While installing the last bolt (thermostat housing), there was a slight "Knack" - one half of the bolt in the bore, the other in my hand.

Schedule for next week? Head to the machine shop, removing the bolt, checking all threads, and then: second chance!

Saturday, October 23rd 1999. Again wonderful weather, take a deep breath and start again...

Because of the prompt support of the mechanic shop Bloemer and Füsser in Düsseldorf (Thanks to Mr Stölzel) and the as usual perfect spare parts support of Kestel in Neuss (thanks to Mr Schweder) it was no problem to try again today.

Bolt was bored out, threads were recut, spare parts at hand.

	After short preparation the shadowtree repair shop was ready. Opened the water vents, in the meantime removing plugs, throttle, choke, disassembling the carbs (as always as apair, so mostly tuning is not necessary), valve cover, head nuts, rocker assembly, pulling head (STOP: Dont forget the temp gauge sensor...)
	Head can be removed, but will not go. So 2 feet of cable were inserted in the combustion chamber. Cranking the engine with caution, and the head will lift. Repeating the procedure in number one cylinder, and it is no problem to Remove the head.
	Now you can see the whole oil which was burnt during the last 10,000 miles - one reason for assemBling another head.
	A last view to the art of Mr Burgess - hopefully I will not see this particular combustion chamber in the near future!
	Shadowtree mechanics are creating communication. Every imaginable question will be asked, every. "Yeah, these ... old cars, always broken..." - "Do you sell it as a bargain?" "As I was young..." "Were do you buy the spare parts?" Anyway, if there are no technical problems, and if I am in a good mute - why not?
	Always fascinating: The intelligent and user friendly design of MG. Look at these very practical screw-holders in the engine bay - there is no modern car with such features.
	And so its no problem to finish in record time. Dont forget the torque wrench settings (head nut 7mkg, manifold 3 mkg) and the coolant - and the new head will do its first work.
	MGA on the rolling road...reading stops at 61kw (around 80 hp).

Bottom line after the first test drive: Until 3,000 rpm thre is no significant difference to the old head, but from 3,000 on there is remarkable more power. In the next 2 weeks, I will do step 2 and install K&N filters and maybe richer needles.

Post scriptum:
Rolling road session has shown around 80 hp, at the rear wheels. For the records, the complete set-up:

• Sherpa van head with "Econotune" modifications by Peter Burgess (modified combustion chambers, bigger valves, slightly raised compression)
• 43D distributor without vacuum advance
• Ford 5-speed gearbox
• K&N filter with needle number 6
• balanced engine
• +0.60 oversized pistons