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MG parts spares and accessories are available for MG T Series (TA, MG TB, MG TC, MG TD, MG TF), Magnette, MGA, Twin cam, MGB, MGBGT, MGC, MGC GT, MG Midget, Sprite and other MG models from British car spares company LBCarCo.

MG MGA - Casting numbers

I am looking for a salvage cylinder head to rebuild for an MGA 1600cc engine. I am told that early (up to 1968) MGB heads will also work.

I have a local salvage yard as a possible source. Unfortunately, he catalogues all of his salvage heads by casting number (stupid?). Since I have no cylinder head, I have no idea what the 1600 or MGB casting numbers are. Can anyone out there help me with this?
H Speer

See here:
http://mgaguru.com/mgtech/engine/ch100.htm
Barney Gaylord

Hello Henry :-)

I see you beat me to this very informed group of folks.

As I thought, the heads are somewhat the same [except for the THV engines]

For those of you reading this email ... both Henry and I live in the same city, work[ed] for the same empolyer, are members of the same club ... and I just emailed Henry prior to checking this site out. My plan was to ask this group the very question Henry asked our club members, on his behalf. Talk about an interesting world???

Cheers to all

Harv
A McCullough

One of the few cases where Barney is not 100% correct. 1622 engines are not rare outside the USA, they were used in a wide variety of other BMC applications. It is the 1600 engine which was unique to the A, and is almost mpossible to find (I searched all over Europe when mine failed a few years ago).

There is also this excellent site on heads
http://www.flowspeed.com/cylinder-ident.htm
dominic clancy

It is true that non-MGA 1622 engines are not rare outside the USA. What is rare is the large valve "16" head that was apparently unique to the MGA 1622 engine. Most non-MGA 1622 engines used the "15" head and dished pistons. Also some of the 1622 engines, most notably those "1620" engines cast in Australia, used the earlier type crankshaft and connecting rods from the 1500 engine. There were more than 30,000 MGA 1600 built, but fewer than 9,000 MGA 1600-MK-II. This makes the "16" head far more rare than the "1600" block.
Barney Gaylord

This thread was discussed between 11/01/2008 and 12/01/2008

MG MGA index

This thread is from the archive. The Live MG MGA BBS is active now.