Making it easier to remove the engine cover

[Mike63]

After my trained Capucin Monkey Bobo quit as a mechanic I had to re-engineer that infernal cover for human hands. I expect there are many solutions but here's mine. Removal, and crucially, re-fitting, is about a 20 mins job. The first mod was to grind 3mm of threads off the three bolts under the plastic speaker box that overhangs into the engine compartment. The bolts need enough plain lead-in to catch a nut, and a taper on the entry thread so a nut engages easily. These bolts are then fitted pointing up from inside the engine compartment. Obviously, they have to be fitted when the cover is off.

If you try to fit the cover at this point it needs an uncomfortable level of bending to get over the bolts. This can be fixed by elongating the RH hole into an oval about 15mm long to the left. Get to the point where the cover can be engaged on the right bolt then moved right with just a small flex to get the edge seal past the hood rim. I cut an egg-shaped flat washer to cover the oval.

I use a telescoptic magnetic pick-up to hold the washers edge-on and hook them over the lead in. I use two M6 washers on left and centre to space the nut up to the point whereby a flat ratchet spanner can be used resting on the raised press-sections of cover to tighten up the nuts. One washer on the right after the oval cover washer I made. To place a nut over the unthreaded bolt lead-in, the trick is a neodymium magnet on the top of the spanner, plus a spacer M6 nut loaded into the spanner. The result is the second M6 nut protrudes from, and can be seen below, the spanner. This makes it easy to place it on the bolt lead-in. It can be parked there and engaged with a fingertip, or use the ratchet spanner and the fingertip forces the spanner to ratchet.

After these three nuts are engaged but not tightened, I fit the other bolts. Engage them by hand! The locking threads gradually chew through the weld-nuts: although I have repaired a thread using a helicoil with the cover in-place. I've pictured the bit driver in the car toolkit but I cheat and use my battery drill plus two hex-bit extenders, and *wind the torque down*. Once they are all engaged I pinch all tight. Because the 3 front box overhang bolt shafts are higher than bold heads I use cardboard sliders to help refit the sound insulation. I've used a Whiskers catfood box: other cat foods are available. The insulation needs more of a shove to seat home.

At the rear face I gave up fighting the hood clamps on the stock insulation and cut windows to allow the clamps to snap home. It worked well and engine noise is still low. I get the clamps out of the way by hooking the spring clip onto the outside hood channel seal.

I have velcro on the front edge of the top shelf cover. It's sewn onto the cover so can pull the hooks off the adhesive seat-facing side: just reseat with evostick. The rear shelf 'felt' cover has to be slotted into the rubber seal after the hood clamps are clipped down.

I hope this helps. <M>

[Mike63]

Last pic. Limited to 5.

[Gavin207]

I've replaced the bolts with s/s button Allen socket screws from toolstation- easier to engage and drive with my electric drill, and won't rust. £3.22 for 50.

[talkingcars]

I found a ratchet spanner best for doing the 3 bolts along the front edge.

However a so called professional mechanic messed up several threads by fitting the bolts that should hold the gear cable/heater hoses closure panel in place. he didn't refit the closure panel as he bent it too far out of shape. He was later sacked by the garage he worked for.

I resolved the situation by fitting some adjustable toggle clips. I know this takes away some of the strength the panel gives to the car but I have added TF braces through out which goes some way to replace this. The way I fitted the clamps ensure the panel still seals against fumes.

When the throttle jammed open after an enthusiastic blast along an unrestricted section of German autobahn when the cruise control cable came loose and wrapped around its mounting the speedy access was worth its weight, the engine cover was back on and we were back on the road in less time than it normally takes to just remove the cover.

[Geoff.F]

All too complicated for me.
A 1/4 drive socket takes out the rear bolts and a Snap-On ratchet removes the front.
To refit, 4 bolts are loosely fitted at the rear to locate the cover and the front edge held up by approx. 8 MM. ( 2 nuts each with a piece of fuse wire thru them so they do not fall into the engine bay ). Drop the 3 front bolts thru the cover and they will align correctly with the nuts.A couple of turns.
Remove the spacer nuts and locate all of the bolts before tightening.
Geoff.F

[mgtfnut]

I got fed up fiddling with the three little bolts - so got another lid and carefully cut to give the maximum opening for routine stuff, hopefully not weakening the structure. Used steel rivnuts, and new flanged bolts to keep the threads clean. The T bar fits closely up against the row of new bolts, so not much access "lost".

[Mike63]

@talkingcars I like the toggle clips idea! I don't think that engine cover adds much in the way of structural strength, although others may correct me. The plastic rim seal allows for some flex. It looks like a panel with pressed features to raise the resonance frequency for noise suppression. Toggle clips pull in-line and we want a clamp to pull downwards. However, ...

@mgftnut teases at a cunning ruse. If the toggle hooks are attached to the chassis not the cover then the cover seal spaces the clamp at an angle and the desired vertical clamping is achieved. Three cut-outs on the top face of only of the sound seal are required. To pop-rivet the clamp hooks requires removal of the speaker resonant box. I didn't know that was possible and I'm hoping it's a boundary of accessible self-tap screws. Some measurements required to figure out the required length of said toggle catches.

Who knew that the speakers were fitted back to front? Not me! That may switch the Stereophonic perception of my Beatles tracks to the opposite side: but MG may have switched the speaker wiring to compensate.

[mgtfnut]

I was careful to minimise any loss of torsional stiffness from the effect of the bolt on engine cover mod.
I'm always conscious of the fact that car bodies are mostly made up of panels not much thicker than a biscuit tin , and the unit only gains rigidity and strength through contoured panels being stitched together to make a strong, lightweight structure. The cover is bolted on with metal to metal contact, the seal is not plastic but a form of butyl rubber which conforms to hopefully made a fume and noise seal.
I tried to make the"big bit" as big as possible as it covers most of the hole area - I'm sure the MG-R guys made every effort to maintain torsional body stiffness as a priority. When off the car, the converted lid was stiffer than before - not very scientific
Anyway, that's my effort to make life a little easier - the lid only normally comes off once a year to check a few things.
BTW, the rear speakers on my car point forwards, yours might be unusual

[mowog73]

I resolved the situation by fitting some adjustable toggle clips.

What do these toggle clips look like, have a picture by any chance?

[Mike63]

@mgtfnut you have a good solution and I agree with your structural and material comments. As you have doubled up on the cover with some overlap I think it is likely stiffer. If I had a spare cover then I would likely adopt your solution, which is easier than mine for most maintenance jobs that require cover removal.
I'm puzzled by your speaker comment. The picture you posted shows a concentric oval driver and independent tweeter. It looks like a self-contained tweeter on a pillar through the centre of the woofer driver iron core and magnet assembly. As pictured, the speaker is facing rearwards. This will work fine for the low frequencies from the main speaker oval cone but poorly for the higher tweeter frequencies. The speaker enclosure box you have removed has depth for the speakers to be fitted facing forward. I will check mine and report.

[ArntyR]

...re speaker: No, the T-bar sound-box has been removed to make access easier - and is just resting there, back-to-front, isn't it?...

Slurp...those speakers look like a mean upgrade tho' oops...On second thoughts they look loke the standard ellipticals

[mgtfnut]

...re speaker: No, the T-bar sound-box has been removed to make access easier - and is just resting there, back-to-front, isn't it?...

Slurp...those speakers look like a mean upgrade tho' oops...On second thoughts they look loke the standard ellipticals

Aaah, was going to see how long it would take before the penny dropped

[John SS]

I got fed up fiddling with the three little bolts - so got another lid and carefully cut to give the maximum opening for routine stuff, hopefully not weakening the structure. Used steel rivnuts, and new flanged bolts to keep the threads clean. The T bar fits closely up against the row of new bolts, so not much access "lost".

That's a great solution Jerry. That will be on my to do list for the winter. Thanks for posting it. Anyone in reach of S32 got a spare cover to dispose of?!

[talkingcars]

I resolved the situation by fitting some adjustable toggle clips.

What do these toggle clips look like, have a picture by any chance?

I'll grab some the next time I am in that area,

[Mike63]

Some more pictures. I measured dimensions poking a rule into the gap below the speaker box and took said box off to complete the picture. These first pics show the front padded facia. My RAVE manual indicates this is fixed by screws by my 2001 had press-fixed fir-trees. The stepped pairs on the outside edges can be seen behind the hood mechanism but the two centre fixings are not visible. One of the centre fir-trees stayed in the chassis mount, but they can be removed and re-attached to the padded facia stud by pressing the sides.
Stepped side fixings

Centre fixings: one stuck in centre facia.

Speaker box & mounting bar in place with front facia removed. This shows the engine cover seal to the left and the available chassis in red to the right for a clamp. I'll mention, having worked as the supplier for the audio for system on Jaguars that the price of the driver is not the determinant of high quality, balanced sound for the heads in the location of driver and passenger. We used manekins with microphone ears, FFT analysis, ... Yes, those drives look, and are, cheap compared to aftermarket. Same as your sparkplugs, track rod ends, springs, dampers ;^)

Facia moved forward to expose engine cover.

[Mike63]

Results of investigation. Reasonable effort on the measurements in mm but add error bars. Measurements in lower drawing more accurate than upper clamp drawing that is based upon ebay measurements.

Only the largest clamp can reach the chassis with a lever that can be used without hitting the speaker box.

Using the longest clamps I think this is good solution. I think it's likely that the top of the rubber seal will need to be cut to allow engagement to the hook on the chassis, or the chassis hook will need a spacer.

Instead, I've gone with Jerry's 2-part cover solution. Reasons:
- engine covers are £20 on ebay
- I have a rivnut kit
- most jobs won't need removal of the end-piece
<Mike>

[mgtfnut]

Instead, I've gone with Jerry's 2-part cover solution. Reasons:
- engine covers are £20 on ebay
- I have a rivnut kit
- most jobs won't need removal of the end-piece
<Mike>

, you know it makes sense.

Replaced the cam belt last month and it was so much less fuss getting access to the job in hand.