Sump gasket advice for marina 1.8 B series engine

[redmonty]

I am in the process of getting my Marlin Roadster with 1.8 marina engine back on the road after 20 years being garaged! It was last briefly started in 2013. I have changed oil filter drained oil and then was advised to remove the sump to check for sludge etc. Removed sump with engine in situ and it was fine, but now I have a dilemma. The gasket I removed was card which had been stuck well and truly with black silicone type goo. At either end of the engine block there are thin, rectangular shaped gaskets which were slightly gauged as I scraped off the old card sump gasket, so I think I will need to change them at the same time.

I have 3 questions:
1) Most sump gasket kits are cork. Are these better than the card type (I spotted a couple of card type on Ebay, but the majority are cork).
2) Do all sump gasket kits come with the small rectangular end gaskets, as all the images seem to show just the gasket?
3) I have seen online and received loads of conflicting advice about how to treat the gasket before bolting the sump back on. A) Just coat it with vaseline B) coat the sump side with non setting gasket type goo (not sure which type to get though?) and lightly oil block side C) Just smear on some engine oil on both sides D) leave it dry

Any advice would be gratefully received.

[martinclan56]

I don't remember the additional gaskets when I did mine. Picture would be useful :-)
My gasket was cork or something that looked like it. I didn't use any additional sealing agents.

[redmonty]

I wasn't expecting to see these mini gaskets either tbh! Unfortunately I didn't take a photo of the underside of the block when i removed the sump. However I have seen a video where a US man removes MGB sump with engine out. Here are a screen grabs of the area one at each end and one with one of the rectangular cork gaskets in place. I think is is at either end of the engine where the crank case seals/bearings are locked in place.

[Ye Ol Ripper]

As you are working with the engine in situ . Use Hylomar blue which is non hardening to hold the gasket in place onto the sump pan. The front & rear seals can be coated in hylomar blue before bolting up the sump. Then tighten the 7/16 headed bolts up until you see the hylomar blue oozing out. That should be sufficient torque as they don't need to be overtightened.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/293906914215?_trkparms=amclksrc%3DITM%26aid%3D777008%26algo%3DPERSONAL.TOPIC%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D267522%26meid%3D8d43de8fea7749c39091b8c8d4d8a162%26pid%3D102055%26rk%3D1%26rkt%3D1%26mehot%3Dpp%26itm%3D293906914215%26pmt%3D0%26noa%3D1%26pg%3D4375194%26algv%3DRecentlyViewedItemsV2MobileWithMLRAndDarwin%26brand%3DHylomar&_trksid=p4375194.c102055.m146925&_trkparms=parentrq%3A3764c41a1900ac6a4186acb0fffffb9e%7Cpageci%3Ae3bae5d6-2f45-11ef-b3e7-0a741813cb1b%7Ciid%3A1%7Cvlpname%3Avlp_homepage

[martinclan56]

Good pictures. Jogged my memory. The little cork gaskets sit on the front and rear bearing housings which are a tad lower than the face that the sump mates to. So they need to be in good order.
Suggest you contact one of the MGB specialists. They should be able to supply these and also advise on the best sump gasket. To be honest, now I think about it, I don't remember if mine was cork or paper. It was a couple of years ago....

[A_Hogg]

I completely rebuilt my son's engine in his 1.8 Roadster over the winter . When fitting the sump gasket I simply smeared grease on the block to hold the sump gasket in place . The bearing end cap seals MAY be too tall and need to be cut back along their length so that they sit 1/16th of an inch proud of the face of the block and possibly trimmed for length. These were bedded down onto Permatex grey sealant {I had some from previous project] paying particular attention to sealing the ends of those. The sump gasket is the same as MGB and can be purchased from a number of suppliers but to be honest I bought complete gasket set for the engine including all oil seals so don't know if they come with sump gasket alone . The gasket itself is of a impregnated cardboard type [It looks dark grey /black in colour] So far there have been NO oil leaks at all, not even a drip but it's early days. Torque setting for the sump bolts I think was 6 lbs /ft

[redmonty]

Thank you for all your suggestions, really helpful. Those little end seals have stumped the classic car restorers around where I live, which surprised me. I knew there was a good reason why I joined the MOC. The video where the screenshots were taken from highlighted that the rectangular oil seal gaskets are meant to be slightly too long for a good seal. No doubt I will soon find out when I refit if anything needs trimming to fit.

As suggested, I have now contacted several MG parts specialists to see what they say about card or cork. None of them offered cork which I thought was significant, yet on ebay etc virtually everyone was offering cork. All the companies I spoke to offered the little rectangular cork gaskets as additional items. So in the end I went with Brown and Gammons, purely because the guy I spoke to was so helpful and he ordered it up for me on the phone.


So now everything is ordered up ready to refit. Having left some oil soaking in the cylinders for a few weeks, next step is to see if she fires up after all these years. Fingers crossed!