MG T-ABC

Hello Group,
I am working on a 1954 TF which supposedly has a TC engine.The engine number is XPAG TC 10340 and is located on a gold octagon plate on the right front of the block.
According to Moss,TC engine plates are on the bell housing above the starter and TD plates are located where mine is.
Is there another way that I can confirm what engine I am working on?
Thank you.

All TC engines had the plate on the bell housing, left rear of the engine. Another easy way to spot TC or TD is the drain tap, which was also on the center of the right side of the block whereas TD/TF placed it at the front of the right side.. If your tag is on a raised square area on the front right then it's definitely not a TC block. It may have come from a TC as a replacement engine, but was not originally fitted to one.

Thank you for that.Looks like I have a TD,tap and engine plate is on right side front.

Steve is right about engine tag location. It does appear that someone has grafted the TC tag onto a later block.

Many - not all - later blocks had the engine number stamped on the block itself, across the top of the plinth. The digits are often painted over, but scraping may reveal them. There is no way to disguise that it is a later block.

Tom Lange
MGT Repair

Another indication, if the sump hasn't been swapped over, is the TD has holes on both sides for the clutch rod, the TC hasn't as it's cable operated.

I have a friend in France who bought a TC from the US and the engine is a TD with a TC engine number.

Not quite, Thierry - the early TD used a cable clutch linkage that was replaced by rods; the remains of both the cable base and the pivot or fulcrum pins for the rods will be on either side of the sump.

The TC used a chain hooked directly between the pedal and clutch operating lever, so there will be no cable or fulcrum pins on a TC sump.

Chances are that if they installed a TD engine, they did it complete with the TD sump.

Tom Lange
MGT Repair

is the cylinder head different between the TC and TD and if so in what areas?

Tom, well I was nearly right

There are a couple minor differences in heads. Early TD heads are the same as TC. Late TD heads changed from banana-shaped water holes to round ones, and went to a longer rocker shaft, but the heads are interchangeable. You just have to make sure you sue the proper head gasket, and assemble the rocker shaft correctly.

Then there always that elusive block casting date.

Steve, you say that the head gasket on a TC and a TD are different. Assuming putting a TD gasket on a TD head is ok ... but what about a TC gasket on a TD head?
Why I ask is that this may be the answer to my water-leaking-head ... any logic in this you reckon?

The gaskets are technically interchangeable. The only difference is the shape of the water holes. TC and early TD are oval, and everything after early TD is round. Some people have a strong belief in using an oval gasket when mixing round and oval blocks and heads. Whether it makes a difference or not is debatable, but either way I can't see this as being your issue, unfortunately.