Pretty Fly For A White Guy

Before the engine was mounted on it's trolly I needed to adapt the back plate to fit. This I did by using a Rover 820 back plate, cutting the excess material off it and using a fixture I made up to locate the center line of the crank I was able to clamp it to the MGB back place. I could then drill through the holes and thus make the MGB part fit the Rover engine.

Once the back plate was done it was bolted to the engine and the flywheel fitted.















By using the MGB flywheel I can use the standard MGB starter motor and clutch. However, because this engine will be a lot more powerful than the old unit I will be fitting an uprated clutch. The other bonus is that I can now bolt up a standard 4 syncro gearbox to the new engine. My car is fitted with an ordinary 4 speed gearbox. But, I do have a couple (as you do) of spare 4 syncro with overdrive gearboxes. One of which I have cleaned up and inspected.

This shot shows the cleaned gearbox partially assembled, obviously with out the overdrive unit fitted. The reason it was not fitted was because when I reassembled it I forgot to line up the sprines inside it so I could only slide it part way on to the output shaft of the gearbox.

















This shot shows the gearbox finally mated to the T series block. Still without the overdrive though. In the forground you can see the Rover 820 back plate I used to locate the holes I needed to drill in the MGB back plate.

So the situation at this moment in time is. I have a new engine and a gearbox that fits it. I can now wheel the engine around my garage if I need to move it. I have partly fabricated my inlet manifold. To which I will be fitting a set of carbs from a Suzuki GSXR 1100 motorbike (more of this later) and I have started to fabricate what will be a tubular exhaust manifold from stainless steel I have laying around. As for ignition I have bought a megajolt unit. I will explain each of these items in more deatil as I make progree on them. Wish me luck.

Trolly Wolly

This picture shows the finished trolly ready to accept the new T series engine.

All thats needed now is a nice shiney new engine.

After a lot of sawing grinding and a bit of welding the new engine finally sits on the trolly.

The left hand mount is a little more tricky because the water pump is mounted on the left side of the engine. The pictures above show the right hand mount. I little more grinding and shaping will make it look a bit more profesional.

For the time being I have made a mount that picks up on a bolt hole on the left side of the block. Once I have the water pump housing (a large aluminium housing bolted to the left side of the engine) I can then facbricate a proper mount that I will use in the car.

A Bit On The Side (or V8's are Great BUT)

It's all change at my place. My initial long term plans to drop a spare (as you do) V8 eninge into my MG have fallen by the wayside. Although the conversion is relatively straightforward and has been bone many times before, I fancied something a little different. As luck would have it due to a bulk stock purchase by my friendly (family) car spares dealer I was able to aquire a brand new from the factory 2 litre 16v engine from a Rover 800/600/400/200. This engine is called the T series and if effectively a development engine from the orignial B series my the MGB. The Bseries became the M series by having and overhead cam and then the T series came along with Twin cams. The block is essentially the same, ok well the crank is.
This maeks the conversion rather straight forward. To fit this engine all you need to do is drill 6 holes in the MGB back plate (in the right place of course) bolt up the MGB flywheel and away you go. Ok it's not quite as simple as that but it would be no fun if it was easy now would it?
Yes the flywheel does bolt on to the Rover crank. Yes the input shaft from the MGB gearbox does fit inside the spigot bush. Other than that the rest of the parts have to be made.
Check out the photos.

This is a spare (as you do) MGB engine I had laying around. I used an old trolly aquired from a local bakers (thanks Nigel) and welded on some MGB engine mounts (the parts that come welded to the forward chassis legs on an MGB. This now allows me to replicate the dimensions and mountings within the cars engine bay.

This shot shows the MGB engine and the redrilled and modified back plate. The significant difference from the B series to the T series engine is the the rear crank seal is now housed in a seperate housing. This is the reason for the large horse shoue shaped cut out around the crank.

Pesky picture trouble

The middle box

The tail pipe

Yes Yes it needs a clean but it has now been on the car for about 2 months now. Besides you should see the outside of the car.

That reminds me I must wash it on Sunday.

Exhausted

In my last update I mentioned the noise of the exhaust but neglected to tell the reason why. Here it is. A couple of weeks after refitting the cylinder head the engine developed an oil leak from the passenger side of the engine. On investigation I discovered oil coming out of the breather cover under the carbs and exhaust. I tried to reseal it without removing the carbs and exhaust but had no luck. I decided that as I have had lots of practice at removing the carbs and manifold it would not take long and I had a couple of hours of daylight left. Off came the manifolds and I sorted out the breather cover with the same gasket (it was onlt a couple of weeks old and was in good condition. I used a little sealant and ensured it stayed in position while I tightened up the bolt. The reason for the leak was that the gasket had moved while tightening and with the vibration etc it then developed the leak.
As a distraction I decided that while the carbs and exhaust were out of the way I would trial fit my large bore tubular manifold and have a look under the car to see what needs doing when I come to fabricate my new exhaust. At the time I only had a middle box. This is a 2" bore straight through unit, it is as long as I could get it to fit between where the chassis crossmember goes and the middle exhaust mount. As I did not have my tail pipe (2" cherry bomb straight through silencer) I only wanted to test fit and see what I was up against when I finally bit the bullet.
The tubular manifold was very difficult to fit. Due to all the bends and pipes there was not enough room between the block and chassis rail to get it in. Mainly due to angle you have to wriggle it in at. It was close though. With a bit of levering and a gentle tap or two with a rubber mallet it jolted into position. This turned out to be a big mistake. After I had had a good look under the car and offered up the middle box I tried to remove the manifold. You guessed it. I could not get it out. I struggled for about 20 minutes before I lost my rag.
I now had no choice but to fabricate the exhaust now. Luckily I had some 2" stainless steel pipe I had aquired from work (scrap pipe from redundent plant before you ask). All I could do was fit the middle box, cobble together a couple of bends back to back to create a set in the pipe as it shifts from running near the middle of the car to nearer the passenger side. I then used one straight piece of pipe from the silencer to the back of the car. I then had to cut and shut the mounts to allow it to hang in the right place. It actually came out alright. Especially as it will only be a temperary thing anyway. Or at least I thought.
I refitted the carbs. It was now getting dark and I needed to drive the car for work the next day. I fired it up. Wow. Thats loud. At idle it was not too bad but when the throttle opens and the engine revs it was rather antisocial to say the least. I had no alternative so thats how it is.

So thats the reason for the loud exhaust I mentioned earlier. I ordered a cherybomb straight away and was assured a 2" unit would be winging it's way to me by return of post. The delivery was fairly quick but they had sent me one with a 1.5" bore. After a lot of phoning back and forth I was then told they do not make a cherry bomb with a 2" bore. I demanded a refund as I knew this was a lie because I fitted one to my Vitara offroader (another project come toy car that has now been sold). After finally finding the unit I wanted (about 3 weeks had passed) I awaited delivery. This was when the car would not run properly and after reving it and generally faffing about before deciding to get the wife out of bed to drive me to work. After getting home that day I had a parcel to collect from the post office. This turned out to be the tail pipe I had been waiting for. WHen the wife got home from work she told me I had upset our next door neighbour because I had woken her up with all the noise. OOPs. I set to with the welder and hack saw to fit the new tail pipe and make the exhaust note quieter again. It only took about an hour to sort it out. The noise level was reduced but it is still loud when you put your toe down.



I have not had any further complaints about the noise. I don't really know what the problem is. There are lots of people that go to work at 6am. He He. Lets just hope my neighbour does not stumble across this web page.

Under Pressure

Well it sure has been a long time since my last update. I feel really guilty as I honestly thought this blogg thing would take over and I would be updating it endlessly. The main reason for not keeping the blog up to date have been the fact that the MG has been running ok (bugger thats F%$ked it up for tomorrow morning then). I have now used the car for work (week about) since September. The only problems have been the non-functioning fuel gauge which I have now fixed at long last. I still intend to replace the fuel tank at some point but finances have dictated that for the time being only the sender has been done. Luckily I now have a working gauge and have an idea of how much fuel I have in the tank. That reminds me I need to fill up in the morning.

In antisipation of the new sender arriving I had been running the tank down low (by guess work) only putting a fivers worth of fuel in at a time and keeping a spare can in the car just in case. I did this for about a month before I decided it was time I actually ordered the sender.

Anyway, one saturday morning a few weeks ago I had to collect a couple of parcels from the post office in the local town. However, I needed some fuel as I had not put any in for a few days so must having been running on memories. On the way I stopped off and put in another £5 of fuel. You can guess what one of the parcels was. Yes the sender. Now I can't fit it because there will be too much fuel in the tank.

One week later I'm getting myself ready to replace the pesky sender but get a call from the inlaws. I suddenly get roped into fixing the head gasket on their Daewoo. What with the dark afternoons I am only able to do this on the weekends ( I am also only able to work on my cars at weekends) so I am not a happy bunny. Well it took two weekends to strip clean up and refit it all. Luckily it all went back together and seems to be ok. Well they have not mentioned it so I am assuming it is ok. Although I did advise them to sell it as soon as because there was some corrosion around the waterways that will mean the gasket will not hold indefinitely. Beside they have had the car a good few years now.

So I finally got some time to replace the sender. The fuel tank was run down (or at least I thought it was). I disconnected the wires to the old sender and tapped the locking ring round. I was suprised by the fact it turned at all given the rust. A little fuel dribbled out so I got a petrol can ready. I pulled the old unit out and bugger me I got drowned. The fuel level was an inch above the bottom of the hole for the sender. I tried to position the can so as to catch the fuel but only succeded in getting most of it up my arm. I pushed the old unit back in the hole and held it there. I could just reach the new sender which was in the boot so I then did a quick switch getting more petrol all over me and the driveway. I fitted the locking ring and reconnected the wires. With the ignition on the gauge rose to just below half. Much better than showing a full tank all the time. I put in my spare can of petrol and the needle went even higher. great job done.

I have also got round to fitting a cd player in the car. I must be mad really as you can't really hear it above the noise of the exhaust when you are traveling at speed but at least it fills the hole in the dash. I have also repositioned the speakers. These are pod mounted units that were screwed into the roof panel at the back of the car. They looked terrible and I had been meaning to do something about it for ages. My dilema was that I did not want to cut the interior panels about to fit speakers in the doors or kick panels. I decided to just push the pods under the front of the front seats. I'm sure that this position does nothing for stereo imaging or audio quality but seeing as you can bearly hear it it will do. To be fair it's not that bad.

A couple of weeks ago I started the car up for my drive to work. I got to the corner of the road and noticed the oil pressure was very low. Oops. I blipped the throttle and it went up a bit. I decided to go round the block and if things did not improve then I would have to leave the car at home and investigate during the daylight hours. I pulled up outside my house lifted the bonnet. Checked the oil level and the dip stick was dry. Sorry, to me the car and the world of MG fans out there. The car had been going so well I had not even checked the oil like I normally do each weekend. There were no oil leaks to speak of so it could only be burning it or from minor leaks. I simply had not checked the level for about three weeks. I topped up the oil and the oil pressure returned to normal. I guess I will have to make more of an effort to check it regularly.

I recently had a week off work using up some holiday. However, we were supposed to be going away but could not afford to do what we normally do which is have a week fishing and take our two dogs away to give them a break. Besides, my car and the wifes car are not suitable for putting the dogs in to get somewhere. We ended up taking the time out to take them for walks locally and also going fishing at a couple of local lakes every other day. It was nice to relax and enjoy some time together, even if it did rain most of the time.

After this week off my return to work went down well. I woke up early on the monday ready to drive myself in to work. The car started but was running poorly. The idle speed was varying and there seemed to be no power and the engine struggled to rev. I limped off the drive way reved it a couple of times and slowly nmade my way down the road. It got a little better then a little worse then better again. By the time I got to the end of the road and needed to decide if I was going to chance it or not it was running ok so off up the road to work I went. If I reved it hard it was ok. I got about half a mile and it suddenly got worse. I had to give in and return home. I pulled up on my driveway lifted the bonnet and checked the float chambers to see if they were full. They were both ok. I checked the fuel pump was pumping fuel and that was ok. I had wasted enough time. Enoughs enough. I woke the wife up (bad move) and she drove me in to work. Bless.

After puzzling over the problem all day at work, I got home ready to test anything and everything. I started the car up and it was fine. I took it for a test drive, it was fine. In fact it has been fine ever since. The only expalnation (ruling out alien intervention or a relative of that medling rabbit) I can think of is that due to not using the car for over a week and having a week of almost solid rain then expecting the car to be fine on a cold damp morning was all too much for it. Maybe the damp got right into the HT leads. Who knows. I also learned that I had upset my next door neighbour with all the noise that morning. Oops. Atleast I have also fitted the 2nd silencer to my straight through exhaust. The cherry bomb came and was duely fitted.

Actually it may have been something to do with the last time I drove it. The friday before my holiday. It had been raining all day and my friend and I set off home after work. As I drove along I had to use the wipers not only for the rain comming down but for the spray coming up from the road. In palces the sides of the road were flooded with a good siz inches of water. I ended up driving almost in the middle of the road just to keep out of the deep stuff. As usual we battled with the traffic and finally made it a a large roundabout. I needed to turn right so I dove down the outside lane with a grin on my face as all the other traffic was in the left hand lane. We stopped at the traffic lights and waited out turn. It all looked good as the left hand and middle lane were full of cars but the right hand lane was empty ready for us to blast away a continue the rest of the way. The lights changed, amber then green. Roar, we were off. I swerved to avoid a driver who jumped the light the other way and was now just about to change to third gear when I suddenly reallised whay all the traffic was in the left two lanes and nobody was in the outside lane. Fu%*. The lane was flooded and the water was well up over the kurb. Infact the water was about 12 inches deep. By the time this had all sunk in we were in it. Not only did the water woosh up the sides of the car it came straight over the bonnet and over the roof of the car. I was doing about 25mph but did not want to slow down because the water was well above the tail pipe and I had to keep the revs up and pray the ignition side of things held out. So there we were ploughing through the water with me slipping the clutch a little as we went. We passed two cars by the side of the road who had obviously fell foul of the water. Somehow, we did manage to get passed the roundabout and out of the water. I said a silent prayer to the Alden Ignitor god who must have been looking down on us that day.
Looking back on it that was the last time I drove the car before my holiday so water ingress is most likely the cause of the running problems discovered on that monday morning.
This water tale reminds me of another story of when I had my TR7 but that will have to wait until next time. For now fingers crossed for tomorrow morning.