http://www.slowcarfast.com/MG Stuffing a big V8 into a poor little MGB. en-us Copyright 2010 Keith Tanner. All Rights Reserved. keith@miata.net (Keith Tanner) keith@miata.net (Keith Tanner) Thu, 29 Jul 2010 06:02:27 -0600 Thu, 29 Jul 2010 06:02:27 -0600 Keith's RSS generator http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss 60 http://www.slowcarfast.com/MG/images_sml/RSS.jpg http://www.slowcarfast.com/MG 88 88 http://www.slowcarfast.com/MG/diary.php?UID=358 http://www.slowcarfast.com/MG/diary.php?UID=358 The intake tube wants to go through the middle of it. It was covered in 2-3 layers of paint and looked pretty nasty, so it got a quick trip through the bead blaster. Voila!]]> Tue, 27 Jul 2010 17:28:19 -0600 The MGB GT http://www.slowcarfast.com/MG/diary.php?UID=357 http://www.slowcarfast.com/MG/diary.php?UID=357 I was hesitant to add this photo, as it shows some pretty ugly welding. I cut that front plate a bit too short and had to do some filling in with the welder. It's not structural and it'll look fine when ground down, but it sure looks nasty right now. At least the important stuff is good.
(more)]]> Tue, 27 Jul 2010 17:27:15 -0600 The MGB GT http://www.slowcarfast.com/MG/diary.php?UID=356 http://www.slowcarfast.com/MG/diary.php?UID=356 I've started to panel the engine bay. This will increase the rigidity of the front end, which is my primary goal. You can see the right front corner (on the left in this picture) is done, including some special bulges to clear the control arm. The left rear is also done, leaving a large hole for the headers to pass through. I could make this hole smaller, but then I'd only be able to remove the headers when the engine is out of the car. I can see that particular problem coming back to bite me! For a bit of extra strength, there's also a 1" square tube along the top of the left rear plate.
(more)]]> Tue, 20 Jul 2010 15:06:11 -0600 The MGB GT http://www.slowcarfast.com/MG/diary.php?UID=355 http://www.slowcarfast.com/MG/diary.php?UID=355 Although it doesn't look like it. I pulled the engine and transmission out one more time. This will let me finish the sheetmetal work in the engine bay and elsewhere in the transmission tunnel. I'll also finish some welding on the frame and then paint everything.
(more)]]> Sun, 18 Jul 2010 17:51:40 -0600 The MGB GT http://www.slowcarfast.com/MG/diary.php?UID=354 http://www.slowcarfast.com/MG/diary.php?UID=354 In 1998, the Z28 came with a Positraction differential. In 1999, that was changed to a Torsen. This is a Posi, although I do have to admit to resorting to Google to make sure I wasn't looking at some sort of Phantom Grip nastiness.
(more)]]> Sat, 17 Jul 2010 11:00:08 -0600 The MGB GT http://www.slowcarfast.com/MG/diary.php?UID=353 http://www.slowcarfast.com/MG/diary.php?UID=353 The black bumper was painted, then sanded down again and painted again. I learned a huge amount about sanding on compound curves, surface prep, paint gun setup and the general unforgiveness of shiny black paint. But now I'm in pretty good shape to paint the MG. Not that I'll remember any of this when it comes time to paint! I also made a trip back to Canada for a week or so.
(more)]]> Sat, 17 Jul 2010 10:51:28 -0600 The MGB GT http://www.slowcarfast.com/MG/diary.php?UID=352 http://www.slowcarfast.com/MG/diary.php?UID=352 I've had to do a bit of bodywork on another car and it's forcing me to develop the ability to lay down paint nicely and also develop more patience! The car in question is a deep, deep black that I'm going to use on the MG, so it's teaching me just how unforgiving black can be.
(more)]]> Mon, 28 Jun 2010 16:20:21 -0600 The MGB GT http://www.slowcarfast.com/MG/diary.php?UID=351 http://www.slowcarfast.com/MG/diary.php?UID=351 (more)]]> Wed, 23 Jun 2010 15:58:34 -0600 The MGB GT http://www.slowcarfast.com/MG/diary.php?UID=350 http://www.slowcarfast.com/MG/diary.php?UID=350 So has the pedal box. I also hit some of the brackets welded on the car to use up some of the leftover paint. Once the tank is dry, I can do the final installation and not have to take it out again. Woohoo!]]> Sat, 19 Jun 2010 19:08:16 -0600 The MGB GT http://www.slowcarfast.com/MG/diary.php?UID=349 http://www.slowcarfast.com/MG/diary.php?UID=349 (more)]]> Wed, 16 Jun 2010 15:35:17 -0600 The MGB GT http://www.slowcarfast.com/MG/diary.php?UID=348 http://www.slowcarfast.com/MG/diary.php?UID=348 The MG only has five fuses (that I know of) in the entire car, but I wanted more than that! To be fair, one of the fuses in the new box is a duplicate of the fuel pump fuse in the old one - I'm not sure if I'm going to retain that particular one.
(more)]]> Wed, 16 Jun 2010 15:29:55 -0600 The MGB GT http://www.slowcarfast.com/MG/diary.php?UID=347 http://www.slowcarfast.com/MG/diary.php?UID=347 As you may remember, I was originally going to put it in the engine bay, but that was a pretty tight fit. I was also trying to reuse the stock bracket, and that was proving to be difficult. There's a bracket from the S10 or some sort of van that is a bit easier to mount in a non-standard location and arrangement, but I finally realized I could simply mount it with a solid strap, as seen here. It's solid and secure, but easy to remove when needed.
(more)]]> Wed, 16 Jun 2010 15:24:53 -0600 The MGB GT http://www.slowcarfast.com/MG/diary.php?UID=346 http://www.slowcarfast.com/MG/diary.php?UID=346 This means I'm referencing a handy four-page schematic of the Camaro wiring, the one-page diagram for the MG and referring to the big 100-page book of Miata wiring once in a while. The Camaro wiring is actually going pretty well. The biggest problem is hunting down and fixing a couple of connectors that were damaged either when I pulled the engine or beforehand.
(more)]]> Wed, 16 Jun 2010 15:21:54 -0600 The MGB GT http://www.slowcarfast.com/MG/diary.php?UID=345 http://www.slowcarfast.com/MG/diary.php?UID=345 The "swirl tank" is actually a vapor separator as part of the emissions control system. What I thought was a return line was actually a vent for the fuel tank. The vapors collected in the separator traveled up to the engine bay into a charcoal canister and were eaten by the engine. Having the separator in place kept raw fuel from getting fed to the charcoal canister when a full fuel tank would expand from heat.
(more)]]> Wed, 09 Jun 2010 14:08:11 -0600 The MGB GT http://www.slowcarfast.com/MG/diary.php?UID=344 http://www.slowcarfast.com/MG/diary.php?UID=344 It looks pretty nasty in this picture, partly due to the random wires of various sizes floating around and also due to some weird angles. The angles were chosen so I could use 45 degree fittings instead of 90 degree for less restriction. I also had to squeeze all the components into a fairly small space, of course.
(more)]]> Tue, 08 Jun 2010 17:12:43 -0600 The MGB GT http://www.slowcarfast.com/MG/diary.php?UID=343 http://www.slowcarfast.com/MG/diary.php?UID=343 I think it's a swirl pot of some sort - it was mounted vertically with one of the fittings (marked "IN" here) at the top. The return line from the regulator came into this upper fitting, then the lower one returned to the tank. The little doodad was sitting higher than the tank, so that would work.
(more)]]> Tue, 08 Jun 2010 17:05:53 -0600 The MGB GT http://www.slowcarfast.com/MG/diary.php?UID=342 http://www.slowcarfast.com/MG/diary.php?UID=342 Obviously, I've just laid the fan shroud from a different car on to the radiator, but the theory is there. I'll make a similar shroud that covers the whole radiator, and the fans will be these two in approximately the same place. I think it should cool well.]]> Sun, 06 Jun 2010 15:44:15 -0600 The MGB GT http://www.slowcarfast.com/MG/diary.php?UID=341 http://www.slowcarfast.com/MG/diary.php?UID=341 The upper radiator hose from the Camaro was trimmed down and fits perfectly. A hole was drilled and tapped in the top of the radiator (through a boss Tyler welded in there for this purpose) and a fitting for the steam line was threaded in. And that's the radiator modifications done. I haven't done anything with the heater hookup yet, but that's a fairly quick job.]]> Sun, 06 Jun 2010 15:42:52 -0600 The MGB GT http://www.slowcarfast.com/MG/diary.php?UID=340 http://www.slowcarfast.com/MG/diary.php?UID=340 Nice work! I have welded aluminum in the past, but I prefer to save my stumbling around for less critical applications. Having the fitting (I think it's actually an outlet on an LS engine) turned 90 degrees like this makes things so much easier.]]> Sun, 06 Jun 2010 15:40:54 -0600 The MGB GT http://www.slowcarfast.com/MG/diary.php?UID=339 http://www.slowcarfast.com/MG/diary.php?UID=339 The lack of space between the radiator and the engine was a problem here, and I also had to find room to alter the size of the hose. So I decided to turn the fitting by 90 degrees and change the size at the same time. This will end up with a 1.375" fitting running parallel to the top of the radiator, allowing me to simply cut down the factory upper radiator hose. I'm hoping one of my coworkers - a TIG magician - can stick all these pieces together for me. I can do it, but it'll look pretty ugly.]]> Tue, 01 Jun 2010 21:58:39 -0600 The MGB GT