MGB GT Engine Rebuild

[tannyo]

Well, not really my project as I'm not doing any of the work, but it is for my car. After Christmas, my wife and I drove the MGBGT from North Hollywood, CA to Oakhurst, CA to visit my mom and sister. While going up the grapevine (5), the engine started to ping, then backfired. I moved over to the slow lane and the pinging went away and I decided to continue driving even though I seemed to have slightly reduced power. Steve Simmons gave me special trip directions that allowed me to bypass most of the boring 5 and 99, but took a lot more time. We drove up there in 7.5 hours, didn't seem to have any trouble other than reduced gas mileage and drove back home the boring way on the 99 and 5.

The next day after getting home, I drove my car to Malcom's. About three blocks from Malcolm's shop, smoke started coming up from the engine bay. After pulling the head off Malcolm found broken rings in the number three cylinder. As you can see here after the rings broke they clattered around the combustion chamber knocking carbon off the top of the piston. There also seemed to be gasket leakage between the number two and three cylinders.

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After taking the engine to the machine shop Malcolm found that just about everything in the engine was worn out. He got the long block back yesterday and started putting it back in the car.

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I asked Malcolm to paint the engine black. Now it's nice and shiny.

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While the engine was out I should have taken a little time to clean and detail the engine compartment. Oh well. Too late now.

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The engine is in.

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And it's starting to look good.

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Now all Malcolm has to do is put all the fiddly bits together and you know the rest. I can hardly wait.

[Fifty Six MGA]

Are those pictures recent? Trying to figure out if that's my MGA in the background. =) It's with Malcolm this week.

Edit: Never mind, I see the comment about yesterday. That must be my MGA there.

[Larry Kluss]

Wow, Tanny. First new paint, now a new engine. You're B is good to go for a long time to come.

[VWNate1]

To the rescue !

Where will we be when he retires ? .

Didja have to bore the block ? . I got lucky on my Met's 1500 'B' engine , the bore was O.K. so I scrapped the pistons & Malcom had the rods re sized (the previous idiot ' Mechanic ' hadn't bothered) so my engine runs tops again thanx to Malcom's careful attention to the job .

I've seen *SO* many bad BMC pistons , I just automatically plan on a new set every overhaul .

Flat tops of course , I don't believe in high compresssion , 8.3:1 is fine by me .

[Jimmy]

Whaddaya mean "when Malcolm retires"???
We all know he's way too stubborn to do that.

[VWNate1]

Lord , I hope you're right Jimmy ! .

I'm P.O.'d as I now have a running Moto , tankful of gas , just sitting there and I dasn't ride it for fear of making this dang cold worse.....

Can I get a flu shot whilst suffering a head cold ? .

[Steve Simmons]

You guys need to start restoration threads on these big projects! Anyone who wants to do so, let me know and I can split your posts from this thread into their own dedicated thread.

[gorms68]

Steve is it possible to create a new main topic titled "Restoration Projects"?


Might be interesting to see how many projects are little group has going on at any one time.

[Steve Simmons]

Interesting idea. I like it. Let me think about that!

EDIT: It has been done.

[VWNate1]

So ?? how does it run now Tanny ? .

Suspicious minds want to know.........

[tannyo]

So ?? how does it run now Tanny ? .

Suspicious minds want to know.........

It runs fantastic! I took the car up Deer Creek today. In the past the shift from second to third was met with some very slow acceleration, not today. Nice torque all the way up. I had a very nice drive.

Going home I got on the 101 south with some very bad traffic. I finally got off and went down Burbank. What a mistake! There are three sets of lights at the 405 and they are not synchronized. Looks like two cars per lane got across each time there was a green light at each intersection. While I was on the 101 my tire picked up a bolt. When I got on Victory, I heard a tap, tap sound coming from the passenger side. Lucky for me it didn't ruin the tire, though it cost me $20.00 to get it fixed.

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Sorry I didn't get a photo of the bolt in the tire.

Right now I'm having a problem with the ignition switch. It turns on, but doesn't turn the starter over. I have to manually start the car with a wire on the starter or letting the car roll downhill a little and putting it in third gear. Malcolm is going to look at it this weekend. What do you think about not fixing it and installing a starter button. I hear all the cool kids have starter buttons in their cars.

[Steve Simmons]

What do you think about not fixing it and installing a starter button. I hear all the cool kids have starter buttons in their cars.

Everything old is new again.

[VWNate1]

If Malcom's going to have a look , just sit back and wait , it'll be fixed .

Most of the time it's just the solenoid getting older & wanting more current than the ign. switch can provide so I find that adding a simple cube relay , fixes the problem permanently .

Of course , some basic testing aforehand would be apropriate but since you can jumper it at the starter with a nickle or paperclip , a relay will prolly fix it .

[tannyo]

Malcom took a look at the problem today. Popped the hood, jiggled the wires to the starter relay, touched the relay and asked me to try to start the car. You know what? It worked. Malcom thinks the relay might be iffy, so it's going to be replaced.

[VWNate1]

Add a starter button but , instead of using a dash mounted one , put it up high on the toe board like a '49 Chevy .......... a '49 Ford button will work perfectly and look cool too .