The old boat

[ignatzcatz]

Ho hum, so I dropped the sump, again, from my leaky motor to see if anything has become displaced. But all was really where it should be. Gaskets, cork seals, there is not much else there. Get on line to ESM and order up a bunch more gaskets and stuff. This time I really went to town with the gasket goo. The last time I was in the States, I took a trip into a local Pep Boys and bought the Permatex range of sealants, I got the black, the red and the orange. When it comes to sealants that it the complete deal. And the end cork seals got a good old covering. I was'nt going to push my luck so I left the old dog overnight for all the jollop to harden or whatever it does and next day remembering to pour the oil back into the engine, fired it up again. This time, almost a suppressed cheer went up from yours truly. Check out my super clean sump. Yep, looks like I had finally cracked it. I shut the motor down after about 5 mins of running, crawled under the car just to give it a closer look and then to my intense dismay saw the drips of oil coming this time not from the sump but from between the gearbox bellhousing and engine block.
This I could not believe, but tough as it was I decided there and then that I had no alternative but to pull out the engine once again. I got stuck in and had the lump out by the evening.
I thought I would have a search on the web and try and find out some information as to why this leaking is happening. The majority of replies indicated that this was a design fault and bar getting a new crank, the opinion was that my crank had wear on the rear scroll section and the worn clearance was allowing seepage, there was nothing which could be done. I even spoke with a chap who sprints and hill climbs a 1430 engined Midget and apart from running all the breather pipes known to man, he has fitted his engine with what he termed a daiper or nappy under the rear main to absorb all the excess drips. He does however spin his motor up to 8 and beyond so it's not surprising really that it chucks a bit of lube out.
In my search for info I contacted also the folks at ESM to speak with them regarding their rear main conversion kit that they market. The workshop advised that this might be my only hope but also they said that they never use these kits and always specify a new crank. Of course the workshop is no longer allied to the parts section so maybe that is why. Anyway I had a chat with the parts guys who kindly e-mailed the fitting instructions for the kit so I could have a read through and see exactly what is involved. From this it did seem pretty straightforward and more importantly likely to be able to cure my little engines embarrassing incontinence. This little kit isn't what you'd call a bargain, but with no other option, got on the www and with some more gaskets etc, pushed another hundred into Messrs ESMs coffers.
In order to fit the kit properly, the engine had to be stripped right down which I can just about do in my sleep now, and the crank has to come out so you can get the little half round thingy at the back of the block out, and this bit is replaced by a alloy piece in the kit. The seal in the kit runs on the horizontal edge of the flywheel mounting flange so I needed to get this surface in the best condition I could. There were no chips or score marks on this flange thankfully so I got to with fine emery then wet and dry and finished with metal polish and got the surface really smooth. The other critical thing is the protrusion of the rear main cap from the back of the block which has to be 11mm. Mine was right on the money. Next up was the crank end float and this checked out at a gnats cock a doodle diddley less than 4 thou so that was a big tick and the rest of the job was just bolting it all up with a good layer of sealer on the critical faces.
It looked pretty good and all I can do now is just keep fingers crossed. OK I re-assembled the engine today, Sunday, stopping of course to see Casey take the win, and how about Cal on the front row, he's gotta be up for a podium this year. Unfortunately I am unable to re-fit the sump because my oil temp gauge is broken or rather the fitting has broken and it is with Speedy Cables in Wales being repaired. The fitting is in the sump so it's full stop until I get that back. In the meantime I'm going to try and finish the interior and OMG I still hav'nt sprayed the bleedin doors yet. Hey manana, manana it's a holiday![frame][/frame]Yes, it's without the thrust bearings[frame][/frame]Out again[frame][/frame]Crap all over my bench again[frame][/frame]Strapped down tight on the workman, workman where?[frame][/frame]The kit[frame][/frame]Still shakin' from all the polishin'[frame][/frame]That's it fitted

[chrisryder]

Looks like that should do the trick!

I really hope it does the job! If that doesn't cure it, the problem MUST be breathing.

They do say that if an a-series doesn't leak, it's run out of oil

[Roni]

One other thing to closely look at might be this -[frame][/frame]
It is the plug at the end of the block oil gallery (in the photo it shows the front one). This was an alloy type and had been fitted slightly crooked. I noticed a slight oil weep, from the 4 o'clock position, while getting the engine ready for painting. Fortunately it never was run like this. It has since been replaced with a brass cup oil seal.

[ignatzcatz]

Jeeez mate, yer got me going for a minute then. I really didn't want to pull the engine apart Again. But I still had the old gasket for the back of the block which was dry although it hadn't been on there for long, I can recall however these two little guys were dry and a bit rusty cos I remember cleaning them out.
I'm still waiting for the pesky oil temp gauge to come back then it's sump on and wait for the flood! Cheers.

[ignatzcatz]

Now yesterday was sunny down South and I know this because seeing that rare gleam made me rush out fire up the old compressor and blast some paint on my doors. Job done at last. This was the last bit of the mog left to be painted, I had painted the shuts some time earlier, and it was good to have it all finished. Actually I have painted the whole beast either outside on my drive or behind my garage which is a pathway down to the shed which is just 3 foot wide. And the tool of choice for my handiwork is a small gravity feed detail spraygun I bought from Harbour Freight which is a Stateside chain of budget tools shops that stock loads of good stuff. Google it, you'll wish they were over here. Anyway this gun cost me a whole $9.99 about six and a half quid but it's the biz. A pal of mine says a monkey can spray paint the difference is the preparation.
Anyway mine isn't concours by a long chalk, but it's smooth and it's shiny and there's no runs, honest, so that's good enough for me. Whilst I wait for my oil temp gauge to come back from Speedy Cables in Wales, boyo, I'm cracking on and hope to have the interior all finished soon. Sunglasses on, here's my doors . . .[frame][/frame]The floor is getting a bit crowded[frame][/frame]I'll leave them to harden a bit before I screw on the window framework[frame][/frame]The gun, I only bought it for the purple anodising

[ignatzcatz]

I phoned Speedy Cables this morning and found out that my oil temp gauge has been repaired and is now on its way back to me.It's only cost 65 quid to have it repaired, blimey, I could have bought a new one for a tenner more, I should have bought a new one for a tenner more! Anyway at last I can run up the engine and hope that all my oil leak woes are over, and they better be. It has certainly been an expensive episode, the last expense was replacing all the head studs, nuts and washers because one thread got that spongey feel when I was torquing them down. I thought it best to junk all the old studs cos if one is iffy then the others can't be too good either. So the engine is back in the car and all bolted up and that is really about all I have done in May and this bit of June although I did do some work on the interior. I had earlier ripped out all the old headlining which was pretty manky and I have to admit, I copied the headling of a '48 Chrysler Town and Country woodie I saw in the States last January. The owner had finished the inside roof in tongue and groove panelling and I reckon it looked good. So it's a copy but it came out OK and actually was cheaper than a factory headlining. I have been fitting stereo speakers in and interior lights and re-welded the petrol filler pipe so it tracks down a bit tighter into the boot area than before. Also I re-fitted the rear seat squab and re-covered the back of it and welded on extensions where the seat back comes to rest. The next little job is to make up some floor panels for the boot floor. Oh and the other little jobbie done was to plug the existing rear door hinge holes with wood dowels, all of them, and re-drill the holes to get the doors to fit a bit better. And they do fit a whole lot better now. Just a few piccies . . .[frame][/frame]Check out the big breather on the rocker box, that should help.[frame][/frame]That's tight into that panel now[frame][/frame]Those screws will be covered by a 2" strip of beige leather[frame][/frame]It's more like a boat every day, should float pretty good though.

[ignatzcatz]

Last post was mid June but I've been a bit crook and ended up in hospital, again, at the end of June. Most of July has been spent getting me all sorted and I'm just about up and running now. That's the good news, the bad news is my motor unfortunately still leaks oil. All the work, all the expense, down the toilet. So I have decided that it is time for a new engine; the old 'A' series which even with its headwork, big carb and headers would be pushing it to relieve itself of anything near to 70b.h.p., and would have a distinct hard job to pull the skin of the proverbial rice pudding, so that's down the tip along with it's gearbox and I have purchased a MOT failure MGB GT and I shall strip this old dog of its engine and gearbox as quickly as possible and start the installation of same into the old boat. The result hopefully will be lots of power and torque and nil leaks.[frame][/frame]Not a pretty sight[frame][/frame]This old dog has been sitting outside for nearly a year so it's all good and rusted up. I shall rebuild the motor after I have the actual installation all nailed down, which hopefully will be just rings a hone job and throw in a few bearings - hopefully.

[chrisryder]

Did you seriously take the old engine to the tip?

I'm sure someone on here could have put up with a few leaks! Myself included!

[DaisyMayFozz]

go and get the engine back and make some money or offer it for free! 1275 engines ain't easy to come by these days and you could make someone else happy and you possibly some wonga!

[les]

Some folk don't want the hassle of advertising or people poking around in their garage!
However it might just have been a phrase he used.

[DaisyMayFozz]

could indeed be a phrase and yes I probably couldn't be bothered with advertising.

Looking forward to seeing how the b engine fits in.

[ignatzcatz]

Actually, with all the grief this lump has given me I was seriously thinking about throwing it in the back of the MG and good ridance to it. But I have an old ex cycle racing pal who now races a frogeye sprite with a 1420 cc A series and as he blows these old motors up with remarkable regularity (because they are bored so large, they crack between cyclinders 2 and 3) he can make sure this lump of old iron meets a suitable end being unmercifully thrashed around one of the famous British circuits.
However, I do still have the 5 speed Toyota tranny with a rather rare Australian Dellow A series bellhousing which I might just put up for grabs. Anyway I have now completely stripped the MGB, Jeez it was rusty and there were slugs, snails, centipedes, dead mice, billions of wood lice and even more spiders, all living in this old dog, that's apart from the mice of course. All in all quite bloody revolting, but there all gone now and all that's left is a few B parts for sale and one big muscly motor and an equally big, actually its ginormous, gearbox with 3rd and 4th overdrive.
I wonder what 100mph plus is like in an old traveller?

[les]

You did more than think, you said you had!! However nice to know it's not now being melted down!

[ignatzcatz]

One week on and the MGB is all stripped out. I've thrown a tape measure over the B motor and although it is tight, it will fit, however I will need a very thin rad and a supplementary electric fan so there will be a bit of work there and the transmission crossmember will definitely need a short back and sides and maybe a bit of chassis welding too. Once the motor is all nicely located in the engine bay, I will pull it out for a rebuild which hopefully wont be too involved.[frame][/frame]The engine isnt that big but the trans is huge especially with the overdrive. The gear lever looks like it'll be in the back seat.[frame][/frame]"Oh my God! look what that dreadful man has left on his drive, you'd think the gypsies have moved in"[frame][/frame]One rusty dog picked clean and on it's way to the scrappie.

[davidmiles]

recycling at its best, you should get a Green Medal.

[Alex'n'Ane]

Have you seen the thread fitting one on the mmo forum? He too fitted one with just a very thin, slightly bent actually iirc radiator. Best of luck with this conversion! Keep us updated

[ignatzcatz]

If that's the one with the blue saloon on rostyles, then yes, in fact his positive work and comments swung me from a crossflow Ford to the B series. Plus of course fitting the MG lump seems to keep it somewhat in the family and does'nt put the car immeadiately into the hot rod classification. Also regarding resale values this must be better than stuffing something Japanese or Italian up front.
I have a Peugeot 205 GTI aluminium rad that is both small and thin plus I have in the spares department the electric fans from a diesel Sierra estate and although I will have to fit a header tank I would imagine this pair should do the deed when it comes to cooling.
Today it took the whole afternoon to clean the engine, it was gross, but now I will be able to bolt it up to the trans and lower them in for the first trial fit. The fun begins.

[ignatzcatz]

It has taken a few days to get things sorted but the B series engine is now happily located into the Old Boat. Although I had previous information to suggest that the engine and box had to be elevated somewhat, in fact the opposite turned out to be the actual case. It entailed chopping the existing A series engine mount towers about 1 and one half inches, cutting an 180mm by 80mm access hole into the top of the gearbox bellhousing to allow the cross shaft of the steering rack sufficient clearance and making up a crossmember for the gearbox. I did think someone said this was a bolt in job, oh well.
So next up is to fabricate a new front crossmember as the old one had to be chopped out due to interference of the lower pulley, then weld up a new propshaft, check the positioning of the gearlever and it's relationship to the handbrake then modify the floor panel.
I might get the front crossmember done before Friday because it's The Beaulieu Autojumble this weekend and that's where I'll be taking in loads of dosh, I hope, on my friends stand.[frame][/frame]Good clearance here thanks to large hammer and shaved block[frame][/frame]Ugly gearbox crossmember in situ[frame][/frame]Revised engine mount towers[frame][/frame]These three and it's a bolt in job

[ignatzcatz]

I would'nt say I've nearly finished but I have got a fair old way down the road to completion. The engine and box has been in and out a few more times and there is now a fitting for the MGB master cylinder onto the gearbox crossmember, I have been trying to keep as much stuff in the BL house as poss, and there is a small hard line to the B slave cyclinder so that is the clutch all taken care of. The propshaft looked like it might be something of a problem. The old set-up was from a Toyota trans to a Marina back axle so I didn't think there could be anything here that could be retained. However, upon further assembly I found that the rearmost Marina U/J flange was a perfect fit onto the back section of the B prop and at the front where there is a spline onto an additional U/J because of the overdrive unit all I needed to do was lengthen the B prop by 10 and a half inches. The B prop is 2" OD against the 2 and three quarters for the Marina one so I obtained some 2mm wall tubing and then machined off both ends of the prop, installed both ends into the new 2" tubing which measured 32" in total and then welded it all up keeping it as true as I could. When the motor is up and running I will get the car in gear on axle stands and then see how the balance for the prop turns out. I really can't see it being much out but one thing does puzzle me and that is one of the U/J end plugs was cast with fairly large internal offset which just cannot help the balance. However we will have to see how things are later on, for the moment all I know is that I have saved myself about 250 quid on a custom made prop.
The next big headache on the agenda was to be the radiator. Some while back I had a wicked little 205 GTI Peugeot with a turbo technics conversion. A very fast little beastie but it did get hot, so I had a big aluminium radiator made for it which helped the problem. Of course the old rad went into the spares department up in the garage rafters and as I remembered it being rather on the thin side, hoped it be OK for the old boat. A trial fitting was looking just about alright but the B water pump snout was touching the rad core. I didn't want to bugger around with the front panel moving it forward and such so I chopped about a half inch off the snout of the water pump, then I very gently bent the rad in the center, then equally gently gave the contact area of the rad a few taps with the soft hammer and all this lot gave me approx 1" of clearance which I am hoping should be sufficient. Also I fitted an oil cooler (standard on the B's) immeadiately in front of the rad on a couple of little brackets. To complete the cooling I have a header tank which I bought at Beaulieu (£1 - bargain) which I have to fit plus run all the hoses which shouldn't be a problem.
Whilst having a poke around the stalls at Beaulieu I found a set of headers ie tubular exhaust manifold for a MGB. These cost a fairish £20 and was something I really wanted as the factory cast manifold although being an excellent flowing design, exited about 4" above the floor of the engine compartment which would not have allowed me enough room to run the pipes out to underside. So I severely chopped these up keeping only the manifold flanges really and some straight sections and welded up three individual 1 and five eighths pipes which flow back through the hole on the base of the firewall. I am just in the process of making a three into one section then it has to bend about 30 degrees to mate up with the underside muffler and pipework.
So next week's work will be finish the exhaust then start on modifying the interior metal work panel which fits over the gearbox, and as my gearbox has a dirty great overdrive unit hanging off the back of it, it will take a fair bit of panel bashing.
Oh and one other thing re the cooling department is the fitting of the electric fan which is a diesel Mondeo unit to the nearside rear of the rad. No probs here because there is lots of room.
Not long now.[frame][/frame]New front for pulley clearance[frame][/frame]'B' master cylinder in situ on gearbox crossmember[frame][/frame]With adjustable bracket on clutch pedal[frame][/frame]I didn't want to weld on the already painted front panel so the oil cooler brackets are attached with stainless dome cap screws. It looks OK[frame][/frame]This should keep things cool[frame][/frame]Like a big aluminium slug

[ignatzcatz]

The exhaust manifold pipework is now finished plus the three into one collector is all done. I have just got to make up a small connecting piece to the existing tailpipe which is 1" and a half so should be big enough. I was thinking of running 2" pipe all the way out the back but I am going to see what sort of noise comes out of the old pipe. There is only one silencer and I am hoping this will be quiet enough. This will be purely trial and error and with my luck usually error will be the outcome. One plus point is that on re-installing the remote gearlever housing, whilst fully expecting it to foul the handbrake lever, fortuitously it was well clear, so no mods will be needed for the handbrake and the lever is exactly where your hand would fall.
Won't be doing much tomorrow as I will be riding the Grid Iron 100 which is a bike ride in and around the New Forest which takes in as many cattle grids as the organisers can find. Oh and the 100 is kilometers not miles thankfully but after 62 English miles I will definitely need a big Sunday roast.
A few pics, the exhaust looks a bit scabby as I had to cut and shut it a bit, but I am going to wrap the pipes in that heat shield material stuff which you can buy from Amazon of all places.[frame][/frame]Not much of the old B manifold left[frame][/frame]3 into 1 collector, which started life as a bit of Buell (motorcycle)[frame][/frame]The prop awaiting paint[frame][/frame]The last bit to be done