BlownMGB-V8 Jim Blackwood 9406 Gunpowder Rd., Florence, KY 41042 (6468 posts) Registered: 10/23/2007 12:59PM Main British Car: 1971 MGB Blown,Injected,Intercooled Buick 340/AA80E/JagIRS |
New developments this weekend
Dan B and Steve D came up this weekend, Dan got in on Wednesday and Steve the next day. We had several objectives in mind but were pretty flexible about it so mainly what we ended up doing was working on Dan's TR7/1UZ swap and also got started on the Chump Car.
On that project, we rolled the '74.5 RD around and mostly finished stripping it down, pulling the windshield, the door innards, and cut out the driver's side floor in preparation for welding in the new one which looks like it'll fit just right. Some work with the welder will finish that up next time and tidying up the shed today I found we do have a new crossmember so we may replace the one that was cut by a PO for transmission removal. I picked up Curtis' yellow stuff brake pads for it, we haven't come up with a transmission yet. So the race car build has started. We will be looking at trying to run the car in one or more races per season and at this point we do have room for more people on the crew both as pit and drivers. We'll work out the details as we go along. Because Steve had just bought a new 3.4 crate motor for his GT, we have decided to use his 3.1 take-out. It will be a little tired but will be good enough for the opening season and we can look at possible upgrades after that. One thing we wanted to do was sit Dan's 1UZ in the MGB engine bay and see how it looks and we did that momentarily in between a few other things. We had it pretty well stripped down to a bare engine, although the motor mount castings were still attached to the block. These ended up sitting down on the frame rails and that limited us on how far we could go down, but hood clearance would be very close and I'm not at all certain it will fit under the hood without relocating the steering and cutting the crossmember. Of course we've done those things before. The headers would be a serious problem however. With the engine sitting high they are closer to the inner wings than the exhaust in the MG-Roadmaster. If it was lowered enough to clear the hood I think the exhaust ports would pretty near be against the sheet metal. Probably a consequence of having the exhaust valves to the outside of the piston centerlines. Somebody someday may find a way to do this swap, but from what we saw there are a lot better choices out there, and I think this is probably also what you would run into with the Ford Modular motors. I think the shock absorber will be in the way. Now with the Fast Cars front end and a little creativity, who knows? But it would be a serious challenge and I suspect, somewhat costly. Meanwhile, we had dropped the engine/suspension cradle out from under Dan's TR7 and were prepping the car for the 1UZ. The engine he had gotten had come out of I think, a 400LS and he had gotten a very nice package deal including a W58 5 speed, 16 lb flywheel, semi-metalic six puck sprung clutch, PP and a bellhousing and adapter to match the 1UZ, along with the engine computer and odds-n-ends all for about 7 bills. For the price he couldn't go wrong. The only snag was that the Aussies who had done this swap used the engine out of the Soarer, which in US speak is the 400SC and the SC has a rear sump pan. We looked at it and decided we had to have that pan so Friday morning while I was out at a business meeting Dan and Steve found a pan at a local yard. There is a whole story behind that but in the end Dan pulled off another coup, buying the complete SC engine for $250 which on leakdown testing later proved to be so tight that my tester never even came down off the "Set" indication, unlike the 400LS engine which barely got into the "Normal" range on the other end. Needless to say, we decided there was no need to pull the pan and headers and swap them. We pulled the power steering pump off but the alternator and the A/C compressor should fit in with no problems. It'll just need a shorter belt. Or maybe he could add PS. And those headers are much more compact than the 400LS headers, they look like they will fit without much trouble. A pair of those V-flange couplers that Graham posted the link to awhile back might be a good idea though. And the cherry on the top of this deal? His LT77 that came out of the car still appears to be in very good condition and depending on how high the demand is for this particular version ("C" suffix) it could sell for almost enough to cover the existing parts purchases. And then he still has a spare engine. Seriously, what's not to like about a 1UZ powered TR7? (I mean, if you're a Triumph guy. ;-) Oh, and I'm terribly sorry to all but with this new phone I seem to have lost all of the photos I took over the weekend. A shame really but there you have it. And I suppose if you want to say, "No photos, never happened" I've got no answer for that. No doubt you'll get some pictures next time when the engine goes in the TR for the first time, but as for the 1UZ in the MGB, as things stand right now I guess we are the only 3 who have ever seen that, and from the looks of it maybe the only 3 who ever will. Jim |
Citron Stephen DeGroat Lugoff, SC (367 posts) Registered: 10/23/2007 09:43PM Main British Car: 1970 MGBGT V6, 7004R, AC, matching trailer 3.1 liter |
Re: New developments this weekend
Had a great time at Jim's, got dirty and had fun doing it.
Drove my 4cyl BGT up and got 28.5mpg for 1127 miles at an average of 68.4 mph. Looking forward to the next work weekend, whenever tha thappens. Steve |
Dan B Dan Blackwood South Charleston, WV (1007 posts) Registered: 11/06/2007 01:55PM Main British Car: 1966 TR4A, 1980 TR7 Multiport EFI MegaSquirt on the TR4A. Lexus V8 pl |
Re: New developments this weekend
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Dan B Dan Blackwood South Charleston, WV (1007 posts) Registered: 11/06/2007 01:55PM Main British Car: 1966 TR4A, 1980 TR7 Multiport EFI MegaSquirt on the TR4A. Lexus V8 pl |
Re: New developments this weekend
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MGBV8 Carl Floyd Kingsport, TN (4511 posts) Registered: 10/23/2007 11:32PM Main British Car: 1979 MGB Buick 215 |
Re: New developments this weekend
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BlownMGB-V8 Jim Blackwood 9406 Gunpowder Rd., Florence, KY 41042 (6468 posts) Registered: 10/23/2007 12:59PM Main British Car: 1971 MGB Blown,Injected,Intercooled Buick 340/AA80E/JagIRS |
Re: New developments this weekend
One of my more favorite groups.
Carl, you are always welcome and have a permanent open invitation. The only reason I didn't tell anyone else we were getting together was because I didn't think anyone else was interested in coming. Sorry 'bout that. Dan is probably in charge of scheduling the next session since the chump car hasn't gone mainstream yet. So keep in touch with him for future developments. I think he has to get some parts together and selling his tranny probably comes first. Jim |
BlownMGB-V8 Jim Blackwood 9406 Gunpowder Rd., Florence, KY 41042 (6468 posts) Registered: 10/23/2007 12:59PM Main British Car: 1971 MGB Blown,Injected,Intercooled Buick 340/AA80E/JagIRS |
Re: New developments this weekend
So they say nothing is ever lost on the internet and I suppose that is starting to include phones! I found the pictures in the filing system of this android, I guess it's smarter than I am. So a few select shots:
Enjoying our handiwork First the filter mount had to come off Sorry about the blurriness, my android has no picture stabilizer to control my shaky hands Finally at least a halfway decent shot. Tight fir as you can see. Jim |
Phillip G Phillip Leonard Kansas City (395 posts) Registered: 02/03/2008 04:12PM Main British Car: 1992 MG RV8 Rover 3.5 |
Re: New developments this weekend
Jim,
Great looking project ! Looks like you've already made a lot of progress. What kind of racing do you plan for the V8 B model ? It ought to fly with the 4 cam V8 ! keep them on the track. phillip g |
BlownMGB-V8 Jim Blackwood 9406 Gunpowder Rd., Florence, KY 41042 (6468 posts) Registered: 10/23/2007 12:59PM Main British Car: 1971 MGB Blown,Injected,Intercooled Buick 340/AA80E/JagIRS |
Re: New developments this weekend
Phillip, we aren't actually going to use the 1UZ in the MG, that was just something to look at. Not enough room for the exhaust. We will start out with Steve's old tired 3.1L V6 and go from there. Probably start out in the Chump Car league.
Jim |
BlownMGB-V8 Jim Blackwood 9406 Gunpowder Rd., Florence, KY 41042 (6468 posts) Registered: 10/23/2007 12:59PM Main British Car: 1971 MGB Blown,Injected,Intercooled Buick 340/AA80E/JagIRS |
Re: New developments this weekend
Carl and Dan were up this weekend and although the main effort was directed at Dan's 1UZ/TR7 conversion (the engine is in and the mounts are made) Carl did take the time to do some work on the Chump Car project. Probably the next time we work on it I should start a thread in the racing forum and add a link to here.
Any way, I gotta say Carl is a real trooper, as he took on the second worst job that exists in an MGB, the dashboard. Well really I don't guess that's exactly right since the second worst job really is putting the dashboard back in and Carl was taking it out, but even so it is tough enough! and that means that we now have all of the strip down work done other than maybe a few very minor things like the steering column switches. The next time Steve comes up he plans to bring his 3.1L V6-60 and we can begin on assembly. Jim |
MGBV8 Carl Floyd Kingsport, TN (4511 posts) Registered: 10/23/2007 11:32PM Main British Car: 1979 MGB Buick 215 |
Re: New developments this weekend
Ha, I almost took the sawzall to it when Jim & Dan made a parts run. What a PITA! And, I don't mean people ingesting tasty animals.
I meant to remove the wiper motor, as well, but I kept getting distracted with the Triumph TR7 V8 project. That car is gonna be waaay cool. Oops. :) Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/15/2013 10:08AM by MGBV8. |