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MrNick
Nickolas Beckius
Colorado Springs, CO
(30 posts)

Registered:
11/10/2009 03:14PM

Main British Car:
1975 MGB 4.6L Rover V8

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1975 MGB 4.6L Rover V8
Posted by: MrNick
Date: May 23, 2011 04:13PM

Here she is when I brought her home:
MGB_01.jpg
That picture is WAAAAY more flattering than the car really was. I pulled it from basically a field up in the mountains. It had no top and the only protection it was offered was the 4' wall is was parked next to and a "car cover" that really covered very little due to the massive rips in it. The cylinder head was in the trunk and it was apparent that some mountain critters had shacked up in it for a while.

It had a fairly unknown history, I spotted it on Craigslist a few times, but the ad had no pictures. The lady selling it kept dropping the price and finally I called her and offered $500, depending on how it looked when I went to see it. The car was her sisters who had suddenly died of cancer and she inherited the car, but knew nothing about it.

I went up and looked at it and knew it was the one when I saw it. It had some rust down low and some dents and such, but most of it was there and I just knew she was the one. A week later I hauled it out on a trailer.

A few hundred dollars later and I re-installed the head, gave it a top, touched up the paint via rattle-can and addressed some other issues. She didn't look too bad.
MGB_02.jpg

Most people probably would've been happy with that, but not me. I was raised a gear-head and I had done my research. These things could hold a V8. Mental images of a Cobra-killer came to mind (okay, maybe not gonna happen, but it was a nice thought) so I set out to find the parts.
MGB_03.jpg
A 1997 4.6L Rover engine for $300, a birthday present from my father who happens to have ties with local salvage yards and can get me great deals. I was looking for a 3.9L or 4.0L, being the most common in salvage yards. This one blew me away. Soon I also acquire a T5 WC from 1991Camaro and the bellhousing.
MGB_04.jpg
It's just about ready to start fitting it in. Too bad those Rover exhaust pipes won't work, they look great.
MGB_05.jpg
Goodbye little 4 cyl. I'll vaguely miss your putter.... but probably not.
MGB_06.jpg
MGB_07.jpg
Time to start fitting in the new drivetrain!
MGB_08.jpg
Doesn't look too bad there. Unfortunately due to life I had to move and lost a garage to work out of. Not sure when I'll be able to continue working on her. Completely ruined my plans for cruising around in her over the summer, but that is life I suppose.

Stay Tuned!

tumblr_lqvrf2DHxW1qa5p5i.jpg

4.5 years later... wow, that was a long wait for an update. Moved a few times, bought a house, had a couple more kids. Life has been crazy and it doesn't seem like it's been that long, but it has. The whole time I've been hauling my little MG around with me. Attended British V8 2014 since it was held in my town and very much enjoyed seeing the cars.

Fast forward to last week and my wife gave me a large gift of cash and said "I'm tired of hearing you bitch about missing your MG. Get it running again."

So I dragged it out from under the tarp and pushed it in front of the garage. Pulled the engine/trans that I just put into it for storage, nothing was hooked up and it was missing clutch components. I bought a crap ton of parts but having a hard time finding a set of RV8 headers. Dan at D&D said he's not sure when he will have some in again when I ordered some other stuff from him.

Should be updating a lot more often now that parts will be rolling in again.

PARTS!
014 - MGB_parts.jpg

I also got a Megasquirt 3 kit and a 3.9L intake from the junkyard (better clearance because it's curved unlike the 4.6L flat top). I also happened upon an old chrome bumper MGB in the junk yard that still had the bumpers attached. They were a little beat up, but I grabbed them anyways. If nothing else thay'll serve as inexpensive mock-ups to modify the body.

So, lets talk EFI. I got the Megasquirt 3 in order to keep the 4.6L GEMS EFI sequential injection. Unfortunately the GEMS ECU has some security stuff in it that disables the engine if you try and swap it. You can get the chip remapped to remove this, but it costs an insane amount. For the same price I could get the MS3 kit, which as a nerdy do-it-yourself kind of guy, appealed more to me.

Also I'm a cheap @#$%&.

With this in mind I want to keep as much of the original EFI stuff as possible, most notably including the trigger sensor located out of the way on the flywheel. You can find manual P38 4.0L Range Rovers (4.6 HSE was automatic only) to scavenge a flywheel, but they are very rare and made of pure unobtanium. So I finally broke down and got a new flywheel (seen in the above pic) and then took it down to the local machine shop to have them mill an extra 3/8" out of the inside dish then attach the trigger wheel in the same location. I also had them drill a hole for the locating pin rather than cutting it off of the crankshaft. The whole thing took a bit of explaining but the end result was perfect.
015 - MGB_Flywheelmod.jpg

Now to strip the engine and engine bay of all the excess wiring and work on fitment.



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 01/30/2016 05:19PM by MrNick.


Moderator
Curtis Jacobson
Portland Oregon
(4576 posts)

Registered:
10/12/2007 02:16AM

Main British Car:
71 MGBGT, Buick 215

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Re: 1975 MGB 4.6L Rover V8
Posted by: Moderator
Date: August 27, 2016 12:14PM

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