MG Sports Cars

I have a Rover 3.9 V8 and as of last week I dropped the clutch or HTOB in my MGB that I had planned to place the V8 into, so the time table for the change has moved up I guess. I so some of you guys in Townsand, TN at the V6/V8 meet. I like my T shirt I picked up. I was the guy taking the pics of some very nice cars. Well I said then that I would have some dumb questions so here is my first installment.

1. I have seen that I will need a lighter flywheel and the other day a guy on ebay had one for $280.00 but I did not notice if it was balanced are not. I have a what looks new 63-64 buick flywheel that I could have cut down but I'm not sure where are how much it would cost. I guess the question is which would be best and cost the lesser amount?

2. I'm going to need a water pump, I'm not going to run air so what will give me the most room up front for a fan & rad. Also standing in front of the car which way does the water pump turn clock wise are counter clock?

3. I have a chevy T5 trans that is from a V8 car so what clutch set should I be looking at?

4. Motor mounts buy make? Glen Trowery loqwer mounts?

5. I want to change the cam & lifters, not trying to make a race car but maybe get a little more out of the 3.9 than stock. I have some older gentlemen here in Spartanburg that kind of look down the nose at my little green car, I would like to change that.

6. I see most of the carbs are the Edelbrock 1404, manual chock and that's what I was thing as I have a buick 4barrel intake.

Sorry about the long questions but as I said timeing has moved and we picked up a new house last week and I am loseing my shop?

Regards
Phil Quinn/Flipsmg

Phil, first the bad news, if your flywheel is a '64 it won't fit ('63 will). In '64 Buick went to the 300 and a larger crank flange. If it fits: Steel can be safely lightened to about 20lbs but get a machinist who has done it before. BOPR's are normally internally balanced, your machininist can help with this.

Water pump will turn clockwise unless it is the newer serpentine setup.

Standard 70's era 10.4" clutch and PP will be fine. Diaphraghm style PP and pake sure the clutch splines match the T5

Maybe someone else can help with your other issues.

JB

1. Ted Schumacher and D&D both have lightened flywheels for sale.
[www.tsimportedautomotive.com]
[www.aluminumv8.com]

2. A Chev V6 short nose waterpump will give you the most clearance.

5. Talk to Ted (link above) or Woody at [www.thewedgeshop.com]

Regards,

Martin
1980 TR7V8

If you talk to any of these companies, you might do me a big favor and mention that they ought to consider advertising on BritishV8. Server bills are coming around again...




Re: #6 The 1404 will work right out of the box and is relatively cheap and easy to re-jet for better performance. Its incredible popularity around here means most of us can give you tuning advice. (My advice: a wide band oxygen sensor and air-fuel gauge takes most of the mystery out of carb tuning.)

The 1404 is technically bigger than we need for 3.5/3.9L engines, but that doesn't seem to give anyone a problem.

I'm not the only one around here who has removed my choke butterflies and never missed them - the accelerator pump gives me the extra richening I need for starting. These engines seem to warm up very quickly.

The biggest downside I see for the 1404 is it's not a very good carb for high-g cornering. If you're planning to get serious about auto-crossing or track days, you might possibly prefer a Holley.

I live north of "the mile high city", and I find when I take roadtrips eastward that I certainly need to change needles somewhere before Kansas City on account of altitude. A nice feature of the Edelbrock carb is that doing so only takes a few minutes and fuel is never spilled in the process.

Quote:

The biggest downside I see for the 1404 is it's not a very good carb for high-g cornering...

Could that be a function of too much fuel pump pressure? - sometimes I think 3-4psi is plenty for these carbs yet published allowable pressure is 6-7psi - I've had flooding issues with that kind of pressure.

My Carter manual says fuel pressure at idle should not exceed 6psi, and if you have an adjustable regulator to set it at 5.5psi.

I set my double pumper Holley on my Camaro at 7psi.