MG Sports Cars

engine swaps and other performance upgrades, plus "factory" and Costello V8s

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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

authors avatar
Re: 340 upgrade
Posted by: BlownMGB-V8
Date: November 17, 2017 01:44PM

IMG_0006.JPG

IMG_0007.JPG

IMG_0015.JPG

You can see here that there is at least 1/2" of allowable travel before the yoke hits the transmission.

IMG_0016.JPG

Continued:


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

authors avatar
Re: 340 upgrade
Posted by: BlownMGB-V8
Date: November 17, 2017 01:50PM

The slave is an Isuzu part available for $40 from Amazon.
Dorman CS360032 Clutch Slave Cylinder

IMG_0008.JPG

I used banjo fittings and put a hose on the bleeder that reaches the reservoir for recirculation bleeding, works a treat. I may have had to re-tap the bleeder port to a larger size, not sure on that. The push rod that came with it was exactly the right length. Bore is 3/4" and stroke is 2".

And that's all I have for you guys at the moment. Should have it completed today or tomorrow.

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

authors avatar
Re: 340 upgrade
Posted by: BlownMGB-V8
Date: April 20, 2018 11:55PM

So I've been testing and tuning and trying to use this much delayed spring as an excuse to get the car ready to drive. There was (and may still be) an oscillation at any idle below 1200rpm that I've spent countless hours trying to resolve yet it has resisted all attempts to date including extensive remapping of all injection and ignition parameters. The most recent datalogs show a steady idle and then it will drop into oscillation. The way it begins is that for no presently discernable reason the revs will climb then drop. George Van Horn has looked at the datalogs with me and we have drawn a complete blank on why that happens so at his suggestion I have reloaded the firmware. But I think I already tried that way back at the beginning so it may not change a thing. Tomorrow's test drive should tell.

But it is plenty drivable and the good news is that I've finally begun to use Autotune and get some usable results. When they first came out with that it was kinda buggy and didn't work very well. Mind you this was, what? 15 years ago maybe? I decided at that time that I could tune the VE map as well as I could the AFR table, and after getting used to that saw no real need to try it again. Anyway now it works pretty good. Turn it on for awhile, push the button to smooth the map a time or two and repeat, tweak the outlying areas and do it again. I'm happy with the results so far.

Finally ordered a new rear bumper. One of the old overiders was touching my new gas cap, couldn't have that. So I cut those off and installed a set of LED bolts for the tag lights. But man, that bare bumper is sure gonna uglify the car til the new one comes in what with the dents and scratches that were covered up, as if it wasn't already ugly enough anyway.

I did Glen's zerk fitting mod on my door hinges and have swapped out the passenger's side, which meant the door had to come apart of course and this was a good excuse to refinish the door panels, caps and pockets. I just finished up one side and have the other yet to go but it really spruces things up inside the car. That got me thinking about speakers so I ordered a new set of 6 x 9's. I used to have early Altec-Lansing Voice of the Highway 4A 6 x 9's mounted on the doors below the window cranks. I knew they were extremely good but did not realize quite how special until the long fruitless search for adequate replacements. But, maybe these will come close: Morel Maxima Ultra. They are supposed to be pretty good, we will see.

There's a local car show tomorrow. So, the first actual hand wash in many years in the morning and a stop by in the afternoon. With the top down. YAY!

Jim


Jim Stabe
Jim Stabe
San Diego, Ca
(829 posts)

Registered:
02/28/2009 10:01AM

Main British Car:
1966 MGB Roadster 350 LT1 Chevy

authors avatar
Re: 340 upgrade
Posted by: Jim Stabe
Date: April 21, 2018 02:16AM

Pictures coming I hope. Have you had a chance to really stomp on it yet?


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

authors avatar
Re: 340 upgrade
Posted by: BlownMGB-V8
Date: April 21, 2018 02:24AM

Not really hard but I've gotten into it enough to know the power is there. However it seems I may have been a little conservative on my valve spring pressure so won't be wringing it out until that is upgraded. Meantime I'll be keeping it under about 4500rpm. Not that this creates a problem you understand. It's a very frisky engine.

Photos... yeah, that'd be a good idea.

Jim


Jim Stabe
Jim Stabe
San Diego, Ca
(829 posts)

Registered:
02/28/2009 10:01AM

Main British Car:
1966 MGB Roadster 350 LT1 Chevy

authors avatar
Re: 340 upgrade
Posted by: Jim Stabe
Date: April 21, 2018 03:59PM

"Frisky" - Great description, I'll have to remember that


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

authors avatar
Re: 340 upgrade
Posted by: BlownMGB-V8
Date: April 21, 2018 10:31PM

I'm sure you've experienced much the same thing.

You know, I used to say that at 300hp you could do anything with the MGB that you wanted to. And that was true enough. Now it's just, well, more so.

I took it to a local car show today, that was fun. Didn't stay very long, just enough to wander through once or twice and answer a few questions but I had a good time. The idle oscillation though? Yeah I've still got that. Maybe it'll go away when I switch to MS3. I also have a plan in the works to remove the intercooler. Don't need it at my level of boost and it'll drop the inlet 3-4", vastly improving my sightlines. That will probably happen over the winter. Maybe I'll add the IC condenser to my A/C system and boost it's efficiency (once it's finished that is). Seems like a good choice since it is already installed. Anyway, if the oscillation is somehow related to induction volume that should change it for the better.

Jim



MG four six eight
Bill Jacobson
Wa state
(324 posts)

Registered:
10/23/2007 02:15AM

Main British Car:
73 MGB Buick 215, Eaton/GM supercharger

Re: 340 upgrade
Posted by: MG four six eight
Date: April 24, 2018 11:37PM

Jim,

What are you running for air/fuel ratio at idle? The reason I ask, is because I have to run a slightly richer fuel mixture at idle.
I tried and tried to get it to idle at 14.7 to 1 without it surging. Finally I resigned to just giving the motor what it wants and it idles nice and smooth in the 13.2 to 13.5 to 1 range. It also produces the highest vacuum reading at idle with a 13ish to 1 fuel mixture as well.
At cruising speeds I can get away with a leaner mixture no prob. However I'm thinking that the motor likes a slightly richer mixture at idle due to the parasitic draw from rotating the supercharger.

Bill


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

authors avatar
Re: 340 upgrade
Posted by: BlownMGB-V8
Date: April 25, 2018 10:15AM

Thanks Bill, I think just about any engine is going to need a little richer mixture at idle. In fact I'm not yet down to 14:1 anywhere on the map just yet. So that's not the problem.

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

authors avatar
Re: 340 upgrade
Posted by: BlownMGB-V8
Date: January 30, 2019 12:18PM

I thought an update might be a good idea. The car was running pretty good and I had it out on a couple of medium long runs mostly without incident. Mostly I say because at the very end of the trip back from Townsend, about 3 miles from home the engine went off-song and began running pig rich. I nursed it home and parked it. since then diagnostics have shown that leak-down is as perfect as it can ever get and fuel pressure is as expected. the problem appears to be in the MS controller.

That's it, I'm done. I've had just about enough of the MS amateur hour. I know a lot of you have had nothing but good luck with MS and I salute you, but it hasn't been so smooth for me. After more than two decades with these products, numerous failures and even abandonment issues what I want above all else is reliability. Something that they just don't have I'm afraid. Probably their top of the line fully assembled and sealed unit is better, but it also costs over $700. Sorry, count me out, there are now better options.

So I went out to the pick-n-pull. For $50 I bought a Gen III GM LS ECM with connectors and about 2 ft of wiring and it took all of 5 minutes to remove it. (The so-called 0411 ECM) For $32 I bought a reluctor ring from Summit to work with it. Pickups and sensors, connectors and such will be a couple hundred more, LS COP coils which I intended to add anyway will add another $150 or so. Some work will be required to adapt these pieces.

The 411 controller is of course at the top end in terms of hardware. Nothing to criticize. It has self-learning capability, COP, full sequential, fan control, fault tracking, and a host of other capabilities as you would expect from any major manufacturer's 2002 or later ECM. It can also be tuned using a laptop and flashed to save tunes. It appears to have been one of the first with all these capabilities and is considered probably the most desirable controller among hot rodders. Hopefully I've done my homework well enough. The reluctor is mounted with the small calibration hole under the pickup with #1 cylinder at TDC. A cam position sensor is required. Luckily I already have one in the engine. I hope to be back on the road by late spring. We will see.

Jim


rficalora
Rob Ficalora
Willis, TX
(2764 posts)

Registered:
10/24/2007 02:46PM

Main British Car:
'76 MGB w/CB front, Sebring rear, early metal dash Ford 302

authors avatar
Re: 340 upgrade
Posted by: rficalora
Date: January 30, 2019 06:25PM

Posts like this are what have caused me to hesitate installing the Edelbrock SPFI system I have. Most sensors are small and cheap enough to carry spares, but, while the ECU appears like an OEM unit from something, I've not found what .. so if/when it fails, I'd be stranded. It's just too easy to keep a carb'd car running. OEM systems are good. Not convinced any of the aftermarket one's are!


MG four six eight
Bill Jacobson
Wa state
(324 posts)

Registered:
10/23/2007 02:15AM

Main British Car:
73 MGB Buick 215, Eaton/GM supercharger

Re: 340 upgrade
Posted by: MG four six eight
Date: January 31, 2019 09:58AM

I would not be afraid to try it Rob. What kills electronics more then anything is heat and poor ground connections, which can create excessive circuit board heat.
Just make sure that you mount the ECU where it's protected from excessive heat (under the dash or on the kick panel is good) and that your wiring is sound. Then you should have years of trouble free service!
Bill


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

authors avatar
Re: 340 upgrade
Posted by: BlownMGB-V8
Date: January 31, 2019 11:48AM

Ordinarily I'd agree with Bill, but not when I've seen the number of failures I have and on different vehicles. Many people have been very fortunate with these. And you can't just put the failures down to bad connections or heat either. Bear in mind I'm a former USAF electronics technician among other things and I'd put the integrity of my installation up against anybody else's.

Despite that I've seen processor failures at irregular intervals going right back to the early days and no, the type of failure has not repeated, which is to say if they were caused externally the source was not the same. This and many other factors are the reasons why I referred to MS as "Amateur hour". Really they are, and at least until recently they would have told you that themselves. And I'm done relying on amateur designed and built electronics controllers for mission critical applications. Just done. All you have to do is take a close critical look at the controller used by a major manufacturer like GM to see a world of difference in design, construction and execution. By comparison the MS controller is, yes very much an amateur production. The evidence is clear in every aspect. The MS looks like something that was built for weekends on the drag strip, not to reliably run a vehicle for a quarter million miles or better. For instance, it's been nearly half a century since GM began using high reliability gas sealed connectors. What do we see on MS products? D-sub connectors used for computer interconnects. Not the thing you want in a hostile automotive environment. Now they've improved that on their top end products, but it should have been done that way to begin with, the technology was there, and I even told them at the time. And that's only scratching the surface.

No. When you can buy a proper controller that will more than do the job for $50 at any junkyard in the country today, why would any sensible person not take advantage of that?

Jim


MGBV8
Carl Floyd
Kingsport, TN
(4511 posts)

Registered:
10/23/2007 11:32PM

Main British Car:
1979 MGB Buick 215

authors avatar
Re: 340 upgrade
Posted by: MGBV8
Date: January 31, 2019 02:23PM

I felt the same way, Rob, when I installed a PerTronix module in my distributor 15 years ago. I knew if it failed, i would be stranded. I have kept a set of points in the trunk ever since waiting for that day. Still waiting.

Jim only has $50 in his GM 411 ECM, so having a know good, pre-programmed spare for trips is cheap peace of mind. :)


Jim Stabe
Jim Stabe
San Diego, Ca
(829 posts)

Registered:
02/28/2009 10:01AM

Main British Car:
1966 MGB Roadster 350 LT1 Chevy

authors avatar
Re: 340 upgrade
Posted by: Jim Stabe
Date: January 31, 2019 06:06PM

I agree with using the GM controller. I don't have the LS one but the original for the 95 LT1 is working fine. It is programmable and has many more functions than I needed so I just eliminated those wires. Make sure you pay attention to all the grounds as I smoked the first unit because of a missed ground in the diagnostic port. As long as mine works I probably won't upgrade to the LS unit but if it does take a dump I'll change it out and run 8 coils.



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

authors avatar
Re: 340 upgrade
Posted by: BlownMGB-V8
Date: February 06, 2019 08:53PM

I thought I'd take one more shot at adjusting the MS2. So I hooked it up on the bench and when I tried to access it, I got an error message saying the files didn't match and giving me a file name that looked very odd. So I tried every file I had for it on my tuning laptop to no avail. Last time this happened I had to reflash the processor so I set up to do that and the flash failed, which bricked the processor. So that's the end of the line. I could possibly install the MS3 processor but it turns out that is not straightforward at all and If I'm going through all that I may as well make it count for something and not have to just turn around later and do it all again. So I'll sell what's still good from the MS system and proceed with the GM 0411 install.

Currently I have the bench harness work partially done and have bits ordered to complete it. I have TunerPro RT installed on my tuning laptop, I have ordered the OBD2/USB adapter to work with PCM Hammer, which software I plan to download and install as soon as the harness is completed. After that I should be able to take a look under the hood. Wiring and mods to the 340 to make it work will progress as it warms up outside.

Since the 411 runs sequential and COP the changeover is going to be more than just splicing a few wires, but as always this presents an opportunity to make improvements also.

Jim


IaTR6
Dennis Costello
Central Iowa
(191 posts)

Registered:
12/29/2007 02:53PM

Main British Car:
'73 TR 6 '97 Explorer 5.0

Re: 340 upgrade
Posted by: IaTR6
Date: February 07, 2019 11:11AM

Aww, as a MSII user, I'm saddened to hear of the troubles Jim has had. I did use the
system partially due to cost, partially from the stories of tune ability, and I thought it a challenge (it has been).
I have had a series of issues unrelated to the MS that have prevented me from completing the tune to my
satisfaction, but the car runs well, and the final tuning is to set the VE table closer.
I will keep my eye on the GM conversion discussion, but won't make the change unless I have trouble.
Dennis


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

authors avatar
Re: 340 upgrade
Posted by: BlownMGB-V8
Date: February 07, 2019 05:05PM

To be fair I've run MS since the earliest days of MS-1 and you would expect some failures of hobby type equipment over that span of just a bit shy of 2 decades. But we've seen 3 MS2 processor failures in the last 3 years between 2 vehicles with no rhyme or reason. Overall I've had 4 or 5 processor failures in the entire time I've been using it. Discounting the last 3, one or two failures over that period wouldn't be good but could be accepted. It's just gotten to be a bit much. Admittedly at about $120 each the processors aren't all that expensive but the costs do add up. More importantly than that though is that I no longer feel comfortable taking the car on a long trip. I've just been extremely lucky that the last two times I've been able to limp the car home. The last time I was 3 miles from home after a long trip, stopped then restarted the car, brought it up to freeway speed and it suddenly went pig rich. I don't know what the cause of the failures was but typically communication is lost with the tuning laptop, after which any attempt to reflash results in a locked up chip that won't even start the car. So if for example I'd made the mistake of trying to reflash at the Dayton meet instead of just biting the bullet and driving it home, (and I almost did) I'd have been stranded almost 100 miles away. Not good. That time the car was running normally, I just suddenly lost communication with the laptop. I've been lucky.

The OBD2/USB cable came in today, it looks to be properly made. I've checked my connectors against the pin-out chart and stripped one down for the bench harness (only the blue connector is needed for that). Only waiting on a digikey order and an OBD2 connector from ebay to put the bench harness together.

On the car side, I'm giving some serious thought to pulling a couple of engine harnesses so I have wires and pins of the correct colors. The degree wheel is here but I need to install it, modify the flag on the cam sensor, install the 4-wire IAC on the inlet scoop and order several sensors. Plus do some research on 2/3 bar MAP sensors used with the GM controller and a couple of other fairly minor issues. With any luck those will not raise problems. If so I'll just have to come up with a workaround. (Bias the MAP signal and tweak the VE table for instance.)

It shouldn't be too hard to get it done before too much of the driving season slips away.

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

authors avatar
Re: 340 upgrade
Posted by: BlownMGB-V8
Date: March 11, 2019 03:33PM

Finally it looks like it should be warmer for awhile. I've been plugging away at what I could do in the house. Established comm with the '411 and used TunerPro to go in and remove a bunch of items that won't be needed, mostly having to do with transmission, cats, DBW, and a few other things that don't apply to the typical V8 MGB. Basically just getting rid of the clutter. There remains a somewhat daunting number of tuning parameters and I didn't want to be confused by extra entries that don't do anything. Will that work? Can I just delete the flags and parameters that way? Not to mention tables and settings? Who knows. I'll find out when I go to start it up. If it doesn't I can revert to an earlier file before I removed all that.

I've been getting my documentation together too, found pages that look to be out of a Helms shop manual for an '01 Camaro so that should be handy. And today I went out and found the pages from where I did my injector dead-time testing which should give me everything I need for those.

In TunerPro I was even able to go in and change the VIN# to the one from my MGB. There are 4 left over spaces at the end so I think I may put MGB and a space at the beginning, at least see if it will let me do that, then start putting in the injector info. I also want to see what one of the other '411s has for ignition settings and compare them since I'll be running the Silverado coil packs. (This OS and tune are for a Camaro)

I've been mentally preparing myself for the rewire job and think I'm just about ready. I don't know at this point how much of the MS harness I'll remove. Some but not all of it for sure. It's complicated by the fact that I still have the megashift harness in place. I hate to give up on the 8 speed but there's no way anybody will ever set that up to run with the '411 controller so I might as well give up on that and sell the parts. Good bit of money in that, if I can get 2/3 back I'll be doing extremely well. And, removing all those wires will help me add back some simplicity which the car badly needs at this point.

Jim


Jim Stabe
Jim Stabe
San Diego, Ca
(829 posts)

Registered:
02/28/2009 10:01AM

Main British Car:
1966 MGB Roadster 350 LT1 Chevy

authors avatar
Re: 340 upgrade
Posted by: Jim Stabe
Date: March 11, 2019 08:31PM

Do any of the new GM/Ford automatics (10 speed I believe and smaller package than the units they replace) have a standalone controller available for them? With the number of these units out there and both manufacturers offering a whole array of crate engines to the hot rod community somebody should be making a controller. Just a thought. Having some very deep lower gears and overdrive high gears should really make your car launch hard and give some great gas mileage.
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