MG Sports Cars

Go ahead and give Brian McCollough a call, I think he'll be able to tell you if this all will hook up correctly. That price on a T5 with everything is almost too good to pass up and the only thing that might be in question is the flywheel which can be rebalanced if necessary so I'd still go for it. I forgot what year your engine was, but I think it would work fine with the Camaro flywheel, but check with Brian to make sure, it's his business to know that sort of stuff.
The early Camaro bell housing isn't really necessary for a MGB swap, but for a Midget where the transmission has to be mounted straight up and down to clear the tunnel the best it's the only way to go because the mounting holes are already cast in just need to be drilled and tapped and the tranny can be "clocked" straight up. This photo shows the three types of housings and why the early Camaro unit is the best for a Midget conversion.

Thanks again Bill.I hoping to get that "tranny package" in the next day or two.The guys really hard to get a hold of.
I`ll keep you posted on my progress.

Hi Mike,

Hope your not saying I am hard to get in touch with. I am hyperactive about checking emails and keep one eye on the telephone when I am in the shop. Sometimes its strapped to my hip! :-)

I check the boards often as well but don't always post. We offer just about all a person could use for the B conversions and most of it crosses over to the other types of conversions as well.

-BMC.

Brian, I'm sure he's refering to the guy who has the T5 package not you. I hope you don't mind me refering people to you on some of these V6 questions, I certainly don't have all the answers as to what interchanges and what doesn't.

Brian I was referring to the guy I`m getting the tranny from.
I don`t think we have talked yet.
Do you "deal" with the midget much?

Bill ,You brushed on how you made your motor mounts on you page .
Would you mind going into that a bit more?

When I made the motor mounts for the engine I decided to make a mount that would bolt onto the chassis in the same location the original mounts did. I first cut two plates for the block sides from 1/4" steel stock, drilled them to the correct pattern and then bolted them on. Next I selected a rubber motor mount that was both reasonably compact and easily available at the local auto parts store should I ever have to replace one, in my case I chose the mount from a Chevy pickup from the late 60s or early 70s. I positioned that mount in line with the block plates and cut another 1/4" plate that would bolt on to the original mounting bolts and then the Chevy mount would bolt to that. Then I made top plates for the mounts and finally used steel tubing to bridge the gap between the top plates on the mounts and the block plates, just tacking those in place with the MIG then removing the mounts totally for final welding. The black and white photo is of the chassis adaptor plate with the Chevy mount in place and the color shot shows a portion of the steel tube bridging between the block and the motor mount.

Ok, I think I got that. Thank you. I would really like to start working on getting the motor in but as of now I still haven`t got my tranny so I`m kind of at a stand still with that.
I did "beef up " the trunk floor behind the gas tank With a piece of 1/4" x 6'' x 41'' long plate steel. I then took the rear leaf spring mounts off and cut a 4'' wide piece to strengthen everything up there as well (7"long).
The idea of the long strip is to protect the gas tank in case of a rear end collision and just to firm things up a bit and maybe help traction.
I did find that my lower door hinge post is rotted out so I guess I`ll have to do some thinking on how to get to that taken care of.

Mike, there's a pretty good photo section on the repair of a midget lower door post area on the Eclectic Motorworks web site. [www.eclecticmotorworks.com] and [www.eclecticmotorworks.com] It doesn't show the actual hinge area replaced, but at least you can get an idea of how to open the panels to gain access then weld in the repair section for the hinge and finish up with the outer skin as they did. It's not a difficult repair but I'd suggest building a jig if possible to locate the hinge so when you cut away the old area you can accurately position the new metal before welding.

Bill, Do you think I can make up motor mounts and get the motor "fitted" in the car without the tranny and bell housing?I just would like to get something done while I have the time.(though I don`t have the trans and bell housing yet)
Also how long are 1/4" the plates you made that are bolted on the car?

Mike, I really don't think you could do the front mounts without the transmission in place. The angle that the engine sets at is so important and without the trans in place you would have a hard time determining the height in the rear so getting the front height right would be almost impossible. I'm afraid you really should wait until you have the entire package together before making mounts. The length of the front mount plates would really depend on exactly where you finally set the engine for crank pully clearance and what type of rubber mount you use.
I'm not sure how much experience you have with engine swaps, but the drive line angles are so important because you need to make sure the installed angle of the engine and transmission match the angle of the pinion flange on the rear axle in order for the drive shaft to be properly "phased" and prevent undue vibration. Checking the rear axle angle is something that you can do and should do now. All you need is a magnetic angle gauge which you can place on the pinion flange. You will probaby find that the pinion is angled upwards around 3 to 5 degrees from horizontal. Write that down somewhere, when you get the new rear axle built up you'll have to match that angle at the pinion before you weld on the spring perches. That's the same angle you want to install your engine trans package, I usually measure that from the end of the transmission output shaft if I have room for the gauge there. You may want to postion the new engine at a slightly differnent angle, that's ok as long as it matches the rear pinion angle, so don't finish weld the rear spring perches until you get the engine permanently mounted and can verify the angles.

Got my trans yesterday.Going to drill the bell housing today and maybe try and get the motor sitting in the engine compartment.Wish me luck!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/26/2009 10:39AM by mlieb.

Hears a pitcher after cutting things away for the trans.I cut over to the other brace that runs length ways.
I should have plenty of room now but I still feel funny about messing with that support.

Mike, you either need to use a flash or get some more light on the car when you take photos. My old eyes aren't that good anymore. It appears that you have it right as far as I can tell. You're right, there's no need to cut into the main frame members on either side of the trans, only trim out the center of the crossmember where the trans mount is and that's only to move it back 2". When you get the trans bolted to the engine and set in place you'll begin to see where there are extra bits on the trans case that can be trimmed off to increase clearance on the sides and keep the tunnel as narrow as possible for more leg room. Where the speedo comes out I made a bit of a metal "bubble" to cover that and made that panel removable so that I could get into the cable connection for maintenance and to hook it up.

Sorry about that Bill.Hears another pitcher of that.
Also hears what I came up with for the tranny mount.I started with a solid piece of aluminum bar stock. Drilled it and cut the "wedge" out on my band saw.The stock was just a tad small so I made a type of angled washer to fill things in.I think I may head down to the local steel mart a buy a piece wide enough and do it over so its right though

Mike, looks good. If you add a section of 2" square tubing just behind the original crossmember you will have plenty of strength in that area. Run it as wide as the ends of the main frame rails and weld it to the existing crossmember and the floor pan and it'll be fine. I can still jack my car up using the original jack points in the ends of the crossmember without any flex. Hang the rear mount from the new crossmember and things fit fine.

Thanks Bill,
I picked up my 2" tubing today as well as the bell housing,Bolted everything together and stared to do a mock up of the engine in the car.Wow not a lot of room is there? The tranny slave cylinder bracket hits on the one side and the starter is hitting the other. I know you said you had to do a bit of pounding with the hammer on the starter side But would you mind repeating to me what you had to do to the other side to make everything work.
Ive been looking at the thread on this whole slave cylinder thing and it gets a bit confusing.This guys got a new style camaro bell housing going into a mgb.That guys got a s-10 bell housing going into ...
I have an old style camaro bell housing.that is bolted on a 2.8 out of a 85 S-10 and that is bolted on a T-5 that is also from a camaro.The whole thing is going into a Midget.(I know you know all this bill just thought I`d let everyone know) I just want to know how to get the job done for my situation.What type of slave cylinder,How to mount it ,ect

Still having a great time doing this project. I have a 70 mustang that I spent almost 10 years restoring that was a real labor of love as well.But as I tell my wife "Its good therapy"
Thanks again for all the help.I would be lost without it !





Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 08/29/2009 11:04AM by mlieb.

Mike, there's not much room for the clutch on a Midget installation. The S10 housing mounts the slave cylinder to the rear which would really be in serious clearance issue with the trans tunnel. You need to either use an HTOB (see Brian for that) or do as I did and modify your clutch release fork and mount a slave cylinder basically in the area of the left side starter ear on the bell housing. It's all described in the information on my car in the photo section. [www.britishv8.org]
I really didn't get a good photo of those parts when I was building the car, this is about the best I have, the slave cylinder isn't shown, just the mounting bracket. The bracket and slave are from a Spifire or 1500 series Midget.

That was a great help bill. Had a time cutting that 3/8 thick plate for the bell housing but we got it done.
Do you think any other slave cylinder would work.It would just be nice to be able to go to a parts store and find one.Around where I live finding anything for an mg is quite a task.
I was wondering if I could take a stock cylinder from the camaro bell housing and just move it to where I would put the one from a 1500? Or maybe theirs another type that has the same type of mount that would work?
That HTOB looks like the way to go but it cost a little more than I can afford right now.If I new weather or not I could find one at the scrap yard that would work I mite go that way.I wonder If anything would "interchange"

Mike, I chose the 1500 Midget cylinder because I knew it would mount easily and also match up with the volume of the clutch master cylinder. The bracket might be a bit more difficult to find, but the slave cylinder itself is available from most of the MG sources such as VB, Moss, or others. I bought my last one from the Little British Car Company as they had the best price. As for the bracket, someone around has a late model Midget that's being parted out and can get you one. Check with guys on any of the MG Forums such as the MG Experience or British Car Forum. You might also contact Tony Barnhill ( the Autoist) [www.theautoist.com] He is both a Moss and VB reseller where you can save some bucks but also has a supply of used bits as well so might have the bracket. You could also use the slave off of a Triumph TR6 as I think Bill Spohn did on his car, but again a bracket will have to be fabricated. The original Camaro slave cylinder uses a strange type of tube fitting and I'm not sure how to adapt it to the MG system. I think that someone makes a conversion fitting for that, but I can't remember who right now.
Did you say 3/8" plate? That's heavy duty for sure, I used 3/16" plate and it worked fine. It's still a bit to cut out with the torch and then finish grind but it didn't take long.