Engine and Transmission Tech

Going to be yanking my 215 over the next few days with my posse.

Carl, Are you replacing with your new motor?

Thanks all!
I got the drive shaft disconnected after having to take the exhaust crossover section off. Tomorrow the tranny jack goes under and the crossmember comes off.
Have some more things to disconnect. Bagging and tagging and taking pics. After reading the horror stories of stripped head bolts on the 215, I’ll have the machine shop do the helicoils where recommended.

Yes, progress is the goal. I’m going to get the thing helicoiled as you guys did. The seal upgrades of course!
In for a penny, in for a pound!
Thanks!

At 4.4L 260hp is a reasonable expectation. Agreed, jack up the rear.

Jim

You may want to send your cam and lifters to Delta Cams in Tacoma to be reground. That cam is a little hotter than most run and is what we used in Chris's 300 stroker build and Mike Moor has in his 300. Is the idle a little lopey?

Yes, the idle was a little lopey, but not an issue. The car felt and sounded great even with the bad ring or rings in#4. I will send the cam and lifters to Delta Cams. It may be obvious when it s taken apart. And new cam and lifters could be needed??

They might be OK. If you mic the lobes, and they are the same specs of .488 IN and .501 EX, and the bottom of the lifters look good. The lifters have to go back in the same positions they were. The process Delta Cams does makes them better than new. Use high zinc dino oil for breakin.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/27/2025 11:25PM by mgb260.

The lift specs are after the rocker ratio. At the lobe would be three something. As long as all the intake lobes are the same and all the exhaust lobes are the same, you are good. Jon's cam had two shorter lobes.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 04/28/2025 12:19PM by mgb260.

RE: Posted by: BlownMGB-V8
Date: April 26, 2025 08:05AM

260hp is a bit optimistic I'm afraid, you are far more likely to be in the ballpark of 200 in fully streetable trim.

Jim,

I respect the heck out of you and owe you for coughing up that 300 crank to finish my engine. I don't know what HP the car will have but it did an electrically certified 4.4 0-60 and ran in the high 12's back east.

The car was traded straight across for a nice '93 Viper. The Viper owner drag raced it and wore it out, selling it minus a cam and front water pump plate to the guy I bought if off who had a NY hotrod shop put it back together then left it with the dealer's son to screw around with. I got it with broken rings and 30# maximum oil pressure.

May I ask your opinion of the safety of doing a dyno? I believe the stress and chances you take aren't worth it. I'll be doing 3 runs at Bremerton to set a 1/4 mile time for my car show sheet. My recent tree reflex times were .143, .173, .162, .155, .131 ending with a .013. Did a reflex test resulting at 23 year old level...not bad for being 77. Not as good as I once was but apparently as good once as I ever was... :)

You advise dyno appreciated. Jon

So we’re close to taking it out. I’m going to lower the front as was mentioned, to make sure the hoist doesn’t run out of height before it clears the front. A friend suggested removing the engine from the bell housing first. I’ve read about doing it that way, they removed the motor mounts and let the engine drop far enough to access the tricky side bolts. I’m not doing that, the bell housing needs some attention as there appears to be a crack repair?? Tomorrow we see!
Thanks for all the tips!

Jim,
What exactly are the oil mods you refer to. And does it require any tools other than a 40 yr old Black and Decker plug in drill?

Scott, they may have already been done. The stock inlet hole in the block is only 7/16" and most take it out to 1/2" or even 9/16" and the hole in the timing cover that connects. you need a long drill bit. On the oil pump you want tight clearance, .001-.002. I drill an additional hole in the oil pump. Oil pump booster plate. There are more details on here, MGexperience and on the V8Buick site. On Jon's motor the main bearing holes were opened up to 1/4" Use the 5/8" V6 pickup. The main thing is to run tight clearances on the rods and mains. We had the crank ground to have .001 on the mains and .0015 on the rods. We also used the TA back grooved front cam bearing and adjustable pressure regulator.

[www.mgexp.com]



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 05/01/2025 12:55AM by mgb260.

"Carl, Are you replacing with your new motor?" -Jim N.

Not new. Jim Miller gave me his used 215 1962 HI block) that he replaced with a fresh rebuilt 215. Jim brought it up from Florida. Mike Moor came down from northern Indiana & Phil McConnel came down from northern Ohio. Stayed with me for four days for wrenching & camaraderie. They drove a combined 3800 miles round trip. We had a large time. Several more said they would have joined us had they known, including Rob Ficalora from Texas. I live in East Tennessee, so I have many long distance very good friends.

The British V8 group is one of the finest group of people one could ever hope to be a part of.

Wish you would get on a plane & come join us in Long Island, NY June 2-7, so that you can experience what I have kept returning to for the last 27 V8 meets, Jim N.

All good advice, there are many postings on here and MGE about the mods. I set the pump gears so that they just touch. Very slight drag when assembled. The clearance opens up when warm due to the dissimilar metals and there is always a very slight misalignment in the pump from true perpendicular making a mockery of measuring end clearance which is why you see a half-moon wear pattern on the cover.

The suction galley can and has been enlarged safely to as much as 5/8" but 9/16 works. I highly recommend a piloted drill bit for the job. Any competent machinist can grind a 7/16" nose on the end of a 12" drill bit and you're good to go. It will stay centered in the hole whereas an unpiloted bit will wander and sometimes will break out. Even then that is repairable with thinwall brass tubing from the hardware store but who wants to go through all that, right? Having to seal the tube to the block so it doesn't suck in air and all that business plus having a crooked hole to deal with, the tube doesn't like that much. I've also (once only) had to straighten out a hole that started to go crooked which meant grinding back the flutes of a piloted bit so that it only contacted the hole for maybe three eighths of an inch which let the pilot bring it back to center. Saved that one. Learn from my experience. Get the pilot ground on the bit. You can do it yourself by hand if you take the time to learn about cutting edge clearance angles, the pilot doesn't have to be perfect. It only has to center the bit and allow the cutting edges to work. Then your old drill motor is adequate. The worst you are likely to do is cut a little oversize, or not cut which means you need to adjust the clearance angles on the step. Don't make the pilot any longer than it has to be to center the bit.

I spec .001" for both rod and main bearings and that seems to work out well. I look for .0008-.0012" as the assembled clearance. Currently running 0w20 synthetic oil with good oil pressure. 30psi hot at idle. The key is to control the oil and not let it escape unnecessarily. My gas mileage has gone up.

The technology of the day meant these engines could safely spin up to around 6k occasionally without undue stress. To extend that requires better metallurgy in the pistons and rods but the valve springs and ignition points also require attention. Stock points were never good for more than 5500 unless they were a performance variant. Valves would start to float at a couple hundred over stock redline usually and in the Buick that meant somewhere just north of 5k. These were the primary limiting factors of the stock engines. Better springs and points could get you to 6. Much has been made of the intake not supporting that but it was more the overall configuration including the carb, air cleaner, and exhaust. A freer flowing air cleaner and somewhat larger carb could extend the redline significantly as could a freer flowing exhaust, bearing in mind that standard for a small block muscle car of the era was cast iron manifolds, 2-1/4" down pipes, and 2" tail pipes with a somewhat restrictive muffler. We can certainly do better than that, I regularly spun a 215 to 7k and had it making power all the way up. It was a stock 4bbl Buick with a hot cam, but also the best performance exhaust you are ever likely to see on an MGB. Still run that system today in fact. Occasionally someone makes the mistake of thinking if more is good even more is better. Not so. All you end up with is loud.

Jim



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/01/2025 10:05AM by BlownMGB-V8.

My 215 may be the exception, but it has done more than an occasional 6 grand. It has spent quite a bit of time living at 5500-6500 rpm during track days & autox (& Tail of the Dragon). All OEM parts & no valve float. Mine has been a stout, reliable little V8. Love these engines.

Jim B, Very well stated! Carl, One of these days I'll make it to a V8 meet. West of the Mississippi would be better for me. NY, I would get the long distance award for sure! Sounds like a fun time on the engine swap!

She’s out! The crack in the bell housing is odd. Looks like they kept drilling the crack trying to slow it’s creap.

Anybody seen this area cracked?

Carl had a cracked bellhousing before also. I think the early D&D bellhousing had issues.