Thanks to all that wrote me with condolences and help after my "This means
war" thread. I appreciate it.
I've spent the past week pondering what it is I plan to do with the B.
Here's what I've come up with.
A) I live in ohio where the winters suck.
B) The B has no top.
C) Because of A and B I'm not going to drive it much until spring anyway.
I have basic engine knowledge but am no expert by any stretch. I do have
access, however, to people with ALOT of experience with engine work and
rebuild.
So as a rather extreme learning exercise, I've decided to pull the engine
out of the B and rebuild it. I know, I know, this is a bit extreme and
possibly a bad idea for someone without extensive rebuild experience, but
I've talked with my savvy friends and trust we can put it back together. I
own Lindsay Porter's MGB RESTORATION MANUAL, and have gone over the engine
tear down section many times and think it's something I can handle.
So I have two questions. The first is easy.
Victoria British advertises a video that apparently shows a complete step by
step of an engine teardown and rebuild. Has anyone viewed this? It's $64 and
it doesnt make sense to get it if it's garbage.
Second is a bit subjective. I've sort of asked this question twice now and
gotten many intelligent, well thought out, concise, and thoroughly
contradictory answers in list mail, as well as personal email.
I'm trying to determine what to do to the engine on rebuild.
Part of the problem, I think, is that worth is subjective. What one person
thinks is a good idea another thinks is a waste of money. Someone here
thought that Roller Rockers were a waste, but I know people who think
they're essential.
This car will be used as a daily driver on all but the worst weather days.
(We do get ice and snow and, yes, road salt) So I dont want something with a
lumpy idle and no pull.
I'm also not worried about making it go 120mph. (Although I had a 1985 Ford
Escort there once. Dumb.) I've pretty much decided that if I want to race,
I'll buy a race car. These things are cheap enough to do that.
I'm looking for that elusive quality of "Zip".
The 1950cc bore job (0.60 over?) looks like fun. The Crossflow head makes
sense. Dual DCOE's make sense. A nicely tweaked cam, new valves, a new
header and exhaust. New brakes, shocks to help it stick of course.
What I dont want is something that moves the powerband up top too far. I've
got a copy of Burgess' book on Power Tuning on order from amazon, so I hope
to understand more of this after I read that (Which will be before I yank
the engine). Someone said "Dual DCOE's will suck for low end power".
So what's the scoop? I'd like to build a nice engine, dont mind spending the
cash, the time, the elbow grease, etc.
In a perfect world, what mods make sense to an engine destined for more
low/mid zip than balls to the wall top end speed?
thanks,
-C
________________________________________________________________________
| Chris Thompson ct@cthompson.com |
| 1973 MGB http://cthompson.com/mg/ |
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