Sounds a little hairy... I thought it was pretty much take one engine out,
put the other in, same tranny, rear end etc. Can I swap tranny and all? I
really had not given much thought about doing this until I saw a 1600 that
one of the guys put a MGB engine in, didn't seem to be that hard, maybe the
newer MGAs have more in common with the GT?
Thanks for the info Barney!
Jack
-----Original Message-----
From: owner-mgs@autox.team.net [mailto:owner-mgs@autox.team.net]On
Behalf Of Barney Gaylord
Sent: Monday, August 07, 2000 2:31 PM
To: Jack Levy
Cc: mgs@autox.team.net
Subject: Re: Engine choice
At 11:24 PM 8/6/2000 -0400, Jack Levy wrote:
>Leaving the obvious originality issues aside, what are the disadvantages
and advantages of putting a 69 MGB GT 1800 in a 57 MGA?
Advantage: a little more grunt. Disadvantage: a little work in the
conversion, but still a bolt-in with the right parts. Otherwise not mech
of either, but quite a few MGA 1800 already on the road.
>.... what do I need from the GT?
Just the engine, and a water pump with the pulley mounting flange in the
right place. Use the MGA engine mounts, water pump pulley, thermostat
cover, and engine rear plate (and maybe the MGA crankshaft pulley). Have
the MGA rear plate bored out to accept the MGB rear crankshaft seal. You
need an adapter bushing for the rear end of the crankshaft to accept the
(smaller) pilot nose of the MGA gearbox input shaft. Otherwise you could
install the MGB input gear into the MGA gearbox. Use the clutch disk that
mates with the splines on whatever gearbox input shaft you have.
To mate the 5-main engine to the 3-syncro gearbox (small bellhousing) you
need a flywheel from a '65-'67 MGB 18GB engine. To use the MGA clutch
pressure plate with the MGB flywheel you need to remove two of the three
locating pins and install another one (machining required) to give it two
pins @ 180 degrees. To use the MGB pressure plate you need to also use the
MGB clutch release bearing, release arm, and the gearbox front cover from a
MGB 3-syncro gearbox. These last bits are required because the MGB
pressure plate is thinner and the release bearing has to be relocated
farther forward.
Barney Gaylord
1958 MGA with an attitude
http://www.ntsource.com/~barneymg
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