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Jonathan Mould's Running Diary of his V8 conversion on his 1978 BGT (aka JC on various BBS)
Earlier this year, JC toyed with the thought of an MG C, but following a ride in Perry Stephenson's factory, but very non-standard, BGT V8, he decided to follow the tried and favoured route of the V8 conversion. JC is opting for the less steroidal approach as he is on a budget, so the engine is due to be rebuilt this Summer, time and funds permitting, and then to be installed next year. The BGT must remain a serviceable everyday car however.
Early in May, JC came through to Chester to meet up with a few of us during Phil's visit back to the UK. Phil and I both had a chance to drive the car, and found it a delight to revisit standard handling, if somewhat slightly worn. The car was great fun, with sufficient body-roll to risk his shiny V8 badges, but the handling was very predictable, if somewhat at lower speeds - but then again, not only is this safer, but also equally as much fun on roundabouts. Both Phil and I felt that the car should be taken back to standard to improve the set-up, followed by possible improvements to poly-bushes and maybe a stiffer anti-roll bar at the front. As part of the V8 conversion, JC has sourced some 15" Scimitar rims to get the factory V8 look, so he is loathe to lower the car too much, but in fairness, a well-sorted r/b car can be just as good without necessarily needing to lower it as radically as perhaps some of us have! Apart from clearing a blocked drain (aka Tom's Knob - an MGOC BBS term!) we greased the suspension, checked the steering rack fluid, and had a good look at the bodywork which is in remarkably good condition, a testament to the Ziebart process when it was new. I made one final comment to JC that I thought his engine was rocking a little too much, but since he had had the clutch changed last year, he was confident the mounts were ok! Read on...
JC decided to visit again last week in order to tackle a few small jobs in my garage - see the photograph above, an auspicious occasion given this is the first time in JC's care the car has seen a roof over its head! However, it all started to go pear-shaped when he could not engage 3rd gear! Without my seeing the car, we decided that the best course would be to fit new gearbox mounts. So on his arrival on the Friday morning, we set off for Welsh MG. JC had already removed the centre console and it is quite apparent just how bad it was and why it would not engage in 3rd gear.
Once home, and having dropped the gearbox cross-member to get at the gearbox mounts, it quickly became apparent that the engine mounts were none too fresh, the o/s having sheared. I had mentioned previously to JC I thought the engine rocked a fair bit at idle, but it transpires that when his clutch was changed last year, the specialist garage had decided it wasn't necessary to replace the o/s mount, just the n/s mount. Hmmmm, I have a feeling, being a r/b car they knew what they were doing!
We persevered with the gearbox mounts in any case, and modified the cross-member to make refitting easier.
Once the gearbox mounts had been re-installed the fun began in earnest, and the
schedule and budget rapidly slipped! Suffice to say, on a r/b the steering
column passes through the o/s engine mount box on the chassis rail, so getting a
spanner onto the nut is impossible without removing the steering column. In
fairness the n/s mount was changed in no time at all (as it was less than 1 year
old the nuts came off easily - in fact too easily, the rear stud nut was slack
and there is evidence on the mount that this was chafing).
The aggravation level rocketed when we decided to attempt to drop the steering
rack off the x-member! I knew we were in trouble when the breaker-bar gave up on
the two rear bolts on the racks! Seized solid into the rack (corrosion). So, the
front cross-member came off to get access and the end result was a reconditioned
rack, which given the age and wear was a blessing in disguise! Having gained
access to the underside of the o/s engine mount, 28 yrs of rusted in nut easily
became apparent that resulted in a further hour getting that out! But, I am
pleased to say the engine sat nice and straight afterwards!
Consequently, as a result of an MG specialist leaving well alone poor JC's
student budget was knocked for 6! It started with a visit on the Friday morning
to Welsh MG for new gearbox mounts and one or two other items, followed by a
second visit late on Friday afternoon for new engine mounts, followed on
Saturday afternoon for a reconditioned steering rack, track rod ends and dampers
(the originals were leaking). And with a "devil-may-care" expression
on JC's face he stumped up for poly-bushes - it was only the fact that they did
not have a 3/4" anti-roll bar in stock that saved him from complete
poverty.
So, always insist that the little things are done when the engine is out, it
saves much aggravation later! At least the front end should be easy enough to disassemble
again when the V8 goes in, and the gearbox cross-member is now modified to ease
removal and fitting!
By JC:
It's been a busy month!
Looking at the above picture, you could be forgiven for thinking that Martin has had his BGT re-sprayed this month. Not so. The above picture actually shows my car just before I set off for my first ever drag racing event at Santa Pod raceway. Why does it look so different? I hear you say. Well, quite simply, drag racing is about how fast you can get from point A to point B a quarter of a mile away. One way to improve your times is to reduce the weight of the car. The rubber bumpers weigh in at around 60lbs so it seemed the logical thing to do would be to take them off for the race meeting. De-bumpering an MGB is well documented on this site elsewhere so I won't go into details except to say that temporary indicators need to be fitted as do a front number plate. The indicators I chose to fit came from Halfords and are actually intended for the back of a motorbike. The cost was £14.50 plus a few pounds for some push-fit connectors which were also used to re-connect my original indicators a few days later. I also sprayed my mesh grille silver purely for cosmetic reasons.
The next photo shows a close up of the same temporary indicators that I used as fitted to Perry Stephenson's Factory MGBGT V8. Perry's car has been heavily modified for drag racing. This includes such modifications as a Chevrolet automatic gearbox, nitrous oxide, stage two cylinder heads and a phantom grip differential. Perry's car is actually the inspiration behind the pseudo V8 project in the first place!
Other mod's to my car included removal of the rear bumper, spare wheel and rear seat. Not exactly hard core mod's but as the drag racers say; "every ounce counts". My first ever drag race was against a 7 litre Ford Anglia, pictured below, with every conceivable mod that you can think of.
The Anglia shot across the line in just 11 seconds. I managed a pathetic 21. Throughout the day I got progressively better until the final race of the day where I raced a Skoda Estelle. I got a better start than the Skoda but the tall second gear let me down and the Skoda went around 1 car length ahead. Once I got into top gear I started reeling the Skoda in rapidly. Changing into overdrive I really started to catch up. I overtook the Skoda just after passing the finish line. We both finished in 19.9 seconds unfortunately the Skoda driver was 0.08 seconds faster. Just how close can you get! I will certainly be hoping to race that guy again.
The next two photos show Perry's factory V8 and my Pseudo V8 cooling down in the pits. Note the 8 inch wide special drag racing tyres fitted to the black V8.
June 13th 2006
Three days later saw me making the same Journey back to Buckingham, this time with a friend in convoy for Classic car night at the ACE café - London, stopping off at Perry Stephenson's house so that the three of us could go down in convoy. Perry's son happened to have put a fancy twin exhaust system on his Pug 205 GTI so there happened to be a large "fart can" laying in Perry's Garage. Simon Veasey decided it would be amusing to put this monster exhaust over the end of mine!
Well we had to put it on Simon's car for a photo too!
The Ace café classic car night is worth a visit. They do good food and the car park is very interesting. I would estimate around 12 MG's turned up. Including a rare Austin-Healey Frog-eye sprite.
Peter Wood from the MGOC BBS also turned up in his gorgeous RB GT in pageant blue.
I finally got home around 2 in the morning after leaving the house at 7:30 some 260 miles later.
Projects for this month include getting the V8 / Scimitar wheels onto the car and changing the Rubber Bumper rear light assembly for the early MK1 assembly.
The car now sports its rubber bumpers, chrome wheel trims and centre caps once again. The only tell tale signs that it has been anywhere this month are the temporary indicators which I left in place and the grille has been left in the metallic silver finish.
Another busy* (read expensive) month. The main project was finishing off the restoration of the Dunlop V8 wheels and having them fitted to the car. You can read about the restoration here. There were a few unforeseen complications:
Upon removing the masks from the new wheels, it was possible to see the pink primer all around the edge of the wheel. Not good after all that effort. My solution was to use one of our dog's hypodermic needles; she has diabetes and requires twice daily injections of insulin, I filled the syringe with paint then injected it around the edge of the rim. Using a brush would have gotten paint everywhere. I am far too ham-fisted!
Here are the finished wheels with the touch-up paint curing in the sun.
The next problem was that when fitting the wheels I discovered that the Nuts that I had restored were for the larger holed Scimitar Dunlop wheels. They were too large and therefore useless. This necessitated the purchase of new genuine MGB V8 stainless nuts. I decided that since I was buying new nuts I aught to get centre caps to complete the look. The bill for nuts and caps came to a shade over £100. Fortunately getting the wheels swapped onto the Dunlop's from the RO-styles was only £20. That's £20 in the top pocket of the guy changing the tyres over, so shh!
Visually the exterior of the car now appears to be a factory V8. Only hardcore MG enthusiasts will be capable of spotting the subtle differences such as the slightly deeper offset of the wheels. (And the distinctly un-V8 sounding engine note! - Martin)
The other exterior modification that I have done this month is to fit MK1 style rear lights which can be seen in the above photo.
Attention then turned to the interior. I decided to install a second hand walnut dash found on eBay for £60. There is only some slight damage to it but for the price it's very nice. Especially when you consider that the MGOC want over £200 for one in mint condition. Martin found himself in the midlands on business this month and after installing ZR seats in his BGT had some good seat foams and covers going spare. With my wallet £20 lighter I now had V8 style seat covers to install. Bonus!
Finally, toward the end of the month the handling became very sloppy. Worse in fact than before the suspension was upgraded! The brand new dampers had leaked to a point where the passenger side was empty and the drivers' side wasn't much better. I ordered a replacement set under warranty from welsh MG and changed them both in half a day. I also took the opportunity to replace the bushes on the ends of the anti roll bar. Martin and I had come up with a bodge to avoid a fourth trip to welsh MG for parts. There is always something you forget during a rebuild!
Feeling cocky I then decided to sort out my steering problems. Specifically the fact that I had an excellent turning circle when turning left, yet the turning circle of an ocean liner when turning to the right. I mistakenly thought the answer was to drop the rack, rotate it half a turn and reattach. This misunderstanding resulted in me destroying the steering column when I tried to pull the rack out of the universal joint by using a 6 foot steel bar to lever it out of the joint between the rack and x member. Oh dear. Some £250 later I had a new steering column, new rack to column universal joint, and a new Mountney steering wheel. I managed to destroy the original rubber bumper wheel by trying to remove it. I decided that since it was more important to retrieve the indicator assembly as they are worth around £60 compared to a steering wheel worth nothing. However, that is they are worth nothing unless you actually want one!
Here is my new wheel. Not bad for £48 including boss!
Still, on the upside I have almost eliminated the slop in the steering. However, there is still some work to do. The next project will be to replace the stub axles and kingpins as these are the only original steering components left. Logic dictates that this is the only possible source of the problem.
Next month: EGB 765T goes for a new MOT plus its second visit to Santa pod drag strip for the first MG Drag Racing Club race series. That means bumpers are coming off again!