MGB GT in Snow

March has arrived, and with it, a foot of snow on the very first day.  Although it’s a taddy-bit late to save the ski season, the change from a dull brown landscape is quite arresting, and here, once again is proof that you can “Do It In An MGB’.

This is, of course, my faithful blue winter beater #2 (see January, 2011 posts for more particulars).  Suffice it to say that with four studded snow tires, as can be seen here, it’s a formidable winter conveyance.

Patrick assembles a TD transmission

Here’s a view from the other side of the blue worktable.  Patrick is using our 360 degree transmission stand to assemble this MG TD gearbox.  It makes assembly work a little easier if you don’t have the chase the TX across your workbench.

Behind his left shoulder is our ex-War Department Reid surface grinder, and in front of his right hand is Churchill Special Tool 18G 42A, a main bearing cap puller for “B” & “C” series engines, and for which we’ve also fabricated adaptors for use on TR3 main caps, as well.  Above that is our electric engraver, with which we scratch the cam grind number and clearance info. inside the valve covers of every engine we overhaul, and where we hope subsequent owners and repairers will find it.

The white plastic tool with the white steel handle aligns the rear oil slinger on those TR3’s.

Butch bolts up the DMD intake manifold to the BJ8

Late this afternoon Butch started bolting up the Australian DMD intake manifold to the BJ8.  This car is quite near to running.  We are told that this horizontal manifold is good for another 12 to 15 horsepower.

We hope so, because clearance for the fastening hardware is so  severely restricted by the intake runners that we are using grade 5 jam nuts on the bridge washers because a standard hex nut won’t fit.

Bottom End: an oil pump cover after a trip across the surface grinder earlier this week.

John & Butch guide the TX while Steve wheels the jack

John’s been pulling down the engine bay in the Jaguar Mk2 for detailing.  One of the larger pieces was the automatic transmission, which John wrestled out of the car this morning with some help from Butch, also on the floor, and Steve with the jack.

Now that he’s got the engine bay completely stripped, he’s on to the fun stuff of cleaning an accumulated 50 years of grime off of  every conceivable underhood ancillary component, and prepping them for paint or polishing.  This is a process which will keep him fully involved for a week.

Patrick pulls down an MG TF transmission

Meanwhile, downstairs in our driveline room Patrick pulled down this MG TF transmission for inspection.

It had obviously seen some recent attention, judging by the wheel bearing grease still clinging to the nose of the mainshaft where it had undoubtably been used to secure the input needle roller bearings in exactly the same manner we do.

Checking valve stem heights on a hemi head

He’s working on top of our ‘auxiliary’ bench, which is actually a cast  iron surface table.  Incredibly, it’s hand scraped to an accuracy of +/- .0002″ (plus or minus two ten-thousandths of an inch) !   Amazing what a skilled hand can  do.

We protect this accuracy with a piece of plywood laid over a sheet of cardboard when we’re not using it for measuring purposes.  it’s pulled back here to allow

David checks valve clearances

for a comparison check on the valve stem heights on the cylinder head.

One cam follower, a.k.a. “tappet” was about .075″ taller than the others at the pushrod seat.  I was looking for the valve with the shortest stem height in the hopes of finding the necessary clearance.  In the event I didn’t, so we will change it out with another one from England.

Steve took this picture.  I’m working on the exhaust side here.  A close visual inspection will reveal that the intake and exhaust banks each have their own camshaft, gear driven from an idler which in turn is chain driven from the crankshaft.  The nose of the intake cam is slightly longer because it will drive a gear for the distributor.

John gets into his work

The owner of this freshly painted Jaguar Mk2 Sedan asked us to detail the engine bay.  Although there would have been certain efficencies to doing it at the same time the car was painted, we’ve actually done most of our engine detail work separate and apart from a general refinishing.

This Jaguar has the Detroit Gear (Borg Warner) automatic once used by both Ford & Studebaker, and as had been mentioned on this page before, it is fairly unique in that it has an additional rear pump which can lock up the transmission and turn the engine on a rolling start. John just gotten done checking to make sure the torque converter was going to stay put on the trip back to the barn.

JE pistons for an MGB

We’re in the beginning steps of putting together a high output engine for an MGB.  The .100″ oversize pistons, made to our pattern by JE Pistons came in Tuesday.

These magnificent pistons are infinitely stronger forged (not cast) pistons which are dished for a nominal 8.7:1 compression ratio so the engine will run happily on readily available premium fuel.

The actual compression ratio will come in around 10:1 (still good with pump fuel) because the cylinder head is being pocket ported & cc’d by APT in Riverside California, and we’ll also be running an APT VP 11BK street cam.

Chinning Bar

The +.100″ overbore stays just within the fire ring around the cylinder bore of the head gasket.  There are some big bore pistons on the market which don’t.  That can be a problem with head gasket life, and it can also be a problem with cylinder block life when the water jackets around the cylinder bores get too thin.

It doesn’t have to be that way.  We’re having the cylinder block  sonic checked to determine cylinder wall thickness before any metal comes out.  Every so often we end up preemptively sleeving a perilously thin cylinder.  A little checking up front can save an awful lot of grief later.

Also pictured here is a storage solution that Mr Casey never came up with.  We have a lot of work in the shop right now, and when Jason Marechaux at East Coast Collision & Restoration called up Monday and said ‘come & get it’ we did.  This is a TD frame, or if you prefer, TF frame, the only difference being the chassis number.  The working height is ideal for use as a chinning bar.

I took this picture a month ago, back when it used to still snow, a little.  If you’re feeling a little nostalgic about the white stuff, well here it is.  We’re not.

Touchdown: John, Patrick & Steve settle a TD body tub behind the shop

Road Test Cycle: MG TF at Abingdon Spares

The weather finally broke this week.  Although the roads are dusty in spots, they haven’t been wet, except for some run off.  It’s getting very close now to sugaring season, perhaps the only agricultural crop, apart from ice, which is harvested in the winter.

This has allowed us to get some deferred road test work completed.  I took this TF out for the long loop of about 25 miles thru two states, which isn’t actually saying much, since we’re only ten minutes from Walpole, New Hampshire, an incredibly fortuitous accident of geography, because that’s where Abingdon Spares, the ‘T’ series MG parts house is located.  I worked there for a while in the 1980’s.

Butch trial fits the BJ8 console & arm rest

Nothing is ever truly easy.  In order to get the radio console (sans radio) to fit between the fiberglass tx tunnel and the dash, it was necessary to trim the bottom edge of the console and cut down and re-glass the shift aperture in the tunnel.

We’re blaming it on the Toyota five speed, although really we also know that the entire dash panel came out about half an inch too close to the floor.  Because where you end up means everything, this has been an extended fit and adjust process where the ends justify the means.

Steve installs carpet fasteners

Meanwhile, downstairs Steve is working on the door glass and door trims for the red BJ8.

Because open sports cars have a tendency to get wet on the inside, we like to provide the means to pull the carpets up should the car get caught out in a cloudburst.  The underfelts, especially, are very efficient at holding moisture, and we even see cars from Nevada & California with rusty floors as a result of this.

Jaguar XK 120M in West Lynn, circa 1955

This archival photo has just appeared in the new issue of MESH NEW ENGLAND Magazine. (www.meshnewengland.com) in the context of a story about the owner (one of our customers) who was intimately involved  the Greater Boston North Shore sportscar scene in the late ’40’s & ’50’s.

If you’re not familiar with MESH, it’s lush graphics are visually stunning, and the story content is an easy read.

Also on test Monday: The greatest view in the world