That awful colour MGB GT

[cros]

Well I hope you don't get disheartened with it cos I think I would have! I often wish I'd got a GT as they are a much more useful vehicle. Last year we did 6 trips to Crewe (130 miles from me) and it was just horrible on the A50. Before Stoke the concrete road surface creates even more road noise from other vehicles than normal these days and it's so loud in a ragtop we went back to using the Rover even though its thirstier.
If it's of interest I use one of those cheap Indian made electronic ignition modules that go inside the standard distributor. They're sold by various outfits, cheapest is Britpart who were doing them for landrovers £15 a while back. I don't think expensive things like the 123 are worth 200 quid- all you need is a spark. I've altered the advance springs according to the tuning books without much discernable change (LPG likes a different curve) but if I was after more performance I wouldn't choose an MGB in the first place.
I carry a spare points distributor with me to drop in as everything electronic seems to fail eventually. Having taking me to Hamburg without incident, my only breakdown in this car happened shortly after when the previous Lumenition unit packed up and I just managed to get into Stansted services. I cockily shoved my spare dizzy in but no go- I'd nicked the capacitor from it from it to assist a broken down Minor and forgotten to replace it. A helpful AA man tried to find one but being Sunday night it was a relay home.
I figure that with LPG and petrol giving two separate systems I don't need spares I don't need to bother carrying spares for that side of things, but in my petrol only cars I try to carry a spare pump.
I relocated the MG's to the inside of the boot- hanging it outside next to the back wheel must rank as one of BLs more fuckwitted ideas.

[DodgeRover]

Stop worrying about the frigging oil pressure!! Does it rattle (loudly in a terminal way) or knock?
If the answer is no then carry on driving without a care, if it was just a warning light rather than a gauge it wouldn't be a worry!

[SiC]

Well I hope you don't get disheartened with it cos I think I would have!

Apart from the total loss of confidence I had in it last year, I also got fed up it chewing through my wallet everytime I drove it. Thankfully it's doing it less now with more miles in-between.

I have a cheapy generic 45D distributor on mine at the moment. Given it probably doesn't really have any properly set timing curve, it's running ok. I think it's one of those things that if you're chasing bhp it matters, but for a lot of the time it doesn't. I will get the original rebuilt at some point though. Not least I don't trust the cheap one not to fail.

Iirc BL moved the fuel pump on the rubber bumper cars to the boot area. It's currently got one of those blue electronic hardi units on it at the moment. Still got the SU one in a box somewhere and probably should rebuild it and keep it as a spare. Absolute pain in the arse to change though and probably not something I'd want to bother doing on a roadside.

Stop worrying about the frigging oil pressure!! Does it rattle (loudly in a terminal way) or knock?
If the answer is no then carry on driving without a care, if it was just a warning light rather than a gauge it wouldn't be a worry!

You are over thinking my concern on the oil pressure now I've got it half decent! My biggest annoyance with the engine is the tapping. I know these are never supposed to be super smooth, but it's hard to think it's so loud.

[cros]

I've had rocker shafts wear on A series, I don't know if they do on B's. Timing chain always rattles on start up, but shouldn't persist. I've had good service from the 3 of these engines I've owned long term.

[DodgeRover]

Rocker shafts do wear, they are more noisy mechanically than a modern engine though.
A common modification in the day was to move the fuel pump into the spare battery box when you convert to 12v

[SiC]

Rocker shafts?
https://autoshite.com/topic/29005-1974- ... nt=1553665


Rocker shafts.



The rockers themselves aren't terribly flat on the bottom where it pushes the valves. You can feel this when putting a feeler underneath. Probably should have put new shaft and rockers on. But then my view is that if I'm doing that, the whole head could do with a rebuild (seats, etc). However if I'm doing major work like that, then the bottom end could do with a rebuild. At that point I might as well pull the whole engine for a rebuild!

If I'm doing a rebuild should I get a local engine shop to do it? Or just spend a bit more to go the whole hog and send it to Oselli to be fiddled with?

Thus it can wait. Certainly for now.

[SiC]

Just brought it back from the garage. The chap who worked on it usually does MOTs as he hates working on modern cars. He said he pulled the rear brakes all apart, cleaned it up and put them together. Not sure if I put it together wrong or more that the guy liked the fact he could work on something he enjoyed! Also replaced that rear stud that had its threads stripped.

Anyway its all back together and he took it for a test drive. Said that he thought the brakes were very good and ran well. Also said not to touch the tappets - Tapping tappets are happy tappets.

Obviously all needs to bed in a bit as all new but all properly adjusted now. He didn't get it to squeal (or too deaf nowadays to notice) but it still does with me. Worse at certain pedal positions. Of course if/when they bed in it may help with this too.

Debating if I should just change the pads over tonight. Pretty low risk job I guess? But with me, who knows what will happen...

[SiC]

Filled up tonight. Went back to Shell over Esso. Definitely seems to run a bit better on it. Maybe the higher octane in Shell fuel helps (99 over 97)? Or additive pack? Or the Ethanol they put in Shell fuel?!

This time, instead of waiting for it to click off twice, I looked down the spout and kept it going till I could see fuel just at the bottom of the neck. Probably got at least a good 7 or 8 extra litres or so. Unlike before, I now have a gauge properly reading full, rather than just over three quarters.


Also might explain why I seemed to be only doing 100 miles before getting to a quarter and then needing to fill up. Now it's fully full, the next fill up I can properly work out the MPG.

[SiC]

Just been reading last night that Ethanol in fuel can have a leaning effect. As I originally filled up with Shell Super (that has Ethanol) the carb was tuned on that. The Esso Super doesn't have Ethanol and even though it wasn't massive, the revs were a couple hundred rpm lower and felt a bit more bogged down. Could well be butt dyno in action or maybe these old carb cars are more sensitive to that extra ethanol content.

I might move to Sainsburys super unleaded as these non supermarket garages are horrifically expensive for fuel. Shell super last cost me £1.46 per litre. Sainsburys super on the other hand is £1.36. If you are burning money, the least I'm going to try burning the minimal of it as possible.

Also want to try some old fashioned 4 star leaded petrol too. I was going to do it on this tank but completely forgot about it until after I filled up. There is a garage ~10 miles away or so that had the pumps for it. No idea on its freshness mind.

[PhilA]

As has been noted, modern fuel will run like caca if left a few months over summertime.

I've seen cars started up and run just fine on proper old fuel that's been sat in the tank for 30 years (varnishes or otherwise). The older stuff, refined well with few additives- remember when unleaded was much more expensive than four-star- was actually better grade because it had to be. The fuel companies have steadily been working on adding stuff to the fuel so it can be refined less and diluted more, improving productivity and profits. Mostly profits, it would seem. Blame the chemists.

Bristol Flying Centre used to sell 100LL avgas for "off road use". With carbs set and timing set to it.. quite a noticeable difference to the engine's performance, mostly in torque. 100LL burns slowly compared to 95 pump gas and that improves the impulse on the pistons. You can back the ignition up 2-3 degrees easily and richen the mixture up to see the change it makes.

It does smell different though- it's what the fifties would have smelled like following a car.


--Phil