The Dark Wob

Reason for misbehaving is quite simple it is just an MGB. They all do it and you can spend a fortune on them and never get them any good for more than a couple of days a year before the next thing goes wrong. They were like it from new and there is a good reason people said BL stuff was crap back in the day.

Just gives them character

With the Bini clutch gone, Boxster hood leaking, Moggie not quite finished and the Dolomite nowhere near to finished, my plan is/was to use the BGT as a runaround to put a bit more mileage on it. But if the BGT breaks, I will end up with only one car out of six in working condition.

Hopefully it is something simple.

I haven't talked about it for a good while, so let's talk about oil pressure!

When warm, seems to be sitting around 40psi at 2k and 40-48psi at 3k. Weirdly at idle it sits around 30psi, when accelerating it reaches 50psi at around 1800rpm and sits there if you stop accelerating. But as you accelerate past that it drops to 40psi and stays there before it reaches the peak around 48psi at 3k.

Wonder if the oil pressure relief valve is sticky or the seat is leaky.

No plan to do anything for a while unless it drops significantly. Mostly as I want to get it rebuilt in the mid term future, while sorting out the bits on the body.

More importantly, it needs its proper reflective number plates back.

Being a '74 it would have only been a year and half off having them plus the majority of its production run with chrome bumpers would have been black plates. So meh, they're staying like that.

Modern reflective that were on it looked shit. If I was going to do yellow/white then I'd get riveted letters.

But then wouldn't look right on an chrome MGB to my eyes, rubber bumper would though. Likewise Dolomite I'll probably go riveted letters.

SiC wrote: ↑Sun Oct 10, 2021 9:21 pm But then wouldn't look right on an chrome MGB to my eyes,

You need more/less grinding dust in them then.

I agree that chrome bumper cars should have black & silver plates.

Oh & that cake looks great.

Just had a quick check over. Nothing seems particularly amiss on the ignition side.

Plug wires connected firmly, low tension wires seem all solid, plugs all tight in the block, cap+rotor pretty clean, vac line attached and not appearing split and for good measure the dash pot oil levels are correct. Screw top of number one plug was a little loose but no obvious arcing.

Cap and rotor



There was these deposits on the magnetic pickup. I've cleaned them off but they didn't go up the rotor arm.


LT wiring is fresh. Note Accuspark coil. Not exactly a brand known for their consistency. I've done a few thousand miles on it, so didn't change it when going 123Igniton.


Fuel filter is pretty clean. Almost all of the fuel system is not that old so expect it to be really.


This top of the plug was loose. A possibility but I'd have expected to see witness marks from arcing if it wasn't making the best contact.


Plug 1


Plug 2


Plug 3


Plug 4


I've never been great at reading plugs but one and two look a little off to me. Google says white deposits are possible misfire. Also on the lean side?

White does look lean to me, but unleaded fuel doesn't colour plugs the same as four star did so it's harder to tell.

Check your mixture screws? Different SUs I think, but my old Midget always used to go lean on the rear carb & rich on the front due to vibration. Hence I knew it ran best at 11 7/8th turns out, so I'd just reset them to that when the bonnet was up. I always meant to thread lock them but never did.

Hooli wrote: ↑Mon Oct 11, 2021 12:34 pm Check your mixture screws? Different SUs I think, but my old Midget always used to go lean on the rear carb & rich on the front due to vibration.

Good shout. They do have locking nuts but (hopefully Panhard65 isn't watching me admit this), these old lumps aren't exactly the smoothest of running engines in the world.

I set it up with a colourtune last and set them on the slightly rich side deliberately.

Also possibly of note is that after a high speed run and giving the engine a good spanking, the idle revs increase by a good 200rpm. Sat in traffic idling will bring them back down to around 850rpm eventually.

If I was quicker thinking, I'd have pulled the choke when it started playing up.