BritishV8 Forum

Well it just seemed patriotic to drop my American Ford V8 into my 1980 MGB on July 4th.  The little Brit put up a good fight, but American  ingenuity along with some Chinese, Harbor Freight cutting tools, go the job done  It took me from about 7AM until about 2:30PM to get the Ford motor in place.

2 surprises:  1, I was surprised how high the motor sat.  It would never have cleared a stock hood and is a little tight with my GT6 hood bulge.  I will trim the aircleaner base and that should fix it.  2.  Even though I am using the 1994 GT Mustang t5, which is one inch longer than the earlier, late 80s,  models; my shifter sits about 1 inch to far forward at the very front part of the shifter hole in the trans tunnel.  I expected it to be a little farther back.  I will have to fabricate a simple bracket to bolt the actual shift handle a little behind the actual shifter lever.

It was a lot of work from one middle age guy but I am very happy.  Still ablut 1000 things to sort out but this is a big step!  Here's a few pics:

 

Looks good.  Saw your air cleaner.  Google "Edelbrock Triangle of Death" and decide accordingly.

Yeah, I saw that & bit my tongue. Used to have one on my S10 many years ago. The foam is bad to deteriorate & one of the cars mags did a test that showed that they were quite restrictive.

It's hard to tell from those "high quality" pictures but it looks like you're using CCE engine mounts. What have you done to the crossmember to allow the engine to sit lower? Maybe you're only problem is the choice of air cleaner.

Sorry about those pics.  Its like the sweat pouring from my eyes got on my lens somehow

Actually using the kit from Bill Guzman and The pan sits almost an inch above my modded crossmember and about 1/8th of an inch above the steering linkage.  I think that part is OK.

I knew that air-cleaner was a bit restrictive but it seemed like the only one that would fit under my GT6 bulge and seemed to be the choice of many on the V8 forum.  I did cut about 3/8 off the base and it fits fine now.  Ill have to look into that triangle of death thing for sure.  I generally prefer a 14 inch air cleaner with a good reusable 3 inch element but I don't see that ever fitting under the hood.  I probably have a month or two before I finish it enough to think about firing it up, so I have time to sort out the aircleaner....

Keith, A lot of guys use the 14" with 2" filter and drop base. The steering rack should fit inbetween the front of the pan and the damper.

Hey Keith, after seeing your car in the flesh, so to speak, I was impressed with your workmanship, especially with the flares.  I'm guessing the 80 cross-member and the 72 are different because my motor sets a little higher and my pan/balancer clearance is about 1/8" as well.


Paul

Thanks Jim Ill check that out for my air-cleaner.

I am back as far as I can go without hitting the firewall.  From what I can tell from the pictures, my motor sits in the same location as this one by Alex Mantell http://www.britishv8.org/MG/AlexMantell.htm

Ill try to get a PIC of it tomorrow.

Work continues.  As I tried to get the motor where i wanted it, the tranny kept moving out of position and vica versa, a sure sign something was hitting the trans tunnel.  Sure enough, the bellhousing was making contact on the passenger side.  Instead of pulling the motor, I decided to cut the trans tunnel and a little of the firewall and put in a metal patch hammered to shape to provide clearance.  Once that was done, everything fit much better.  I do need to make a 1/2 inch spacer to space the driver side motor mount out from the crossmember to get the mount to line up correctly as my motor is biased to the passenger side for remote oil filter clearance.

I also got the headers trial fitted.  I had to move the front brake line hard points to make that work.  This swap is one heck of a lot of work.  If I had not had Bill Guzman's kit, I doubt I could have pulled it off.  Even with the kit there is a lot of fabrication and many little problems to work out.  My hat is off to those who did this swap on earlier model cars and without the benefit of a basic swap kit!

Finally,  I scored a good deal on some 225 50 16s.  I had them mounted on my wheels and tested them on the back of the car.  With the Huffaker flares and the bumpstop hump ground away, I still have 1 inch of clearance.  I really wanted 245s on the back but I was being conservative.  Its now obvious that the 245s will fit easilly so I ordered 2 245 45 16s and the 225s will go on the front of the car.

Made some progress over the weekend.  Got the alternator mount sorted out.  I am using my stock MGB alternator.  Its brand new and is supposed to be a 100 amp unit, although I have no way to tell.  I also got the front sheetmetal cut to mount my radiator and the location for my remote oil filter finalized.

If you are interested in this build you can follow at my blog http://brownwood1.tumblr.com/ .  Nothing revolutionary here, just a MGB Newb doing his 1st swap.



 

Keith, when my GT was a 4 cylinder the alternator died and I replaced it with a Triumph 100 amp unit that looked exactly the same so they are out there.


Paul

Kind of hard to tell with the fuzzy pictures but that alternator looks an awful lot like a GM CS130.

Curiosity question on the hose from the intake manifold to the heater return nipple on the water pump -what's that about?

Hey Ex-tyke,  my car currently doesn't have a working heater so I just routed the the heater hose in a loop for now.   Down here in Texas we don't need our heaters until about January and then just for 2 weeks!

Yeah, I'm not sure why some of those pics are so fuzzy.  Maybe sweat in the eye of my Galaxy S4?

I had mine routed similarly for about 2yrs except I ran the hoses/pipe to the firewall as so it was ready to hook up, but just tied the two sides together there.  Didn't actually hook up the heater till this past winter.  We were way colder than normal this year -- actually got below 50 several times .

Damn! Rob, you're breaking my heart.  I think we got down to 9 F. one night  :-)

Keith,
        From a cooling perspective, you'd be better off plugging both the intake and WP inlet - rather than recirculating hot coolant before it goes through the rad - otherwise, glad there's another blue oval conversion about to hit the streets - you'll love it!

I remember than now from the old days.  The car will run a little hotter recirculating the coolant in a loop.  Thanks for that reminder.  Ill seek out some plugs of some kind.