So, I'm trying to post a report for the B.A.D.A.S.S. meeting that we had in Lewisburg and I'll be as complete as I can remember but bear in mind I had other things going on so feel free to post corrections and amendments.

We met in the hospitality room, Rick presiding. Attendance was good but I do not have the numbers. I also did not take notes, sorry. Might want to elect a Secretary next meeting. I'm sure we could find someone who would do a competent job.

Anyway, we passed the hat and collected money. Seven hundred or so I think? Also collected enough to finish the A/C install I would think. I have that in an envelope and can count it again tomorrow, I think it's something like $275. We discussed establishing dues and tabled PJ's motion until Townsend to give everyone a chance to consider it.

I'm sure there was a good bit more of interest, I just can't seem to think of it at the moment.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Thanks to Max, we discovered that the 455 is starving for air. Dyno results were abysmal but when we went for a drive with the air cleaner off it was like we doubled the power. So I have modified the air cleaner housing to allow more air in, and made a new air cleaner base to properly support the housing so we do not collapse the new air filter.

We also discovered that there is an issue with the timing advance signal coming from the MegaJolt and Max and I did some work on that but there is more to do.

Graham has found what looks to be a good candidate for a replacement brake master cylinder, more on that as it develops. New spark plug wires will be installed, one headlight ballast has come loose and needs reattached, and then we can get back on installing the A/C.

That's sort of the way things stand for now. The idea with the brakes is to get more room for spark plug access. It looks like we can do that by installing a smaller (physically) unit and using a smaller bore so we don't need the booster, both of which will help.

Jim

Here's the newly modified air cleaner:



To prevent damage to the new element, a new base was made up out of 2 skillets and a saucepan. It is keyed to the carb and supports the housing:



The housing was modified to allow more airflow and fitted with a new element which more properly fits on the ID. It was marked inside with two filter numbers, either of which should work with these parts:



The old knob was modified to allow the increased height and a silicone rubber cushion was fitted:



The test drive indicates it breathes a good bit better than before. However, should we do another Dyno pull, it should be done with the filter on, then off to check for restriction.

Jim

I was thinking most of the restriction was that old ratty air filter.  Did the hot rodders go to this extreme in 1967 for this air cleaner?

I don't know, but it does run better. The air filter fits better. And the filter is taller so more surface area I think.

I've just finished relocating the power distribution module and the MegaJolt controller to the side of the footwell. Should be out of the way of the evaporator and a bit more accessible.

Jim

power, Power, POWER!!!

I believe the issues we were having with the timing advance are now resolved so finally, we are starting to see the kind of power out of the mighty 455 that we all expected.

I know it's been a little of a disappointment for many of us ever since the dyno session in Texas where we first discovered the somewhat lackluster horsepower curve. Not that driving the car was anything short of impressive with all that torque, but just not what we expected to see. So it's very good to be able to say that now with adequate delivery of fuel, air, and advance it looks like the power is finally there.

Personally I'll be surprised if it dynos 500hp, I'll be expecting to see something closer to 400, maybe even a bit less. But it's certainly running the best it ever has, and it's like it has twice the power it had at Lewisburg.

Something of interest to anyone who uses or considers using the MegaJolt ignition controller, it has a separate, "Are you really, Really sure you want to use this tune?" icon button next to the upload to controller button, and if you don't click that one it reverts. Took awhile to sort that one out since we had a corrupted tuning file as the installed tune and all sorts of weirdnesses were happening. It was driveable but far from optimized. The map could still be improved but it is way better than it was, and I would expect to see an improvement in economy as well. Unfortunately I think the calibration of the odometer is off (even though the speedometer is correct oddly enough) so we will continue to have to use corrections.

So the stage is now set for further work on the air conditioning.

Schedule-wise, I hope to have my car off the lift in a few days, the next month looks sort of busy, but after that maybe we can get the crew together and knock it out.

Jim

Great news on Roadmaster.,  Jim, think we can view your personal car at Townsend in Oct?

I'm expecting that Kelly. Take you for a ride?
In fact I hope the last part comes in today, so with just a bit of luck I may be driving it up to the Dayton show. I'll be taking the MG-Roadmaster to the Cincinnati show this Sunday since I don't have insurance yet and it'll be local trips only for awhile yet. But soon we'll be needing someone else to help get the Roadmaster to the shows.

Jim

Friend and I plan to attend the Dayton show also.  drive up on Thru. attend the W-P Museum on Fri. and the show on Sat.  Just a few miles north of your place :-)

good news Jim, those ponies were hiding in there and yo found them.

I don't know that it really makes much difference in the way you drive the car though. It's just more reserve. The torque was already there and the power at lower speeds really didn't change that much. It's only when you mat it that it really makes a difference.

I drove it up to Harbin Park yesterday and it got a lot of attention at the meet, but they stuck the modifieds out in the hay field as far as they could get from the MGs, clear over on the opposite side of the German cars. and for a British car meet there were a lot of those. If I go back next year I swear I'm gonna park right smack in the middle of the MGBs with my roadster. That just ain't right. Eddie Cole and I were there, and a new guy with a V6 conversion, along with very nice V8 AH 3000 reproduction. Then they stuck a few unusual V engine type cars over there with us. I'd say we really weren't wanted, or else they just really had no idea at all of what to do with us. Well, that's why I'm a member of the WVBCC instead. Those guys know how to appreciate a good car. This meet declined sharply when they lost the drag strip as their location and the demographic swerved well away from performance and towards concours. One attendee told me he was about 60 years old and figured he lowered the average age by joining that club. Judging by the number of T types present he could be right. But it was a nice enough show if you like that sort of thing. Bill Michaels and another member of the WVBCC were in attendance, over in the Triumph section and there was a large turnout of Jags and German minis. Even a handfull of DeLoreans. But as for a BritishV8 presence, we declined very significantly from last year.

Happily we did have a fair number of youngsters who were excited to see the car, and that is why we built it. So in spite of being pushed off in the coffin corner we did manage to fulfill our function in being there, and I'd call that a win.


Jim

Jim,

thanks for showing the RM.

It's always good when young people can see the car

Time for another update. As predicted I made it to the Dayton show with my Roadster, but Carl was good enough to come by here and jump in the MG-Roadmaster and drive it up to Dayton, leaving Ol' Red to languish in the company of my rag-tag fleet while we were out having fun. Dan also came in with his Lexus 1UZ  4.0L DOHC powered TR7 and the next morning we were off for the beginnings of a fine weekend.

We got a fairly early start, and for a Saturday morning the cruise through Cincinnati bridge construction up I-75 wasn't too bad as traffic at least kept moving and once across the river we made decent time. After that the rest of the 70 mile trip was a doddle, taking the I-675 Dayton bypass then Rt 35W for 1 exit before heading north again for a couple of blocks and turning left into the park. Well, that's how it WOULD have been if I hadn't passed the exit and got us a little lost. But it was all good and a fun drive. We made a little noise coming into the park and from that point on our cars were a center of attention, and perhaps the biggest draw in the meet. We went down to the end of our row (Modifieds), parked in the SHADE, and opened our hoods. The people were clustered around even before we came to a stop.

Our row was already crowded. All told there were over 20 modified cars at the meet, and we may have done a little recruiting. Don't be surprised if we pick up a member or two. Anyway, the Dayton show is fairly large at over 250 cars and our section has been the largest one for the last 2 years not including this one, which explains why we had the shade trees. Good chance that'll be the case next year as well and I can't stress enough how much better that makes it for all of us. So much better than being out in the sun. Now by contrast to the Cincinnati meet where we were stuck out in the hayfield at the furthest extent of the area being used, here we were right up front and center, right in the middle of the festivities.

Our cars served us well making the drive up and back with aplomb. As always we each noticed one or two minor things that could be improved but with the Roadmaster those are becoming less and less and Carl did say that he enjoyed the drive. I think he was impressed that everything worked as it should, and I think I remember him saying at one point that he though we should keep this car around for awhile. What were his criticisms? 1) the car has more body lean than Ol' Red. (which has a much larger sway bar). 2) the driver's side sits a little low (adjustable). 3) the tires made noise going around the on ramp. (uh... hello, not sticky tires?)

About those tires BTW, this is a good spot to post an additional caution. They are NOT rain tires. If you have to drive on water, even a slightly damp road, do not expect even average performance. I went around a local and fairly average interstate curve in a drizzle and at just 80 mph was sliding sideways. At least it was balanced. You can drive it in water, but slow down. The difference from dry traction is profound.

So we had a great time at the meet, and it was so much fun we were still there jawboning while they were handing out their little gegaws. Which was a mistake because they made me come up front and a guy kept trying to stick a microphone in my mouth. Didn't hardly know what to think of that one. I DID get to check an item off my bucket list though, (Sit in a genuine original GT40! YEAH! ) So eventually we went to O'Charlies with the gang and then headed back to Florence.

The drive back was much more rapid than we expected and we managed to hit a lull and blasted through the construction area with no impediments and were back here in little more than an hour, whereupon I attempted to upload a slightly leaner tune to my car and somehow managed to corrupt the file in the controller. So, instead of heading back to W.Va. in my car with Dan the next day of course I drove the Roadmaster. Carl of course, headed to Tennessee.  

I think Dan and I set a personal record for the Florence to Milton commute. Because so far at least, the Roadmaster can still out accelerate the mighty 1UZ-TR7 I followed Dan's lead, and lead he did. These cars remove the guesswork from passing, and on the AA highway passing is what it's all about. It's fair to say that we only slowed down momentarily approaching the back markers. I don't know how fast this car has been driven, and I'm not sure I want to know. But I can attest that it is stable at 120, at which point the engine is humming along at 2500 rpm quite happily. The return trip was a good bit more sedate but even so gave one of the best trip times I've personally seen on that drive. By contrast, my roadster is at 2500 rpm at 75 mph and is comfortable there. At that speed the Roadmaster is turning about 1700-1800 rpm, and it too feels comfortable. I wouldn't even begin to hazard a guess as to which one could achieve the highest top speed, but I'm inclined to think it would be the Roadmaster, whereas the roadster would likely post a faster quarter.

So that's it for the driving report. On the upgrades, we took preliminary measurements for the lines and hoses, took notes of fitting types, and did some test fitting and the next step is for me to fit the condenser, take final measurements, and order parts. I'll get to that as soon as it's convenient to do it.

Also on the drive I noticed some pedal creep in the brakes. I think Carl mentioned that too. So we may need a new master cylinder.

I'll adjust the LR ride height next time it's on the lift.

We do have a heavier sway bar. It's big, 7/8 or 1". But we can try that one if y'all want to. No sticky tires tho.

Jim

QuoteDan also came in with his Lexus 1UZ 3.5L DOHC powered TR7

Minor correction for Dan's sake.  I believe that it is a 4.0L V8 from a SC400 & though it is DOHC per bank, I prefer to call it a Quad Cam engine.  

Yep.  That's what is says on the spark plug cover...four cam 32

Picky, picky. It's still a DOHC engine with DOHC heads. But have it your way, Quad Cam it is. As for the displacement, I was only going by what Dan told me, could be a 4L for all I know.

Jim

I never said 3.5.  The 400 in SC400 is for 4 liter.

Huh. Imagine that. I was wondering why it ran so strong.

Jim

Back to the Roadmaster.

I have driven it very few miles since it lived with me for a month back in March of 2012.  It was still teething & very early into the shakedown.

I am very happy to report that the 155 mile round trip to the Dayton British car show from Blackwood Labs was the most fun I have had driving the Roadmaster.  It has come a long way in the last 5 1/2 years.  A very easy, comfortable driver & highway cruiser.  Gonna be awesome with A/C.  It was a hoot to follow Jim's MG up the highway watching all the reactions of others on the road.  The three of us (Dan's TR7/8) caused quite a stir!

Never thought I would say this, but I could see owning a GT V8.

I think that means you're getting older Carl .

We finally made it to the Fall Gathering in Townsend.  It was great to see old friends again and meet some new friends. Two highlights for me were driving the Tail of the Dragon (although it was in a Nissan Altima rental) both ways and a chance to take the Roadmaster for a spin.  

Driving the Roadmaster is a totally different experience than driving my MGB Roadster with a 3.5L Rover engine. I had expected it to be a handful.........not so! Once I got used to the heavy clutch it was a blast to drive, a very docile machine, easy to drive and goes where you point it in the corners.  I was surprised given the fact that it had a big block Buick up front.. The roll-on power is phenomenal; only two gears needed....forward and reverse. :-).

I did have time to find a twisty road, not too hard in this part of the world, and was able to get an appreciation for how well this unusual combination works. I think that it would make a great touring car. I wish that I had more time to go further.

Phill it's a hoot to drive the RM, I've been fortunate enough to get to drive that fine v8 quite a few miles..

Hey who's driving RM to Dayton?  If you need a driver I'll volunteer.

MG-Roadmaster work weekend progress report:

Thursday and Friday Steve and Dan arrived to work on the car. Carl couldn't come because of something about a crown, and PJ had some sort of a scheduling conflict. Our objectives were to R&R the starter and plumb the A/C refrigerant lines and on those tasks we were successful. As of now the A/C system has been drawn down to 27 inches of mercury and appears to be holding, and the starter is back to normal. We disassembled the old starter and it looks fine except for the bendix being bound up. I plan to go by the local starter-generator shop and see if they can match up a replaccement, and if so do the reassembly and stash it in the boot as a spare. Along the way we found a few other issues.

It looks like we may have lost continuity in the fuel gage circuit, probably just had a wire get knocked off the back of the gage but we'll need to fix that. The bigger issue was that the engine was hydrolocked and then blew white smoke. Yes, I know what you all are thinking, "Holy Smoke!" but I don't think it qualified. We may have caught it in time though. So Steve and Dan spent a good bit of their available time re-torquing the heads and as it turned out, the studs on the offending bank were noticeably less tight than we would have liked. Which as it turned out, we really liked. They also changed out the oil and filter, which Steve brought with him.

On start up, we had no white smoke. Yeah! But after warming up a bit the smoke came back and we were considerably less heartened. After sleeping on it, Dan and I decided to give the car a proper warm-up, and lo and behold, the smoke went away. Yeah! So the thought was that probably there was coolant puddled in the muffler and it took awhile to burn it out. I will be driving the car some this next week and checking it for any more symptoms. I reservedly call it done at this point but that isn't yet final. They ran a compression test on the affected bank and came back with normal numbers. Looking in the surge tank we observed a few small bubbles but since the coolant had been drained, an additional heater core added, and the heat control valve has not been opened that is inconclusive.

We ordered a pair of the fancy NGK spark plugs to match the others since there were a couple of strays, those come in Thursday.  And we applied anti-sieze to the spark plug threads, definitely a needed thing.

As for the A/C, the system is now fully installed and plumbed. It contains both cooling and heating elements in the same coil so we had additional heater hoses to run but the good news from that is that not only will it give a boost to winter heat but it will be able to de-ice itself if the need arises. On that note, there is a pair of small drain hoses that will need to be added to prevent the formation of a small lake in the passenger's footwell. We ran hard lines up inside the fenderwells and the plumbing came out rather tidy, thanks to all who assisted with the planning and components. We ended up with some redundancy somehow. I don't know what happened, it wasn't my fault. Nobody reminded us that there was a drier built into the condenser and we ended up with one in the liquid line somehow. I don't know  how that happened but I don't see any good reason to change it now.

We still need to add the control wiring and the ductwork, plus the radiator fans need to come on with the compressor and the temp sensor tube needs to be fitted into the evaporator coil and a face plate made to mount the controls. But at least at this point the hard work is done.

We will need to schedule another work weekend sometime between now and the Dayton meet in July. I'm thinking maybe April or May but we'll just have to see what works.

Jim

Kudos to Jim, Dan, & Steve.  Looks like y'all got a lot done!  Dearly hope that head gasket is okay.

My Dentist say I need a crown, but that was not the issue.

Be very careful torquing coated spark plug into aluminum heads.

BTW, NGK says to install their new plugs dry.

NGK spark plugs feature what is known as trivalent plating. This silver-or-chrome colored finish on the threads is designed to provide corrosion resistance against moisture and chemicals. The coating also acts as a release agent during spark plug removal. NGK spark plugs are installed at the factory dry, without the use of anti-seize. NGK tech support has received a number of tech calls from installers who have over-tightened spark plugs because of the use of anti-seize. Anti-seize compound can act as a lubricant altering torque values up to 20 percent, increasing the risk of spark plug thread breakage.

Yeah and I applaud them for that. But when the plugs have to be wrenched all the way out using a significant bit of muscle, it needs anti-sieze. I'm not trusting a set of 2 thousand dollar heads to some fancy coating. Sometimes reality just doesn't measure up to the hype, sad as that is.

Real nice weather today. I might take it for a drive.

Jim

Drove 25 miles today, mostly freeway. Got back home, no smoke, oil is clear. Didn't check for bubbles but I will in another day or two.

Jim