MGB Roadmaster

[MGBV8]

Tire Rack sez that the Continental ExtremeContact DWS 06 is not directional and that the g-Force Comp-2 A/S PLUS is directional.

I vote for the Conti.

[BlownMGB-V8]

OK, we got 2 votes for the Conti. Anybody else?

Jim

[kstevusa]

As previously noted, Conti.  They are asymmetrical but not directional as noted on google.    Happy Camper!

[rficalora]

Conti.

[DiDueColpi]

I'm a little late to the party, did all the good looking girls leave?
I'll throw my two bits down on the Conti's.

[rficalora]

Hey, great to hear from you Fred!

[BlownMGB-V8]

We put the Conti's on the rear. When we wear out the fronts I suggest we put them on there too.

Jim

[BlownMGB-V8]

We just finished out another Roadmaster Weekend here at Blackwood Labs, and it was a pretty good gathering as we had 9 of us in attendance. Steve D and Dan showed up on Thursday and by Saturday the rest had trickled in. Carl, Mike Moore, Matthew, Rick, Mike Maloney, and Denny. Everyone contributed to the effort and we made a lot of progress.

Aligning the rear axle was the the major item on the agenda but we also had to change the oil and as we discovered on a parts run, re-mount the radiator fan. Luckily it was not seriously damaged in the discovery.

The operation was a success to the satisfaction of all present and we took the axle from a significant toed out condition to a light toe-in. We also set the ride height and put the camber angle to zero, and replaced the delrin bushings in the uprights with timken bearings. I'll test drive it this week after I've had the chance to re-check the lug nut torque.

Rick brought the NOS wheel that was donated and took the worst bent wheel to the tire shop to have the wheel re-mounted and balanced so at this point we have one wheel which we should replace whenever we can find a straight one, and one with a slight bend that we can overlook. We fitted the steel tapered lug nut seats from the bent wheel so that we can use the tapered lug nuts.

Aside from that the car seems to be in good shape, starts easily and runs smoothly. No known issues at this time.

We would like it to appear at the meet in June, and if I have not resolved the tuning issues with my car by then I can certainly drive it if it is still here. Steve D has asked to take it for a couple weeks but we haven't discussed when that will be.

Some of the guys took pictures. If you would be so kind as to share them here it would be appreciated I'm sure. I understand some of them are on facebook and perhaps other social media.

Jim

[johnsfolly]

Would you believe PJ would let a one-armed man drive the Roadmaster at the British V8 meet?
The hitch was, I had to agree to gas it up. Nice trick, PJ.
Not a valid attachment ID.

[rficalora]

Can't see the pic John?

[BlownMGB-V8]

Update on the MG-Roadmaster status: After the BritishV8 meet Steve DeGroat and I re-sealed the AC compressor, replaced the condenser, and got the AC system working the best it ever has. (44 degree air at the vent on an 80 degree day) We installed cruise control as well, but the engine developed a noise. Subsequent testing left us all puzzled and befuddled by the symptoms and then the engine would not crank. This week after more diagnostics I have discovered the problem and it looks like we will have to change the head gaskets due to hydrolock. So the car is down until we can schedule another Roadmaster work weekend. This might happen in the middle of September or could be October or later, but at least once that is done we will have good dependable AC and cruise.

Jim

[BlownMGB-V8]

Following the AC repair we developed head gasket issues and the car has sat while re have been sorting out what needs done and how we are to go about it. That is now pretty well settled and scheduled tentatively for next month here at Blackwood Labs.

The engine will come out of the car and go on a stand.
The heads will come off.
The crank will come out.
Pistons and rods will come out.
Crank will go in the lathe and the rear seal journal will be turned and polished to remove the OEM hash marks under the seal. Alternatively we could send it to the shop for that but I don't think it's necessary.
Higher compression pistons will be fitted to the rods.
Reassembly with all new gaskets
Reinstalled in the car.

You may wonder why the gaskets failed. The short answer is because when we went to assemble with the newly acquired aluminum heads we were out of money, as in broke. The engine had not been run with the iron heads and we opted to take a chance on the new head gaskets that had been used when it was assembled with the iron heads. We had a few leakage problems that were band-aided with radiator sealant but after 24K miles the crows came home to roost. So it was no fault of the block or heads and the surfaces should still be good. Lesson learned: Can't do that.

This level of disassembly is an opportunity to upgrade the engine to the pre-smog configuration by installing higher compression pistons.

So last night we began taking up a collection to pay for new pistons and rings. TA Performance has good cast 10:1 pistons with rings on the shelf in the correct oversize for $461 and we are a little past halfway to that goal. Any excess will go into the MG-Roadmaster bank account for future needs. If you would like to contribute you can send money via check or paypal to Rick Ingram at Mowog1@aol.com

Thanks,
Jim

This is a non-profit promoting creativity among our teenagers.

[rficalora]

I know I sent some in after this post and suspect some others have as well.  What's the latest total Jim?

[BlownMGB-V8]

We'd have to get that from Rick but I do know that the purchase of the pistons and rings are covered. Weight of the pistons may be a little different though and if they are we should probably re-balance the crank. I would expect that to add something like $150 to the cost which I'm sure we can pay but just a few more bucks couldn't hurt. We'll get the total from Rick a week from today. We will weigh the pistons when we do the teardown and I should be able to get the weight spec on the new ones from TA.

Jim

[Dan B]

Work party starts today!

[MGBV8]

I was hoping to be there...

[BlownMGB-V8]

I thought we did very well today getting the engine out and on the stand. No real surprises so far except I was kinda disappointed with the lock washers on the flywheel bolts and think we might just leave those off when it goes back together. We also had a bit of a struggle getting the radiator out so we might massage that area a bit to make things a little easier in the future. We also need to do some work on the dipstick tube and see if maybe we can come up with a better location. But everything has gone pretty smoothly. We'll pull the heads off tomorrow and take some measurements, maybe get the pistons on order.

Jim

[BlownMGB-V8]

Now that the work session is over I'll do my best on an update. Some good news and some bad but overall not exactly what we expected. First off, the bores look pretty good with no wear but #4 had some scuffing at the front of the cylinder and I question just how well the rings had seated due to some uneven looking places. I'm pretty sure those were chromed rings and that may not be the best choice next time. We took measurements and determined that this engine had a static compression ratio of 9.13:1 which is really quite acceptable, and we don't feel that alone would justify a piston swap. The cam is a Crower dual pattern # 52241, it has a valve lift of .514/.525 and duration @.050 of 230/236 with 112 separation. May not be ideal for us but not bad. Probably not off enough from ideal to justify a cam change. The bearings were badly worn, down into the copper with one rod bearing particularly bad but the crank journals were not scored. Cam bearings look just fine. Head gasket leakage was visible in places where the radiator sealant had built up on the block but no visible damage to either block or heads. We suspect small quantities of antifreeze leaking into the crankcase over time caused the bearing wear.

Dan will be delivering the block, heads and piston/rod assy's to the shop later today and I plan to call Dustin to let him know what we want done. After his initial cleaning and inspection we will decide how best to proceed. We will need to buy rod and main bearings and new rings of course. We have $740 in donations received for the piston upgrade.

Now, since those donations were for the specific purpose of buying new pistons, I need to offer to refund that money to anyone who does not want it used for bearings rings, and machine work instead. If you fall into that category please contact me and I'll send your donation back. Otherwise we will use it to refresh the engine. I figure the bearings and rings will eat up over half of it and Dustin's services will easily eat the rest and very likely more besides. So what I'm saying is that anybody else who would like to contribute would be very welcome.

I expect charges for cleaning, inspection, crank grinding, finish hone, and possibly resizing rods, and skimming the heads. The #4 cylinder is going to be a judgement call. The scuff marks are just barely deep enough to catch a fingernail but you can feel them. There are a couple ways we can deal with them. Cheapest and easiest is a finish hone that leaves visible marks. The engine wasn't burning oil and we wouldn't lose any substantial amount of compression so performance wouldn't be affected. Next step is if we could get the same piston .050" over and hone to that size in that cylinder only, which may be a possibility. (The current pistons are .040" over)  I think the crank was 10/20 undersized so we'll just have to wait and see whether we can reuse it or not and still get the required clearances. I will know more in about a week.

Jim

[MGBV8]

That cam should have more compression.  IMO, it is two or three sizes too big.  A 52238 or 52239 would be much better for our use.  On the other hand, if in good shape...

I hope those TA heads do not need to be skimmed.  Maybe the block needs a slight decking? A .5-.75 compression bump would be good for the cam we have.

[BlownMGB-V8]

Update. The engine is back together, in the car and has been on a short test drive. We had a few issues along the way, a few more parts needed, and our expenses have run about $125 short of donations which was more than I'd hoped for but at least we are still in the black on this refresh. Machine shop costs including main, rod and cam bearings and rings was a very reasonable $845. Mains alone were about $130. Unplanned expenses included 2 oil & filter changes with Lucas additive, synchromesh oil, antifreeze, alumablast paint, shifter boot, oil sender, dipstick etc. It adds up so in total we spent around $1600, part of which was for gaskets, seals, cam and lifters. I think we did pretty good.

Dan and Steve were here for a couple of days during which we assembled the engine, put it in the car, reinstalled all the major parts and ordered parts. I got to finish it up afterwards, which has taken a few days.

My impression after the first drive is that maybe there's a cylinder or two not firing. Definitely down on power and feels like a miss. Oddly the exhaust ports on the off side are warmer than the ones on the driver's. I'll be looking a little closer at the plug wires since we had those off and maybe that will be the problem. Indications are that the rings seated almost immediately and starting is just like it was before. Main seals are doing fine both front and rear and so far it's all pretty dry underneath. Hopefully it'll stay that way.

Jim

[kstevusa]

Great news Jim.. Thanks to Dan, Steve and you.

[rficalora]

Jim, Dan, & Steve - thanks for getting it this far!  Looking forward to hearing what's up with the power levels.  Hopefully just bad plug wires or not in the right order.

[rficalora]

Jim, Dan, & Steve - thanks for getting it this far!  Looking forward to hearing what's up with the power levels.  Hopefully just bad plug wires or not in the right order.

[BlownMGB-V8]

It had 1 wire that had pulled out of the boot. I re-crimped the end and it's fine. I've been driving the car for the last couple of days, got probably 25-30 miles on it now.How does it compare to before? Well it's easier to start and easier to drive (not that that was a goal or anything). I no longer give it any gas when I let out the clutch, just make it a 2 step process. Let the clutch out, then give it gas. It is extremely smooth and controllable off idle. Edith could drive this car easily, and she doesn't do stick. As for the power, it's there. I'm not sure if there is as much as before or not, my guess is probably not but we're still in the break-in stage so who knows? I don't think we could tell without a dyno and since we never really got a satisfactory dyno pull out of it before we could only compare it to the Texas dyno pull which was shut down while the power was still going up. But, it does have "enough" power. It'll be fine.

Be interesting to see how it does on gas mileage.

I've had to back off the idle speed screw once already and need to do it again I think. I take that as a good sign. Oil pressure is above the midway mark always. BTW that gage is inaccurate by at least 5psi reading low. We've got about 45psi or more at warm idle and the pressure relief opens about 75. Anyway as long as it's in the upper hemisphere, no worries.

The horn doesn't work, cruise control doesn't work, and the swaybar contacts the tires on a hard turn (like when parking). But for now I'm working on my bus. Then I need to get my car on the lift to adjust the emergency brakes and put the summer tires back on. After all that, the oil in the RM will need changed before the meet, hopefully I can get a couple hundred miles on it by then and while it's on the lift for that I'll look at bending the ends of the swaybar. It now has a 1" bar, 5/8" on rear with adjustable linkage and I did the skidpad thing in the church lot and the handling is very nicely balanced. I doubt I'll have time to troubleshoot the cruise but maybe I can look at the horn.  

Jim

[mgb260]

Jim, what cam did you go with?