Blown 346 cid Stroker 300

[BlownMGB-V8]

Doing a bit of trimming on the hood opening today to improve aesthetics and make a little more room for injector wiring and throttle linkages. I need to look at the cruise cable to see where that can go and I'll need a return spring of some sort as well as a longer throttle cable and a mounting point for the cable jackets. Still sorting out the fuel lines and FPR and will need a fitting or three, finding just the right ones might be fun.

I'm still holding off on deciding about the anodizing, and thinking about a new scoop design. It looks like there will be no trouble incorporating an IAC but I was playing with an electric throttle actuator and want to look at that again. The actuator doesn't have to be right on the throttle body so that opens some options. I will have to extend the fuel delivery line so it will get a second union up around the engine compartment somewhere making it a 3 piece line. And I'm still puzzling out the hood actuator mounts. That answer hasn't quite come to me yet.

Along in there somewhere I still need to make up new seat belts, which requires me to find a way to increase the top thread tension on the sewing machine. The heavy waxed thread I'm using doesn't pull back through the two webbing layers to where it needs to be. I get that adjusted though and it's a 2 hour job. So in reality more like a day or two. Then there's fluids, programming the ECU, start-up, break in, leak check and adjustments. It'll be a minute yet.

And of course reinstalling the AC compressor and the accessories belt and then charging and testing the AC system.

2 weeks to get all that done and tested to a level of reliability to insure a problem free thousand mile round trip? Yeah, piece of cake right? But the real goal is to button it up so it's driveable, pull out the Bay Car and get back on the bus conversion. Maybe next spring I can look at things like carpet, new electric wing actuators, the next inlet scoop, and maybe some body prep for a new paint job. Eventually I do plan to finish up on this car, even considering the feature creep.

Jim

[BlownMGB-V8]

Oh yeah, I also have to do something with the coils. Yep, not gonna make the meet deadline. Oh well, I guess I'll be forced to drive the Alfa. Such heartbreak, I even just got the seatbelt chime turned off. (I always use 'em, except in the driveway when the chime gets kinda annoying. It's way too loud.)

So I've been working on the mounts for the new electric bonnet lift cylinders and they are taking a rather innovative path you might say, since a spherical bearing needs to be incorporated into the mount at each end to avoid binding and the actuators come with a straight pin mount. I'll get some photos later on, today's job is to cut threads on the lathe, most likely a 1"x 24 thread and make up a pair of knurled pin spanner nuts. It's gotten a bit nutso on the design. Well that's not really anything new then is it? More later.

Jim

[BlownMGB-V8]

Got pictures this morning, first below are the cups I made to hold the spherical bearings. These are the ones to be attached to the inner fender and there are two more, not yet bored to depth that will attach to the struts later in the process.



Anyway here is one bolted to the lift actuator, it will compensate for the angular misalignment.



The fine thread is a 1" x 24 TPI which became necessary due to the thin wall of the cup. Below you see one screwed into the matching threaded piece which will be turned into a knurled pin spanner nut once the knurling tool I ordered off Amazon gets here. Supposedly today so probably next week sometime.



I welded the cups into stainless plates which bolt to the inner fenders using the knurled nut and a BHCS through one of the holes formerly used for the hydraulic fittings. A bit of fettling to make the plate flush and that end's done. There's room for a second bolt if I decide it's needed or even a 3rd.



Jim

[BlownMGB-V8]

So that's one end attachment done:



The inside looks like this. Sort of automtive jewelry if you will, I suppose you could think of them as earrings if you wanted to. Totally extra but they do look nice:



The other end is liable to be a little tricky.

Jim

[BlownMGB-V8]

The forward mounts are now completed.



The geometry worked out well with full hood opening and closure, still a little work to do for fully smooth closing but it's nearly there.



Clearances are tight but adequate.



It's a little slower but the upside is that it now has built in limit switches so it can be switched to open or close and then ignored while it does it's thing. I may consider faster actuators later on, the next one is twice as fast but with half the power. That may be a good compromise.



The end pin is a hex bolt that has had one flat cut back to the shaft in order to fit in the socket and that works just fine with the spherical joint. It does however fix the pin so it does not rotate, so rotation must be done at the strut, meaning that the nut must leave a little play. This can be done with a double nut so I'm considering an acorn nut and locknut combo. That should work fine and there is plenty of room for it.

Jim

[BlownMGB-V8]

Had to flatten one tube on each header a bit to allow the wings of the bonnet to slide past smoothly when closing, this allows the rear of the bonnet to drop, which lets the fingers go down and under the drip rail so that when the assembly is fully closed there is an extra safety keeping the rear edge from lifting. It's probably not needed now with the electric actuators, but it's been proven that very significant dents or dimples in the header tubes do not impede flow so I'll easily get by with this. It helps the bodywork match up better, bringing that one step closer. I'll need to add two new tabs to the stainless grille trim and buff out the weld discoloration.



At any rate I've been testing the motion and it's been flawless with one exception. If I could limit the travel by about a quarter inch on opening it would keep the  hood trim from contacting the bumper. I went ahead and ordered a pair of the 2x-speed actuators, after all they are pretty affordable at $50 each. I'll fit those up and if they work I'll tear down one of the ones I have on it now and see what it'll take to shorten the travel a little bit. To me that'll be worth the premium. The analysis will be a fun task as well. The unused ones will not go to waste, I'm opposed to wastefulness so I'll use them in the RV on the bed platform storage lid.



Flattening the tubes was kinda fun actually. I have an old brass hammer that I first used a flapper wheel to smooth out the heads so it wouldn't dimple the metal. Then after marking the tubes I began working the metal slowly with light taps while smoothing it into the shape that was needed. There were two main areas of concern, first to not push in the center of the area being deformed so far that a bit of curvature can't be maintained, which would result in a dish, which would look bad. It could only go completely flat at the final point in the process. Second area was the boundary or corners of the affected area. A radius had to be maintained there all the way up to the end of the process when it could then be reduced. But that point had to be accurately determined. There was a fine line between too much and too little and I hit it with just a little tolerance for finger clearance at the drip rail. Pretty happy with that. Granted we don't like to see dings in the header tubes but they don't look bad, they serve a useful purpose and they don't impede exhaust flow so that's a win pretty much all around.



That brings me to the wiring and controls. Because the hydraulic pump was in the trunk the control wires went back there and will have to be re-routed to the front and go through the bulkhead seals which is in a crowded and poorly accessible area (typical though). Happily no relays will be needed as the current is low and a standard toggle switch will easily handle it. The current switch is momentary contact but fortunately toggle switches are easily found in almost any imaginable configuration. Two options seem suitable: ON-ON with no center position and this would be the simple solution, and probably the one most used. It gives you either open or closed positions. Or I could use ON-OFF-ON which would allow me to stop the motion at any intermediate point. I think I will start with that one and then consider the other later.



One advantage of the ON-ON switch is that should dynamic forces backdrive the actuators they will immediately power up and return to the park position. But with at least 660 lbs of force at the actuator required to do that it seems unlikely. I did have that problem with the hydraulic system, which had zero resistance to backdriving and would let the hood float. This became an issue at speeds above 110 and there were times when I had to consider lifting. I expect that will be a thing of the past.

Jim

[BlownMGB-V8]

Been absent for a few days, V8 meet and all that plus a few other distractions but I haven't totally been sitting on my hands. Today I expect to finish up the re-webbing of my Kangol magnetic latch seat belts using the proper thickness of webbing and I'll take a few photos and add some tips later. I've also found enough of the 10mm marine plywood to replace the burned trim panel for the trunk bulkhead but haven't started the layout, and I need to order a new inertia switch and connector.

The new set of struts came in, they will operate twice as fast which should be about right. They are also one inch shorter overall and although that means I'll have to drill and tap a new set of mounting holes in the hinge mechanism, it also means the bonnet will be stopping short of the front bumper, which is what I really wanted in the first place. So that's a fortuitous development and I'll see how it all works out once I've calculated the geometry changes to locate the holes. I got really lucky that the closed position was exactly right but I'm not going to trust the width of a sharpie tip to get it exactly right twice in a row.

Jim

[BlownMGB-V8]

The most difficult part of rebuilding a set of Kangol Magnetic Latch seat belts is obtaining the webbing. I finally found a source:

For and on behalf of FDTS Limited
Susan Taylor
MBA, BA (hons) Law, DMS
Managing Director
sue@fdts-seatbelts.co.uk
Tel:  01932342043

I ordered 7 yards of their black ZY webbing and all costs included paid 90 Pounds Sterling. With the belts completed I can now confirm that it appears to be the correct material but I haven't test driven it yet. I had better than a yard left over, so 6 yards is a suitable order size. You might get by with 5, I seem to have misplaced a 1/2 yard piece somehow though so I couldn't guarantee that.




The second hardest bit is finding all the plastic bits in good repair. They tend to suffer some abuse, especially the small webbing end pieces with the ones that slide along the lap belt getting the worst of it. Due to damage and lack of rivets I made up these bits and used 1/4" long x 10-32 stainless button heads.



For the sliders I folded some strip over the plates and clamped them in the vise. They ended up being a bit too tight going over the screw heads so I had to insert a putty knife and flex them upwards to get the proper drag.



The next hardest part is restoring the hard metal parts which are chrome plated and tend to rust and flake. I mostly replaced those bits with stainless, except for the adjuster frames and I just used the best ones I had. It's all completely disassemblable btw. The adjuster bar has an angle cut on one side that allows it to come out. I had to use a 400 series stainless for the hook, being a chromium stainless it is magnetic, unlike the 300 series nickel stainless but it is also considerably more expensive.



I'm satisfied with the results. I spent more in time and money doing it myself than it would have cost me to send them off to be restored but I would never have gotten the stainless hardware that way, and I refuse to send my precious parts out for fear they would not come back. Hey, most do not guarantee you get your original parts back in the return and even if they did, "mistakes" can happen. I have known raccoons who might latch onto a particularly tasty shiny bit after all. I couldn't chance it. Besides, it gave me a chance to get creative and I couldn't be more pleased with the results. I suppose I could have buffed the plates, but I can always do that later when I have nothing better to do.

Jim

[BlownMGB-V8]

Doing the math on the new struts turned out to be embarrassingly easy and a quick glance at the trig tables showed that the length difference error due to the change in angle is significantly less than 1/64", probably about 5 thou realistically so there goes that excuse for getting on with it. High time I get started tidying up the details.

I have some trimming to do on that bulkhead panel, want to pull the console for the wiring change, and then probably cut the coil brackets so I can mount them.

In the meantime, just to stay busy you understand, I've disassembled the brakes on the Samurai (my 4wd golf cart). It's getting a bunch of new parts, hoses, maybe even a couple of lines, the muffler welded up, exhaust leaks sealed and prepped to get tags and title. It's role is being expanded to general around town pick-up micro truck. Parts are coming in Monday. Then the Lincoln Blackwood gets prepped for sale. Better that than to become a barn find.

Jim

[Scott Costanzo]

Then the Lincoln Blackwood gets prepped for sale. Better that than to become a barn find.

End of a era!

[BlownMGB-V8]

One way to look at it I guess, but also similar to when the Travelall went away. Still miss that truck sometimes though, what a beast it was.

Not much for today but I did get the first coat of finish on the trim panel. It should turn out pretty good. A bit of overkill like many things on the car but it'll make mounting speakers easy.

Jim

[BlownMGB-V8]

Mounted the new bonnet power struts yesterday and am reasonably happy with the results. The hood trim no longer contacts the bumper which is what I wanted to start with, the bonnet closes properly and stays down, the speed is a bit faster but it looks like they are not much more than just powerful enough. Speed is 10mm/second and thrust is 330 lbs each, 660 lbs combined. An upgrade might be handy, something on the order of 20mm/sec and 450-500 lbs. That might be hard to find in a compact package small enough to give the right geometry though so this will do for now.

Jim

[BlownMGB-V8]

A little more progress, got the center console wiring and switch change done and routed the wires forward but as the Sammy is still on the lift was unable to complete that. Finished coating the rear panel with spar urethane so it can go in today. Pulled the wing cylinders and plumbing off and ordered electric actuators for that. they will need to be made longer but will have the right 2" of travel and are fairly fast at 1.75"/second. Best I could do for a reasonable price. The good news is that they are now making round linear actuators and there are some very fast ones. A bit large in diameter yet and at this point too expensive but that will change over time. I can wait.

I'm in a bit of a slump, almost looking forward to mowing today, that's not really a good sign. And I have an errand or two to run, Monday is my usual day for that but it rained a bit. With luck my brake parts will come in today and I can get on with it.

Jim

[BlownMGB-V8]

New panel:

[BlownMGB-V8]

Installed nutserts for the speakers and painted the grilles, I have some spares that I'll use for now. I hooked up a set of sonys and a set of blaupunkt and the sonys sound crisper. They are paper cone where the others are poly and that's pretty typical. I'll use the sonys. Apparently the best sound these days comes from Alpine. Must be those clear mountain streams. But the price is dear, at over $300. That can wait.

Actuators for the wing came in and I'm halfway done with modding them to fit, The action looks pretty good. Control will be manual to start with, I can add sensors and a controller later on. I'm thinking there might be a parking sensor that I can use to detect ride height, and a brake light input for full downforce but it needs to be able to return to starting position when the pedal is released.

Making progress on the Sammy's brakes and also working on the forklift just so I don't get too bored waiting on the lift. Still have lines to hook up, injector wiring to stretch and coils to mount but I'm getting there.

Jim

[BlownMGB-V8]

Here are the wing actuators mounted up.



Still need to connect the wires.

Jim

[BlownMGB-V8]

Speakers are in and hooked up but not tested, and the wing strut wires are routed and tested but not connected yet. I'm quite happy with how it works but it's purely manual control for now and no telling how long it'll be until I can do anything about that.

Mounting the coils is probably next.

Jim

[BlownMGB-V8]

Small steps at this point. Modded the coil mounts yesterday so that's moving along. Made up a short line for the FPR return, ordered supplies, that sort of thing. The new heater control valve came in and that looks usable (Yay!). A little every day and it'll soon be done.

Jim

[BlownMGB-V8]

I'm taking a different approach to protecting the back side of my bulkhead speakers, They are front mounted so they only stick through 2 inches which means the available speaker baffles are all way too deep. I ordered some 2" thick foam:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DJQ9TTLD?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_title&th=1

I plan to cut a hole then use 2 sided tape to mount it over the speaker back and attach a panel to the top to finish it off. I have some 1/8" runner sheet that should work.

Jim

[BlownMGB-V8]

Got the first coil assembly attached, I think I'll run a redundant ground wire to the head and it looks like I'll probably need to stretch out the wires on the coil loom to reach. New high tension wires of course.



The other set will have to go behind the engine. There is just enough room in front of the heater box for that. Anybody know of a good source for spark plug wire building supplies? I'll need a coil of wire, end terminal, boots, and the correct crimping tool. Either 7 or 8mm should work and I prefer the wire wound center conductor type as it is a low resistance suppressor type. The boots I have now include an outer shield and spring contact to ground them to the spark plug. Standard GM in the '02 Silverado.

Jim

[BlownMGB-V8]

The coolant plumbing is a little tricky what with 2 temp sensors, the heater supply, return, thermostat bypass and surge tank drain and vent lines, plus my upper radiator hose may need a different thermostat neck or at least a riser. It's not going to work quite like I was thinking it would so I'm moving things around to see how it will all fit. Turns out I'm fortunate that the latest (external rotor) version of the cam position sensor and oil pump drive is short and fits under the ECM temp sensor. Strangely enough I don't seem to have a photo of that.

Jim

[BlownMGB-V8]

Good news, it turned out I had a more suitable thermostat neck, it was light alloy, and I had already cerrocoated it. I'll need a different top hose but that's a small inconvenience.

I was able to bend the heater supply from some stainless tube and found a nice compact 90 degree hose so it now goes up and over the plenum right behind the injectors and hooks directly into the front of the intake. Still need to find the hose barb for that.

The drain from the surge tank had a 90 but I was able to remove that and replace it with a 6" straight nipple, coupler and hose barb so now that line runs just under the AC return line which is jacketed. At the front I'll have to go either under the compressor and up to the water pump or over it. I favor the former as I don't want to create a siphon loop but it is the more difficult route. The rest is straightforward. Once that is all done I can mount the 2nd coil pack.

Still a good bit to do but it's at least moving forward.

Jim

[BlownMGB-V8]

Hoses are done but still need a bracket for the valve. Waiting on parts from Amazon but I have some hardware items to deal with in the meantime. Maybe sometime next week I can get it back in the lift to finish up the strut wiring. I did get the mass airflow sensor properly installed in the riser and I'm sorting out the vacuum lines and such before the scoop goes back on. Wires to do, bolts to tighten, short fuel lines to bend, etc. Throttle cables to hook up. I'm getting there, just have to keep after it. This part often takes the longest and is the most discouraging but it is also closest to the end so it's got that going for it at least. Looks like maybe 2 more weeks to start-up. Have to get spark plug wires too. That will give me a month for shake down before the Cinci show.

Jim

[BlownMGB-V8]

A bit of a peripheral concern below but it does affect my ongoing MGB project so I hope y'all find it amusing or at least entertaining. If it has to be moved then it must, but I see no real reason why it should.

Hornets are the original FAFO Faction (F-around, find out) and I've put 'em on high alert. They recognize and remember human faces and I doubt I can count on them giving me a pass just because they couldn't see me in the dark last night. Yes I'll admit it, I launched a completely unearned pre-emptive strike intended to force any survivors out of their home and neighborhood. I had convinced myself it was justified. It didn't work.

To be fair, they had been good neighbors. Setting up under the sunshade of my antique derelict forklift parked outside, they calmly ignored my comings and goings while I attempted to start the engine and removed the injector pump, banging tools around even though they were all but invisible about a foot above my head, and carried on with their daily routine of hunting pest insects to feed their growing nest. Until about a week ago when I noticed something odd... Huh. That'd been there all the time, it's truly a wonder I never got stung.

At that point I seriously wondered if maybe I should just leave them alone. They had earned a fair portion of goodwill after all. Inconvenient but if I waited until cold weather to fix the forklift they'd be gone and I *could* get by without it until then. Decisions, decisions.

Until I researched the common bald faced hornet. Nope, waiting them out is not an option. As it turns out, until about this time of year they are just happily buzzing along, eating well, hunting, feeding their grubs and papering the walls but at about this point in the season with the nest about halfway built the queen cuts off their food. Man it kinda sucks to be a hornet.

Well leave it to royalty to just upset the applecart. She doesn't care about the workers you see, she just wants to make more queens and protect them until hibernation time and she's quite willing to sacrifice the workers to do it. They can either find enough nectar to survive and keep working or die. Understandably they get a little miffed about that and bad attitudes start to set in. They have no HR department or appeal process so they just have to suck it up and well, being hungry all the time is bound to make anybody cross. Grumble though they might they can't take it out on the queen (survival of the species and all that) so they simply broil in their own juices and revert back to their Yellowjacket roots, becoming another variant of the painfully well known and most angry, aggressive, bad attitude bee on the planet. And who could blame them after all? (Hmmm... does this sound anything at all like a few certain misguided humans we know? Possibly?)

More queens make more workers and less nectar to go around so work gets harder as the nest grows into the fall and while recovering from those long flights the workers sit around the nest making each other miserable until one of them finds an excuse for a little action and they all pour out to express their anger and frustration on any ready target.

If they were out in the woods somewhere I wouldn't care. But since that target is most likely going to be me, and since I don't particularly care to be stung by a hoard of angry suicidal idiots I believe I am not only justified but indeed compelled to take action and the sooner the better. Hence last night's foray.

Still having feelings of kindness towards them I did not immediately take the nuclear option. I could, make no mistake about that. I could easily sacrifice the forklift for the greater good. It doesn't provide me with enough benefit that I would greatly miss it. That would leave me with a mess to clean up, but the scrap metal would be enough to make it worth it. So that's always a possibility but a last resort. I reasoned that if I could annoy them sufficiently perhaps they would willingly relocate and save us both a lot of trouble. So, following recommended guidelines I set up a bright light on one side then approached the nest from the other at night with my handy garden sprayer all pumped up with gasoline in the tank. This remedy has proven rather deadly to yellowjackets but of course the paper would protect the queen. However, perhaps enough would soak through to get them to move. I rather soaked the outside of the nest before enough of them fell out and survived the spray well enough to make sticking round risky and although the gasoline did wet the outside surface I didn't get the impression that it was being soaked up. This morning it looked like business as normal but I wasn't about to get too close.

I'll give it another day. Sterner measures may be required. I have tested the sprayer, which does at least have a brass wand and nozzle to see what would happen if I ignited the spray and feel that has potential. It makes a nice flame wand that can reach out four feet or so, possibly more depending on the tank pressure. It's no flame thrower of course but should be enough to do for a small hornet's nest. The gasoline burns off quickly but should ignite the paper and all there is up there to burn is a little rusty paint that probably won't even ignite. I'd have to watch for burning pieces falling on the engine but that's about it and being diesel I think the risks are acceptably low. Sorry, no napalm. That in my opinion is pretty much a war crime anyway and would be massive overkill perhaps even leading to ignition of the shop and we certainly don't want that.

Maybe it won't be necessary. Maybe they will take the hint. I expect it would take a little time to evacuate, certainly I doubt the queen would be all for it. But who wants to live in a house that smells like gasoline? I'll give them some time and see what develops. But sooner or later that nest has got to go. As it stands I cannot feel safe opening that garage door and I depend on that to mitigate the heat on that end of the lift. With August coming up and the MG needing to go back up, I can't wait around more than a few days at the most. (Hey hornets! Hate to rush you guys but it's better than the alternative.)

Jim

[MGBV8]

My favorite weapon for wasps & hornets is a spray can of something flammable. Add the red straw & hold a BBQ grill lighter out front to create a flamethrower.  Just too much fun.

My experience is that Bald Face Hornets are quite aggressive.