What's your other project (non Jeep) . . . show them off here!

Very Nice truck. Great pictures.


I like it.


Dave

 

I’ll just leave this here.

 

My wife just surprised me with an MG for Christmas. Someone on nextdoor posted it for sale a couple months ago and I randomly mentioned it to her in passing. I know literally nothing about these cars. It drives really nice and the PO had done a lot of work to it, but it’s an older car so I’m sure it will still be a “project”. After owning so many jeeps, I feel like my butt is scraping the ground driving this thing.

 

Congrats! That's a cool car!

 

MGBs are great cars. You'll love it!

 

Great in that you'll always be spending quality time in the garage with it. At least parts are cheap.

 

Nice! looks really smart with the wire wheels and hard top. Iv been looking for a Tc for a few years but they dont come around too often

 

I have a friend with a TD or TC in pieces, I think he'd sell it.

 

I'd call the MGB a great car! My '74 has been sharing DD duty with my CJ5 since I bought it in 2018. Despite what everyone says, it has been very reliable for me after I worked out a few minor bugs. Yours looks like a very nice one too.

 

I assume you mean after the 215 v8 swap....

 

Or better yet, a fuel injected 4.6l version of that motor from a late 90s Range Rover.

 

Well the honeymoon didn’t last long. Found a crack in the head right above the #2 spark plug, which apparently is extremely common with these cars. I’m considering a couple options:

- buy a new cast iron head
- buy a new aluminum performance head
- try Bars Stop leak. I’ve used their radiator stop leak tablets with really good results, but never had the need to try their head gasket/head crack sealers. Any thoughts on this? Am I just throwing $30 away? could it possibly cause additional problems? Or is it worth a shot? For what it’s worth, the crack is very slowly weeping coolant. I haven’t driven much, about 10 miles, but cannot even tell the difference in the coolant level in the radiator.

 

The Bars Stop leak may work but you also may always wonder about it every time you drive it.
Disassemble it to get a better assessment of the situation, if it is just a head issue replace it with the aluminum performance head and be done with it so you can enjoy it without worry.

 

I drove to Jonesborough, Arkansas (12hr round trip) while on my Christmas break and picked up a parts truck for my buddy Eric.

iirc '80s W150 318/auto



His uncle gave him his great grandfather's d150 that had a title so he just swapped the body onto the 4x4 chassis. The D44 is getting some new parts since the wheels were about to fall off.
Yea, if I hadn't moved could be working on my junk in that shop.

 

That MGB is a cool little car. Sorry to hear about the cracked head. Had a '69 MGB back in '80-'81. Love the wire wheel/metal bumper/Banjo steering wheel MGB's. My brother had a '67 MGB GT at the same time I had my '69. We got pretty good at tuning those dual SU carbs back then. Biggest trick was just keeping the SU oil reservoirs full of oil.

Bought an '07 BMW Z4 new in '07 and it reminded me of my old MGB. Although the MGB, while being smaller overall, had more interior room.

I have always wanted to get another one and look into swapping something else in to up the power. I have a VW Vanagon with an Audi A4 1.8L turbo motor swapped in and always wondered if it could be stuffed into an MGB. One of these days I might just drag one home and try it.

 

I tried stop leak and it has definitely made the crack smaller. And I added a coolant overflow reservoir so I can better monitor the coolant level. It’s down to a super slow leak. Maybe a cup of coolant every 100 miles. Keeping my fingers crossed.

Other than that it’s been pretty good. The exhaust resonator was scraping on every speedbump, so I removed it. The exhaust note is pretty sweet now.

The PO said the radio didn’t work. Turns out it’s because… the car had no speakers! I’m not an audiophile, but I’m pretty sure you need speakers. Also the radio was super old and not original. So I bought some cheap speakers and a cheap vintage looking Bluetooth stereo and voilà! Sound!

Heater valve was bad, which is a known issue with these cars. I replaced it with an old bronco heater valve and it puts out really good heat now.

there were some other minor issues like a wallowed out upper hole in the clutch pedal arm, which I welded and redrilled for much better pedal feel. You’re right that these cars are super roomy. Even with the seat all the way forward, I was having trouble pushing the pedals all the way down. So I extended the pedals by about 2 inches and it’s much more drivable now without the steering wheel being tight against my chest.

Now I’m chasing down squealing front brakes. The PO had the brakes replaced and they put the pads in completely dry. I added some copper brake lube today and it definitely helped but still not perfect. I’m going to order some new ceramic pads and see if that fixes the problem. I think I may also need to bleed the front brakes, although I’m not sure that will help with squealing. Can air in the lines potentially cause the pads to vibrate against the discs and squeal?

 

Have you tried the silencing goop that goes on the back of the pads?

 

The copper silencing goop or is there something else I should try? I put 3m copper brake lubricant on the backs of the pads, on the edges that rub the caliper and on the spring clips and cotter pins that hold the pads into the calipers.

https://www.3m.com/3M/en_US/p/d/b40070796/