So what happened to my B?

Out of the blue yesterday I received a phone call from a nice chap from Ohio.   Apparently he bought a blue MGB from someone in West Virginia in September and had been doing some online research about the car.   He came across my blog and thought the engine bay pics looked familiar.  Turns out he bought my old B!   We had a pleasant chat, and I have to say that I was pleased to hear that the car was in safe hands.  Happy motoring and safety fast!

MGB Blogs

I thought I would compile a list of other MGB blogs after a comment from a blogger on my last post so, in no particular order here goes... I'll add more to this post as I find them. Feel free to contribute by commenting.

Blogs:

mylastmg.blogspot.com

mgbracer.blogspot.com

dans65b.blogspot.com

73mg.blogspot.com

mymgb.blogspot.com

1972mgb.blogspot.com

devinemg.blogspot.com

mgbproject.blogspot.com

thinkracing.blogspot.com

mdsmg.blogspot.com

myoldmgb.blogspot.com

78mgb.blogspot.com

mikes76mgbproject.blogspot.com

in-the-key-of-b.blogspot.com

whyisitnotworkingright.blogspot.com

1974mgb.blogspot.com

www.keepthemdriving.blogspot.com

timsbritishiron.blogspot.com



Enthusiast's websites (not exactly blogs)...

miller-garage

www.mgclassiccars.com

http://mgphoton.com/



And finally a lego MGB: lmotd.blogspot.com/2008/02/mgb-roadster.html

Farewell to the B

Unfortunately my car was involved in a wreck (not my fault - I was stationary at the time). It was a total loss (although from the pic it doesn't look that bad). Anyhow, they came to take it away today.

I won't be buying it back, and I'll be getting out of MG ownership for a while I think. But I'll leave this blog up in case anyone finds it useful.

I would recommend getting an agreed upon value for your classic car with your insurer - this will reduce uncertainty about the insurance claim. Your best bet is to use Haggerty or some other specialty insurer.

So I'm signing off. Safety Fast and drive carefully!

1/17/2009: As a postscript - I learned today from my friends at MGExp.net that my car was sold at the auction for $2500 to someone in West VA. I hope they enjoy the car.

Electric MGB

I don't normally post stuff that is not related to my car, but as my car is running pretty well right now, I thought I would branch out a little. This guy (on youtube) has documented how he built an electric MGB. It looks pretty simple, although, as we know, the devil is in the details. Anyhow, check out the youtube video (you'll want to watch his earlier videos too.

MGB Poster

Over on mgexperience.net there is a thread for people to make their own MGB posters. Here is a great one.

Cylinder Head Identification

A friend was looking at my cylinder head and he noticed that it doesn't have air rail holes drilled for the air pump. Hmmm. Very puzzling. On the suggestion of folks at MGExp I pulled the valve cover gasket and made a note of the number. The head is a number 12H4736. Pat# 565394. This is actually a British Leyland produced replacement head for the B. I think they came without the air rail holes drilled so that they could be sold in both the US and UK market.

If you want to ID you cylinder head, here are a couple of useful sites...
http://www.flowspeed.com/cylinder-ident.htm
and

http://www.mgbmga.com/tech/mgb25.htm

Ray, owner of the famous supercharged B writes on his site...

The MGB engine used four basic cylinder head designs. The fourth version of the cylinder head was a slightly modified version of the 12H4736 cylinder head first introduced on the Austin Marina and used in the UK/European market RB MGB (74½-80) as Original Equipment.
This cylinder head was also used as a replacement cylinder for the CAM1106 on the US RB MGB (74½-80). They are essentially the same as the CAM1106 with slight modifications. It was referred to as the "lead-free" cylinder head and was induction hardened to withstand higher combustion temperatures of lead-free fuel.

The process involved 1% tin being added to the molten iron before casting, additional depth was used which was machined off before the induction hardening process was applied to the valve seat area, all valve seats. This was a complex process and applied only to the US market cylinder heads. It used 1.5625" inlet valves and 1.343" exhaust with a more efficient "Open" Kidney-Shaped combustion chambers featuring a larger squish area as well as reduced promontory between the valves, a chamber height of .375" with a volume of 39cc, (UK 43cc). The rear rocker shaft pedestal had an offset oil feed in order to accommodate the redesigned cooling passages that assisted in preventing overheating of the rear cylinder. These larger coolant ports also provided a greater service area to assist in dealing with higher combustion temperatures that resulted in efforts to reduce emissions. It has air injection ports and a water choke outlet at the rear of the cylinder head. The main difference compared to the CAM-1106 was a slightly more improved intake port design and the outer shaping of the head was revised giving a much smoother appearance. The Patent Number 565394 located by the thermostat housing was removed and marked inside the cylinder head.
We felt this cylinder had that little extra and when ported would provide us with low and middle range torque & power for increased street performance that we wanted.

Most likely the original head cracked and was replaced with this one. All fascinating stuff...

Clutch slave cylinder part deux...

A good while ago I rebuilt my clutch slave cylinder - to tackle a leaking problem. Well, it still leaked. Recently it has been leaking at a pretty good rate leaving plenty of clutch fluid on the garage floor. I think the rebuild failed because the drum was pitted. Anyhow, I installed a brand new cylinder today and I'm hoping that the leaking will stop. Frankly, given the relative low cost of a new cylinder, I would probably recommend just going ahead and replacing it with a new one rather than messing with a rebuild.

Bleeding the clutch system is a lot easier with a Gunson Eezibleed, but you still need someone to do a little pumping of the clutch.