1970 MGB GT supercharged beast!

FWD to RWD, biggest issues are the throttle body and upper hose as mentioned.  If you look back in the thread I made an elbow for the throttle.  Upper hose I sorta have that mocked up as well.  It was one of those things where I did some fitting, I will be able to make it work but I didn't finalize anything.  A custom water neck would make all that way easier, but I don't wanna make one.  In the states the Camaro used this engine in a RWF application, NA though.  In Australia that did use the L67 in a RWD car and there are bits if you can get em to make things work.  The blower case is Angeles at the throttle end, and they also have a curved tube to kick the throttle out, etc etc.  But for the trans, Camaro T5.  They literally took the FWD engine and shoved it in a Camaro with a different intake manifold.  So stock Camaro flywheel, clutch etc.

I've never heard anything about that coolant passage being an issue.  Nor am I worried about it.  The engine is stock and it will stay that way.  

Her issue in this car with this engine was the accessory drive.  Especially since I wanted AC.  Compressor stock is down low , and in this engine bay there is no down low.  Other issue was the alternator up too high, the heater hose outlets which are part of the alternator bracket.  All this stuff I had to make.  The accessory belt has been completly rerouted, and custom heater hose fittings made.  Spend a few min and look back through this thread.  I address all this stuff.

Harness needs to be reworked as well, oil pan had to be changed.  Camaro pan and pickup worked well though.  If you can get away with relocating the throttle and deal with the upper hose for your project and not have to re engineer the accessories it may be worth it.  This is a lot of work for 240hp.  I could have done a 4cyl with this amount of power much easier, in this car anyway.  Every part of this was a lot of work.  I mean just look at the exhaust lol.  But I like the 3800, the blower ass more torque which i also like.  I've never been a fan of the 60 deg V6 that's commonly used in these cars.  So common there are bolt on kits available.  But I wanted that bling factor of the blower when you pop the hood.  Because supercharger

Well its finally in the booth.   The spray out looked good, but its gonna be a bit darker than I wanted.  But I dont want to do a custom color.  That makes color matching really hard to do.  This is the PPG paint code for Blue Royale, mixed as a single stage paint. 

Subframe is torn down and cleaned, and front end totally disassembled.  Lots of welding to do on the subframe.  And the front end, it will be a stock rebuild.  It needs a kingpin rebuild.  They are not horrible, but its one of those things, it should be done.  For the price of a kit and paying someone to press in and ream everything, I bought new swivel assemblies.  Havent heard anything bad about em so we will see what happens.  Rebuild, quality can be all over the place, and everyone wants crazy $$ for these things, kinda silly.  3 bushings, only 2 reamers needed, why is it $400 to do this, or to buy them done.  Anyway...clean clean clean all the other bits, paint, new bolts and what not etc etc.  The usual.

Motor is lookin good too.  I need to brace my custom idler pulley bracket that has 2 pulleys on it, and paint it.  Also need to figure out how im gonna lift this engine too now that its all together.  I may have to pull the accessories and put them on with the engine in the car.  I was never happy with my lifting setup before, and with everything shiny i want it more tilty with the leveler.  It has to go in with the trans, no dropping the trans separately from the engine.  Its the British way dont ya know.

autocomman said:

Well its finally in the booth.   The spray out looked good, but its gonna be a bit darker than I wanted.  But I dont want to do a custom color.  That makes color matching really hard to do.  This is the PPG paint code for Blue Royale, mixed as a single stage paint. 

Subframe is torn down and cleaned, and front end totally disassembled.  Lots of welding to do on the subframe.  And the front end, it will be a stock rebuild.  It needs a kingpin rebuild.  They are not horrible, but its one of those things, it should be done.  For the price of a kit and paying someone to press in and ream everything, I bought new swivel assemblies.  Havent heard anything bad about em so we will see what happens.  Rebuild, quality can be all over the place, and everyone wants crazy $$ for these things, kinda silly.  3 bushings, only 2 reamers needed, why is it $400 to do this, or to buy them done.  Anyway...clean clean clean all the other bits, paint, new bolts and what not etc etc.  The usual.

Motor is lookin good too.  I need to brace my custom idler pulley bracket that has 2 pulleys on it, and paint it.  Also need to figure out how im gonna lift this engine too now that its all together.  I may have to pull the accessories and put them on with the engine in the car.  I was never happy with my lifting setup before, and with everything shiny i want it more tilty with the leveler.  It has to go in with the trans, no dropping the trans separately from the engine.  Its the British way dont ya know.

 

 

 

 

 

 

If you added anther inch of rust and muck to that (also 20 more spiders) it would look just like mine...

Motor looking very nice !

In reply to GM > MG :

I think most of em would be in that category heh

Wow great project and amazing work so far.   Have you thought about what you are going to do for wheels & tires?   

Because I have always heard that 195's are about the limit without adding fender flares of some sort.   My B has a 3.4 swap which probably doesn't make 2/3rds the power you are looking at.  It is on 175's (no flares) and is ridiculously traction limited.   You might want to be looking at 205's at least with your setup.   

This is a car im building for 2 reasons, to sell and because I wanted to.  So many of my decisions are for the first reason.  Corners not being cut however.  I'm sticking with the stock 14" wheels and probably 185 or 195.  The motor is 240hp 240 tq.  Should be pretty damn sweet as it only adds 50 lbs to the car.  And the blower is going to add all the torque down low where I like it. I'm not the kind of guy who needs to rev out an engine, I like torque down low, I like force induction with the blower, or normal size turbos for drivability reasons. I don't need the power coming in at 4,000 RPM and screaming to six, that's no fun to me in something I want to drive. For me, building a car, I want it to be the kind of thing I can drive all the time without having to think about it.  So I'm not looking for max power for pushing it to the limit. 240 horsepower and a car that weighs a little over 2,000 lb is plenty to get stupid with. And you can put it away exactly the way it is dripping wet after driving the crap out of it and not worry about hurting it.

So there are a ton of things we can do with a B. Wheels brakes suspension etc etc. Sky is a limit. It's getting stock HD rebuilt lever shocks, stock front sway bar, stock springs, poly bushings all around and stock brakes.  The only thing I will add if there are stability problems is going to be a panhard bar. With leaf springs I have no idea how it's actually going to handle. My sprite was a mess until I put a pan hard bar on the rear and it transformed the car. 

The reasoning with my decisions is because the next guy might not care that it has big brakes or super beefy suspension or super sticky tires. The next guy might wanta limited slip differential, which means spending a bunch of money on the stock rear end, or possibly swapping it out for a Ford 8.8 or something of the like. Which then means potentially five lug wheels or redrilling the 8.0 axles for the stock four lug wheels. Somebody might want big breaks in the front, which again can mean five lug wheels, which might mean then they're going to redrill the stocker rear axles or upgrade the rear end. The problem is if I build the car for myself I am not going to make another dime when I sell it, and I'm going to spend a lot more money doing it. Something I've learned over the years when putting a car together with the intent to sell.  This will be a fantastic driver as it is when it is finished just as it is, and a perfect slate to upgrade in whatever area the next owner may want. If it was me personally, Id be possibly looking at ditching the front levers and going with a coilover setup, tube shocks in the rear, big brakes in the front, limited slip rear, and 5 lug wheels most likely 15s and a sweet set of the new aluminum rostyle wheels, oiy they look awesome. But you could easily drop 5k on all of that. I don't expect to make a lot of money on this car because I'm putting so much into it as it is. And I'm doing this build because I wanted to build a B and use this engine in something, and I wanted the fabrication experience. So I was less concerned about the profit. However with the market the way it is I could still actually make some decent money on the car. But I'm not expecting big numbers. And if I drop that 5k into wheels and suspension and big brakes which I would do if I were keeping it, then that will pretty much eliminate just about all the profit I'm expecting to see from it. Only thing I wish I did before it was painted was roll the fenders.

So yeah, I expect it to be a 1 tire fire machine from a roll, but that's ok...once your moving it should hook up ok, but you'll definitely need to respect it.  It should be tons of fun, though I'd love to be able to get all that power to the ground.  Turning tires into smoke is awesome, but I wanna be able to use all that power all the time.  For me that's where the fun is.  I'm so frekin excited to be getting it back soon!

200 TW tires cover a multitude of width limitations.

She's coming back from paint Friday...woot!  Oiy I've got a lot to do and move just to get it back in the garage

Well shes back.  Lots of shuffling to get it in the garage, and I need to work with dad to rearrange things so I can actually work on it in the garage.  Im not rich enough to own a house in LA so all my projects are don't at my parents place lol.  Wifes mini is still stuck on a spit, and will be next up.  Covid got that project hung out to dry for now.  Fiat will happen after the mini, thats moms.

So the color, perfect.  Im really happy with the color.  Much deeper that I thought it would be for a solid one stage paint.  I'm stoked, its just right, exactly what I hoped it would be.  First step when i get it off the rotisserie is the suspension, which im still working on.  I need to weld up the huge hole in the subframe.  The new swivels are in and painted.  Bearings all cleaned up too.  Someone did a tapered bearing conversion which is awesome.  It was done with too retaining the stock spacers.  Bearings look really good to, so its all going back in.  Just a lot of cleaning and painting of bits need to be done, backing plates, springs, etc etc.  Once thats done it will go back to the body shop for a color sand and polish.  They wanted the paint to set up for some time before the cut and polish.

Motor wiring is coming along too.  Ordered all new wire from prowire, lots of colors for the chassis harness.  It will use the factory color scheme, with proper upgrades and a modern fuse/relay box.  Didnt cost much more to build it from scratch as it would to get a stock harness and modify it to work with the layout changes.  No reason spend the time tearing up a new factory harness.  Thats all for now.

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That color is great!

That looks great.  Very close to the Triumph Sapphire Blue that I used on my TR6.

Oof, havent gotten as much done as I wanted.  Goal is to have it as a roller to the body shop and back before the end of the year...we will see what happens.  Most of the front suspension is prepped.  Waiting on shims to finish adjusting the front wheel bearings.  And still , oiy still need to weld up the front crossmember.  I need to open up the section near the oil filter relocation plate too for the fittings.  Goal is this week by Saturday to have to welded up.  Also got a new water temp gauge.  The stock one Im pretty sure the H is 110C/230F, N is 185F.  This engine can run 210-220 with little issue, it will run 200 on average and that would put the needle easily to the right of the N in the 3/4 area.  So the new gauge will take care of that.  But The font of the smiths and the bezel are different, so Im gonna swap those 2 bits out.  Then I have a proper matching new gauge with a scale that I can actually use.  Yeah 140C is like 280F, but not much out there as far as options.  The 3/4 line is 115C/239F so we will consider that overheating.  I also have the proper matching sender as well.  Im pretty sure this is more of an Oil temp gauge.

From the factory low fan is 212 on, and high is 226 on, Im only going to run one fan speed with a stock 195 thermostat, so probably a 205 or 210 on and 200 off.  I doubt one fan will be enough to cool it under normal conditions, but with both fans it wont be an issue, though we shall see.  This will also incorporate the factory pressure transducer for the A/C so I get proper ECU A/C compressor control and fan control.  Fans on at 250 psi off at 200.  Vintage air runs their trinary switch this way and it seems to work well.

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+1 for nice color choice!  Love it.

Everything about this is brilliant.

Following.

Looking great!  I love the color and jealous of your progress.  I have the time, but the motivation is just really hard to come by.

I hear ya on the motivation part.  I definitely hit the wall a few times and had to draw the line on some things I did or didn't wanna deal with, mostly body stuff which is where I fall short on talent.

So cross member finally welded up!  Not that hard once I got in there and did it.   Came out pretty nice too.  Got it painted up and had to bolt on at least one shiny part so it has bump stops and the spring retainers on it lol.  Im running a but slow this weekend after my COVID booster shot, kicked my ass like the first 2, but anyway.  Started to get the lower arms assembled and found one wishbone pivot is bent, super sweet, so thats on order now.  Also somehow 'm out of hi temp wheel bearing grease.  So gotta grab some of that to finish up the spindles.  Then by this weekend I should have the garage opened up to get it off the rotisserie and so I can start putting the front end together.  Still need to go through the rack.  Full disassembly, clean and lubricate, new tie rids and silicone boots because for what ever reason I cant buy rubber boots that last more than a year or 2.

Bent arm

Good arm

After some major garage rearrangement shes off the dolly and the first part of many is installed.  I have to make it a roller cause its going back for a color sand.  I dont want any other parts a mess from that.  Which is kind of a bummer cause Id love to really start just bolting crap on the car now.  Oh well. 

Im also torn on the wheels.  Its gonna take me many many hours to sand and mask those wheels to paint them, even then, its a few different coats because they are the stock rostyle wheels.  So its clean, sand, prime, paint silver and mask for black or vice versa.  Masking em is gonna suck.  I got one of the lay on templates but honestly its kinda garbage.  If I do new wheels im looking at like $1300 more.  But the look, and the 15" wheels would be pretty sweet.  Im not too excited about the $ though.  Oiy.  Gotta see if there will be a sale on the wheels coming up soon lol.

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Well, after all this time, and after cleaning and painting the springs, I found out the front coils have been cut 2".  Probably because of the rotary that was in there before I got it.  I thought I had checked ride height with the drive train in it, but guess I didnt pay enough attention.  Im hoping the rear were not re-arched.  I dont think they were, you could easily have just installed lowering blocks.  So a new set of stock coils will be ordered.  And one of the front levers is bent, thats not awesome.  Rebuild by apple hydraulic.  Never had an issue with their stuff before so hopefully a replacement can be shipped without much fuss.  The arms are too far open, so when I go to tighten the bolt, there is no way I can get em to come together enough, and they start to tweak inward.  No bueno.  But the front end for now is mostly together.

Rear diff power washed, and hours and hours later the undercoat is off.  That wax crap they used, oof, what a mess to get off.  It was supposed to be from a 1980 low mileage MGB. Guy I bought it from did movie cars, and he was building a Ferris Bueller Ferrari replica, back of that car was basically MGB, so he bought this 80 for the body.  After looking inside it looks like it is truly a low mileage diff.  Everything inside was tight with no weird wear or anything.  And the seals were all still pliable and soft.  I probably didn't have to replace them, but I did both axles and the pinion.  Also have all new brake bits for it as well since it had nothing but backing plates on it when I got it.  I wish limited slip center sections were resonably priced.  1,200 easily.  For that much $ youd be better off doing a GM 10 bolt or a Ford 8.8 and redrilling the axles.  So eff that.  Little more sanding on the tubes tomorrow and I shall celebrate, with a paint!!  I think by end of the week it will be on the ground on wheels ready for its color sand.

Bent side, hard to tell, but if you look at it compared to the one thats good, you can see its much tighter around the bushings like it should be

Good side

Rear end cleaned, painted and resealed.  New poly bushings everywhere, shackles and U bolts.  Had to swap out a front shock cause the arms were bent outward, that was no bueno.  Also the replacement rubber limiting straps are useless.  There is no reinforcement in them, no cords or thread so they stretch like a rubber band.  Ill have to get nylon straps to replace them.  Parking brake also hooked up.  Had to get another handle cause the one I had was loose, loose to the point where a good sideways smack and it would come off the ratchet pawl, and well then its no longer a brake.  Loose because the last guy cut off the nut and welded the lever on, and since there was no way to take up the side load, it was pretty much garbage.  It was also missing all the attaching bits for the cable.

Steering column put back together, and the rack cleaned lubricated with new tie rod ends and new silicone boots that hopefully last longer than the stock rubber ones.  I will paint the steering shaft later as it all has to come back out to put the motor in.  The crappy steering wheel is on it for now and a set of steelies.  Its finally a roller!  Its slated for the body shop again in 2 weeks to get its final color sand and to align the front fenders.  Then I can really start to throw parts at it.  Looks effin rad, I cant wait.

It will also be getting new shoes and socks.  I bought these stock rostyles cause I needed a set of matching rims, I like the look, and they were pretty clean, and cheep.  Tires looks like new too.  But the tires are 14 years old, and do I really wanna spend the time to sand, prime, paint, mask, then paint again?  Thats a guaranteed 3-4 days, not full days, but a ton of time, into 14" wheels....Stock 14" wheels.  My time at this point is not worth the cost of a set of VTO's.  I love the LAT70 wheel, I think it would look killer on this car, but thats a 15x6.5.  Thats the ragged edge of 'prolly' wont rub if you roll the fenders.  And well, I didnt roll the fenders.  The rears are, but the fronts are not, or something like that.  I didnt even think to do it before paint, and Im not doing it now.  A set of 15x6's will fit, no issues, no rubbing, no problems.  Minilites, that style is soooo over done.  Its not a bad looking wheel, but I cant do it, the classic 8.  So it will get the VTO silverstone.  8 spoke, but a curved smooth kinda spoke, it will look really nice.  Gunmetal/polished lip.

Im so tired of degreasing, cleaning and painting parts.  I have to do the pedal bucket next, its pretty rough.  Window regulators, headlight buckets and what not.  Mostly after that its new stuff I think.  I cant remember how much I bought thats actually new.  I have a rough plan for the dash in my head too, as it needs an eyebrow that has 2 curves in it...more on that later.  I need to get a trans rebuild kit, the price kills me, $450 for a full T5 rebuild kit.  Last one I bought, granted this was 13 years ago was only $250.  Not much I can do about that.  Moss sells heater block off plates, which would be quick and easy, but not for the $125 before after tax and shipping for a round and rectangle plate with 4 holes.  I think I can make something a bit cheeper than that.  Lots of little crap to do  and figure out still, like the oil cooler plumbing, slave cylinder plumbing, one brake line I have isnt long enough becuase the car and brake like kit is for a 1970 and the rear end is a 1980 and I guess they moved the tee over somewhere in there...the usual crap.

Bad one on the left

Just read the whole thing, love the build and concept!

Shes baaaaack.  Finally.  Eff me that paint color is good.  Didnt waste any time either, started bolting parts on the day I got it back.  Fuel tank, trunk and hood struts.  Gonna start plumbing this weekend.

Meanwhile I also have some, well tooling to finish repairing.  Picked up a Rockwell belt sander from a buddy in exchange for some work.  This is the kinda guy where Im looking for something, and he happens to have it just sitting there.  When I got rid of all my old radio consoles I told him only thing like that I would ever want again would be something really cool like a Zenith Chairside.  So he waked 8 feet around the corner of his property, and moved a cover and goes, like this one?  Sonuva...really dude?  Lol.  He gave it to me and I fully restored it.  This guy was a collector and he wanted to keep it for himself, one of his more fav radios he had, but he knew what it would take, mostly cabinet work.  The chassis was a cinch to take care of.

Anyway, dad and I have wanted a proper Delta/Rockwell sander for a bit, with the 12" disk, and didnt wanna pay the $800+ people wanted for a tired/original machine.  This one is in good shape, mid late 60s I think the serial was.  Rewired it with a new cord, about 15 or so feet? maybe 20? I had about 30' of 12/3 left over from a job so it was perfect.  Kept it 110v and threw a sanding belt on it, and was having a heck of a time getting it to track properly, and when I turned it off the belt would walk back off.  Kinda scary cause that thing is really flyin around, and if the belt hits the side, well it tears it up quick then it can just explode off.  Idler bearings were not great, and well the idler shaft is really the culprit.  Just a bit of wear.  This was supposed to be a quick rewire and move on....we all know how that works.

It ended up exploding all over the floor.  If im gonna do idler bearings and the shaft I may as well do all the bearings.  And it needed a drive belt (it was original) and you gotta take it more than half apart just to remove it so yeah, all the bearings.  And while its apart I may as well paint it, cause Im never gonna want to take it apart again.  Also Im probably gonna rewire the motor for 220v.  I wanted to stick to 110 cause it was easy, plugs everywhere in the garage, with the 12/3 cord, length isnt an issue, and if i wanted I could go 220.  Well it takes so long to spin up, 5-7 seconds that it would sometimes trip the 20 amp breaker.  It would draw 80 on start then immediately trickle down, just not fast enough to keep the breaker happy, pretty typical.  But being a 1.5 hp motor, not the .5 hp in the older machines, this will just work better on 220v, and the garage has 220.  That motor is friggin heavy.  And yeah it will probably spin up faster now that its been gone through, but if it was that close to the edge, 220 is just the way to go.

So yep...its painted now, just have to start reassembly.  Ill throw up a pic when its done.

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I just went through this again and noticed something.  That heater fitting in the timing cover looks awesome!  Did you make it? 

Wow, I missed alot of progress in the last few months. The car is looking amazing!

Damn, that color is great and the surface looks really slick. Good to see the progress.

Mmm, I still love a freshly painted bare body/shell. Yummy looking!