MGB New Project

[Captain]

I can't see the driver's side of the oil pan,
but maybe there is enough material drill and tap to move that drain plug over.
Looks like you would have a couple 3 pints of oil trapped at changes.

Sorry if I Spoiled a following post as I am sure you have thought about this.....

[DanStokes]

And on an unrelated topic I tried the stock oil pan now that I've taken the crossmember out of the way and darn if it doesn't fit better than the fancy one! So I'll put the CBM pan up for sale on the Ecotec dune buggy site after I get the mounting lug I cut off welded back on. Note that I need to rotate the engine a bit.

[DanStokes]

Hang in with me - the system is being weird.


So I cut 2 horizontal slots in the frame section, cut the resulting ribbon in two, slid the slug in place, bolted it down to assure alignment, then welded the slug in place as shown.





Then I tapped the wings of the slot back together and welded the frame back together with my usual crappy welds. Grinder to the rescue.





And finally. the crossmember bolted up where it goes. I left it loose in this pic because the primer was still drying.

[DanStokes]

Bear with me - lots of pics today. This will take 2 posts as it'll only let me upload 5 pics.



I decided to figure out the trans crossmember today as I'll have the mount tomorrow and will need to work out how to get from the mount to the crossmember.
The problem: There are several sets of bolt holes in the frame for crossmember bolts but ones closest to the rear will only work if I put the front crossmember bolts in the rearmost set of holes. I'm not comfortable hanging the crossmember that way but the "slugs (I'll call them) that the bolts thread into stop at that rear set of holes. This pic shows a bolt in the rear hole and a circle where the new rear slug needs to go.





Here's one of the slugs I made to screw the crossmember bolts into, tapped to 3/8" fine to be consistent with the existing bolt holes. Brits love those fine threads!

[DanStokes]

This was a good day!

I got the exhaust out of the engine bay. With some tubes and bends and a catalyst (and maybe a muffler if it's too loud) and I can make the spent gasses go away.


Here's the stock manifold in place and bolted down. The cutout in the wheel well is necessary get it in place with the engine installed but not needed once it's in place. I think I'll flange the piece I removed and make it removable to make the manifold more serviceable.





And here's the pipe making its way out of the engine bay. I cut a plate to fit the manifold flange then welded in a 2 1/4" diameter piece of exhaust pipe.. The pipe was welded in at an angle and after welding on the outside (ugly weld possibly due to the coating on the pipe) I welded it on the inside which came out pretty. Didn't take pics but should have. I think I'll get some header paint and fancy up the pipe/flange combo. There's more clearance than it looks like in the pic.

[DanStokes]

Modifications continue.

Sure enough, the exhaust manifold doesn't like where the right hand mount would have gone so mods were in order. Basically, I turned the mount plate around so the old back is now the front. I poked a new lower hole (leaving just 1 lower hole which I think will be OK) and trimmed the plate as shown.

Before:




And after:





Then on to other fitment issues:

Here's the result of making room for the starter bulge as noted the other day. Good clearance now.





The exhaust hits the inner wheel well but not in a place that can't be modified. In this pic the manifold sits at an angle on the studs and is hitting the inner wheel well. I'll cut a hole and see how everything fits. I need to make this fit as even if I go with a header it'll fit in this spot. Some angle milling may be required.

[DanStokes]

On to the motor mounts.

Still awaiting the engine and transmission mounts to arrive but I started making the plates that bolt to the engine and from which I'll work out the arms that will extend from the engine to the frame part of the unibody.


Driver's side: I picked up the 3 factory bolts and, because the mount will extend up from the stock location, I found another cast-in bolt boss and anchored the top, too. The arm will extend off the section that goes upward off this plate. BTW - painted in weld-thru primer.






And the passenger's side: Tomorrow I'll bolt on the exhaust manifold and check for clearance but I think this is a starting point.

[dave.g.in.gansevoort]

Yeah you are...

[DanStokes]

Couple of tasks today:

I started fitting the trans into the position where it'll live. The most obvious thing was that the trans tunnel was preventing the trans from being jacked up into position so I got out my trusty cutting tools and made a hole which is just in front of and overlapping the factory hole. Pretty easy.





With the trans jacked up 2 3/4" it seems to be about where it should be. In this position the output shaft is about 2" lower than the centerline of the front of the crankshaft - not sure how much is OK. Anyway. here's the shift tower in position. This should be fine.





As I looked over the engine installation I noticed another tight area - there's a curve just below the oil filter bump (the one I made the recess for in yesterday's post) to accommodate the starter. Same fix as the oil filter - add a recess for clearance. Again, this is way upon the trans side of the driver's side footwell and doesn't seem like it'll be in the way. If I'd known I'd need this I would have made one bigger recess so the next MGB/Ecotec swap I do I'll just make a bigger recess! (not likely to do this again)

[silver_bullet]

I also started working on the transmission crossmember. I'm cutting off all of the MGB stuff which was, predictibly, weird. The engine mount parts and the trans mount are on order so I'll be on idle for a while, doing piddly stuff until I can start fabricating. The trans crossmember mods will be - um - interesting as the trans sits at an 18 degree angle but the mount appears to be straight so I'll need to fab up the part on the crossmember to accommodate that. Another challenge for this weird swap!

I am working on the same issue, I have begun by slicing two pieces of angle iron at 18 degrees and am having Sean weld them together to form a wedge that will be sandwiched between the trans and the cross member….

[DanStokes]

And I thought only Triumphs could leak oil without the engine installed!!!

Actually, that's where I washed the notch down with Brakeclean before I primed it. The chemicals brought up some of the oil out of the floor.

[cstmwgn]

And I thought only Triumphs could leak oil without the engine installed!!!

[DanStokes]

Got more done yesterday than what shows.

The only thing pic-worthy was that I made the notch for the oil filter bigger as promised.





And with the engine in place:





I also started working on the transmission crossmember. I'm cutting off all of the MGB stuff which was, predictibly, weird. The engine mount parts and the trans mount are on order so I'll be on idle for a while, doing piddly stuff until I can start fabricating. The trans crossmember mods will be - um - interesting as the trans sits at an 18 degree angle but the mount appears to be straight so I'll need to fab up the part on the crossmember to accommodate that. Another challenge for this weird swap!

[dave.g.in.gansevoort]

Looking good Dan. You know, wooden chassis parts are not unusual for a British car. You could say that it's a Morgan engine mount adapted to marry the NGB to the GM contingent.

And besides, wooden it be great if you can meld together your automotive abilities and your carpentry skills? Oak A, so I'm stretching it here. What does one expect from a poor hapless soul like Mongo? Mongo is purely conjecturing and not authority in these matters...

[DanStokes]

All was going well but somehow it wouldn't let me add this final pic in sequence so I'll add it here. This shows the engine in the hole and a template of the hood arch showing 7/8" clearance between the cam cover and the hood. If anything it'll be somewhat more as the fenders are not in place and they hold the hood up higher. All in all, this ought to work.