MGB New Project

[DanStokes]

Slight progress - which is better than none. I'm on the Dustless Blasting guy's calendar for next week when he'll blast the Ecotec and Aisin transmission. The trans isn't too bad but I might as well get both of them all pretty while I have the guy here. It isn't cheap but after fiddling with it myself for a day I decided to go for it.

Any suggestions on what to use as a clear coat over bare aluminum? I was thinking clear wheel paint but there might be a better product out there.

[DanStokes]

As mentioned, the Ecotec will be dustless blasted which is basically a combo of a power wash and sand blaster. I figured that the more protection I can give to prevent nasty stuff from entering the engine the better and I was looking around the shop for something to shield the intake and exhaust ports beyond the aluminum foil tape that I'd already installed. VIOLA! I said - there's that left-over piece of LEXAN! So I cut it up and here you go. Wish I'd left more coverage of the injector holes but they are plugged and I think he can point the nozzle carefully. Or maybe I can glue a scrap of LEXAN onto the areas where the injectors sit - thinkin' out loud.

Intake side:




And exhaust. Any job worth doing is worth overdoing. Here you can see my attempt at spiffing the engine up using abrasives and elbow grease. Not very successful.




The stuff stacked in the Vee are parts I don't want to forget to have him blast.

[dave.g.in.gansevoort]

Never thought about alternative forms of blasting before... And to think, Ron across the hall from me at Battelle was developing plastic and dry ice bead blasting for the military in the 80's when I was there.

So now you have me wondering if dry ice blasting will clean stuff like that. I could use the T5 cleaned up, and dry ice bead blasting would have even less residue, just what's coming off the part.
Hmmmm
Thanks for another rabbit hole to go down...

[DanStokes]

Yer welcome! Any time.

[Russell]

Take some pictures of the rig and the process. I am guilty of putting the last engine in with all the dirt and grime it came with. My story was in wanted it to look factory

[dave.g.in.gansevoort]

Take some pictures of the rig and the process. I am guilty of putting the last engine in with all the dirt and grime it came with. My story was in wanted it to look factory

It's called patina...

[DanStokes]

Take some pictures of the rig and the process. I am guilty of putting the last engine in with all the dirt and grime it came with. My story was in wanted it to look factory

I'll take pics assuming the blaster guy doesn't mind (I doubt he will). The last engine you installed wasn't all THAT grubby as I recall!

[Russell]

I'll take pics assuming the blaster guy doesn't mind (I doubt he will). The last engine you installed wasn't all THAT grubby as I recall!

No, it wasn't bad at all. The more reason not to clean it. Runs great! Hopefully taking it to the track Friday. Can't decide if I want to practice RT and running a dial in or try to get a Personal best.

[DanStokes]

No, it wasn't bad at all. The more reason not to clean it. Runs great! Hopefully taking it to the track Friday. Can't decide if I want to practice RT and running a dial in or try to get a Personal best.

Or both?

[Captain]

FYI,
I can't remember which GM engine had Casting Porosity Issues. It literally was leaking oil thru the cast block.
And some of the Scale and Oxidation actually help cure the leaking. The dealership cure was to smear a sealant on the block......

SO, is it going to creat issues after cleaning?

[DanStokes]

FYI,
I can't remember which GM engine had Casting Porosity Issues. It literally was leaking oil thru the cast block.
And some of the Scale and Oxidation actually help cure the leaking. The dealership cure was to smear a sealant on the block......

SO, is it going to creat issues after cleaning?

Should be fine. The Ecotecs are not known for weepage.

[CTX-SLPR]

Wasn't it the Saturn I4's that were lost foam cast that had the porosity problems?

[DanStokes]

So I held my nose and dove in. I found a source in England for the needed body panels at a lot less $$ than Moss Motors so I decided to go with the '80 body converted to chrome bumpers. One of the reasons is that I recently learned that the earlier bodies have a narrower transmission tunnel and while I'm sure I could make the necessary modifications I figure I might as well start with more real estate - either body is likely to need rockers (or "sills" as the Brits call them) so there probably isn't a lot of difference as far as the depth of body work. And hey! I can DO body work.

Seemed like a good place to start would be to pull the top and proceed to the windshield - er - windscreen (trying to learn British.....).

The top should have been dead easy but wasn't. There should have been a retained plate like door latches use but alas, there wasn't. So I went thru a process to get the blind nuts to fall into the front of the dogleg area of the rear quarters by prying out on the 1/4" screws as I turned them. Eventually I heard the nuts hit bottom and sure enough the screws came out so the top, which is in reusable condition, could come off. I'll recover the nuts when I do the rockers but they're going in the trash to be replaced with a screw plate that I'll retain in the top of the B-pillar as needed.

Then on to the wind screen. The wipers just pull off and there are a couple of 1/4" fine bolts at the base of the center of the dash (I'll add some pics of this later) that hold down a rod that runs to the top of the windshield to hold it down in the middle. The ends of the 'screen each have about 6" of aluminum bracket that stick down into the A-pillar area to hold the outside of the assembly onto the car and I had to loosen the dash assembly to get those out. The dash pad needs to be replaced anyway so not wasted motion.

So here's a pic of where I left it tonight:

[CTX-SLPR]

Is it mercifully free of Whitworth fasteners?

[DanStokes]

Is it mercifully free of Whitworth fasteners?

Seems to be. Moss said it should all be metric though I've found plenty of Imperial (as the Brits call them) fasteners, mostly fine thread for reasons unknown.