MG-Cars.net

Welcome to our resource for MG Car Information.

Recommendations

Parts

MG parts spares and accessories are available for MG T Series (TA, MG TB, MG TC, MG TD, MG TF), Magnette, MGA, Twin cam, MGB, MGBGT, MGC, MGC GT, MG Midget, Sprite and other MG models from British car spares company LBCarCo.

MG Midget and Sprite Technical - Head envy...

So, what has 16 valves, 8 ports and is sat on my kitchen table?

Oh and it might have been stolen from a BMW....
Toby Anscombe

A bird, no a plane, no, a 316 head??
B Cavagan

Toby, did I give you that number...?
Speak to Rich at Minispares North (01423 881800)before you go any further on this project.

He'll tell you all about Cock Jousting...

Mark.
Mark T. Boldry

OK just had another angle to my dilema

How will this fit under the bonnet will there be enough bonnet clearance?

Shaun

Shaun - its 10mm higher than a standard head. Mark has told me before to speak to Rich and I will give him a call but I am committed to going through with it; I have seen a couple of others on minis and it looks ok...

Photos of the head can be found http://tinyurl.com/5t3myq

Its not a simple thing to do; there is a lot of block machining and suchlike to do...I have gary's old engine which has given sterling service and deserves to be used ;-)

Having looked at various points over the last 10 years or so at the various options for engine swaps or work the only value for money option is a Konversion. Very closely followed by a turbo/charger option I hasten to add!

The other options are the BMW conversion which I am doing or a 7 port or 8 port conversion. The 7 port is only available from MiniSport and I had one on order for the best part of 7 months before giving up. 8 ports are easier but again require a lot of engineering.
Toby Anscombe

It did look rather taller "in the metal" than 10mm higher, but taken with the Aseries rocker cover and the low height of the twinK cover I can just about believe it

certainly looks the bizness

For those that don't know, this is the culmination (will be when finished) of a magnificent obsession

Toby's old engine was capable of putting most A-series engined cars to shame. If I'd had it I wouldn't have changed a thing.

Have you looked inside Gary's (old) sump yet Toby?

Centre strapped maybe?


The beat goes on! And on...
Bill

I'd be very surprised if my old engine had the centre main strapped. I believe that it was a straight forward Goldseal unit unmolested.

Toby has to follow through on the BMW headed engine as I've now got the top half of his old engine bolted on to my new one, plus a few other bits too.
G Lazarus

Sounds wicked too Gary

Did you repair the earth strap or fit a noo one?
Bill

Fitted a new one and I might put another one on too just for extra fun.
Strange thing is with the new dizzy, the side entry push-on plug fittings face down!
I'm not sure that Mr Burgess knows about that and I won't know until I'm at Toby's next weather standard midget length spark plug leads leads will actually stretch (lucky I have longer ones on at the moment).
G Lazarus

That isnt a worry

we can turn the drive shaft around very quickly so the plugs point out towards the air rather than the ground

simply means that at the moment the shaft is 180º off the camshaft, easily done

and dealt with

I know the dizzy is in the hole properly so it has to be only the drive shaft to deal with now.

5 minutes, 10 max!
Bill

Gary,

Can't you just rotate the dizzy and shaft by 180 degrees and get them pointing upwards. IIRC the lead and drive orientation are relative so you can point them in any direction you want and set the timing correctly.
David Billington

that's what I will be doing next time I see Gary David

IIRC it's a 5/16UNF stud to reach the threaded part of the shaft to lift it (as long as I can find too, so I dont drop it past the cam) then rotate 180º to drop back down into the spiral gear on the cam in a new alignment
Bill

No I don't think that you can as on the 123 dizzy the Bosch cap can only fit one way and if it is turned around 180 degrees will mean that the vacuum advance and the wires to the coil are then facing the wrong way.
though I will be very happy to be proved wrong.
G Lazarus

Gary

we are talking changing the drive shaft position not the dizzy position

after re fitting the drive shaft the dizzy will finally face north not south

without affecting the cap, vacuum or wiring

so all will point where they were s'posed to

I'll call you
Bill

Gary, how do you find the 123 and how was peter fitting it(as hopefully i'll be seeing him when i have the dosh to have the same conversion done).

Bill, if the cap only fits one way around, how can you move the cap without moving the dizzy? I understand that moving the drive would allow you to run 180 deg out of phase, but you can do that by swapping the leads around too.

Nick

you move the shaft 180 then the dizzy and cap has to be moved 180 as well, to fit so the leads point upwards. Then you put the spark back where it belongs by shuffling the leads....
David Smith

Peter didn't fit the 123, we did. And the engine has only been run for about five seconds but once we got the dizzy around the correct way it fired right up and seemed to tickover well (for the five seconds) and that was with a 276 cam, the webber and a very guessed TDC.
G Lazarus

Just reminded me! Toby did your car ever get to Spridget 50 :P) and have you now finished with my Weber, now that you are doing this conversion? I have a friend who could pick it up tomorrow or Friday?
Bob
Bob (robert) Midget Turbo

what can I say - I spent my time making sure that it happened ;-)

I'll be back in about 7.30 on Friday so if your friend wants to pop over. Otherwise I will be coming up north the week after so could drop in maybe?
Toby Anscombe

Now I have a few options
Where are you coming up to?
I could simply ebay it and let you send it to the winner?
Could you let me know what spec it is at the moment?
Bob (robert) Midget Turbo

Bob,
How much do you want for it?
G Lazarus

This thread was discussed between 19/08/2008 and 20/08/2008

MG Midget and Sprite Technical index

This thread is from the archive. The Live MG Midget and Sprite Technical BBS is active now.