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MG MGB Technical - word of warning

i replaced my manifold gaskets yesterday and found the air filter spacer wedged in the inlet trapped under the valve, i hope the engine will be ok but the spacer as been damaged both ends .the spacer traveled through the carbs in to the head . i had some work done at a local garage over two years ago ,the spacer must not been fitted correctly .
daz

Thanks Daz, but what carbs and air cleaners? Do you mean the long steel tubes that keep the cans from being crushed when the bolts are drawn up on the twin Coopers on the HS4s?

Charley
C R Huff

Surely it can only be a washer, if it got through the carb and inlet port and got wedged between the valve and its seat.
Paul Hunt

its a tube about 4" long it stops the air filter from crushing together.i have the large K&N air filters which use the orig base plate.i ve just had my car tuned at peter bugess and when i was there he checked if it was possible and yes it is .he rolling roaded it and i got 101 bhp at the wheels , my car made 106 bhp a few years ago so may be there is something wrong but the car sounds sweet enough and i hope everything will be ok . the local garage caused the problem as its a little tricky fitting the air filters .
da

The loss of 5 bhp is more likely to be down to the fact that you haven't cleaned the air filters in 'over two years'! My guess is that you can't have rebalanced the carbs in that time, either.

It's a largely irrelevant difference: could be variation in engine wear, rolling roads, air density, fuel type, etc.
D Ainsworth

it goes well enough , my mate as a standard mgb , i would not enjoy driveing that again .mine keeps up with modern traffic and when you want a bit of fun you can floor it down the country roads .i have around 35 extra hp from standard that is a big difference !
daz

I have K&Ns fitted on my car using the original base plates and a nice end plate and yes, installing everything with the standard four long bolts is a pain in the neck.

I was thinking of machining up some long studs from steel rod that I can screw into the carb flanges. Then the base plates, spacers, filters and cover plate can easily be slipped on over them. I will use a dome nut on the ends of the studs wired or loctited in place.

Be much easier than trying to thread four bolts though everything all at once and get everything in place.

Simon
Simon Jansen

I also have K&N's but am missing the spacers - I have trouble getting the nuts tight enough to not shake loose whilst also not crushing the filters. Anyone know where I can get a set of spacers? Failing that, if anyone knows what the thread size is I could use lock nuts on the bolts?

Cheers,
Tim
T Jenner

I know people who have had their cars set up at Derby by Peter. I,m sure he has got all the power out that it has, and the few BHP difference from the other rolling road is just instrument error.
Stan Best

Still don't see how anyone managed to lose a 4" tube down the carb through, let alone how it wedged a valve open.

"Then the base plates, spacers, filters and cover plate can easily be slipped on over them"

Surely it is easier to assemble bolts, cleaners, tubes and base-plate off-car them offer that up to the carb. Maybe doing both cleaners/all four bolts etd is a bit of fiddle, but I have only ever had to do one half at a time and join up the interconnecting spigots and short length od rubebr tube while they are still loose.

Tim - just get a length of tubing from B&Q with a large enough internal diameter to accept the bolt and cut to size.
Paul Hunt

Tip.

Once aircleaners are assembled off the car just place a thin rubber band round each pair of bolts, offer up to the carbs, and when the threads have all started in both carbs break the rubber bands and remove, then tighten fully, don't forget the gaskets!

Kevin.
Kevin Jackson

Paul, this is a pic of how mine is set up. You can see how it is tricky here. I have to do them all in one go due to the end plate which is one single piece.

So looking from the bottom of the picture up the bolts need to go through the base plate, through the spacers, then the filters, then the baseplates, gasket then into the carb bodies. Oh, there is a rubber gasket O ring in there somewhere too! And of course the bolts are pointing down so everything is trying to fall off the ends. Seems to me if I have studs pointing up it's easier to just thread everything down onto the studs.

I will get some steel stock and machine something up and see how it works. It might be a stupid idea :)

Simon


Simon Jansen

i got mine from mgb hive , they have plenty of second hand ones .
daz

Simon - my mistake, missed the reference to K&Ns.
Paul Hunt

This thread was discussed between 22/10/2008 and 25/10/2008

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